The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography (Oxford Handbooks)

Description

The field of mythography has grown substantially in the past thirty years, an acknowledgment of the importance of how ancient writers "wrote down the myths" as they systematized, organized and interpreted the vast and contested mythical storyworld. With the understanding that mythography remains a contested category, that its borders are not always clear, and that it shifted with changes in the socio-cultural and political landscapes, The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography offers a range of scholarly voices that attempt to establish how and to what extent ancient writers followed the "mythographical mindset" that prompted works ranging from Apollodorus' Library to the rationalizing and allegorical approaches of Cornutus and Palaephatus. Editors R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma provide the first comprehensive survey of mythography from the earliest attempts to organize and comment on myths in the archaic period (in poetry and prose) to late antiquity. The essays also provide an overview of those writers we call mythographers and other major sources of mythographic material (e.g., papyri and scholia), followed by a series of essays that seek to explore the ways in which mythographical impulses were interconnected with other intellectual activities (e.g., geography and history, catasteristic writings, politics). In addition, another section of essays presents the first sustained analysis between mythography and the visual arts, while a final section takes mythography from late antiquity up into the Renaissance. While also taking stock of recent advances and providing bibliographical guidance, this Handbook offers new approaches to texts that were once seen only as derivative sources of mythical data and presents innovative ideas for further research. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography is an essential resource for teachers, scholars, and students alike. Cover The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments List of Contributors Introduction Part I Mythography from Archaic Greece to the Empire 1 The Mythographical Impulse in Early Greek Poetry 2 The Origins of Mythography as a Genre 3 Hellenistic Mythography 4 Imperial Mythography 5 Mythography in Latin Part II Mythographers 6 Mythography in Alexandrian Verse 7 Antihomerica: Dares and Dictys 8 Antoninus Liberalis, Collection of Metamorphoses 9 Apollodorus the Mythographer, Bibliotheca 10 Conon, Narratives 11 Cornutus, Survey of the Traditions of Greek Theology 12 Diodorus Siculus, Library 13 Heraclitus the Mythographer, On Unbelievable Stories 14 Heraclitus the Allegorist, Homeric Problems 15 Hyginus, Fabulae 16 The Mythographus Homericus 17 Other Mythography on Papyrus 18 Greek Mythography and Scholia 19 Ovid and Mythography 20 Palaephatus, Unbelievable Tales 21 Parthenius, Erotika Pathemata 22 Pausanias, Description of Greece 23 Tragic Mythography Part III Interpretations and Intersections 24 Rationalizing and Historicizing 25 Allegorizing and Philosophizing 26 Etymologizing 27 Catasterisms 28 Local Mythography 29 Mythography and Paradoxography 30 Mythography and Education 31 Mythography and Politics 32 Mythography and Geography 33 Mythographer and Mythography: Indigenous Categories? Greek Inquiries into the Heroic Past Part IV Mythography and the Visual Arts 34 Mythography and Greek Vase Painting 35 Mythography and Roman Wall Painting 36 Retelling Greek Myths on Roman Sarcophagi Part V Christian Mythography 37 Mythography and Christianity 38 Byzantine Mythography 39 Mythography in the Latin West 40 Mythography and the Reception of Classical Mythology in the Renaissance, 1340–​1600 Index