ENGLISH

The Stories of Similes in Greek and Roman Epic

By Deborah Beck

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2023
ISBN
1108481795, 9781108481793
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1819995 bytes)
Pages
292\293
Topic
Literature
Time added
2023-07-16 23:32:10

Description

Just as the story of an epic poem is woven from characters and plot, so too the individual similes within an epic create a unique simile world. Like any other story, it is peopled by individual characters, happenings, and experiences, such as the shepherd and his flocks, a storm at sea, or predators hunting prey. The simile world that complements the epic mythological story is re-imagined afresh in relation to the themes of each epic poem. As Deborah Beck argues in this stimulating book, over time a simile world takes shape across many poems composed over many centuries. This evolving landscape resembles the epic story world of battles, voyages, and heroes that comes into being through relationships among different epic poems. Epic narrative is woven from a warp of the mythological story world and a weft of the simile world. They are partners in creating the fabric of epic poetry.

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