Download or read book Tragedy Ritual and Money in Ancient Greece written by Richard Seaford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-22 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the shaping influence of money and ritual on Greek tragedy, the New Testament, Indian philosophy, and Wagner.

Download or read book Money and the Early Greek Mind written by Richard Seaford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-11 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? In this book Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage, which produced the first ever thoroughly monetised society. By transforming social relations monetisation contributed to the ideas of the universe as an impersonal system, fundamental to Presocratic philosophy, and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.

Download or read book Tragedy Ritual and Money in Ancient Greece written by Richard Seaford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-22 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brings together a wide range of papers written with a single vision. Greek tragedy, the New Testament, representations of the inner self, Greek and Indian philosophy, Wagner: these seemingly disparate phenomena are analysed with special attention to the shaping influence of ritual and of money.

Download or read book Reciprocity and Ritual written by Richard Seaford and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Greek is translated."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India written by Richard Seaford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities.

Download or read book Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece written by Mark William Padilla and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reflects on liminality as it relates to initiatory themes in Greek literature and on literary works, especially tragedy, that represent heroes and heroines undergoing rites of passage. Featured works include Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, Euripides' Ion and Iphigenia in Tauris, and Sophocles' Antigone and Women of Trachis.

Download or read book Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece written by Dennis D. Hughes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called pharmakoi are expelled yearly from Greek cities, and according to some authors they are killed; Locrin girls are hunted down and slain by the Trojans; on Mt Lykaion children are sacrificed and consumed by the worshippers; and many other texts report human sacrifices performed regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war and plague. Archaeologists have frequently proposed human sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries: from Minoan Crete children's bones with knife-cut marks, the skeleton of a youth lying on a platform with a bronze blade resting on his chest, skeletons, sometimes bound, in the dromoi of Mycenaean and Cypriot chamber tombs; and dual man-woman burials, where it is suggested that the woman was slain or took her own life at the man's funeral. If the archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of the religious life of the ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well into historical times. But the author expresses caution. In many cases alternative, if less sensational, explanations of the archaeological are possible; and it can often be shown that human sacrifices in the literary texts are mythical or that late authors confused mythical details with actual practices.Whether the evidence is accepted or not, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into the religious thought of the ancient Greeks and into changing modern conceptions of their religious behaviour.

Download or read book Faces of Silence in Ancient Greek Literature written by Efi Papadodima and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-04-20 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume offers new insights into the intricate theme of silence in Greek literature, especially drama. Even though the topic has received respectable attention in recent years, it still lends itself to further inquiry, which embraces silence's very essence and boundaries; its applications and effects in particular texts or genres; and some of its technical features and qualities. The particular topics discussed extend to all these three areas of inquiry, by looking into: silence's possible role in the performance of epic and lyric; its impact on the workings of praise-poetry; its distinct deployments in our five complete ancient novels; Aristophanic, comic and otherwise, silences; the vocabulary of the unspeakable in tragedy; the connections of tragic silence to power, authority, resistance, and motivation; female tragic silences and their transcendence, against the background of male oppression or domination; famous tragic silences as expressions of the ritualized isolation of the individual from both human and divine society. The emerging insights are valuable for the broader interpretation of the relevant texts, as well as for the fuller understanding of central values and practices of the society that created them.

Download or read book A Companion to Aeschylus written by Peter Burian and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-05-01 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A COMPANION TO AESCHYLUS A COMPANION TO AESCHYLUS In A Companion to Aeschylus, a team of eminent Aeschyleans and brilliant younger scholars delivers an insightful and original multi-authored examination—the first comprehensive one in English—of the works of the earliest surviving Greek tragedian. This book explores Aeschylean drama, and its theatrical, historical, philosophical, religious, and socio-political contexts, as well as the receptions and influence of Aeschylus from antiquity to the present day. This companion offers readers thorough examinations of Aeschylus as a product of his time, including his place in the early years of the Athenian democracy and his immediate and ongoing impact on tragedy. It also provides comprehensive explorations of all the surviving plays, including Prometheus Bound, which many scholars have concluded is not by Aeschylus. A Companion to Aeschylus is an ideal resource for students encountering the work of Aeschylus for the first time as well as more advanced scholars seeking incisive treatment of his individual works, their cultural context and their enduring significance. Written in an accessible format, with the Greek translated into English and technical terminology avoided as much as possible, the book belongs in the library of anyone looking for a fresh and authoritative account of works of continuing interest and importance to readers and theatre-goers alike.

Download or read book Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World written by Sarah Hitch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts in Greek language, literature and material culture re-examine the role of animal sacrifice in Greek life across the Mediterranean.

Download or read book Female Characters in Fragmentary Greek Tragedy written by P. J. Finglass and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How were women represented in Greek tragedy? This question lies at the heart of much modern scholarship on ancient drama, yet it has typically been approached using evidence drawn only from the thirty-two tragedies that survive complete - neglecting tragic fragments, especially those recently discovered and often very substantial fragmentary papyri from plays that had been thought lost. Drawing on the latest research on both gender in tragedy and on tragic fragments, the essays in this volume examine this question from a fresh perspective, shedding light on important mythological characters such as Pasiphae, Hypsipyle, and Europa, on themes such as violence, sisterhood, vengeance, and sex, and on the methodology of a discipline which needs to take fragmentary evidence to heart in order to gain a fuller understanding of ancient tragedy. All Greek is translated to ensure wide accessibility.

Download or read book Ancient Greek Literature and the Foreign written by Efi Papadodima and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-02-21 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the frame of the sub-series Athenian Dialogues, this volume comprises a selected number of talks delivered at the annual Seminar of the Research Centre for Greek and Latin Literature of the Academy of Athens 2018-2019 on the broad topic of Ancient Greek Literature and the Foreign. The volume aims at building on the ongoing dialogue on the par excellence intricate, as well as timely issues of "ethnicity," identity, and identification, as represented in ancient Greek (and, secondarily, Roman) literature. This is certainly a richly researched field, which extends to interdisciplinary areas of inquiry, namely those of classical studies, archaeology, ancient history, sociology, and anthropology. It is this interdisciplinary scope that makes the subject all the more relevant and worthy of investigation. The volume ultimately highlights new or under-researched aspects of the broad theme of ancient inter-cultural relations, which could in their turn lead to more detailed or more specified inquiries on this ever relevant and important, as well as universal, topic. Through the contributions of expert scholars on these areas of inquiry (Konstan, Lefkowitz, Paschalis, Seaford, Thomas, Vasounia, Vlassopoulos), the volume: (1) revisits key themes and aspects of the ancient Greek world's diverse forms of contact with foreign peoples and civilizations, (2) lays forth new data about specific such contacts and encounters or (3) formulates new questions about the very texture and essence of the theme of inter-cultural relations and forms of communication. More specifically, the volume addresses the following themes: the overarching role and function of the barbarian repertoire in Greek literature and culture, which certainly call for further theoretical investigation (Vlassopoulos); the highly popular but actually controversial theme of xenia in the Homeric epics and in archaic thought (Konstan); the intricate, intriguing role of the Foreigner as a focus for civic unity (Seaford); the role of the enigmatic figure of Dionysus from Greece to India (Vasunia); the representation of barbarians in Euripidean tragedy, and more specifically the portrayal of the controversial Phrygian slave in Euripides' Orestes (Lefkowitz); the meaningful changes in the representation of the arch-enemy, the Persians, across the late 5th and 4th century prose (Thomas); the adventures of Europa's legendary abduction from Moschus to Nonnus, along with its implications for the understanding of the division and animosity between the two continents, (future) Europe and Asia (Paschalis). The volume ultimately covers a wide range of ancient sources (literary and material, from Homer up to Nonnus) that delve into the interaction of ancient Greek civilization with foreign civilizations. It thus highlights new aspects of the diverse forms of contact of the Greek world with foreign civilizations and elements, both in terms of geography and particular seminal "mythical" or historical figures and forces (e.g. India and the "mysterious" Dionysus, as well as the emblematic Greek antagonist of the classical and post-classical era, i.e. the Persian Empire) and in terms of particular literary themes and motifs (e.g. the abduction of Europa).

Download or read book Marriage to Death written by Rush Rehm and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The link between weddings and death—as found in dramas ranging from Romeo and Juliet to Lorca's Blood Wedding—plays a central role in the action of many Greek tragedies. Female characters such as Kassandra, Antigone, and Helen enact and refer to significant parts of wedding and funeral rites, but often in a twisted fashion. Over time the pressure of dramatic events causes the distinctions between weddings and funerals to disappear. In this book, Rush Rehm considers how and why the conflation of the two ceremonies comes to theatrical life in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophokles, and Euripides. By focusing on the dramatization of important rituals conducted by women in ancient Athenian society, Rehm offers a new perspective on Greek tragedy and the challenges it posed for its audience. The conflation of weddings and funerals, the author argues, unleashes a kind of dramatic alchemy whereby female characters become the bearers of new possibilities. Such as formulation enables the tragedians to explore the limitations of traditional thinking and acting in fifth-century Athens. Rehm finds that when tragic weddings and funerals become confused and perverted, the aftershocks disturb the political and ideological givens of Athenian society, challenging the audience to consider new, and often radically different, directions for their city. Rush Rehm is Assistant Professor of Drama and Classics at Standford University and a free-lance theater director. He is the author of Greek Tragic Theatre (Routledge) and Aeschylus' Oresteia: A Theatre Vision (Hawthorn). Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book Off Stage Groups in Athenian Drama written by Alexandra Hardwick and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-17 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the crucial roles they often play, no study yet compares the off-stage assemblies, armies, and populations found in surviving Athenian dramatic works. Covering fifth- and early fourth-century tragedy and comedy, Off-Stage Groups in Athenian Drama analyses how off-stage groups influence and respond to events on stage, and how characters interact with these groups. Drama exploits these groups' off-stage nature by depicting them through different characters' viewpoints: characters often struggle to define, predict, or control off-stage groups, which obscures and challenges the audience's ability to interpret them. The interaction between multivalent and sometimes contradictory narratives of off-stage groups demands a new interpretive framework. Off-Stage Groups in Athenian Drama provides this framework, offering new readings of several prominent comedies and tragedies. However, the importance of this framework extends beyond drama. The first chapter surveys depictions of group decision-making in fifth-century prose, in order to demonstrate how Athenian drama responds to prose depictions of group psychology. Athenian drama engages with the early ideas of group psychology circulating in fifth- and early fourth-century Athens; it creates fictive worlds where stereotypical depictions of collective emotion can be probed, explored and taken to their logical extremes. Studying off-stage groups therefore allows us to rethink our understanding of narrative, politics, and social psychology in drama, and the ways in which these fields intersect.

Download or read book Acheloios Thales and the Origin of Philosophy written by Nicholas J. Molinari and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-05-12 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through careful analysis of the archaeological record, close reading of ancient sources, and deep investigations into the languages of our past, this study demonstrates the importance of the influence of the cult of Acheloios on Thales, fundamentally changing our understanding of the origin of the philosophical experience in 6th century Ionia.

Download or read book Myth and History Close Encounters written by Menelaos Christopoulos and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-05-23 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fluidity of myth and history in antiquity and the ensuing rapidity with which these notions infiltrated and cross-fertilized one another has repeatedly attracted the scholarly interest. The understanding of myth as a phenomenon imbued with social and historical nuances allows for more than one methodological approaches. Within the wider context of interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, the present volume returns to origins, as it traces and registers the association and interaction between myth and history in various literary genres in Greek and Roman antiquity (i.e. an era when the scientific definitions of and distinctions between myth and history had not yet been perceived as such, let alone fully shaped and implemented), providing original ideas, new interpretations and (re)evaluations of key texts and less well-known passages, close readings, and catholic overviews. The twenty-four chapters of this volume expand from Greek epos to lyric poetry, historiography, dramatic poetry and even beyond, to genres of Roman era and late antiquity. It is the editors’ hope that this volume will appeal to students and academic researchers in the areas of classics, social and political history, archaeology, and even social anthropology.

Download or read book Dionysus and Politics written by Filip Doroszewski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents an essential but underestimated role that Dionysus played in Greek and Roman political thought. Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, the volume covers the period from archaic Greece to the late Roman Empire. The reader can observe how ideas and political themes rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted and developed over the course of history. The authors (including four leading experts in the field: Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Jean-Marie Pailler, Richard Seaford andRichard Stoneman) reconstruct the political significance of Dionysus by examining different types of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art and philosophy. They discuss the place of the god in Greek city-state politics, explore the long tradition of imitating Dionysus that ancient leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors, manifested in various ways, and shows how the political role of Dionysus was reflected in Orphism and Neoplatonist philosophy. Dionysus and Politics provides an excellent introduction to a fundamental feature of ancient political thought which until now has been largely neglected by mainstream academia. The book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in ancient politics and religion.