Jessica Priestley
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199653096
- eISBN:
- 9780191766459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653096.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter discusses the distinctiveness of Herodotus' interest in the wondrous and the peculiarities of the rhetoric he employs in describing wonders, through comparisons with Thucydides and ...
More
This chapter discusses the distinctiveness of Herodotus' interest in the wondrous and the peculiarities of the rhetoric he employs in describing wonders, through comparisons with Thucydides and Aristotle. It examines Herodotus' relationship to Hellenistic paradoxography. It also considers evidence that Herodotus influenced both the types of works that came to be included in Hellenistic lists of the Seven Wonders of the World, as well as some of the descriptions of these works. Additionally, it argues that Callimachus and Posidippus sometimes appropriated or rejected Herodotus' rhetoric of wonder to highlight their own aesthetic concerns, such as the relative merits of the small and the large scale, and the appropriate criteria for evaluating the works of humans and gods. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of a possible parallels between Herodotus' attitude towards wonders and wonder as an impulse for Hellenistic scholarly inquiry.Less
This chapter discusses the distinctiveness of Herodotus' interest in the wondrous and the peculiarities of the rhetoric he employs in describing wonders, through comparisons with Thucydides and Aristotle. It examines Herodotus' relationship to Hellenistic paradoxography. It also considers evidence that Herodotus influenced both the types of works that came to be included in Hellenistic lists of the Seven Wonders of the World, as well as some of the descriptions of these works. Additionally, it argues that Callimachus and Posidippus sometimes appropriated or rejected Herodotus' rhetoric of wonder to highlight their own aesthetic concerns, such as the relative merits of the small and the large scale, and the appropriate criteria for evaluating the works of humans and gods. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of a possible parallels between Herodotus' attitude towards wonders and wonder as an impulse for Hellenistic scholarly inquiry.
Jason Moralee
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190492274
- eISBN:
- 9780190492298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190492274.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
The epilogue traces the afterlife of the Capitoline Hill’s late antique history, the unresolved tension between the valuation and devaluation of the Capitol’s multiplying and variegated histories ...
More
The epilogue traces the afterlife of the Capitoline Hill’s late antique history, the unresolved tension between the valuation and devaluation of the Capitol’s multiplying and variegated histories into the Middle Ages. The Capitol was a physical space that structured the lives and urban environment of postclassical Rome, and it was an imaginary location that animated an affective engagement with the hill’s traditions as well as Christian polemics against the materiality of pagan cults. It became one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a notable stop for sightseeing tours, and the location of an incredible collection of statues called the Salvatio Civium. In the Middle Ages, the Capitoline Hill became even more mystically charged than it had ever been in its long history. What ended the hill’s ancient legacy was not the so-called Dark Ages but Fascist urban planning and modern assertions of the value of heritage.Less
The epilogue traces the afterlife of the Capitoline Hill’s late antique history, the unresolved tension between the valuation and devaluation of the Capitol’s multiplying and variegated histories into the Middle Ages. The Capitol was a physical space that structured the lives and urban environment of postclassical Rome, and it was an imaginary location that animated an affective engagement with the hill’s traditions as well as Christian polemics against the materiality of pagan cults. It became one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a notable stop for sightseeing tours, and the location of an incredible collection of statues called the Salvatio Civium. In the Middle Ages, the Capitoline Hill became even more mystically charged than it had ever been in its long history. What ended the hill’s ancient legacy was not the so-called Dark Ages but Fascist urban planning and modern assertions of the value of heritage.
