The epic journey in Greek and Roman literature / edited for the Department of Classics by Thomas Biggs, Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia, Jessica Blum, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at the University of San Francisco.
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press,
Copyright Date:
2019
Description:
xiv, 323 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Looking back in wonder : contemplating home from the Iliad to Pale Blue Dot / Karen ní Mheallaigh. Part 4. Unearthly journeys. Introduction. In and out of the Golden Age : a Hesiodic reading of the Odyssey / Egbert J. Bakker ; Pompē in the Odyssey / Alexander C. Loney ; "What country, friends, is this?" : geography and exemplarity in Valerius Flaccus' "Argonautica" / Jessica Blum -- Part II. Gendered maps. Introduction. Wandering, love, and home in Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica and Heliodorus' Aethiopica / Silvia Montiglio ; Heroes and homemakers in Xenophon / Emily Baragwanath ; Women's travels in the Aeneid / Alison Keith -- Part 3. Rome's journey : constructions of Rome through travel. Introduction. Epic journeys on an urban scale : movement and travel in Vergil's Aeneid / Timothy M. O'Sullivan ; Roman and Carthaginian journeys : Punic Pietas in Naevius' Bellum Punicum and Plautus' Poenulus / Thomas Biggs ; Defining home, defining Rome : Germanicus' Eastern tour / Cynthia Damon and Elizabeth Palazzolo ; Odyssean wanderings and Greek responses to Roman Empire / Andrew C. Johnston -- Part 4. Unearthly journeys. Introduction. From Rome to the moon : Rutilius Namatianus and the late antique game of knowledge / Martin Devecka ; Looking back in wonder : contemplating home from the Iliad to Pale Blue Dot / Karen ní Mheallaigh.
Summary:
This volume explores journeys across time and space in Greek and Latin literature, taking as its starting point the paradigm of travel offered by the epic genre. The epic journey is central to the dynamics of classical literature, offering a powerful lens through which characters, authors, and readers experience their real and imaginary worlds. The journey informs questions of identity formation, narrative development, historical emplotment, and constructions of heroism - topics that move through and beyond the story itself. The act of moving to and from 'home' - both a fixed point of spatial orientation and a transportable set of cultural values - thus represents a physical journey and an intellectual process. In exploring its many manifestations, the chapters in this collection reconceive the centrality of the epic journey across a wide variety of genres and historical contexts, from Homer to the moon.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.