Ancient Greek Literature and Society / / Charles R. Beye.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Beye, Charles R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2019]; ©1987
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Edition: Second Edition Revised
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (376 p.)

Charles R. Beye here offers a lively and challenging overview of Greek literature from Homer to Apollonius of Rhodes, providing a coherent social and historical background to the era.Beye stresses the great distance that separates the twentieth century from the age and audience for which ancient Greek literature was intended. He emphasizes those aspects of antiquity which are apt to be most alien to modern-day readers, particularly the oral nature of early poetry and the public and political—and hence manipulative, conformist, and conventional—quality of much of the literature. He also notes the openly imitative practices of early authors and establishes the Homeric epics as the dominant informing feature of subsequent literature.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. The Language -- 2. Winged Words -- 3. The Heroic World -- 4. Literature of the Archaic Period -- 5. Athens in the Fifth Century -- 6. Tragedy -- 7. Comedy -- 8. The Beginnings of Prose -- 9. Alexandria: The New Athens -- Further Reading -- Appendix: Important Dates in History and Literature -- Index