Time and Space in Ancient Myth, Religion and Culture

Description

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. Table of Contents Preface Part I. Epos Strange Instances of Time and Space in Odysseus’ Return Calculating the Mythical Dimension: Time and Distance in Homeric Navigation Land and Sea in the Odyssey and the Telegony The Correlation of Fountains and Altars in Archaic Greek Poetry Iris as Messenger and Her Journey: Speech in Space and Time The Patronymics Pelides and Aenides: Past, Present and Future in Homeric and Virgilian Genealogical Catalogues Part II. Drama The Bacchic-Chor(a)ic Chronotope: Dionysus, Chora and Chorality in the Fifth Stasimon of Sophocles’ Antigone The Re-enactment of the Past in the Present and the Transformation of Space in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus Time- and Space-Travelling in Greek Middle Comedy Part III. Empirical and Imaginary Chronotopes The martyria of the Strife for Attica – martyria of Changes in Cult and Myth. Space and Time in the West Pediment of the Parthenon Cattle-raid Myths in Western Peloponnese Time and Space in Argolic Traditions: From Ocean to Europe About the Boeotian Origin of the Emmenidai’s Genos: An Indication from Gela Fighting on the River: The Alpheus and the ‘Pylian Epic’ Time and Space in the Myth of Byblis and Caunus Mythological Time and Space in Ovid’s Exile Poetry Part IV. Shifting Chronotopes Kairos: The Appropriate Time, Place and Degree in Protagoras’ Myth of Origins From Here to Eternity: Mythologein in Plato’s Phaedo Ovid’s Temple(s) of Vesta (Fasti 6.249– 460) Carmenta in the Fasti: A Tale of Two Feasts The Decisive Moment in Mythology: The Instant of Metamorphosis Index Locorum Index Nominum Notabiliorum Notes on Contributors