Intende, Lector - Echoes of Myth, Religion and Ritual in the Ancient Novel

Description

Representation of myth in the novel, as a poetic, narrative and aesthetic device, is one of the most illuminating issues in the area of ancient religion, for such narratives investigate in various ways fundamental problems that concern all human beings. This volume brings together twenty contributions (six of them to a Roundtable organized by Anton Bierl on myth), originally presented at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient novel (ICAN IV) held in Lisbon in July 2008. Employing an interdisciplinary approach and putting together different methodological tools (intertextual, psychological, and anthropological), each offers a illuminating investigation of mythical discourse as presented in the text or texts under discussion. The collection as a whole demonstrates the exemplary and transgressive significance of myth and its metaphorical meaning in a genre that to some extent can be considered a modernized and secular form of myth that focuses on the quintessential question of love. Introduction Roundtable Myth and the Novel Myth and the Novel: Introductory Remarks and Comments on the Roundtable Discussion Myth in the Novel: Some Observations The Literary Myth in the Novel Myths in the Novel: Gender, Violence and Power Novel and Mythology – Contribution to a Round Table Greek Novel and Local Myth Mythical Repertoire and Its Functions in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Storyline, Poetics and Religion Love, Mysteries and Literary Tradition: New Experiences and Old Frames The Tale of a Dream: Oneiros and Mythos in the Greek Novel From Mystery to Initiation: A Mytho-Ritual Poetics of Love and Sex in the Ancient Novel – even in Apuleius’ Golden Ass? From the Legend of Cupid and Psyche to the Novel of Mélusine: Myth, Novel and Twentieth Century Adaptations Apuleius and Cupid and Psyche: Anthropological, Christian and Philosophical Perspectives Puella Virgo: Rites of Passage in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Gnostic Variations on the Tale of Cupid and Psyche Apuleius and Christianity: The Novelist-Philosopher in front of a New Religion Ritual, Myth and Intertextuality Donkey Gone to Hell: A Katabasis Motif in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Iphigenia Revisited: Heliodorus’ Aethiopica and the ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ Pattern ‘Non humana viscera sed centies sestertium comesse’ (Petr. Sat. 141,7): Philomela and the Cannibal Heredipetae in the Crotonian Section of Petronius’ Satyricon Religious Imagery, Cult, Mystery and Art False Fortuna: Religious Imagery and the Painting-Gallery Episode in the Satyricon The Bees of Artemis Ephesia and the Apocalyptic Scene in Joseph and Aseneth Magic, Comic Reversal and Healing Shamans and Charlatans: Magic, Mixups, Literary Memory in Apuleius’ Golden Ass Book 3 Lucius’s Rose: Symbolic or Sympathetic Cure? General Index Index locorum About the Authors