Overview

Ancient Greek literature begins with the epic verses of Homer. Epic then continued as a fundamental literary form throughout antiquity and the influence of the poems produced extends beyond antiquity and down to the present. This Companion presents a fresh and boundary-breaking account of the ancient Greek epic tradition. It includes wide-ranging close readings of epics from Homer to Nonnus, traces their dialogues with other modes such as ancient Mesopotamian poetry, Greek lyric and didactic writing, and explores their afterlives in Byzantium, early Christianity, modern fiction and cinema, and the identity politics of Greece and Turkey. Plot summaries are provided for those unfamiliar with individual poems. Drawing on cutting-edge new research in a number of fields, such as racecraft, geopolitics and the theory of emotions, the volume demonstrates the sustained and often surprising power of this renowned ancient genre, and sheds new light on its continued impact and relevance today.

Full Product Details

Author:   Emma Greensmith (University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781316514696

ISBN 10:   1316514692
Pages:   348
Publication Date:   28 November 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: (pushing) the limits of epic Emma Greensmith; Part I. Epic Engagements: 1. Greek and near eastern epic: context and comparison Bernardo Ballesteros; 2. Epic and lyric Henry Spelman; 3. Didactic (and) epic Emily Kneebone; Part II. Epic Space: 4. Space and story: the Iliad and odyssey Christos Tsagalis; 5. Do not talk death to me: the epic underworld Karolina Sekita; 6. Epic dislocation: nostalgia and return Alexander C. Loney; 7. Shrunken epic: the poetics of epyllion Berenice Verhelst; Part III. Epic Time: 8. A brief history of epic time Simon Goldhill; 9. Time and again: Apollonius' Argonautica Tom Phillips; 10. Trojan temporality in imperial Greek epic Emma Greensmith; Part IV. Epic People: 11. The language of epic sacrifice Renaud Gagné; 12. Epic racecraft and the race of heroes Jackie Murray; 13. Women in homer and beyond Emily Hauser; Part V. Epic Feelings: 14. Before, beneath, beyond emotions: reading affects in epic Pauline LeVen; 15. Humour in Greek epic Matt Hosty; 16. Love, desire and erotics Steven D. Smith; Part VI. Epic Without End: 17. Ancient readers of Greek epic Richard Hunter; 18. Greek epic in a Christian empire: grit in the eye Tim Whitmarsh; 19. The fates of epic in Byzantium: homer for a new era Markéta Kulhánková; 20. Homeric epic and nation building in modern Greece and Turkey Johanna Hanink; 21. Ancient Greek epic and the cinema: transformations and archetypes Martin M. Winkler; Epilogue: a continuous song: reflections on Greek epic in the modern Greek lands Panayiotis Christoforou; Chapter abstracts; Timeline of ancient Greek epic; Bibliography; Index locorum; Subject Index.

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Author Information

EMMA GREENSMITH is Associate Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St John's College. She specialises in imperial Greek literature, particularly epic poetics and religious culture. Her 2020 book, The Resurrection of Homer in Imperial Greek Epic offers a new reading of the role of epic and the reception of Homer in the Graeco-Roman world. She has co-edited a volume on the Posthomerica (2022) and is currently working on a new book entitled Homer and the Bible: Christian Greek Epic in Late Antiquity. She has written many articles and public engagement pieces on ancient Greek literature, and is also filming a documentary on Homer's Odyssey and its cultural legacy.

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