Rationalizing myth in antiquity

Rubriek: Textual/Printed/Reference Materials - Boek

Prijs: € 41.99

Rating: 0/5

☆

☆

☆

☆

☆

Verzending:
2 - 3 weken

Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity 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.



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.

• 1 Bekijk alle specificaties

Taal: en

Bindwijze: Paperback

Oorspronkelijke releasedatum: 11 oktober 2018

Aantal pagina's: 294

Illustraties: Nee

Hoofdauteur: Greta Hawes

Hoofduitgeverij: Oxford University Press

Extra groot lettertype: Nee

Product breedte: 142 mm

Product hoogte: 17 mm

Product lengte: 216 mm

Studieboek: Ja

Verpakking breedte: 142 mm

Verpakking hoogte: 17 mm

Verpakking lengte: 216 mm

Verpakkingsgewicht: 372 g

EAN: 9780198831037

---