Greek Mythology and Poetics

Greek Mythology and Poetics PDF Author: Gregory Nagy
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501732021
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Gregory Nagy here provides a far-reaching assessment of the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Greek society. Nagy illuminates in particular the forces of interaction and change that transformed the Indo-European linguistic and cultural heritage into distinctly Greek social institutions between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. Included in the volume are thirteen of Nagy's major essays—all extensively revised for book publication—on various aspects of the Hellenization of Indo-European poetics, myth and ritual, and social ideology. The primary aim of this book is to examine the Greek language as a reflection of society, with special attention to its function as a vehicle for transmitting mythology and poetics. Nagy's emphasis on the language of the Greeks, and on its comparison with the testimony of related Indo-European languages such as Latin, Indic, and Hittite, reflects his long-standing interest in Indo-European linguistics. The individual chapters examine the development of Hellenic poetics in the traditions of Homer and Hesiod; the Hellenization of Indo-European myths and rituals, including myths of the afterlife, rituals of fire, and symbols in the Greek lyric; and the Hellenization of Indo-European social ideology, with reference to such cultural institutions as the concept of the city-state. A path-breaking application of the principles of social anthropology, comparative mythology, historical linguistics, and oral poetry theory to the study of classics, Greek Mythology and Poetics will be an invaluable resource for classicists and other scholars of linguistics and literary theory.

Greek Mythology and Poetics

Greek Mythology and Poetics PDF Author: Gregory Nagy
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501732021
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
Gregory Nagy here provides a far-reaching assessment of the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Greek society. Nagy illuminates in particular the forces of interaction and change that transformed the Indo-European linguistic and cultural heritage into distinctly Greek social institutions between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. Included in the volume are thirteen of Nagy's major essays—all extensively revised for book publication—on various aspects of the Hellenization of Indo-European poetics, myth and ritual, and social ideology. The primary aim of this book is to examine the Greek language as a reflection of society, with special attention to its function as a vehicle for transmitting mythology and poetics. Nagy's emphasis on the language of the Greeks, and on its comparison with the testimony of related Indo-European languages such as Latin, Indic, and Hittite, reflects his long-standing interest in Indo-European linguistics. The individual chapters examine the development of Hellenic poetics in the traditions of Homer and Hesiod; the Hellenization of Indo-European myths and rituals, including myths of the afterlife, rituals of fire, and symbols in the Greek lyric; and the Hellenization of Indo-European social ideology, with reference to such cultural institutions as the concept of the city-state. A path-breaking application of the principles of social anthropology, comparative mythology, historical linguistics, and oral poetry theory to the study of classics, Greek Mythology and Poetics will be an invaluable resource for classicists and other scholars of linguistics and literary theory.

Greek Mythology

Greek Mythology PDF Author: Claude Calame
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521888581
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Argues that the meaning of Greek myths can only be studied according to their artistic forms of expression. Using myths such as those of Persephone, Bellerophon, Helen and Teiresias, Claude Calame surveys Greek mythology as a category inseparable from the literature in which so much of it is found.

Greek Mythology and Poetics

Greek Mythology and Poetics PDF Author: Gregory Nagy
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801480485
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Gregory Nagy here provides a far-reaching assessment of the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Greek society. Nagy illuminates in particular the forces of interaction and change that transformed the Indo-European linguistic and cultural heritage into distinctly Greek social institutions between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. Included in the volume are thirteen of Nagy's major essays--all extensively revised for book publication--on various aspects of the Hellenization of Indo-European poetics, myth and ritual, and social ideology. The primary aim of this book is to examine the Greek language as a reflection of society, with special attention to its function as a vehicle for transmitting mythology and poetics. Nagy's emphasis on the language of the Greeks, and on its comparison with the testimony of related Indo-European languages such as Latin, Indic, and Hittite, reflects his long-standing interest in Indo-European linguistics. The individual chapters examine the development of Hellenic poetics in the traditions of Homer and Hesiod; the Hellenization of Indo-European myths and rituals, including myths of the afterlife, rituals of fire, and symbols in the Greek lyric; and the Hellenization of Indo-European social ideology, with reference to such cultural institutions as the concept of the city-state. A path-breaking application of the principles of social anthropology, comparative mythology, historical linguistics, and oral poetry theory to the study of classics, Greek Mythology and Poetics will be an invaluable resource for classicists and other scholars of linguistics and literary theory.

After Antiquity

After Antiquity PDF Author: Margaret Alexiou
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801433016
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 604

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Book Description
Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Forward to the Past -- 1 Aims and Scope -- 2 Some Preliminary Definitions -- 3 The "Continuity Question" Revisited: Old Debates and New Approaches -- PART I. LANGUAGE -- Chapter 1. Greek Polyglossia: Historical Perspectives -- 1 Distinctive Features of the Greek Language -- 2 Diversity and Change: From Ancient Greek to Koine -- 3 Conflicts of Language and Style in the Byzantine Period -- 4 The Emergence of Dialect Literature: Cyprus and Crete -- 5 Forms of Greek in the Ottoman Period -- 6 After National Independence: Struggles for Hegemony -- 7 From "Diglossia" to "Standard Modern Greek"? -- Chapter 2. The New Testament and Its Legacy -- 1 Voices from the Past -- 2 The New Testament -- 3 The Ermergence of a Byzantine Genre: The Kontakion and Roumanos -- 4 Precursors and Precedents -- 5 Romamros' Kontakia On the Nativity and On tle Resurrection -- Chapter 3. Ncnliterary Genres: Some Private and Public Voices -- 1 Writing Home -- 2 Of Purple Pants and Chamber Pots: The Imperial Baggage: Train -- 3 Fragments of a Byzantine Tradition of Oral Song? -- Chapter 4. New Departures in the Twelfth Century -- 1 Texts amd Contexts -- 2 The Timnarion -- 3 Eros and the "Constraints of Desire" in Hysmine and Hyssninias -- 4 Prodrornos and the Politics of Hunger -- PART II. MYTH -- Chapter 5. The Diversity of Mythical Genres -- 1 From Speech Genres to Mythical Genres? -- 2 What Is, Myth? -- 3 Linking Past and Present: Myth and History -- 4 Averting Danger: Myth, Ritual, and Religion -- 5 Dialogic Ethics: Parables and Fables, Proverbs and Riddles -- 6 Songs and Tales: Myth and Fantasy -- 7 From Myth to Literature -- 8 How Do Myths Mean? -- 9 The Nereid "Kalypso" -- Chapter 6. Myth in Song -- 1 Ideology and Folklore: Greek Songs and European Models -- 2 The Greek Canon, the Ballad, and the Muses -- 3 Toward New Approaches? -- 4 Form and Structure: Melody and Narrative -- 5 Focal Conflicts: Life beyond the Grave -- Chapter 7. Magic Cydes in the Wondertales -- 1 The Cirderella of Greek Folklore? -- 2 Spinning Yarns and Narrative Contingency -- 3 Teasers, Twisters, and Movers: Metanarrative and Paranarrative -- 4 Weaving Pictures: The Interpenetration of Themes and Images -- 5 Metamorphosis: Cyclical Images of Body and Cosmos -- 6 Cosmology and Morality -- 7 The Tree of Life and the Cosmic Cycle -- 8 Concluding Comments -- Chapter 8. Between Worlds: From Myth to Fiction -- 1 The Greek Novel, c. I830-1880 -- 2 Paralogic Fiction: The Case of Georgios Vizyenos -- 3 Ethnicity and Sanity -- 4 Antithesis as a Strategy of Reading/Writing -- 5 Ekphrasis: Between Time and Place -- 6 Coda: After Vizyenos -- PART III. METAPHOR -- Chapter 9. The Resources of Ritual -- 1 Ritual and Metaphor -- 2 Contextualizing Ritual: Everyday Life -- 3 Autistic Rituals -- 4 Ritual and Reciprocity -- 5 Rituals of the Life Cycle: Separation, Transition, and Integration -- 6 Greek Texts: Resources of the Past -- Chapter 10. Metaphors in Songs of the Life Cycle -- 1 Journey -- 2 Clothes and Gems -- 3 Hair -- 4 The Garden of Love -- 5 Dangerous Spaces: Hunting and Hunted -- 6 Burning and Withering -- 7 Tears and Poison, Blood and Water -- 8 Plants and Fruits of the Earth -- 9 Hunting Birds -- 10 The Tree of Love and Life -- 11 I What Is Love? -- 12 Who Is Speaking? -- Conclusion: Backward to the Present.

Myth and the Polis

Myth and the Polis PDF Author: Dora Carlisky Pozzi
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801424731
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This fresh and thought-provoking book deepens our understanding of the dynamic relationship between the creation of myth and the development of the ancient Greek polis, or city-state, during crucial periods in archaic and classical Greece. Examining the diverse texts which crystallized Greek oral tradition, nine chapters by a multidisciplinary group of scholars focus both on the role of the community as the shaper and transmitter of myth and on the function of myth and ritual in the development of political authority in Greek society. Myth and the Polis draws upon current research in such fields such as ancient history, philology, social anthropology, ethnomusicology, comparative literature, psychoanalysis, folklore, and political theory. Taken together, the essays highlight the continuos struggle of Greek archaic and classical communities to keep their myths "true" in spite of the pull of pan-Hellenism. Shedding new light on the beginnings of Western civilization, Myth and the Polis will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including scholars and students of classics, folklore, myth, and ancient religion, politics, and history.

Phrasikleia

Phrasikleia PDF Author: Jesper Svenbro
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501717685
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
First published in French in 1988, this extraordinary book traces the meaning and function of reading from its very beginnings in Greek oral culture through the development of silent reading. One of the most haunting early examples of Greek alphabetical writing appears on the life-sized Archaic funerary statue of a young girl. The inscription speaks for Phrasikleia, who "shall always be called maiden," for she has received this name from the gods instead of marriage.

Myth and History in Ancient Greece

Myth and History in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Claude Calame
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691114587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Surely the ancient Greeks would have been baffled to see what we consider their "mythology." Here, Claude Calame mounts a powerful critique of modern-day misconceptions on this front and the lax methodology that has allowed them to prevail. He argues that the Greeks viewed their abundance of narratives not as a single mythology but as an "archaeology." They speculated symbolically on key historical events so that a community of believing citizens could access them efficiently, through ritual means. Central to the book is Calame's rigorous and fruitful analysis of various accounts of the foundation of that most "mythical" of the Greek colonies--Cyrene, in eastern Libya. Calame opens with a magisterial historical survey demonstrating today's misapplication of the terms "myth" and "mythology." Next, he examines the Greeks' symbolic discourse to show that these modern concepts arose much later than commonly believed. Having established this interpretive framework, Calame undertakes a comparative analysis of six accounts of Cyrene's foundation: three by Pindar and one each by Herodotus (in two different versions), Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes. We see how the underlying narrative was shaped in each into a poetically sophisticated, distinctive form by the respective medium, a particular poetical genre, and the specific socio-historical circumstances. Calame concludes by arguing in favor of the Greeks' symbolic approach to the past and by examining the relation of mythos to poetry and music.

Between Ecstasy and Truth

Between Ecstasy and Truth PDF Author: Stephen Halliwell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191612413
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
As well as producing one of the finest of all poetic traditions, ancient Greek culture produced a major tradition of poetic theory and criticism. Halliwell's volume offers a series of detailed and challenging interpretations of some of the defining authors and texts in the history of ancient Greek poetics: the Homeric epics, Aristophanes' Frogs, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Poetics, Gorgias's Helen, Isocrates' treatises, Philodemus' On Poems, and Longinus' On the Sublime. The volume's fundamental concern is with how the Greeks conceptualized the experience of poetry and debated the values of that experience. The book's organizing theme is a recurrent Greek dialectic between ideas of poetry as, on the one hand, a powerfully enthralling experience in its own right (a kind of 'ecstasy') and, on the other, a medium for the expression of truths which can exercise lasting influence on its audiences' views of the world. Citing a wide range of modern scholarship, and making frequent connections with later periods of literary theory and aesthetics, Halliwell questions many orthodoxies and received opinions about the texts analysed. The resulting perspective casts new light on ways in which the Greeks attempted to make sense of the psychology of poetic experience-including the roles of emotion, ethics, imagination, and knowledge-in the life of their culture. Readership: Scholars and students of Greek literature, Greek poetics, and literary theory and criticism.

Epic Singers and Oral Tradition

Epic Singers and Oral Tradition PDF Author: Albert Bates Lord
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801497179
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Drawing on his extensive fieldwork in living oral traditions, Albert Bates Lord here concentrates on the epic singers and their art as manifested in texts or performance.

Singers, Heroes, and Gods in the "Odyssey"

Singers, Heroes, and Gods in the Author: Charles Segal
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718304
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
One of the special charms of the Odyssey, according to Charles Segal, is the way it transports readers to fascinating places. Yet despite the appeal of its narrative, the Odyssey is fully understood only when its style, design, and mythical patterns are taken into account as well. Bringing a new richness to interpretation of this epic, Segal looks closely at key forms of social and personal organization which Odysseus encounters in his voyages. Segal also considers such topics as the relationship between bard and audience, the implications of the Odyssey's self-consciousness about its own poetics, and Homer's treatment of the nature of poetry.