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Diane Arnson Svarlien's translation of Euripides' Andromache ,
Hecuba , and Trojan Women exhibits the same scholarly and poetic
standards that have won praise for her Alcestis , Medea ,
Hippolytus . Ruth Scodel's Introduction examines the cultural and
political context in which Euripides wrote, and provides analysis
of the themes, structure, and characters of the plays included. Her
notes offer expert guidance to readers encountering these works for
the first time.
Homer's characters are often very far from an unreflecting struggle
for status at others' expense. Rather than being a 'zero-sum game',
their negotiations can be of an impressive delicacy, designed to
protect the 'face' of the other. Gifts and visible deference are
important measures of honour, but characters also care about what
others really feel. This sensitive study reveals that at the
beginnings of (surviving) Greek literature Homer's audience is
expected to appreciate psychology and self-control of a very high
order. Literary analysts, historians, anthropologists and indeed
archaeologists will have much to learn here about the general level
of sophistication of the historic and prehistoric societies which
generated such deeply civilized poetry.
This book examines what is distinct, what is shared and what is
universal in Greek narrative tradition. This is the 'Classic'
narratology that has been widely applied to classical texts is
aimed at a universal taxonomy for describing narratives. More
recently, 'new narratologies' have begun linking the formal
characteristics of narrative to their historical and ideological
contexts. This volume attempts such a rethinking for Greek
literature. It has two closely related objectives: to define what
is characteristically Greek in Greek narratives of different
periods and genres, and to see how narrative techniques and
concerns develop over time. The 15 distinguished contributors
explore questions such as: How is Homeric epic like and unlike
Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible? What do Greek historians
consistently fail to tell us, having learned from the tradition
what to ignore? How does lyric modify narrative techniques from
other genres?
Diane Arnson Svarlien's translation of Euripides' Andromache ,
Hecuba , and Trojan Women exhibits the same scholarly and poetic
standards that have won praise for her Alcestis , Medea ,
Hippolytus . Ruth Scodel's Introduction examines the cultural and
political context in which Euripides wrote, and provides analysis
of the themes, structure, and characters of the plays included. Her
notes offer expert guidance to readers encountering these works for
the first time.
This book provides an accessible introduction for students and
anyone interested in increasing their enjoyment of Greek tragic
plays. Whether readers are studying Greek culture, performing a
Greek tragedy, or simply interested in reading a Greek play, this
book will help them to understand and enjoy this challenging and
rewarding genre. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy provides
background information, helps readers appreciate, enjoy and engage
with the plays themselves, and gives them an idea of the important
questions in current scholarship on tragedy. Ruth Scodel seeks to
dispel misleading assumptions about tragedy, stressing how open the
plays are to different interpretations and reactions. In addition
to general background, the book also includes chapters on specific
plays, both the most familiar titles and some lesser-known plays -
Persians, Helen and Orestes - in order to convey the variety that
the tragedies offer readers.
The Homeric poems were not intended for readers, but for a
listening audience. Traditional in their basic elements, the
stories were learned by oral poets from earlier poets and recreated
at every performance. Individual nuances, tailored to the audience,
could creep into the stories of the Greek heroes on each and every
occasion when a bard recited the epics.
For a particular audience at a particular moment, "tradition" is
what it believes it has inherited from the past--and it may not be
particularly old. The boundaries between the traditional and the
innovative may become blurry and indistinct. By rethinking
tradition, we can see Homer's methods and concerns in a new light.
The Homeric poet is not naive. He must convince his audience that
the story is true. He must therefore seem disinterested,
unconcerned with promoting anyone's interests. The poet speaks as
if everything he says is merely the repetition of old tales. Yet he
carefully ensures that even someone who knows only a minimal amount
about the ancient heroes can follow and enjoy the performance,
while someone who knows many stories will not remember
inappropriate ones. Pretending that every detail is already
familiar, the poet heightens suspense and implies that ordinary
people are the real judges of great heroes.
"Listening to Homer" transcends present controversies about Homeric
tradition and invention by rethinking how tradition functions.
Focusing on reception rather than on composition, Ruth Scodel
argues that an audience would only rarely succeed in identifying
narrative innovation. Homeric narrative relies on a
traditionalizing, inclusive rhetoric that denies the innovation of
the oral performance while providing enough information to make the
epics intelligible to audiences for whom much of the material is
new. "Listening to Homer" will be of interest to general
classicists, as well as to those specializing in Greek epic and
narrative performance. Its wide breadth and scope will also appeal
to those non-classicists interested in the nature of oral
performance.
Ruth Scodel is Professor of Greek and Latin, University of
Michigan, and former president of the American Philological
Association. "Ruth Scodel's Listening to Homer proves it is still
possible to explore the workings of epic without recourse to a
battery of jargon or technicalities. This is not a 'one big idea'
book but a rich . . . set of reflections; it makes refreshing
reading . . . ."
---Greece & Rome "This is an important book, putting the
receiving rather than the sending side of the performance of the
Homeric epics center stage. The many observations on narrative
technique are often new and worthwhile."
---Irene J.F. de Jong, Gnomon
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