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In this collection of his essays on Homer, some new and some
appearing for the first time in English, the distinguished scholar
Pietro Pucci examines the linguistic and rhetorical features of the
poet's works. Arguing that there can be no purely historical
interpretation, given that the parameters of interpretation are
themselves historically determined, Pucci focuses instead on two
features of Homer's rhetoric: repetition of expression (formulae)
and its effects on meaning, and the issue of intertextuality.
The scholarly tendency has too often weakened the conspicuous
novelty and originality that characterizes Zeus in the Iliad. This
book remedies that tendency and depicts the extraordinary figure of
Zeus: lord (or impersonation) of lightning and thunders, exclusive
master of human destiny --and therefore of human history-and chief
of Olympus. This unique personality endowed with polyvalent powers
represents itself the conflict between superhuman moral
indifference for mortal destiny and anthropomorphic feelings for
human beings: he both preordains the death of his son and weeps on
his demise. Zeus embodies the Mysterium tremendum. This new Zeus
cannot glance at the past image that the tradition painted of him
without smiling at its simplicity and disrespect: a parodic or
amusing tone surrounds him as he refers or is referred to aspects
of his traditional image. The great characters of the Poem give two
wise responses to Zeus, lord of destiny: "heroic death" or serene
acceptance. We, the readers, are expected to react in the same way.
The scholarly tendency has too often weakened the conspicuous
novelty and originality that characterizes Zeus in the Iliad. This
book remedies that tendency and depicts the extraordinary figure of
Zeus: lord (or impersonation) of lightning and thunders, exclusive
master of human destiny --and therefore of human history-and chief
of Olympus. This unique personality endowed with polyvalent powers
represents itself the conflict between superhuman moral
indifference for mortal destiny and anthropomorphic feelings for
human beings: he both preordains the death of his son and weeps on
his demise. Zeus embodies the Mysterium tremendum. This new Zeus
cannot glance at the past image that the tradition painted of him
without smiling at its simplicity and disrespect: a parodic or
amusing tone surrounds him as he refers or is referred to aspects
of his traditional image. The great characters of the Poem give two
wise responses to Zeus, lord of destiny: "heroic death" or serene
acceptance. We, the readers, are expected to react in the same way.
In this provocative book, Pietro Pucci explores what he sees as
Euripides's revolutionary literary art. While scholars have long
pointed to subversive elements in Euripides's plays, Pucci goes a
step further in identifying a Euripidean program of enlightened
thought enacted through carefully wrought textual strategies. The
driving force behind this program is Euripides's desire to subvert
the traditional anthropomorphic view of the Greek gods-a belief
system that in his view strips human beings of their independence
and ability to act wisely and justly. Instead of fatuous religious
beliefs, Athenians need the wisdom and the strength to navigate the
challenges and difficulties of life.Throughout his lifetime,
Euripides found himself the target of intense criticism and
ridicule. He was accused of promoting new ideas that were
considered destructive. Like his contemporary, Socrates, he was
considered a corrupting influence. No wonder, then, that Euripides
had to carry out his revolution "under cover." Pucci lays out the
various ways the playwright skillfully inserted his philosophical
principles into the text through innovative strategies of plot
development, language and composition, and production techniques
that subverted the traditionally staged anthropomorphic gods.
In The Mourning Voice, Nicole Loraux presents a radical challenge
to what has become the dominant view of tragedy in recent years:
the view that tragedy is primarily a civic phenomenon, infused with
Athenian political ideology, that envisions its spectators first
and foremost as citizens, members of the political collective.
Instead, Loraux maintains, the spectator addressed by tragedy is
the individual defined primarily in terms of his or her humanity,
rather than in terms of affiliation with a political group. The
plays, she says, involve the spectators in the emotional
expressiveness of tragic suffering, thereby creating a "theatrical
identity." Aroused by the experience of suffering, the audience is
reminded that it is witnessing a theatrical representation of the
instability of the human condition -- a state that Loraux asserts
tragedy is uniquely suited to convey.
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