Classical Pasts : : The Classical Traditions of Greece and Rome / / ed. by James I. Porter.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Alcock, Susan E.,; Cherry, John F.,; Citroni, Mario,; D’Angour, Armand,; Elsner, Jas,; Henderson, John,; Hölscher, Tonio,; Most, Glenn W.,; Porter, James I.,; Stewart, Andrew,; Too, Yun Lee,; Whitmarsh, Tim,
• HerausgeberIn: Porter, James I.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (465 p.) :; 39 halftones. 2 line illus. 1 table.

The term "classical" is used to describe everything from the poems of Homer to entire periods of Greek and Roman antiquity. But just how did the concept evolve? This collection of essays by leading classics scholars from the United States and Europe challenges the limits of the current understanding of the term. The book seeks not to arrive at a final definition, but rather to provide a cultural history of the concept by exploring how the meanings of "classical" have been created, recreated, and rejected over time. The book asks questions that have been nearly absent from the scholarly literature. Does "classical" refer to a specific period of history or to the artistic products of that time? How has its definition changed? Did those who lived in classical times have some understanding of what the term "classical" has meant? How coherent, consistent, or even justified is the term? The book's introduction provides a generous theoretical and historical overview. It is followed by eleven chapters in which the contributors argue for the existence not of a single classical past, but of multiple, competing classical pasts. The essays address a broad range of topics--Homer and early Greek poetry and music, Isocrate, Hellenistic and Roman art, Cicero and Greek philosophy, the history of Latin literature, imperial Greek literature, and more. The most up-to-date and challenging treatment of the topic available, this collection will be of lasting interest to students and scholars of ancient and modern literature, art, and cultural history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations and Table -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction. What Is “Classical” about Classical Antiquity? -- Part I. The Deep Past: Bronze Age Classicism -- Chapter 1. “No Greater Marvel”: A Bronze Age Classic at Orchomenos -- Part II. Classical Innovations -- Chapter 2. Intimations of the Classical in Early Greek Mousike -- Chapter 3. Rehistoricizing Classicism: Isocrates and the Politics of Metaphor in Fourth-Century Athens -- Part III. Baroque Classics -- Chapter 4. Baroque Classics: The Tragic Muse and the Exemplum -- Part IV. Latin Letters -- Chapter 5. From ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑ into PHILOSOPHIA: Classicism and Ciceronianism -- Chapter 6. The Concept of the Classical and the Canons of Model Authors in Roman Literature -- Part V. Roman Art -- Chapter 7. Greek Styles and Greek Art in Augustan Rome: Issues of the Present versus Records of the Past -- Chapter 8. Classicism in Roman Art -- Part VI. Imperial Prose -- Chapter 9. Feeling Classical: Classicism and Ancient Literary Criticism -- Chapter 10. Quickening the Classics: The Politics of Prose in Roman Greece -- Coda. Looking Back and Beyond -- Chapter 11. Athens as the School of Greece -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index