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The Dance of the Muses: Choral Theory and Ancient Greek Poetics

A. P. David

This book develops an authentic and revolutionary musical analysis of ancient Greek poetry. It brings the interpretation of ancient verse into step with the sorts of analyses customarily enjoyed by ... More

This book develops an authentic and revolutionary musical analysis of ancient Greek poetry. It brings the interpretation of ancient verse into step with the sorts of analyses customarily enjoyed by works in all the more recent poetical and musical traditions. It departs from the abstract metrical analyses of the past in that it conceives the rhythmic and harmonic elements of poetry as integral to the whole expression, and decisive in the interpretation of its meaning. Such an analysis is now possible because of a new theory of the Greek tonic accent, set out in the third chapter, and its application to Greek poetry understood as choreia — the proper name for the art and work of ancient poets in both epic and lyric, described by Plato as a synthesis of dance rhythm and vocal harmony, in disagreement moving toward agreement. The book offers a thorough-going treatment of Homeric poetics: here some remarkable discoveries in the harmonic movement of epic verse, when combined with some neglected facts about the origin of the hexameter in a ‘dance of the Muses’, lead to essential new thinking about the genesis and the form of Homeric poetry. The book also gives a foretaste of the fruits to be harvested in lyric by a musical analysis, applying the new theory of the accent and considering concretely the role of dance in performance.Less

Victorian Women Writers and the Classics: The Feminine of Homer

Isobel Hurst

This book brings together two lines of enquiry in recent criticism: the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, and women as writers and readers in the 19th century. A classical education has been ... More

This book brings together two lines of enquiry in recent criticism: the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, and women as writers and readers in the 19th century. A classical education has been characterized as almost an exclusively male prerogative, but women writers had a greater imaginative engagement with classical literature than has previously been acknowledged. To offer a more accurate impression of the influence of the classics in Victorian women's literary culture, women's difficulties in gaining access to classical learning are explored through biographical and fictional representations of the development of women's education from solitary study at home to compulsory classics at university. The restrictions which applied to women's classical learning liberated them from the repressive and sometimes alienating effects of a traditional classical education, enabling women writers to produce distinctive literary responses to the classical tradition. Women readers focused on image, plot, and character rather than grammar, leading to imaginative and often subversive reworkings of classical texts. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot have been granted an exceptional status as 19th-century female classicists. This book places them in a literary tradition in which revising classical narratives in forms such as the novel and the dramatic monologue offered women the opportunity to express controversial ideas. The reworking of classical texts serves a variety of purposes: to validate women's claims to authorship, to demand access to education, to highlight feminist issues through the heroines of ancient tragedy, and to repudiate the warrior ethos of ancient epic.Less

Dancing the Self: Personhood and Performance in the Pandav Lila of Garhwal

William S. Sax

Explores the way personhood is constructed in public ritual performance. The performances are pandav lilas, ritual dramatizations of India's great epic, Mahabharata. They take place in the former ... More

Explores the way personhood is constructed in public ritual performance. The performances are pandav lilas, ritual dramatizations of India's great epic, Mahabharata. They take place in the former Hindu kingdom of Garhwal, located in the central Himalayas of North India. The book begins by summarizing the theoretical literature on personhood (or ”selfhood”) and performance and providing a brief summary of the epic. Next, it describes one particular performance in detail and then goes on to discuss questions of caste, gender, and locality – all in the context of an overarching discussion of the performative construction of the self. The last few chapters describe a fascinating valley in the Western part of Garhwal, where the villains of the Mahabharata are worshiped as local, divine kings. The major conclusion reached by the book is that public ritual performances are one of the chief arenas where ”persons” are constructed – in Garhwal as well as in other cultures.Less

The Slaying of Meghanada: A Ramayana from Colonial Bengal

Michael Madhusudan Datta

“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton — but that is all bosh — nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I ... More

“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton — but that is all bosh — nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I don't think it impossible to equal Virgil, Kalidasa, and Tasso.” Michael Madhusudan Datta wrote this in a letter to a friend about his verse narrative, The Slaying of Meghanada (1861). The epic, a Bengali version of the Ramayana story in which Ravana, not Rama, is the hero, has become a classic of Indian literature. Datta lived in Bengal at the height of what is frequently called the Bengal Renaissance, a time so labeled for its reinvigoration and reconfiguration of the Hindu past and for the florescence of the literary arts. It was also a period when the Bengali city of Kolkata was a center of world trade-the second city of the British empire — and thus a site of cultural exchange between India and the West. Datta was the perfect embodiment of this time and place. The Slaying of Meghanada is deeply influenced by western epic tradition, and is sprinkled with nods to Homer, Milton, and Dante. Datta's deft intermingling of western and eastern literary traditions brought about a sea change in South Asian literature, and is generally considered to mark the dividing line between pre-modern and modern Bengali literature. Datta's masterpiece is now accessible to readers of English in this translation, which captures both the sense and the spirit of the original. The poem is supplemented by an extensive introduction, notes, and a glossary.Less

The Art and Rhetoric of the Homeric Catalogue

Benjamin Sammons

This study takes a fresh look at a familiar element of the Homeric epics—the poetic catalogue. It aims to uncover the great variety of functions fulfilled by catalogue as a manner of speech within ... More

This study takes a fresh look at a familiar element of the Homeric epics—the poetic catalogue. It aims to uncover the great variety of functions fulfilled by catalogue as a manner of speech within very different contexts, ranging from celebrated examples such as the poet’s famous “Catalogue of Ships,” to others less commonly treated under this rubric, such as catalogues within the speech and rhetoric of Homer’s characters or seemingly unassuming catalogues of objects. It shows that catalogue poetry is no ossified or primitive relic of the old tradition, but a living subgenre of poetry that is deployed by Homer in a creative and original way. The catalogue form may be exploited by the poet or his characters to reflect or distort the themes of the poem as a whole, to impose an interpretation on events of the narrative as they unfold, and possibly to allude to competing poetic traditions or even contemporaneous poems. Throughout, the study focuses on how Homer uses the catalogue form to talk about the epic genre itself: As a compendious and venerable poetic form, it allows the poet to explore the boundaries of the heroic world, the limits of heroic glory, and the ideals and realities of his own traditional role as an epic bard.Less

Remembering Abraham: Culture, Memory, and History in the Hebrew Bible

Ronald Hendel

The past in the Hebrew Bible is a represented past, not the past itself. This book argues that the biblical portrayal of the past consists of a complex interplay of historical memory, folklore, ... More

The past in the Hebrew Bible is a represented past, not the past itself. This book argues that the biblical portrayal of the past consists of a complex interplay of historical memory, folklore, cultural self-definition, and literary brilliance. The chapters of this book attempt to survey and, to the degree possible, untangle these various layers, concentrating on the foundational narratives of the patriarchs, the Exodus, and the united monarchy. The biblical sense of the past combines traits that we separate into different genres — myth, epic, and history — but form a seamless synthesis in the biblical conception.Less

Epic and Empire in Vespasianic Rome: A New Reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica

Tim Stover

This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the ... More

This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a thesis that sets it apart from the largely ‘pessimistic’ readings of other scholars. An important element of Valerius' poetics of recovery is an engagement with Lucan's iconoclastic Bellum Civile, a poem whose deconstructive tendencies offered Valerius a poetic point of departure for his attempt to renew the epic genre in the context of the political renewal triggered by Vespasian's accession to power. Thus, a secondary purpose of this study is to examine Valerius' response to his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan, a topic that has been woefully understudied. Accordingly, this work interprets Valerius' Argonauticaas a reaction to two primary stimuli, one poetic — Lucan's deconstructive epic of civil war — and one political — Vespasian's restoration of order following the destructive civil war of 68–69. The approach is thus both formalist and historicist: the book seeks not only to elucidate Valerius' dynamic appropriation of Lucan but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures with a specific socio-political context.Less

Casting Kings: Bards and Indian Modernity

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass

Based on three years of anthropological fieldwork in the Indian state of Rajasthan, this book explores the manner that semi-nomadic performers known as Bhats understand and also subvert caste ... More

Based on three years of anthropological fieldwork in the Indian state of Rajasthan, this book explores the manner that semi-nomadic performers known as Bhats understand and also subvert caste hierarchies. A number of scholars have recently contended that caste is invented and thus a fiction of a kind. Focus in these studies, however, is typically placed on the way that caste is imagined according to the agendas and desires of elite Westerners such as colonial officials. By contrast, this book argues that Bhats themselves understand the imaginative dimensions of caste relations. It focuses on the way that Bhats (literally, “Bards”) now entertain a variety of contemporary sponsors — village patrons, foreign and domestic tourists, urban elites, government officials, development experts, and Hindu nationalists — with ballads, epics, and puppet plays detailing the exploits of Rajasthan’s long-dead kings and heroes. As the book delves deeper into the complexities and contradictions of Bhat art, identity, and political resistance, the complexities and contradictions of modern India are likewise revealed.Less

Latin Epics of the New Testament: Juvencus, Sedulius, Arator

Roger P. H. Green

The topic of the book is three Christian epic poets of Late Antiquity who, though somewhat neglected in modern times, are notable in many ways, especially in their aim of harnessing the tradition of ... More

The topic of the book is three Christian epic poets of Late Antiquity who, though somewhat neglected in modern times, are notable in many ways, especially in their aim of harnessing the tradition of classical Latin epic to the task of presenting the New Testament to the learned readers, whether they be Christian believers or curious enquirers, perhaps put off by the style of Bible translations. This triad were pioneers in their time but their works would soon become staple ingredients of the medieval curriculum. The book carefully introduces each author, setting them in their own contexts and backgrounds (one was from the fourth, one from the fifth, and one from the sixth century), and examines their work in detail. Particular themes illustrated and discussed are their strategies in rendering, sometimes literally, sometimes not, the Biblical narratives, the ways in which they reflect and exploit the classical epic poets in their design, style and vocabulary, and the particular theological agendas which they may pursue, implicitly or explicitly. The book engages fully and critically with recent studies of Biblical epic and investigates critically and in detail numerous other questions. Full details of all modern studies that relate to these poets and their backgrounds are given in a large bibliography.Less

Inside Paradise Lost: Reading the Designs of Milton's Epic

David Quint

Inside “Paradise Lost” opens up new readings and ways of reading John Milton's epic poem by mapping out the intricacies of its narrative and symbolic designs and by revealing and exploring the deeply ... More

Inside “Paradise Lost” opens up new readings and ways of reading John Milton's epic poem by mapping out the intricacies of its narrative and symbolic designs and by revealing and exploring the deeply allusive texture of its verse. This book demonstrates how systematic patterns of allusion and keywords give structure and coherence both to individual books of Paradise Lost and to the overarching relationship among its books and episodes. Looking at poems within the poem, the book provides new interpretations as he takes readers through the major subjects of Paradise Lost—its relationship to epic tradition and the Bible, its cosmology and politics, and its dramas of human choice. The book shows how Milton radically revises the epic tradition and the Genesis story itself by arguing that it is better to create than destroy, by telling the reader to make love, not war, and by appearing to ratify Adam's decision to fall and die with his wife. The Milton of this Paradise Lost is a Christian humanist who believes in the power and freedom of human moral agency. As this indispensable guide and reference takes us inside the poetry of Milton's masterpiece, Paradise Lost reveals itself in new formal configurations and unsuspected levels of meaning and design.Less

The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Virgilian Epic

Gian Biagio Conte

S. J. Harrison (ed.)

This volume presents a collection of pieces from a celebrated world-class scholar and interpreter of Latin poetry, focusing on the interpretation of Virgil's Aeneid. It forms the sequel to two widely ... More

This volume presents a collection of pieces from a celebrated world-class scholar and interpreter of Latin poetry, focusing on the interpretation of Virgil's Aeneid. It forms the sequel to two widely influential earlier books on Virgil by the same author and translates and adds to a collection of papers published in Italian in 2002. Its central concern is the way in which Virgil reworks earlier poetry (especially that of Homer) at the most detailed level to produce very broad literary and emotional effects. Through detailed scholarly analysis, the book explores a central issue in Virgilian studies, that of how the Aeneid manages to create a new and effective mode of epic in a period when the genre appears to be debased or exhausted.Less