Greek Mythology and Poetics / / Gregory Nagy.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Nagy, Gregory,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©1992
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Myth and Poetics
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (382 p.)

Gregory Nagy here provides a far-reaching assessment of the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Greek society. Nagy illuminates in particular the forces of interaction and change that transformed the Indo-European linguistic and cultural heritage into distinctly Greek social institutions between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. Included in the volume are thirteen of Nagy's major essays—all extensively revised for book publication—on various aspects of the Hellenization of Indo-European poetics, myth and ritual, and social ideology.The primary aim of this book is to examine the Greek language as a reflection of society, with special attention to its function as a vehicle for transmitting mythology and poetics. Nagy's emphasis on the language of the Greeks, and on its comparison with the testimony of related Indo-European languages such as Latin, Indic, and Hittite, reflects his long-standing interest in Indo-European linguistics. The individual chapters examine the development of Hellenic poetics in the traditions of Homer and Hesiod; the Hellenization of Indo-European myths and rituals, including myths of the afterlife, rituals of fire, and symbols in the Greek lyric; and the Hellenization of Indo-European social ideology, with reference to such cultural institutions as the concept of the city-state.A path-breaking application of the principles of social anthropology, comparative mythology, historical linguistics, and oral poetry theory to the study of classics, Greek Mythology and Poetics will be an invaluable resource for classicists and other scholars of linguistics and literary theory.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I. The Hellenization of Indo-European Poetics -- 1. Homer and Comparative Mythology -- 2. Formula and Meter: The Oral Poetics of Homer -- 3. Hesiod and the Poetics of Pan-Hellenism -- Part II. The Hellenization of Indo-European Myth and Ritual -- 4. Patroklos, Concepts of Afterlife, and the Indic Triple Fire -- 5. The Death of Sarpedon and the Question of Homeric Uniqueness -- 6. The King and the Hearth: Six Studies of Sacral Vocabulary Relating to the Fireplace -- 7. Thunder and the Birth of Humankind -- 8. Sêma and Nóēsis: The Hero's Tomb and the "Reading" of Symbols in Homer and Hesiod -- 9. Phaethon, Sappho's Phaon, and the White Rock of Leukas: "Reading" the Symbols of Greek Lyric -- 10. On the Death of Actaeon -- PART III. The Hellenization of Indo-European Social Ideology -- 11. Poetry and the Ideology of the Polis: The Symbolism of Apportioning Meat -- 12. Mythical Foundations of Greek Society and the Concept of the City-State -- 13. Unattainable Wishes: The Restricted Range of an Idiom in Epic Diction -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Index of Scholars