David Brown
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269915
- eISBN:
- 9780191600432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269919.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The first part of the chapter examines the nature of Greek religion, and argues that it should be treated seriously as a religion, one which through changing versions of its myths sought to ...
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The first part of the chapter examines the nature of Greek religion, and argues that it should be treated seriously as a religion, one which through changing versions of its myths sought to conceptualise personal or societal changes in perceptions of how the divine was understood. Differing treatments of Odysseus are then used to anticipate the discussion of Abraham in the chapter that follows; Iphigenia that of Isaac, and Helen and Ganymede that of Joseph. The way in which earlier Christian generations understood Greek myth as also revelatory is used to challenge the narrower view that is dominant today.Less
The first part of the chapter examines the nature of Greek religion, and argues that it should be treated seriously as a religion, one which through changing versions of its myths sought to conceptualise personal or societal changes in perceptions of how the divine was understood. Differing treatments of Odysseus are then used to anticipate the discussion of Abraham in the chapter that follows; Iphigenia that of Isaac, and Helen and Ganymede that of Joseph. The way in which earlier Christian generations understood Greek myth as also revelatory is used to challenge the narrower view that is dominant today.
Lowell Edmunds
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165127
- eISBN:
- 9781400874224
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165127.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This introductory chapter undertakes a comparison between a folktale and a Greek myth. It attempts to define the folktale through two avenues concerning genre and terminology as well as mode of ...
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This introductory chapter undertakes a comparison between a folktale and a Greek myth. It attempts to define the folktale through two avenues concerning genre and terminology as well as mode of communication. Here, the chapter relates the folktale of “The Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” to the Greek epics such as the Iliad, eventually focusing the discussion on the story of Helen of Troy. To aid in the discussion, the chapter introduces the comparative circle, which begins from the perception of a similarity between the target text and some other text, and proceeds from this second text to a third and so forth, until the scholar constructing the circle decides to return to the explicandum.Less
This introductory chapter undertakes a comparison between a folktale and a Greek myth. It attempts to define the folktale through two avenues concerning genre and terminology as well as mode of communication. Here, the chapter relates the folktale of “The Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” to the Greek epics such as the Iliad, eventually focusing the discussion on the story of Helen of Troy. To aid in the discussion, the chapter introduces the comparative circle, which begins from the perception of a similarity between the target text and some other text, and proceeds from this second text to a third and so forth, until the scholar constructing the circle decides to return to the explicandum.
Lowell Edmunds
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165127
- eISBN:
- 9781400874224
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165127.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
It's a familiar story: a beautiful woman is abducted and her husband journeys to recover her. This story's best-known incarnation is also a central Greek myth—the abduction of Helen that led to the ...
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It's a familiar story: a beautiful woman is abducted and her husband journeys to recover her. This story's best-known incarnation is also a central Greek myth—the abduction of Helen that led to the Trojan War. Stealing Helen surveys a vast range of folktales and texts exhibiting the story pattern of the abducted beautiful wife and makes a detailed comparison with the Helen of Troy myth. This book shows that certain Sanskrit, Welsh, and Old Irish texts suggest there was an Indo-European story of the abducted wife before the Helen myth of the Iliad became known. Investigating Helen's status in ancient Greek sources, the book argues that if Helen was just one trope of the abducted wife, the quest for Helen's origin in Spartan cult can be abandoned, as can the quest for an Indo-European goddess who grew into the Helen myth. The book explains that Helen was not a divine essence but a narrative figure that could replicate itself as needed, at various times or places in ancient Greece. It recovers some of these narrative Helens, such as those of the Pythagoreans and of Simon Magus, which then inspired the Helens of the Faust legend and Goethe. This book offers a detailed critique of prevailing views behind the “real” Helen and presents an eye-opening exploration of the many sources for this international mythical and literary icon.Less
It's a familiar story: a beautiful woman is abducted and her husband journeys to recover her. This story's best-known incarnation is also a central Greek myth—the abduction of Helen that led to the Trojan War. Stealing Helen surveys a vast range of folktales and texts exhibiting the story pattern of the abducted beautiful wife and makes a detailed comparison with the Helen of Troy myth. This book shows that certain Sanskrit, Welsh, and Old Irish texts suggest there was an Indo-European story of the abducted wife before the Helen myth of the Iliad became known. Investigating Helen's status in ancient Greek sources, the book argues that if Helen was just one trope of the abducted wife, the quest for Helen's origin in Spartan cult can be abandoned, as can the quest for an Indo-European goddess who grew into the Helen myth. The book explains that Helen was not a divine essence but a narrative figure that could replicate itself as needed, at various times or places in ancient Greece. It recovers some of these narrative Helens, such as those of the Pythagoreans and of Simon Magus, which then inspired the Helens of the Faust legend and Goethe. This book offers a detailed critique of prevailing views behind the “real” Helen and presents an eye-opening exploration of the many sources for this international mythical and literary icon.
Jack Zipes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160580
- eISBN:
- 9781400852581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160580.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter highlights an important theme in the Grimms' fairy tales that few scholars have discussed—cooperation or superhuman cooperative efforts necessary to defeat evil. It shares a string of ...
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This chapter highlights an important theme in the Grimms' fairy tales that few scholars have discussed—cooperation or superhuman cooperative efforts necessary to defeat evil. It shares a string of associations about cooperation in fairy tales before explaining why a tale such as “How Six Made Their Way in the World” and other similar tales in the Grimms' Kinder-und Hausmärchen significantly touch on a relevant memetic topic that we can find in myths and folk and fairy tales throughout the world. The chapter explores the appeal of tales about superheroes and why we are all more or less attracted to them as they work together to help underdogs.Less
This chapter highlights an important theme in the Grimms' fairy tales that few scholars have discussed—cooperation or superhuman cooperative efforts necessary to defeat evil. It shares a string of associations about cooperation in fairy tales before explaining why a tale such as “How Six Made Their Way in the World” and other similar tales in the Grimms' Kinder-und Hausmärchen significantly touch on a relevant memetic topic that we can find in myths and folk and fairy tales throughout the world. The chapter explores the appeal of tales about superheroes and why we are all more or less attracted to them as they work together to help underdogs.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170680
- eISBN:
- 9780231541268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170680.003.0012
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
myths of the echo in Europe and the Americas
myths of the echo in Europe and the Americas
Greta Hawes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672776
- eISBN:
- 9780191775253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672776.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Palaephatus’ Peri Apiston is a key text for our understanding of ancient myth interpretation, but its usefulness has been largely overlooked in previous discussions. This chapter highlights the ...
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Palaephatus’ Peri Apiston is a key text for our understanding of ancient myth interpretation, but its usefulness has been largely overlooked in previous discussions. This chapter highlights the unusual qualities of this work – its philosophically dense preface, repetitious style, hermeneutic consistency, and canonical sense of ‘myth’, and looks in detail at the mechanics of this kind of interpretation and its concern with misunderstood language. It argues that, in spite of his uniqueness, Palaephatus is nonetheless a product of his time and his text reflects a number of issues current in highly-literate circles in Athens in the late fourth century, including the application of Aristotelian biological principles, a changing concept of myth, the replacement of localized stories with literary ones, and attempts to categorize stories according to various standards of plausibility.Less
Palaephatus’ Peri Apiston is a key text for our understanding of ancient myth interpretation, but its usefulness has been largely overlooked in previous discussions. This chapter highlights the unusual qualities of this work – its philosophically dense preface, repetitious style, hermeneutic consistency, and canonical sense of ‘myth’, and looks in detail at the mechanics of this kind of interpretation and its concern with misunderstood language. It argues that, in spite of his uniqueness, Palaephatus is nonetheless a product of his time and his text reflects a number of issues current in highly-literate circles in Athens in the late fourth century, including the application of Aristotelian biological principles, a changing concept of myth, the replacement of localized stories with literary ones, and attempts to categorize stories according to various standards of plausibility.
George Steiner
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780192819345
- eISBN:
- 9780191670503
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192819345.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This book examines the far-reaching legacy of one of the great myths of classical antiquity. According to Greek legend, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the ...
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This book examines the far-reaching legacy of one of the great myths of classical antiquity. According to Greek legend, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the orders of Creon, King of Thebes. Creon sentenced Antigone to death, but, before the order could be executed, she committed suicide. The theme of the conflict between Antigone and Creon — between the state and the individual, between young and old, between men and women — has captured the Western imagination for more than 2,000 years. Antigone and Creon are as alive in the politics and poetics of our own day as they were in ancient Athens. Here, the book examines the treatment of the Antigone theme in Western art, literature and thought, leading us to look again at the unique influence Greek myths exercised on 20th-century culture.Less
This book examines the far-reaching legacy of one of the great myths of classical antiquity. According to Greek legend, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the orders of Creon, King of Thebes. Creon sentenced Antigone to death, but, before the order could be executed, she committed suicide. The theme of the conflict between Antigone and Creon — between the state and the individual, between young and old, between men and women — has captured the Western imagination for more than 2,000 years. Antigone and Creon are as alive in the politics and poetics of our own day as they were in ancient Athens. Here, the book examines the treatment of the Antigone theme in Western art, literature and thought, leading us to look again at the unique influence Greek myths exercised on 20th-century culture.
RACHEL BOWLBY
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199566228
- eISBN:
- 9780191710407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566228.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter uses the myth of Cronus — Zeus's father — to think about the genealogies through which Freud imagines possible futures for male and female subjects. Lying behind the phrase ‘castration ...
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This chapter uses the myth of Cronus — Zeus's father — to think about the genealogies through which Freud imagines possible futures for male and female subjects. Lying behind the phrase ‘castration complex’ is a story as potent in its way as the Oedipus story that subtends the Oedipus complex; but Cronus — who castrated his own father — surfaces only rarely in Freud's writing (or in popular mythological knowledge). Cronus is associated with a much more brutal, pre-human (pre-Oedipal) phase of mythic history, before the arrival of the Olympian gods. Freud's own mythology in effect involves a boy's passage, via the Oedipus and castration complexes, from primitive to civilized subjectivity. Women, on the other hand, are stuck in a pre-civilized world (where they are already ‘castrated’ and find a subjective future only in having a (boy) baby can represent what they must imagine they have been deprived of.Less
This chapter uses the myth of Cronus — Zeus's father — to think about the genealogies through which Freud imagines possible futures for male and female subjects. Lying behind the phrase ‘castration complex’ is a story as potent in its way as the Oedipus story that subtends the Oedipus complex; but Cronus — who castrated his own father — surfaces only rarely in Freud's writing (or in popular mythological knowledge). Cronus is associated with a much more brutal, pre-human (pre-Oedipal) phase of mythic history, before the arrival of the Olympian gods. Freud's own mythology in effect involves a boy's passage, via the Oedipus and castration complexes, from primitive to civilized subjectivity. Women, on the other hand, are stuck in a pre-civilized world (where they are already ‘castrated’ and find a subjective future only in having a (boy) baby can represent what they must imagine they have been deprived of.
John F. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198154754
- eISBN:
- 9780191715457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198154754.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter offers an explication of the feast in honour of Liber (F. 3. 713-90) in the light of a) the interplay of Greek myth and Roman cult; b) the mixing of presentational modes (didactic, ...
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This chapter offers an explication of the feast in honour of Liber (F. 3. 713-90) in the light of a) the interplay of Greek myth and Roman cult; b) the mixing of presentational modes (didactic, hymnic, narrative, aetiological); c) generic self-consciousness (how Ovid meets the challenge of narrative in the elegiac meter); d) how Ovid imagines the details of the festival against the background of what we know of the Liberalia from elsewhere (the inscribed calendars, Varro, Macrobius, Augustine, and others).Less
This chapter offers an explication of the feast in honour of Liber (F. 3. 713-90) in the light of a) the interplay of Greek myth and Roman cult; b) the mixing of presentational modes (didactic, hymnic, narrative, aetiological); c) generic self-consciousness (how Ovid meets the challenge of narrative in the elegiac meter); d) how Ovid imagines the details of the festival against the background of what we know of the Liberalia from elsewhere (the inscribed calendars, Varro, Macrobius, Augustine, and others).
Emily Katz Anhalt
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300217377
- eISBN:
- 9780300231762
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300217377.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Millennia ago, Greek myths exposed the dangers of violent rage and the need for empathy and self-restraint. Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax show that anger and vengeance destroy ...
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Millennia ago, Greek myths exposed the dangers of violent rage and the need for empathy and self-restraint. Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax show that anger and vengeance destroy perpetrators and victims alike. Composed before and during the ancient Greeks' groundbreaking movement away from autocracy toward more inclusive political participation, these stories offer guidelines for modern efforts to create and maintain civil societies. The book reveals how these three masterworks of classical Greek literature can teach us, as they taught the ancient Greeks, to recognize violent revenge as a marker of illogical thinking and poor leadership. These time-honored texts emphasize the costs of our dangerous penchant for glorifying violent rage and those who would indulge in it. By promoting compassion, rational thought, and debate, Greek myths help to arm us against the tyrants we might serve and the tyrants we might become.Less
Millennia ago, Greek myths exposed the dangers of violent rage and the need for empathy and self-restraint. Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax show that anger and vengeance destroy perpetrators and victims alike. Composed before and during the ancient Greeks' groundbreaking movement away from autocracy toward more inclusive political participation, these stories offer guidelines for modern efforts to create and maintain civil societies. The book reveals how these three masterworks of classical Greek literature can teach us, as they taught the ancient Greeks, to recognize violent revenge as a marker of illogical thinking and poor leadership. These time-honored texts emphasize the costs of our dangerous penchant for glorifying violent rage and those who would indulge in it. By promoting compassion, rational thought, and debate, Greek myths help to arm us against the tyrants we might serve and the tyrants we might become.
Greta Hawes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672776
- eISBN:
- 9780191775253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672776.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter describes the nature of ancient rationalistic approaches and the general tenor of the ancient tradition. It examines the origins of rationalistic interpretation in early historiography ...
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This chapter describes the nature of ancient rationalistic approaches and the general tenor of the ancient tradition. It examines the origins of rationalistic interpretation in early historiography through passages from Hecataeus, Herodotus and Herodorus, and then examines its conceptual limits via excerpts from Plato’s Phaedrus and Euripides’ Bacchae in which its use is criticized and even lampooned. Rationalization is not merely an interpretative mode, but a form of storytelling guided by a particular, contextual understanding of plausibility. In this way, it is underscored by both the principles of historiographical verisimilitude, and also the practices of active mythmaking, which means that it has much in common with the more conventional elements of Greek myth. The chapter ends with a discussion of the place of rationalization within the context of ancient hermeneutic practices, and its relationship to allegory and Euhemerism in particular.Less
This chapter describes the nature of ancient rationalistic approaches and the general tenor of the ancient tradition. It examines the origins of rationalistic interpretation in early historiography through passages from Hecataeus, Herodotus and Herodorus, and then examines its conceptual limits via excerpts from Plato’s Phaedrus and Euripides’ Bacchae in which its use is criticized and even lampooned. Rationalization is not merely an interpretative mode, but a form of storytelling guided by a particular, contextual understanding of plausibility. In this way, it is underscored by both the principles of historiographical verisimilitude, and also the practices of active mythmaking, which means that it has much in common with the more conventional elements of Greek myth. The chapter ends with a discussion of the place of rationalization within the context of ancient hermeneutic practices, and its relationship to allegory and Euhemerism in particular.
Greta Hawes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672776
- eISBN:
- 9780191775253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672776.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Pausanias’ travel guide is a complex, eclectic text which exhibits a number of approaches to myth. This chapter argues that Paul Veyne’s conception of Pausanias’ style as a narrator and critic of ...
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Pausanias’ travel guide is a complex, eclectic text which exhibits a number of approaches to myth. This chapter argues that Paul Veyne’s conception of Pausanias’ style as a narrator and critic of myth is too narrowly-conceived. It shows that Pausanias presents rationalistic readings of his material in various ways and in response to particular narrative and geographical contexts, and that his ‘habits’ are broadly in keeping with those apparent elsewhere in the ancient tradition. It discusses the ways in which he makes use of rationalistic approaches in relation to geographical anomalies, stories of metamorphosis, the work of Daedalus, and the myths of Crete.Less
Pausanias’ travel guide is a complex, eclectic text which exhibits a number of approaches to myth. This chapter argues that Paul Veyne’s conception of Pausanias’ style as a narrator and critic of myth is too narrowly-conceived. It shows that Pausanias presents rationalistic readings of his material in various ways and in response to particular narrative and geographical contexts, and that his ‘habits’ are broadly in keeping with those apparent elsewhere in the ancient tradition. It discusses the ways in which he makes use of rationalistic approaches in relation to geographical anomalies, stories of metamorphosis, the work of Daedalus, and the myths of Crete.
Sheila Murnaghan and Deborah H. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199583478
- eISBN:
- 9780191747472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199583478.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter surveys myth retellings for children in the first half of the twentieth century, mostly in anthologies but also in other fictional forms in which modern children interact with figures ...
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This chapter surveys myth retellings for children in the first half of the twentieth century, mostly in anthologies but also in other fictional forms in which modern children interact with figures from classical myth. Key developments include the impact of anthropology and folklore studies, the emergence of the United States as a center of children’s publishing after World War I, questions about the relevance of myth to American children, the assimilation of myths to fables and tall tales, innovative approaches to illustration, and mid-century nostalgia for earlier myth books. Among the authors discussed are Andrew Lang, Padraic Colum, James Daugherty, Robert McCloskey, Edith Hamilton, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire.Less
This chapter surveys myth retellings for children in the first half of the twentieth century, mostly in anthologies but also in other fictional forms in which modern children interact with figures from classical myth. Key developments include the impact of anthropology and folklore studies, the emergence of the United States as a center of children’s publishing after World War I, questions about the relevance of myth to American children, the assimilation of myths to fables and tall tales, innovative approaches to illustration, and mid-century nostalgia for earlier myth books. Among the authors discussed are Andrew Lang, Padraic Colum, James Daugherty, Robert McCloskey, Edith Hamilton, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire.
Emily Katz Anhalt
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300217377
- eISBN:
- 9780300231762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300217377.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book examines three ancient Greek myths—Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax—to illustrate the costs of rage and identify crucial prerequisites for the nonviolent resolution of ...
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This book examines three ancient Greek myths—Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax—to illustrate the costs of rage and identify crucial prerequisites for the nonviolent resolution of conflicts. Performed publicly as epic songs or tragic plays, ancient Greek myths expose tyranny and violence as universal toxins capable of destroying both perpetrator and victim. They emphasize the self-destructiveness of rage and undermine the traditional equation of vengeance with justice, but they also remind their audiences that human beings have better options for dealing with one another. The book analyzes the critique of rage in Iliad, which addresses the misuse of power and questions the utility of vengeance, and Hecuba and Ajax, both of which commend verbal persuasion over physical violence but also underscore the ambivalent potential of persuasive speech.Less
This book examines three ancient Greek myths—Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax—to illustrate the costs of rage and identify crucial prerequisites for the nonviolent resolution of conflicts. Performed publicly as epic songs or tragic plays, ancient Greek myths expose tyranny and violence as universal toxins capable of destroying both perpetrator and victim. They emphasize the self-destructiveness of rage and undermine the traditional equation of vengeance with justice, but they also remind their audiences that human beings have better options for dealing with one another. The book analyzes the critique of rage in Iliad, which addresses the misuse of power and questions the utility of vengeance, and Hecuba and Ajax, both of which commend verbal persuasion over physical violence but also underscore the ambivalent potential of persuasive speech.
Leonard Shengold
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300116106
- eISBN:
- 9780300134681
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300116106.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter focuses on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, which alludes to the change of seasons and exemplifies the link between change and expectation of loss. It emphasizes the myth's ...
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This chapter focuses on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, which alludes to the change of seasons and exemplifies the link between change and expectation of loss. It emphasizes the myth's psychological origin in the developmental separation from mother.Less
This chapter focuses on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, which alludes to the change of seasons and exemplifies the link between change and expectation of loss. It emphasizes the myth's psychological origin in the developmental separation from mother.
Vanda Zajko
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198738053
- eISBN:
- 9780191801594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198738053.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter presents a fresh perspective on Graves’s The Greek Myths, which in its presentation of Greek myth aims to serve as both a work of reference and literature. This ambiguity, coupled with ...
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This chapter presents a fresh perspective on Graves’s The Greek Myths, which in its presentation of Greek myth aims to serve as both a work of reference and literature. This ambiguity, coupled with inconsistencies in his use of sources and his creative imagination, created a tense relationship between the academy and Graves. Graves’s methodology combined compilation, organization, and interpretation to produce a corrective to previous scholarship. He wanted to establish a historical and archaeological basis of Greek mythology and reorient it at the centre of the study of early European history. The White Goddess conveys Graves’s idea of a ‘universal pre-history of humankind’, and takes an anthropological approach where myths are evidence of historical events which can be demonstrated once they are interpreted. Myths were puzzles to be solved which required linguistic skills to unlock the ‘prehistoric mentalité’, and he believed in iconotropy, where mythographers’ misinterpretations distorted matters—it would be Graves who would correct these distortions.Less
This chapter presents a fresh perspective on Graves’s The Greek Myths, which in its presentation of Greek myth aims to serve as both a work of reference and literature. This ambiguity, coupled with inconsistencies in his use of sources and his creative imagination, created a tense relationship between the academy and Graves. Graves’s methodology combined compilation, organization, and interpretation to produce a corrective to previous scholarship. He wanted to establish a historical and archaeological basis of Greek mythology and reorient it at the centre of the study of early European history. The White Goddess conveys Graves’s idea of a ‘universal pre-history of humankind’, and takes an anthropological approach where myths are evidence of historical events which can be demonstrated once they are interpreted. Myths were puzzles to be solved which required linguistic skills to unlock the ‘prehistoric mentalité’, and he believed in iconotropy, where mythographers’ misinterpretations distorted matters—it would be Graves who would correct these distortions.
Sibylle Ihm
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198738053
- eISBN:
- 9780191801594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198738053.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The chapter discusses Robert Graves’s book The Greek Myths and his approach to Greek religion. In Graves’s opinion, all Greek myth deals with a universal female figure. She is seen as the goddess of ...
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The chapter discusses Robert Graves’s book The Greek Myths and his approach to Greek religion. In Graves’s opinion, all Greek myth deals with a universal female figure. She is seen as the goddess of a matriarchal cult, where all male figures are sacred kings. They are put to death after a brief reign. The essay analyses examples from the book and contrasts them with current and mainstream works on Greek religion and mythology. The essay explains Graves’s beliefs and interpretations, and considers the scientific discussion about matriarchy and gynaecocracy. Finally, it looks at modern feminist literature which is partly based on Graves’s beliefs.Less
The chapter discusses Robert Graves’s book The Greek Myths and his approach to Greek religion. In Graves’s opinion, all Greek myth deals with a universal female figure. She is seen as the goddess of a matriarchal cult, where all male figures are sacred kings. They are put to death after a brief reign. The essay analyses examples from the book and contrasts them with current and mainstream works on Greek religion and mythology. The essay explains Graves’s beliefs and interpretations, and considers the scientific discussion about matriarchy and gynaecocracy. Finally, it looks at modern feminist literature which is partly based on Graves’s beliefs.
Greta Hawes (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198744771
- eISBN:
- 9780191805936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198744771.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The spatial turn in the humanities has fuelled new ways of thinking about landscape as a lived environment which is radically affected by human hands and human minds, and which radically affects ...
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The spatial turn in the humanities has fuelled new ways of thinking about landscape as a lived environment which is radically affected by human hands and human minds, and which radically affects human experience. At the same time, scholars of Greek myth have become more sensitive to the contextual dynamics which animate the mythic tradition, having come to see storytelling as an activity which is both precisely situated in, and contingent on, its environment. This volume, which derives in part from the series of Bristol International Myth Conferences, brings together 15 chapters on the spatiality of Greek myth and its interrelationships with the landscapes of the Mediterranean. It displays the myriad ways in which Greek storytelling shaped, and was shaped by, its environment. The chapters display diverse approaches and introduce a wide range of material, taking in Greek poetic, geographical, mythographical, and historiographical texts, and archaeological and visual sources. Chronologically, they cover the full scope of Greek antiquity from the archaic period to the imperial period; geographically, they incorporate discussions of landscapes in mainland Greece, Magna Graecia, and Asia Minor.Less
The spatial turn in the humanities has fuelled new ways of thinking about landscape as a lived environment which is radically affected by human hands and human minds, and which radically affects human experience. At the same time, scholars of Greek myth have become more sensitive to the contextual dynamics which animate the mythic tradition, having come to see storytelling as an activity which is both precisely situated in, and contingent on, its environment. This volume, which derives in part from the series of Bristol International Myth Conferences, brings together 15 chapters on the spatiality of Greek myth and its interrelationships with the landscapes of the Mediterranean. It displays the myriad ways in which Greek storytelling shaped, and was shaped by, its environment. The chapters display diverse approaches and introduce a wide range of material, taking in Greek poetic, geographical, mythographical, and historiographical texts, and archaeological and visual sources. Chronologically, they cover the full scope of Greek antiquity from the archaic period to the imperial period; geographically, they incorporate discussions of landscapes in mainland Greece, Magna Graecia, and Asia Minor.
Margery Palmer McCulloch
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748634743
- eISBN:
- 9780748651900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634743.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter discusses Edwin Muir and Hugh MacDiarmid, and observes the contrasting way they each dealt with the changing modern world. It first focuses on Muir, and discusses the importance of ...
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This chapter discusses Edwin Muir and Hugh MacDiarmid, and observes the contrasting way they each dealt with the changing modern world. It first focuses on Muir, and discusses the importance of liminal positioning in his relationship with modernism, his metaphorical use of Greek myth and his acknowledgement of his belief in something beyond material existence. The chapter then studies MacDiarmid and his late poetry, which is considered as a continuation of the modernist orientation of his early poetry.Less
This chapter discusses Edwin Muir and Hugh MacDiarmid, and observes the contrasting way they each dealt with the changing modern world. It first focuses on Muir, and discusses the importance of liminal positioning in his relationship with modernism, his metaphorical use of Greek myth and his acknowledgement of his belief in something beyond material existence. The chapter then studies MacDiarmid and his late poetry, which is considered as a continuation of the modernist orientation of his early poetry.
Greta Hawes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672776
- eISBN:
- 9780191775253
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672776.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Instances of rationalistic interpretation in ancient Greek authors constitute a rare and valuable example of an indigenous mode of ancient myth criticism. They display some of the ways in which the ...
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Instances of rationalistic interpretation in ancient Greek authors constitute a rare and valuable example of an indigenous mode of ancient myth criticism. They display some of the ways in which the Greeks grappled with, manipulated and categorized their own narrative traditions. This book describes and discusses the rationalistic attitudes and approaches of six texts: three treatises transmitted under the title Peri Apiston (by Palaephatus, Heraclitus, and a third, anonymous writer), Conon’s Diegeseis, Plutarch’s Theseus-Romulus, and Pausanias’ Periegesis. Taken as a whole, this material offers new perspectives on the Greek mythical tradition as an evolving, diverse system of stories, and on ancient attempts to distinguish categorically between mythic and historical phenomena. This book locates the rationalistic tradition in relation to other responses to myth in antiquity and charts its development in parallel with evolving cultural and literary norms in the Hellenistic period and Second Sophistic, particularly the development of historiography, mythography, and other interpretative trends in rhetorical instruction. It offers new ways of accounting for the emergence of rationalistic elements within the broader storytelling contexts of Greece, and argues for the close connections – in spite of appearances – between these innovative approaches and the more conventional roles of myth in the ancient world.Less
Instances of rationalistic interpretation in ancient Greek authors constitute a rare and valuable example of an indigenous mode of ancient myth criticism. They display some of the ways in which the Greeks grappled with, manipulated and categorized their own narrative traditions. This book describes and discusses the rationalistic attitudes and approaches of six texts: three treatises transmitted under the title Peri Apiston (by Palaephatus, Heraclitus, and a third, anonymous writer), Conon’s Diegeseis, Plutarch’s Theseus-Romulus, and Pausanias’ Periegesis. Taken as a whole, this material offers new perspectives on the Greek mythical tradition as an evolving, diverse system of stories, and on ancient attempts to distinguish categorically between mythic and historical phenomena. This book locates the rationalistic tradition in relation to other responses to myth in antiquity and charts its development in parallel with evolving cultural and literary norms in the Hellenistic period and Second Sophistic, particularly the development of historiography, mythography, and other interpretative trends in rhetorical instruction. It offers new ways of accounting for the emergence of rationalistic elements within the broader storytelling contexts of Greece, and argues for the close connections – in spite of appearances – between these innovative approaches and the more conventional roles of myth in the ancient world.
