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Informationen zum Autor Katherine Callen King is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Klappentext Ancient Epic offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to six of the greatest ancient epics - Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Apollonius of Rhodes' Agonautica.* Provides an accessible introduction to the ancient epic* Offers interpretive analyses of poems within a comprehensive historical context* Includes a detailed timeline, suggestions for further readings, and an appendix of the Olympian gods and their Akkadian counterparts Zusammenfassung Ancient epics remain a fount of inspiration for poets, dramatists, and musicians not only because they tell good stories in an aesthetically beautiful way, but also because they speak to contemporary hearts and minds still wrestling with timeless issues of human limitation, passion, violence, and uses and abuses of power. Inhaltsverzeichnis Chronologies viii Map x Introduction 1 1 The Epic of Gilgamesh 14 2 The Context of Homeric Epic 33 3 The Iliad 52 4 The Odyssey 81 5 The Argonautika of Apollonios of Rhodes 106 6 The Context of Roman Epic 125 7 The Aeneid of Virgil 143 8 The Metamorphoses of Ovid 172 Appendix: Chart of Olympian Gods and their Akkadian Counterparts 189 Glossary of Greek and Latin terms 192 Index 193
List of contents
Chronologies viii
Map x
Introduction 1
1 The Epic of Gilgamesh 14
2 The Context of Homeric Epic 33
3 The Iliad 52
4 The Odyssey 81
5 The Argonautika of Apollonios of Rhodes 106
6 The Context of Roman Epic 125
7 The Aeneid of Virgil 143
8 The Metamorphoses of Ovid 172
Appendix: Chart of Olympian Gods and their Akkadian Counterparts 189
Glossary of Greek and Latin terms 192
Index 193
Report
"[King] also draws connections between the works so the reader cansee the epics in the context of their genre and historical period."( CHOICE , February 2010) "Provides a comprehensive idea[of] ancient epic, showing how this literary genre is not only aninvaluable cultural asset in itself, but the bearer of messages andvalues far remote or dead ... .The brilliant and dense generalintroduction identifies the preliminary concepts necessary toaddress the overall theme of the book ... .Truly admirableconsistency [and] effort [for] a topic so broad and multifaceted.The fact that the text is addressed to an audience ofnon-specialists ... does not reduce ... the scope andimportance: on the contrary . Ancient Epic is the result of awell-calibrated balance between methodological rigor [and] accuracyof content ... .This volume, which deserves to be consideredamong the best introductions to ancient epic appeared in recentyears, has all the characteristics to ... fascinate a very widenumber of readers (not necessarily native English speakers) whowant to know epic poetry." ( Bryn Mawr ClassicalReview , February 2010)
"If you already enjoy the Classical epics, you should read thisto challenge your assumptions. If you aren t familiar withClassical epic, you should read this to learn about the topic. Ancient Epic straddles beautifully the need to provide valuefor people who have already read the epics and the needs of areader unacquainted with the genre." (N.S. Gill, About.com )
