Intellectual detective work sifts fact from mystery in the stories
spread across the ancient world by Greek adventurers.Though not an
archaeologist, Fox (Ancient History/Oxford Univ.; The Classical
World<\i>, 2006, etc.) seems to possess a precise mental
catalogue of every significant pottery shard recently surfaced in
the Mediterranean and Near East. Equally important, he knows what
has not <\i>yet been found and acknowledges it, often with
anticipation. These objects, along with the excavated sites of
ancient habitation, burial mounds, cemeteries and shipwrecks,
comprise an extraordinary, if sometimes tentative roadmap of the
roving Greeks' trajectory in the eighth century BCE. They traveled
east and west, trading, raiding and sometimes settling in a time of
cultural awakening. Virtually illiterate since Mycenaean Era
syllabic script had been abandoned 400 years earlier, they adapted
a Semitic alphabet around 750 BCE. They took with them, in oral
tradition, the epic poems of Homer and the myths in which heroes
from a glorious past challenged the gods, performed miraculous
feats, won great victories, slew monsters, avenged rape and murder,
rescued kidnapped virgins, etc. Tracing the impact of these
"travelling stories" throughout the world the Greeks influenced,
the author's acumen shines like a beacon. For example, cults to
Heracles (Hercules to the Romans) spread from Asia Minor to Spain;
place names attributable to Io, a maiden seduced by Zeus and
transformed into a cow, track the migration of those stories
eastward from Argos. Fox focuses on the island of Euboea as an
origin of the travelers, citing proven links along with tantalizing
leads. Throughout, his intellectual discipline is impressive.
"Culture-heroes do approximately similar things is different
societies," he stresses, warning against "mistaking parallel
stories for causes and origins." Fox notes that although Homer's
tales were of the distant past, the poet was "often precise" about
landscapes and places from his own time.Heady stuff for those with
interest in the subject, but so dense that casual history buffs may
fall by the wayside. (Kirkus Reviews)
Robin Lane Fox's Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the
Epic Age of Homer proposes a new way of thinking about ancient
Greeks, showing how real-life journeys shaped their mythical tales.
The tales of the ancient Greeks have inspired us for thousands of
years. But where did they originate? Esteemed classicist Robin Lane
Fox draws on a lifetime's knowledge of the ancient world, and on
his own travels, to open up the age of Homer. His acclaimed history
explores how the intrepid seafarers of eighth-century Greece sailed
around the Mediterranean, encountering strange new sights -
volcanic mountains, vaporous springs, huge prehistoric bones - and
weaving them into the myths of gods, monsters and heroes that would
become the cornerstone of Western civilization: the Odyssey and the
Iliad. 'A beautiful evocation of a tantalizing world ... Travelling
Heroes is a tour de force' Rowland Smith, Literary Review 'Lyrical,
passionate ... his great gift is to make this long-ago world a
vivid, extraordinary and sometimes frightening place ... a
wonderful story' Elizabeth Speller, Sunday Times 'Original, daring
and arguably life-enhancing ... produced with a sweeping narrative
flourish worthy of a cinematographer or screenwriter' Paul
Cartledge, Independent 'Lane Fox argues his case with tremendous
style and verve ... learned, and always lively' Mary Beard,
Financial Times Robin Lane Fox (b. 1946) is a Fellow of New
College, Oxford, and a University Reader in Ancient History. His
other books include The Classical World, Alexander the Great,
Pagans and Christians and The Unauthorized Version. He was
historical advisor to Oliver Stone on the making of Stone's film
Alexander, for which he waived all his fees on condition that he
could take part in the cavalry charge against elephants which Stone
staged in the Moroccan desert.
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