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Epiphanies and Dreams in Greek Polytheism : Textual Genres and 'Reality' from Homer to Heliodorus / Michael Lipka.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: MythosEikonPoiesis ; 13Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2021]Copyright date: ©2022Description: 1 online resource (IX, 319 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783110636369
  • 9783110639162
  • 9783110638851
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 881/.010938 23
LOC classification:
  • BL783 .L57 2022
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Foreword and Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- Epic -- Narrative Hymns -- Didactic Poetry -- Sappho’s Lyric -- Drama -- Historiography -- Historical Biography -- Periegesis -- Autobiography -- Epigraphic Genres -- Erotic Novel -- Medical and Philosophical Treatises on Dreams -- Neoplatonic Treatises -- Magical Recipes -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Index of Ancient Sources
Summary: While modern students of Greek religion are alert to the occasion-boundedness of epiphanies and divinatory dreams in Greek polytheism, they are curiously indifferent to the generic parameters of the relevant textual representations on which they build their argument. Instead, generic questions are normally left to the literary critic, who in turn is less interested in religion. To evaluate the relation of epiphanies and divinatory dreams to Greek polytheism, the book investigates relevant representations through all major textual genres in pagan antiquity. The evidence of the investigated genres suggests that the ‘epiphany-mindedness’ of the Greeks, postulated by most modern critics, is largely an academic chimaera, a late-comer of Christianizing 19th-century-scholarship. It is primarily founded on a misinterpretation of Homer’s notorious anthropomorphism (in the Iliad and Odyssey but also in the Homeric Hymns). This anthropomorphism, which is keenly absorbed by Greek drama and figural art, has very little to do with the religious lifeworld experience of the ancient Greeks, as it appears in other genres. By contrast, throughout all textual genres investigated here, divinatory dreams are represented as an ordinary and real part of the ancient Greeks' lifeworld experience.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9783110638851

Frontmatter -- Foreword and Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- Epic -- Narrative Hymns -- Didactic Poetry -- Sappho’s Lyric -- Drama -- Historiography -- Historical Biography -- Periegesis -- Autobiography -- Epigraphic Genres -- Erotic Novel -- Medical and Philosophical Treatises on Dreams -- Neoplatonic Treatises -- Magical Recipes -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Index of Ancient Sources

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

While modern students of Greek religion are alert to the occasion-boundedness of epiphanies and divinatory dreams in Greek polytheism, they are curiously indifferent to the generic parameters of the relevant textual representations on which they build their argument. Instead, generic questions are normally left to the literary critic, who in turn is less interested in religion. To evaluate the relation of epiphanies and divinatory dreams to Greek polytheism, the book investigates relevant representations through all major textual genres in pagan antiquity. The evidence of the investigated genres suggests that the ‘epiphany-mindedness’ of the Greeks, postulated by most modern critics, is largely an academic chimaera, a late-comer of Christianizing 19th-century-scholarship. It is primarily founded on a misinterpretation of Homer’s notorious anthropomorphism (in the Iliad and Odyssey but also in the Homeric Hymns). This anthropomorphism, which is keenly absorbed by Greek drama and figural art, has very little to do with the religious lifeworld experience of the ancient Greeks, as it appears in other genres. By contrast, throughout all textual genres investigated here, divinatory dreams are represented as an ordinary and real part of the ancient Greeks' lifeworld experience.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)