Reading epic : an introduction to the ancient narratives
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Reading epic : an introduction to the ancient narratives
Routledge, 1992
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-241) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9780415042277
Description
Readers new to ancient epic are hampered in two ways: they do not know the ancient languages, and they are unfamiliar with the ancient world. This survey addresses the needs of these readers by offering guidance through the major classical writers of epic: it begins with Homer and concludes with an overview of the development of late ancient epic and of the interface between the epic and the novel.
Table of Contents
Introduction CHAPTER ONE: Epic: The genre, its characteristics CHAPTER TWO: Homer, Iliad CHAPTER THREE: Homer Odyssey CHAPTER FOUR: Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica CHAPTER FIVE: Beginning epic in Rome CHAPTER SIX: The Alexandrian Miniature Epic CHAPTER SEVEN: Virgil, Aeneid CHAPTER EIGHT: Ovid, Metamorphoses CHAPTER NINE: Lucan, the Civil War CHAPTER TEN: Roman Epic and the Emperor Domitian CHAPTER ELEVEN: Ends and Beginnings: Late Ancient epic APPENDIX: The Epic and the Novel Bibliography of works cited
- Volume
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: pbk ISBN 9780415042284
Description
Individual epics have been catered for by many fine scholarly books. However, few of these are easily ever accessible to the student of ancient literature in translation or to the general reader. Such readers ususally lack the languages and familiarity with the major intellectual and historical trends of antiquity. This book addressses the needs of these readers. Peter Toohey surveys all the major classical epics: he begins with Homer and concludes with an overview of the development of late ancient epic and of the interface between epic and the novel. "Reading Epic" offers an interpretation of the "meaning" (not simply a description of the story) of these poems within the likely intellectual constrains of the era in which they were written, in most cases these readings are provided within the format of interpretative paraphrase. The intention is to help new readers with the story and with its ideas at the same time. Dr Toohey's readings thus provide clear and reliable introductions to the central Greek and Latin epics, and to the genre as a whole. At the same time they act as a suggestive and, sometimes, provocative starting point.
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