Wonder and the Marvellous From Homer to the Hellenistic World

Shows that wonder and wonders constituted a central theme in Greek culture from Homer to the Hellenistic period.

List of contents

1. Beginning with Thauma; 2. The Art of Thauma: Nature, Artifice and the Marvellous; 3. Reading Thauma: Paradoxography and the Textual Collection of Marvels; 4. The Sound of Thauma: Music and the Marvellous; 5. The Experience of Thauma: Cognition, Recognition, Wonder and Disbelief; 6. Near and Distant Marvels: Defamiliarising and Refamiliarising Thauma; 7. Making Marvels: Thaumatopoiia and Thaumatourgia; 8. Epilogue: Thaumata Polla.

About the author

Jessica Lightfoot is a Junior Research Fellow in Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge and Lecturer in Ancient Greek Literature at the University of Birmingham.

Summary

Shows that wonder and wonders constituted a central theme in Greek culture from Homer to the Hellenistic period. Argues for its importance in discussions of the purpose of philosophy and literature and in expressions of the relationships between the human and the divine and between self and other.

Product details

• Authors: Jessica Lightfoot, Jessica (University of Birmingham) Lightfoot
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2021
• EAN: 9781009009140
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0900914-0
• No. of pages: 300
• Series: Cambridge Classical Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; History, HISTORY / Ancient / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, HISTORY / World, General & world history, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: general, Ancient History, General and world history, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Literature: history and criticism, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval