Hesiods Theogony From Near Eastern Creation Myths to Paradise Lost
to men." Scully also considers the poem in light of Near Eastern creation stories, including the Enma elish and Genesis, as well as the most striking of modern "scientific myths," Freud's Civilization and its Discontents. Scully reads Hesiod's poem as a hymn to Zeus and a city-state creation myth,
arguing that Olympus is portrayed as an idealized polity and--with but one exception--a place of communal harmony. This reading informs his study of the Theogony's reception in later writings about polity, discord, and justice. The rich and various story of reception pays particular attention to the
long Homeric Hymns, Solon, the Presocratics, Pindar, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Plato in the Archaic and Classical periods; to the Alexandrian scholars, Callimachus, Euhemerus, and the Stoics in the Hellenistic period; to Ovid, Apollodorus, Lucian, a few Church fathers, and the Neoplatonists in
the Roman period. Tracing the poem's reception in the Byzantine, medieval, and early Renaissance, including Petrarch and Erasmus, the book ends with a lengthy exploration of Milton's imitations of the poem in Paradise Lost. Scully also compares what he considers Hesiod's artful interplay of
narrative, genealogical lists, and keen use of personified abstractions in the Theogony to Homeric narrative techniques and treatment of epic verse.
Publisher Name | Oxford University Press USA |
---|---|
Author Name | Hagendorf, Col |
Format | Audio |
Bisac Subject Major | LIT |
Language | NG |
Isbn 10 | 0190253967 |
Isbn 13 | 9780190253967 |
Target Age Group | min:NA, max:NA |
Dimensions | 00.93" H x 00.06" L x 10.00" W |
Page Count | 288 |
Stephen Scully is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Boston University. He has published on Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Plato, Vergil, George Chapman, and Freud. His books include Homer and the Sacred City, Euripides' Suppliant Women, with Rosanna Warren, translation, essay, and notes, and
Plato's Phaedrus, translation, essay, and notes.