Guy Hedreen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199546510
- eISBN:
- 9780191594922
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546510.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses Pindar's Paean 6 and its mythology in the light of contemporary art, especially sculpture. The Aphaia pediments and Pindar's poem enhance Aegina's heroes, while engaging with ...
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This chapter discusses Pindar's Paean 6 and its mythology in the light of contemporary art, especially sculpture. The Aphaia pediments and Pindar's poem enhance Aegina's heroes, while engaging with the mythology of the fall of Troy. The Aphaia pediments rethink the pictorial conventions of the last night of Troy, and put the pairing of pediments of equal scale to good semantic use to suggest that the first Trojan War was at least as significant as the famous second campaign. With Paean 6 there was no denying Apollo's involvement in the deaths of Achilles and Neoptolemos; but by emphasizing Apollo's interest in Troy as a motivation for his actions, it was possible to avoid mention of the ugliest deeds attributed to those two heroes. Pindar also tightened the links between the Trojan War, the Delphic Theoxenia, and the Aeginetan cult of Zeus Hellanios, through emphasis on the pious Aeginetan culture-hero Aiakos.Less
This chapter discusses Pindar's Paean 6 and its mythology in the light of contemporary art, especially sculpture. The Aphaia pediments and Pindar's poem enhance Aegina's heroes, while engaging with the mythology of the fall of Troy. The Aphaia pediments rethink the pictorial conventions of the last night of Troy, and put the pairing of pediments of equal scale to good semantic use to suggest that the first Trojan War was at least as significant as the famous second campaign. With Paean 6 there was no denying Apollo's involvement in the deaths of Achilles and Neoptolemos; but by emphasizing Apollo's interest in Troy as a motivation for his actions, it was possible to avoid mention of the ugliest deeds attributed to those two heroes. Pindar also tightened the links between the Trojan War, the Delphic Theoxenia, and the Aeginetan cult of Zeus Hellanios, through emphasis on the pious Aeginetan culture-hero Aiakos.
Suzanne Said
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693979
- eISBN:
- 9780191745324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693979.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines the allusions in the Histories to what we nowadays call the ‘myth’ of the Trojan War. It first attempts to define its status: where should it be placed on Herodotus' scale of ...
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This chapter examines the allusions in the Histories to what we nowadays call the ‘myth’ of the Trojan War. It first attempts to define its status: where should it be placed on Herodotus' scale of credibility, with muthoi undeserving of belief on the one end and plain historical facts on the other? Does Herodotus, in this respect, differentiate between a spatium mythicum and a spatium historicum? Next, it explores Herodotus' strategies in demythologizing the stories of the Trojan War and offers a suggestion about the deeper purpose behind his rationalizing agenda. It then addresses the role that excerpts of the Trojan War myth play in the rhetoric ascribed to Herodotus' characters, especially in the context of individual and collective propaganda. Finally, it investigates Herodotus' own rhetorical use of these mythical stories as an exemplum in a work that, in Herington's words, ‘stands exactly at the frontier where two great literary eras meet, the era [of] poetry and legend…and the era of prose, of history’. For as in archaic poetry or Attic tragedy, the myth of Troy reverberates throughout the work and helps us to understand the more recent past (the Persian Wars) as well as the present (the Peloponnesian War).Less
This chapter examines the allusions in the Histories to what we nowadays call the ‘myth’ of the Trojan War. It first attempts to define its status: where should it be placed on Herodotus' scale of credibility, with muthoi undeserving of belief on the one end and plain historical facts on the other? Does Herodotus, in this respect, differentiate between a spatium mythicum and a spatium historicum? Next, it explores Herodotus' strategies in demythologizing the stories of the Trojan War and offers a suggestion about the deeper purpose behind his rationalizing agenda. It then addresses the role that excerpts of the Trojan War myth play in the rhetoric ascribed to Herodotus' characters, especially in the context of individual and collective propaganda. Finally, it investigates Herodotus' own rhetorical use of these mythical stories as an exemplum in a work that, in Herington's words, ‘stands exactly at the frontier where two great literary eras meet, the era [of] poetry and legend…and the era of prose, of history’. For as in archaic poetry or Attic tragedy, the myth of Troy reverberates throughout the work and helps us to understand the more recent past (the Persian Wars) as well as the present (the Peloponnesian War).
Rosaria V. Munson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693979
- eISBN:
- 9780191745324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693979.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
In the fifth century, traditional myths about gods and heroes of a remote age still constituted a shared cultural language for speaking about a variety of more or less specific current issues of a ...
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In the fifth century, traditional myths about gods and heroes of a remote age still constituted a shared cultural language for speaking about a variety of more or less specific current issues of a philosophical, ethical, social, and political nature. Other than tragedy and epinician poetry, we should especially remember the role of myth in Thucydides, whose ‘Archaeology’ sets down his fundamental, and ideologically charged, view of history. It is time to reassess Herodotus' participation in this contemporary coded discourse and examine the ways in which he uses the mythical past as well as the cases when he appears to signal his choice not to use it. One dismissive passage in Herodotus (3.122) confirms the significance of Minos — the focus of this chapter — in fifth-century discourse as a precursor or rival of Athenian thalassocracy (Thucydides and Bacchylides). But two additional mentions, in Books 1 and 7 respectively, connect Minos in more interesting ways to present realities of Greeks and non-Greeks in the East and West. How is the treatment of Minos in the Histories representative of Herodotus' ‘myth-speak’?Less
In the fifth century, traditional myths about gods and heroes of a remote age still constituted a shared cultural language for speaking about a variety of more or less specific current issues of a philosophical, ethical, social, and political nature. Other than tragedy and epinician poetry, we should especially remember the role of myth in Thucydides, whose ‘Archaeology’ sets down his fundamental, and ideologically charged, view of history. It is time to reassess Herodotus' participation in this contemporary coded discourse and examine the ways in which he uses the mythical past as well as the cases when he appears to signal his choice not to use it. One dismissive passage in Herodotus (3.122) confirms the significance of Minos — the focus of this chapter — in fifth-century discourse as a precursor or rival of Athenian thalassocracy (Thucydides and Bacchylides). But two additional mentions, in Books 1 and 7 respectively, connect Minos in more interesting ways to present realities of Greeks and non-Greeks in the East and West. How is the treatment of Minos in the Histories representative of Herodotus' ‘myth-speak’?
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action ...
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This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action around the figure of Ulysses, the hero of eloquence and fraud, whose own epic comes in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The chapter demonstrates that the Odyssey, imitated and parodied in Satan's voyage through Chaos to God's newly created universe in the book's last section, is just one of the classical stories about the career of Ulysses that Milton evokes as models for its different episodes. The various parts of book 2 are held together by this pattern of allusion, as well as by the Odyssean figures of Scylla and Charybdis, the emblem of bad choices, or of loss of choice itself.Less
This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action around the figure of Ulysses, the hero of eloquence and fraud, whose own epic comes in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The chapter demonstrates that the Odyssey, imitated and parodied in Satan's voyage through Chaos to God's newly created universe in the book's last section, is just one of the classical stories about the career of Ulysses that Milton evokes as models for its different episodes. The various parts of book 2 are held together by this pattern of allusion, as well as by the Odyssean figures of Scylla and Charybdis, the emblem of bad choices, or of loss of choice itself.
TREVOR BRYCE
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281329
- eISBN:
- 9780191706752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281329.003.14
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
The citadel with which the name Troy is associated lies in the north-west corner of Anatolia in the region called the Troad, so named by Graeco-Roman writers who believed that the whole area was ...
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The citadel with which the name Troy is associated lies in the north-west corner of Anatolia in the region called the Troad, so named by Graeco-Roman writers who believed that the whole area was controlled by Troy. For almost 3,000 years, the story of the Trojan War pitting the Trojans against the Greeks has provided one of the western world's richest sources of inspiration in the realms of art and literature. However, the question remains: did the Trojan War really happen? This chapter considers possible Anatolian sources on Troy including Hittite texts, the discovery of a bronze seal bearing a brief inscription in Luwian hieroglyphs during excavations in 1995, Troy's role in Anatolian Affairs, Troy VIh as the more likely candidate for Homeric Troy, and the making of Homer's epic Iliad.Less
The citadel with which the name Troy is associated lies in the north-west corner of Anatolia in the region called the Troad, so named by Graeco-Roman writers who believed that the whole area was controlled by Troy. For almost 3,000 years, the story of the Trojan War pitting the Trojans against the Greeks has provided one of the western world's richest sources of inspiration in the realms of art and literature. However, the question remains: did the Trojan War really happen? This chapter considers possible Anatolian sources on Troy including Hittite texts, the discovery of a bronze seal bearing a brief inscription in Luwian hieroglyphs during excavations in 1995, Troy's role in Anatolian Affairs, Troy VIh as the more likely candidate for Homeric Troy, and the making of Homer's epic Iliad.
Isabelle Torrance
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657834
- eISBN:
- 9780191745393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657834.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter develops in more detail the analysis of Euripides’ differing responses to the epic and tragic poets begun in the earlier chapters (especially in Ch. 2). Focusing on Euripides’ major ...
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This chapter develops in more detail the analysis of Euripides’ differing responses to the epic and tragic poets begun in the earlier chapters (especially in Ch. 2). Focusing on Euripides’ major Trojan War plays it is argued that Euripides positions his dramas as continuations of events from Homer or the Cyclic epics transposed into new contexts, and simultaneously as rivals to earlier tragic versions of the same episode by Aeschylus and by Sophocles. Trigger words, such as deuteros ‘second’, dissos ‘double’, kainos ‘new’, in addition to mythos ‘fiction’ are used to mark these relationships. The Euripidean tragedies discussed in most detail are Philoctetes, Andromache, Hecuba, and the Trojan Trilogy (Alexandros, Palamedes, Trojan Women). The satyr‐drama Cyclops, discussed at the end of the chapter, is uniquely cast (in contrast to the Trojan War tragedies) as a rival version of a Homeric episode with new contemporary implications.Less
This chapter develops in more detail the analysis of Euripides’ differing responses to the epic and tragic poets begun in the earlier chapters (especially in Ch. 2). Focusing on Euripides’ major Trojan War plays it is argued that Euripides positions his dramas as continuations of events from Homer or the Cyclic epics transposed into new contexts, and simultaneously as rivals to earlier tragic versions of the same episode by Aeschylus and by Sophocles. Trigger words, such as deuteros ‘second’, dissos ‘double’, kainos ‘new’, in addition to mythos ‘fiction’ are used to mark these relationships. The Euripidean tragedies discussed in most detail are Philoctetes, Andromache, Hecuba, and the Trojan Trilogy (Alexandros, Palamedes, Trojan Women). The satyr‐drama Cyclops, discussed at the end of the chapter, is uniquely cast (in contrast to the Trojan War tragedies) as a rival version of a Homeric episode with new contemporary implications.
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.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book examines Helen of Troy in ancient Greek mythology and literature. It focusses especially on her supreme beauty and its consequences, which make Helen central to many aspects of Greek ...
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This book examines Helen of Troy in ancient Greek mythology and literature. It focusses especially on her supreme beauty and its consequences, which make Helen central to many aspects of Greek culture. As the most beautiful woman in the world, who causes the greatest war of all time, she embodies the intrinsic ambiguity of the female. As the ultimate object of desire (eros), who pursues desires of her own, she models the position of women as objects with agency. As the iconic errant wife, who must be retrieved, she is the foundation of Greek masculinity, in so far as this is grounded in the control of women. As a woman who ran off with a non-Greek or “barbarian,” she is a vehicle for defining Greek identity. As the cause of the Trojan War, she also causes its commemoration in song and story, making her a kind of Muse. Accordingly, authors in every period and genre use Helen and her story to wrestle not only with women, beauty, and the legendary past, but with questions of Greek identity, female subjectivity, human agency, and the power of discourse. The book begins with two chapters establishing the cultural framework for these concerns, the first on Greek gender ideology and attitudes towards beauty and eros, as enshrined in the “beautiful evil” Pandora, the second on the myth and cult of Helen. Subsequent chapters provide detailed studies of all surviving archaic and classical Greek texts in which Helen has a significant presence.Less
This book examines Helen of Troy in ancient Greek mythology and literature. It focusses especially on her supreme beauty and its consequences, which make Helen central to many aspects of Greek culture. As the most beautiful woman in the world, who causes the greatest war of all time, she embodies the intrinsic ambiguity of the female. As the ultimate object of desire (eros), who pursues desires of her own, she models the position of women as objects with agency. As the iconic errant wife, who must be retrieved, she is the foundation of Greek masculinity, in so far as this is grounded in the control of women. As a woman who ran off with a non-Greek or “barbarian,” she is a vehicle for defining Greek identity. As the cause of the Trojan War, she also causes its commemoration in song and story, making her a kind of Muse. Accordingly, authors in every period and genre use Helen and her story to wrestle not only with women, beauty, and the legendary past, but with questions of Greek identity, female subjectivity, human agency, and the power of discourse. The book begins with two chapters establishing the cultural framework for these concerns, the first on Greek gender ideology and attitudes towards beauty and eros, as enshrined in the “beautiful evil” Pandora, the second on the myth and cult of Helen. Subsequent chapters provide detailed studies of all surviving archaic and classical Greek texts in which Helen has a significant presence.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Helen of Troy’s three major appearances in Herodotus’s Histories. The historian takes a rationalistic, demythologizing approach to the Trojan War, but the threat of Helen’s ...
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This chapter examines Helen of Troy’s three major appearances in Herodotus’s Histories. The historian takes a rationalistic, demythologizing approach to the Trojan War, but the threat of Helen’s superhuman beauty remains latent in his narrative and becomes increasingly apparent with each appearance. The “Persian” account in Book 1 trivializes both Helen and the Greek values of reciprocity and guest-friendship. The power of female beauty does appear, however, in the tale of Candaules’ wife, which serves as a rewriting of Helen’s story. The narrative of the Trojan War in Book 2 provides a pro-Greek perspective, which reaffirms the importance of Greek values but persists in ignoring Helen’s beauty; the divine power of that beauty is, however, conveyed tacitly by the existence of her Egyptian temple. In Book 6 Herodotus tells the story of Demaratus’s mother, whom the goddess Helen beautifies in her own image, with predictably destructive consequences. Though Herodotus limits transgressive eros, in general, to “barbarian” kings, this story implies that Greeks are not immune to the threat posed by female beauty.Less
This chapter examines Helen of Troy’s three major appearances in Herodotus’s Histories. The historian takes a rationalistic, demythologizing approach to the Trojan War, but the threat of Helen’s superhuman beauty remains latent in his narrative and becomes increasingly apparent with each appearance. The “Persian” account in Book 1 trivializes both Helen and the Greek values of reciprocity and guest-friendship. The power of female beauty does appear, however, in the tale of Candaules’ wife, which serves as a rewriting of Helen’s story. The narrative of the Trojan War in Book 2 provides a pro-Greek perspective, which reaffirms the importance of Greek values but persists in ignoring Helen’s beauty; the divine power of that beauty is, however, conveyed tacitly by the existence of her Egyptian temple. In Book 6 Herodotus tells the story of Demaratus’s mother, whom the goddess Helen beautifies in her own image, with predictably destructive consequences. Though Herodotus limits transgressive eros, in general, to “barbarian” kings, this story implies that Greeks are not immune to the threat posed by female beauty.
Carolyn Higbie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199241910
- eISBN:
- 9780191714351
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241910.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
When the Lindians erected the stele with its inventories of votives and epiphanies by 99 BC, oral tradition about the antiquity and wealth of the sanctuary or city was not sufficient, as the Greek ...
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When the Lindians erected the stele with its inventories of votives and epiphanies by 99 BC, oral tradition about the antiquity and wealth of the sanctuary or city was not sufficient, as the Greek world was developing new ways of using written sources and discovering new texts to use in its study of the past. The Lindians had played a role in the adventures of Herakles, the Trojan War, the colonization to the coast of Asia Minor and to Magna Graecia, the Persian Wars, and the conquests of Alexander the Great. They bask in the reflected glory of their goddess, Athena Lindia, who is indisputably resident on their acropolis. The citation of sources reveals the Lindians grafting new ways of thinking onto traditional storytelling patterns. Pride in their past of military victories, colonising expeditions, and great heroes may have helped to compensate the Lindians for their place in the present.Less
When the Lindians erected the stele with its inventories of votives and epiphanies by 99 BC, oral tradition about the antiquity and wealth of the sanctuary or city was not sufficient, as the Greek world was developing new ways of using written sources and discovering new texts to use in its study of the past. The Lindians had played a role in the adventures of Herakles, the Trojan War, the colonization to the coast of Asia Minor and to Magna Graecia, the Persian Wars, and the conquests of Alexander the Great. They bask in the reflected glory of their goddess, Athena Lindia, who is indisputably resident on their acropolis. The citation of sources reveals the Lindians grafting new ways of thinking onto traditional storytelling patterns. Pride in their past of military victories, colonising expeditions, and great heroes may have helped to compensate the Lindians for their place in the present.
Jed Z. Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154787
- eISBN:
- 9781400845187
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154787.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
More than three decades separate Isaac Newton’s explorations of astronomical chronology and his youthful engagement with problems of perception and measurement. By the time of his first computations ...
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More than three decades separate Isaac Newton’s explorations of astronomical chronology and his youthful engagement with problems of perception and measurement. By the time of his first computations in the area, shortly before the publication of the Opticks, Isaac Newton’s understanding of measurement had been refined through years of experimental and computational experience, not the least of which occurred as he worked on the motions of bodies in fluids during the 1680s. The previous decade had given Newton considerable familiarity with words from the past, and he had slowly developed a highly skeptical attitude toward ancient remarks that did not have a continuous textual ancestry, or that reflected what he considered to be unreliable “poetic fancies.” Thus, aiming to produce a compelling argument grounded in computation for his new chronology, Newton faced a treacherous triple problem: he had first to argue that the words with which he worked were originally produced near the time of the Trojan War; then he had to transform these words into astronomical data; finally, he had to deploy a technique for working with what he rapidly learned was a set of extremely discrepant observations. He labored over these problems until his death. This chapter follows Newton as he transformed words and calculated.Less
More than three decades separate Isaac Newton’s explorations of astronomical chronology and his youthful engagement with problems of perception and measurement. By the time of his first computations in the area, shortly before the publication of the Opticks, Isaac Newton’s understanding of measurement had been refined through years of experimental and computational experience, not the least of which occurred as he worked on the motions of bodies in fluids during the 1680s. The previous decade had given Newton considerable familiarity with words from the past, and he had slowly developed a highly skeptical attitude toward ancient remarks that did not have a continuous textual ancestry, or that reflected what he considered to be unreliable “poetic fancies.” Thus, aiming to produce a compelling argument grounded in computation for his new chronology, Newton faced a treacherous triple problem: he had first to argue that the words with which he worked were originally produced near the time of the Trojan War; then he had to transform these words into astronomical data; finally, he had to deploy a technique for working with what he rapidly learned was a set of extremely discrepant observations. He labored over these problems until his death. This chapter follows Newton as he transformed words and calculated.
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/9780300217377.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines how the Iliad promotes the capacity of its audience as individuals to acknowledge and respect the essential humanity of every other individual. It explains how the Iliad enables ...
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This chapter examines how the Iliad promotes the capacity of its audience as individuals to acknowledge and respect the essential humanity of every other individual. It explains how the Iliad enables its audience to get a glimpse of the Trojan War from the Trojans' perspective, as well as the surprisingly humanizing depiction of Hector within his city. The Iliad suggests that the recognition of multiple perspectives makes moral judgment possible. In addition to humanizing the enemy and perhaps promoting self-restraint and compassion, the Iliad delineates the spheres of men and women: warfare and politics for men; domestic activities, weaving, and child-rearing for women. The chapter concludes by arguing that the Iliad confronts its audience with the responsibility to reassess the conviction that the capacity for violence deserves the highest honors that the community can confer.Less
This chapter examines how the Iliad promotes the capacity of its audience as individuals to acknowledge and respect the essential humanity of every other individual. It explains how the Iliad enables its audience to get a glimpse of the Trojan War from the Trojans' perspective, as well as the surprisingly humanizing depiction of Hector within his city. The Iliad suggests that the recognition of multiple perspectives makes moral judgment possible. In addition to humanizing the enemy and perhaps promoting self-restraint and compassion, the Iliad delineates the spheres of men and women: warfare and politics for men; domestic activities, weaving, and child-rearing for women. The chapter concludes by arguing that the Iliad confronts its audience with the responsibility to reassess the conviction that the capacity for violence deserves the highest honors that the community can confer.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter concerns the encomium of Helen of Troy by the fourth-century rhetorician and educator Isocrates. Isocrates gives Helen’s beauty a value that is symbolic and transcendent, in order to ...
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This chapter concerns the encomium of Helen of Troy by the fourth-century rhetorician and educator Isocrates. Isocrates gives Helen’s beauty a value that is symbolic and transcendent, in order to make her, via the Trojan War, both an emblem of Panhellenic masculine achievement and a totemic symbol of Greece itself. He also introduces Theseus, Helen’s first abductor, to provide a mythic foundation for the Athenian hegemony characterizing his particular brand of Panhellenism. In order to make Helen a worthy emblem of Hellenic manhood the heroes’ desire for her is de-eroticized, their passion transferred to glorious combat, thus saving them from emasculation. Treating Helen as a figure for beauty as such, rather than an erotically compelling woman, also allows Isocrates to draw on homoerotic paradigms of heroic male glory. These strategies result, however, in a lack of serious attention to Helen herself. She becomes an untainted symbol of heroic glory at the cost of trivialization.Less
This chapter concerns the encomium of Helen of Troy by the fourth-century rhetorician and educator Isocrates. Isocrates gives Helen’s beauty a value that is symbolic and transcendent, in order to make her, via the Trojan War, both an emblem of Panhellenic masculine achievement and a totemic symbol of Greece itself. He also introduces Theseus, Helen’s first abductor, to provide a mythic foundation for the Athenian hegemony characterizing his particular brand of Panhellenism. In order to make Helen a worthy emblem of Hellenic manhood the heroes’ desire for her is de-eroticized, their passion transferred to glorious combat, thus saving them from emasculation. Treating Helen as a figure for beauty as such, rather than an erotically compelling woman, also allows Isocrates to draw on homoerotic paradigms of heroic male glory. These strategies result, however, in a lack of serious attention to Helen herself. She becomes an untainted symbol of heroic glory at the cost of trivialization.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter introduces the story of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology: her conception by Zeus, her abduction by Theseus, the oath of the suitors, her marriage to Menelaus, the Judgment of Paris, her ...
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This chapter introduces the story of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology: her conception by Zeus, her abduction by Theseus, the oath of the suitors, her marriage to Menelaus, the Judgment of Paris, her abduction by Paris, the Trojan War, and her retrieval by Menelaus, who raised his sword to kill her but dropped it at the sight of her beauty. This narrative is elaborated with attention to the particular concerns of this book, especially gender issues, the question of Helen’s agency in her elopement, and the Greek values underlying the Trojan War (notably guest-friendship). The chapter goes on to describe Helen’s role as a divinity in hero cult, where she was worshiped especially as an iconic figure of the bride. As a cult heroine, she enjoys a posthumous relationship with Achilles, who is the most beautiful and mighty of the Greeks, and as such Helen’s closest male equivalent. The chapter ends with a discussion of Helen’s divine, timeless beauty and the resources for representing it in art and literature.Less
This chapter introduces the story of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology: her conception by Zeus, her abduction by Theseus, the oath of the suitors, her marriage to Menelaus, the Judgment of Paris, her abduction by Paris, the Trojan War, and her retrieval by Menelaus, who raised his sword to kill her but dropped it at the sight of her beauty. This narrative is elaborated with attention to the particular concerns of this book, especially gender issues, the question of Helen’s agency in her elopement, and the Greek values underlying the Trojan War (notably guest-friendship). The chapter goes on to describe Helen’s role as a divinity in hero cult, where she was worshiped especially as an iconic figure of the bride. As a cult heroine, she enjoys a posthumous relationship with Achilles, who is the most beautiful and mighty of the Greeks, and as such Helen’s closest male equivalent. The chapter ends with a discussion of Helen’s divine, timeless beauty and the resources for representing it in art and literature.
Charles McNelis and Alexander Sens
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199601899
- eISBN:
- 9780191827525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601899.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is ...
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This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is divided into two major parts of unequal length: the first a sweeping account of the coming Trojan War and its aftermath (31–1282) and the second a broader treatment of the conflict between East and West of which it forms part (1283–1460). Both begin in the distant past and conclude with the ascendancy of the Romans, who thus represent the larger telos of the prophecy. Beyond this parallelism, the two halves of the prophecy not only have their own internal logic but are also linked to one another thematically and verbally.Less
This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is divided into two major parts of unequal length: the first a sweeping account of the coming Trojan War and its aftermath (31–1282) and the second a broader treatment of the conflict between East and West of which it forms part (1283–1460). Both begin in the distant past and conclude with the ascendancy of the Romans, who thus represent the larger telos of the prophecy. Beyond this parallelism, the two halves of the prophecy not only have their own internal logic but are also linked to one another thematically and verbally.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter focuses on Homer’s Iliad, the most canonical version of the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War. It starts by discussing Helen’s similarity to Achilles, and epic techniques for ...
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This chapter focuses on Homer’s Iliad, the most canonical version of the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War. It starts by discussing Helen’s similarity to Achilles, and epic techniques for portraying beauty, before moving to the different perspectives on her behavior supplied by various characters. She is objectified by the men, especially on the Greek side, in a way that helps to keep their struggle a heroic one, a task that is further aided by desplacing male desire away from Helen and onto revenge or warfare as such. But Helen’s own perspective challenges this picture. Her characteristic self-blame is both an exercise of power (in so far as it wins her sympathy and protection), and a retrospective assertion of agency in her elopement. The chapter includes a detailed treatment of her confrontation with Aphrodite in Book 3, which provides a window into Helen’s subjectivity, showing that despite the goddess’s power Helen is, in fact, responsible for her actions.Less
This chapter focuses on Homer’s Iliad, the most canonical version of the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War. It starts by discussing Helen’s similarity to Achilles, and epic techniques for portraying beauty, before moving to the different perspectives on her behavior supplied by various characters. She is objectified by the men, especially on the Greek side, in a way that helps to keep their struggle a heroic one, a task that is further aided by desplacing male desire away from Helen and onto revenge or warfare as such. But Helen’s own perspective challenges this picture. Her characteristic self-blame is both an exercise of power (in so far as it wins her sympathy and protection), and a retrospective assertion of agency in her elopement. The chapter includes a detailed treatment of her confrontation with Aphrodite in Book 3, which provides a window into Helen’s subjectivity, showing that despite the goddess’s power Helen is, in fact, responsible for her actions.
Pietro Pucci
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700613
- eISBN:
- 9781501704055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700613.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Euripides's treatment of sex as the cause of the Trojan War. The first aspect of sexuality in Euripides that strikes us is the violence with which it assails its subjects—most ...
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This chapter examines Euripides's treatment of sex as the cause of the Trojan War. The first aspect of sexuality in Euripides that strikes us is the violence with which it assails its subjects—most often women—in excessive, perverse, and sometimes destructive forms. This violence is deployed in a particular way and has particular effects: it dislocates and dispossesses the self, making it a puppet of a drive that the subject often cannot clearly diagnose or identify. Eros is one of the most insidious and piercing instantiations of otherness and can ensnare the whole of a human being. This representation of sexual drive threatens Euripides's metaphysics, which gestures toward an imagined self, which, through its sophia, is able to build a solid and sure stronghold against forces that would pierce through it. This chapter discusses the debate between Helen and Hecuba in Troades and suggests that it represents a typical metalepsis of Euripides's sophia.Less
This chapter examines Euripides's treatment of sex as the cause of the Trojan War. The first aspect of sexuality in Euripides that strikes us is the violence with which it assails its subjects—most often women—in excessive, perverse, and sometimes destructive forms. This violence is deployed in a particular way and has particular effects: it dislocates and dispossesses the self, making it a puppet of a drive that the subject often cannot clearly diagnose or identify. Eros is one of the most insidious and piercing instantiations of otherness and can ensnare the whole of a human being. This representation of sexual drive threatens Euripides's metaphysics, which gestures toward an imagined self, which, through its sophia, is able to build a solid and sure stronghold against forces that would pierce through it. This chapter discusses the debate between Helen and Hecuba in Troades and suggests that it represents a typical metalepsis of Euripides's sophia.
Ruby Blondell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199731602
- eISBN:
- 9780199344956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731602.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Helen of Troy in Homer’s Odyssey. Despite her redomestication after the Trojan War, the Odyssey’s Spartan scenes are replete with hints of the threat that Helen continues to ...
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This chapter examines Helen of Troy in Homer’s Odyssey. Despite her redomestication after the Trojan War, the Odyssey’s Spartan scenes are replete with hints of the threat that Helen continues to pose to masculine control. She is not only unusually assertive and outspoken for a Homeric woman, but comes much closer to divinity than her counterpart in the Iliad. Among other things, she is endowed with a drug that erases negative emotions and a magical ability to mimick other women’s voices, both of which symbolize the power of her erotic beauty and especially of her voice. This supernatural dimension aligns her with "dread goddesses" like Circe and Calypso, whom the hero, Odysseus, must learn to resist in order return to his wife, the virtuous, self-controlled Penelope. Penelope is the opposite of Helen, whose marriage to Menelaus serves as a negative foil to the hero’s own. Yet even she has a beauty and manipulative skill that put her under the suspicion that hangs over all women.Less
This chapter examines Helen of Troy in Homer’s Odyssey. Despite her redomestication after the Trojan War, the Odyssey’s Spartan scenes are replete with hints of the threat that Helen continues to pose to masculine control. She is not only unusually assertive and outspoken for a Homeric woman, but comes much closer to divinity than her counterpart in the Iliad. Among other things, she is endowed with a drug that erases negative emotions and a magical ability to mimick other women’s voices, both of which symbolize the power of her erotic beauty and especially of her voice. This supernatural dimension aligns her with "dread goddesses" like Circe and Calypso, whom the hero, Odysseus, must learn to resist in order return to his wife, the virtuous, self-controlled Penelope. Penelope is the opposite of Helen, whose marriage to Menelaus serves as a negative foil to the hero’s own. Yet even she has a beauty and manipulative skill that put her under the suspicion that hangs over all women.
Thea S. Thorsen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829430
- eISBN:
- 9780191867958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829430.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter argues on the basis of cues in Horace’s Odes 4.9 that Sappho fr. 16 is an important intertext for Horace’s Odes 1.15. Though neglected as such in scholarship, this chapter aims at ...
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This chapter argues on the basis of cues in Horace’s Odes 4.9 that Sappho fr. 16 is an important intertext for Horace’s Odes 1.15. Though neglected as such in scholarship, this chapter aims at showing that the poem’s background is precisely Sappho fr. 16, which helps bring out the crucial question of literary timing. This question, which is more or less important to all Augustan poets, emerges as an especially important topic in both Horatian poems. The Trojan War features prominently in this chapter, which, in addition to the Horatian poems and the fragment of Sappho, investigates several passages from Homer, Alcaeus, and Proclus’ summary of the Cypria.Less
This chapter argues on the basis of cues in Horace’s Odes 4.9 that Sappho fr. 16 is an important intertext for Horace’s Odes 1.15. Though neglected as such in scholarship, this chapter aims at showing that the poem’s background is precisely Sappho fr. 16, which helps bring out the crucial question of literary timing. This question, which is more or less important to all Augustan poets, emerges as an especially important topic in both Horatian poems. The Trojan War features prominently in this chapter, which, in addition to the Horatian poems and the fragment of Sappho, investigates several passages from Homer, Alcaeus, and Proclus’ summary of the Cypria.
M. L. West
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199590070
- eISBN:
- 9780191808296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199590070.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the well-established body of poetic tradition about the Trojan War which Homer inherited and from which he took his starting-point for the Iliad. It argues that the conception ...
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This chapter considers the well-established body of poetic tradition about the Trojan War which Homer inherited and from which he took his starting-point for the Iliad. It argues that the conception of the Trojan War reflected in the Iliad and the other epics of the early archaic period was not something that had been fixed for centuries but the outcome of a continuous process of development and growth, with new participants still being brought in after the Iliad was completed. The chapter then turns to Achilles, the central personality of the Iliad. It suggests that his association with the Trojan War was not original. Before he was incorporated into the Trojan saga, the various adventures of Achilles’ did not add up to a coherent story and could scarcely have been strung together in a single epic narrative. When he was attached to the Troy saga, his character underwent three stages of development, which are discussed in turn.Less
This chapter considers the well-established body of poetic tradition about the Trojan War which Homer inherited and from which he took his starting-point for the Iliad. It argues that the conception of the Trojan War reflected in the Iliad and the other epics of the early archaic period was not something that had been fixed for centuries but the outcome of a continuous process of development and growth, with new participants still being brought in after the Iliad was completed. The chapter then turns to Achilles, the central personality of the Iliad. It suggests that his association with the Trojan War was not original. Before he was incorporated into the Trojan saga, the various adventures of Achilles’ did not add up to a coherent story and could scarcely have been strung together in a single epic narrative. When he was attached to the Troy saga, his character underwent three stages of development, which are discussed in turn.
