Rationalizing Myth In Antiquity

Author : Greta Hawes
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191653403
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity written by Greta Hawes and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greek myths are characteristically fabulous; they are full of monsters, metamorphoses, and the supernatural. However, they could be told in other ways as well. This volume charts ancient dissatisfaction with the excesses of myth, and the various attempts to cut these stories down to size by explaining them as misunderstood accounts of actual events. In the hands of ancient rationalizers, the hybrid forms of the Centaurs become early horse-riders, seen from a distance; the Minotaur the result of an illicit liaison, not an inter-species love affair; and Cerberus, nothing more than a notorious snake with a lethal bite. Such approaches form an indigenous mode of ancient myth criticism, and show Greeks grappling with the value and utility of their own narrative traditions. Rationalizing interpretations offer an insight into the practical difficulties inherent in distinguishing myth from history in ancient Greece, and indeed the fragmented nature of myth itself as a conceptual entity. By focusing on six Greek authors (Palaephatus, Heraclitus, Excerpta Vaticana, Conon, Plutarch, and Pausanias) and tracing the development of rationalistic interpretation from the fourth century BC to the Second Sophistic (first to second centuries AD) and beyond, Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity shows that, far from being marginalized as it has been in the past, rationalization should be understood as a fundamental component of the pluralistic and shifting network of Greek myth as it was experienced in antiquity.

Author : Greta Hawes
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780191775253
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity written by Greta Hawes and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greek myths are characteristically fabulous; they are full of monsters, metamorphoses, and the supernatural. However, they could be told in other ways as well. This volume charts ancient dissatisfaction with the excesses of myth, and the various attempts to cut these stories down to size by explaining them as misunderstood accounts of actual events.

Author : Greta Hawes
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199672776
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity written by Greta Hawes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-05 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the author's dissertation--University of Bristol, Jan. 2011.

Author : Greta Hawes
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198832559
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pausanias in the World of Greek Myth written by Greta Hawes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author uses Pausanias's Periegesis to illuminate the spatial dynamics of Greek myth, showing how apparently conflicting local versions belonged to a unifying cultural expression.

Author : Greta Hawes
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191062200
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Myths on the Map written by Greta Hawes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Polybius boldly declared that 'now that all places have become accessible by land or sea, it is no longer appropriate to use poets and writers of myth as witnesses of the unknown' (4.40.2). And yet, in reality, the significance of myth did not diminish as the borders of the known world expanded. Storytelling was always an inextricable part of how the ancient Greeks understood their environment; mythic maps existed alongside new, more concrete, methods of charting the contours of the earth. Specific landscape features acted as repositories of myth and spurred their retelling; myths, in turn, shaped and gave sense to natural and built environments, and were crucial to the conceptual resonances of places both unknown and known. This volume brings together contributions from leading scholars of Greek myth, literature, history, and archaeology to examine the myriad intricate ways in which ancient Greek myth interacted with the physical and conceptual landscapes of antiquity. The diverse range of approaches and topics highlights in particular the plurality and pervasiveness of such interactions. The collection as a whole sheds new light on the central importance of storytelling in Greek conceptions of space.

Author : G. S. Kirk
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520023897
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Myth written by G. S. Kirk and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1973-06-08 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, developed out of the 1969 Sather lectures at Berkeley, California, confronts a wide range of problems concerning the nature, meaning and functions of myths. Professor Kirk's aim is to introduce a degree of coherence and of critical awareness into a subject that arouses profound interest today, but which for too long has been the target of excessive theorizing and interdisciplinary confusion between anthropologists, sociologists, classicists, philosophers and psychologists. Professor Kirk begins by discussing the relation of myths to rituals and folktales, and the weakness of universalist theories of function. He then subjects Lévi-Strauss's structuralist theory to an extended exposition and criticism; he considers the character and meaning of ancient Near Eastern myths, their influence on Greece, and the special forms with rational modes of thought, and finally, he assesses the status of myths as expressions of the unconscious, as elements of dreams, universal symbols, as accidents along the way to some narrative objective. The result is a significant critical venture into the history and philosophy of thought, imagination, symbol and society.--From publisher description.

Author : Nickolas Roubekas
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317535308
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Ancient Theory of Religion written by Nickolas Roubekas and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Ancient Theory of Religion examines a theory of religion put forward by Euhemerus of Messene (late 4th—early 3rd century BCE) in his lost work Sacred Inscription, and shows not only how and why euhemerism came about but also how it was— and still is—used. By studying the utilization of the theory in different periods—from the Graeco-Roman world to Late Antiquity, and from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century—this book explores the reception of the theory in diverse literary works. In so doing, it also unpacks the different adoptions and misrepresentations of Euhemerus’s work according to the diverse agendas of the authors and scholars who have employed his theory. In the process, certain questions are raised: What did Euhemerus actually claim? How has his theory of the origins of belief in gods been used? How can modern scholarship approach and interpret his take on religion? When referring to ‘euhemerism,’ whose version are we employing? An Ancient Theory of Religion assumes no prior knowledge of euhemerism and will be of interest to scholars working in classical reception, religious studies, and early Christian studies.

Author : Patrick Auerbach
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781533658623
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Greek Mythology written by Patrick Auerbach and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greek Mythology is the body of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. The Greeks were polytheistic in their religious beliefs. Polytheistic means they believed in and worshiped many different gods. Modern scholars refer to and study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. In Greek Mythology, the gods often represented different forms of nature. Their religion/mythology had no formal structure with the exception of various festivals held in honor of the gods. There was no sacred book or code of conduct to live by. The most powerful Greek gods were known as the Olympians. The Greeks believed the Olympians lived on the highest mountain in Greece, Mount Olympus. The Olympian gods included: Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, Poseidon and Hestia or later she was replaced in some lists by Dionysus. Greek Mythology is explicitly embodied in a large collection of narratives, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homer's epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War and its aftermath. Scroll to the top of the page and click Add To Cart to read more about this extraordinary chapter of history.

Author : Anton Bierl
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110534223
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Time and Space in Ancient Myth, Religion and Culture written by Anton Bierl and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Homer to Sophocles and Greek Middle Comedy, and from Plato and Protagoras to Ovid, this volume features a panoramic and cross-generic overview of the diverse handling and ad hoc elaboration of the overarching literary notions of "time" and "space". The twenty-one contributions of this volume written by an international group of esteemed scholars provide an equal number of hermeneutic approaches to individual, distinct aspects of Greek and Latin literature. The volume is purposely designed not as a linear display of knowledge, but rather as an anthology of select paradigms that aim to demonstrate the multidimensional function and multifaceted role of the twin notions of "time" and "space" throughout ancient Greek and Latin literary texts. The volume opens with analyses of conspicuous cases from epic poetry, proceeds with examples from drama (tragedy and comedy), and concludes with diverse instances of chronotopes (empirical, imaginary, and even shifting ones), in various literary genres. The volume is of greatest relevance since it meets the cultural and theoretical trends of today’s Classics. It therefore will attract not only the interest of specialised Classicists but it is also intended for a wider general readership.

Author : Eric Csapo
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN 13 : 9780631232483
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Theories of Mythology written by Eric Csapo and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2005-01-24 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theories of Mythology provides students with both a history of theories of myth and a practical ‘how-to’ guide to interpreting myth, the most elementary form of narrative. Both a history of theories of myth and a practical ‘how-to’ guide to interpreting myth. Introduces the major theories of myth from the nineteenth century to the present day. Covers comparative approaches, psychoanalysis, ritual theories of myth, structuralism, and ideological analysis. Supplies readers with the theoretical tools for imitating each method. Features detailed exemplary readings of familiar myths.