The envy of Daedalus : : essay on the artist as murderer / / Marcello Barbanera.

• Superior document: Morphomata Lectures Cologne ; 4
• VerfasserIn: Barbanera, Marcello,
• Place / Publishing House: Paderborn : : Verlag Wilhelm Fink,, [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Morphomata Lectures Cologne ; 4.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Why the myth of Daedalus, the protos euretes, is connected with envy and murder? The author takes as his starting point Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Daedalus’ envy drives him to murder his pupil and nephew Perdix. He also considers the passage of Seneca the Elder, about the painter Parrhasius and the citizen from Olynthus, that he had tortured in order to paint the agony of Prometheus. The first case is a topos of the artist’s biography which implies, that the craft of the artisan was held as a guarded secret; the second is related to mimesis. The author questions what role the topos of the artist as murderer plays in text and imagery, from the Middle Ages to modern literature.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Daedalus as Object of Myth-Making -- Variations on the Myth of Daedalus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: The Fall of Icarus and the Killing of Perdix -- Zelotupia O Phthonos? Instruments to Define a Passion in Greek Society -- The Artist as a Murderer, Three Variations on a Theme: Competition, Mimesis and Crime -- References -- Photo Credits -- Plates.