Whom Gods Destroy: Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness

Description

"The sound of clay-footed idols crashing into the abyss resonates throughout Ruth Padel's thrillingly learned, poetically vibrant and eclectically visionary monograph... [A] fascinating new book."--Financial Times "To re-create the contexts in which the Greeks viewed madness, Padel ranges widely, drawing on the medical literature, Homer, Pindar and their scholiasts, epigraphic material, magic and religion, regional and cultural differences. Linguistic details validate her main thesis, ... [and] her re-creation of Greek linguistic categories and cultural norms gives Whom Gods Destroy a sound historical base. A well-informed and helpful book."--Brian Vickers, The Times Literary Supplement "A lively and provocative book. An attraction of Whom Gods Destroy is its breadth of reference, expanding beyond the Greeks to more recent times."--Richard Jenkyns, The [London] Times "Thrillingly learned, vibrant, and visionary... [Padel] shows brilliantly how the Greek playwrights revised and re-shaped their linguistic and intellectual inheritance to fit the context of an inchoate scientific revolution ... "--Paul Cartledge, The Financial Times "A various, wide-ranging book... The ideas are suggestive and tantalizing."--Jasper Griffin, The Spectator "Suggestive, exhilarating, and wide-ranging."--Peter Jones, The Telegraph.