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Classical literature is full of humans, gods, and animals in impressive motion, though motion has yet to receive significant attention in scholarship and criticism. The case-studies in this volume explore how motion is treated in Greek and Latin visual art and literature, offering a new and stimulating approach to these well-known works.
List of contents
- Frontmatter
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- 0: Introduction
- 1: Visual Art
- Purwias jumps
- Olyseus at sea
- Dexileos in action
- Dionysus sails through a sea of red
- Pentheus and his family
- Hades abducts Persephone
- A discus-thrower
- Medea ponders
- 2: Homer, Iliad
- One snake, nine birds (2.308-21)
- Helen speaks her mind (3.399-412)
- At the edge (5.434-44)
- A stallion unbound (6.495-6, 503-14)
- Goddesses kept in line (8.399-406)
- Litai limping (9.505-12)
- Horses fly (11.280-5, 288-90)
- Beast at bay (12.37-53)
- The advent of Poseidon (13.17-31)
- A wave poised (14.13.-24)
- The boar-like Ajax (17.274-87)
- Slow survivors (19.40-53)
- Apollo's trick (21.601-22.6)
- The body brought back (24.703-18)
- Leaping and falling from a chariot (16.726-76)
- Hector waits (22.90-144)
- 3: Ovid, Metamorphoses
- The fall of Phaethon (2.304-22)
- River rage (3.566-71)
- Petrification (6.301-12)
- Strange seas (7.62-74)
- Puzzle (7.772-86)
- Isis rescues Iphis (9.780-7)
- Better than heaven (10.529-36)
- Snake and birds once more (12.11-18, 22-3)
- Everything is in motion (15.176-95)
- Defying Dis (5.391-424)
- Myrrha: small steps and large (10.437-89)
- 4: Tacitus, Annals
- The twentieth redeem themselves (1.51.3-4)
- Terrain hinders, not helps (2.17.2-6)
- The dead Germanicus is brought back to Italy (3.1.3-4)
- Obsequious exodus (4.74.3-4)
- Royal trickery (12.4.72-4)
- Isolating Agrippina (13.18.3-19.1)
- Startling Britons (14.30.1-2)
- Fire (15.38.2-6)
- Father and daughter on trial (16.32.1-2)
- Tiberius meets his end (6.50)
- A party does not go well (11.31.2-32)
- 5: Sophocles, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus
- Abandonment (Phil. 268-80, 287-92)
- Neoptolemus must be going (Phil. 459-67)
- All is to change (Phil. 712-30)
- Leaving (Phil. 886-903)
- Philoctetes' agonies (Phil. 779-842)
- Oedipus sits on a ledge of rock (OC 195-202)
- Antigone is carried off (OC 822-47)
- Old age assailed from all quarters (OC 1239-48)
- A journey robbed of purpose (OC 1393, 1397-1404)
- Missing motion (OC 1638-52)
- Oedipus arrives (OC 1-52)
- 6: Parmenides, On Nature
- A fast ride with goddesses (B 1 Diels-Kranz, D4 Laks-Most)
- Only two roads (B 2, D6)
- No splitting reality (B 4, D10)
- The goddess can start anywhere (B 5, D5)
- A third way not recommended (B 6, D7)
- Truth (B 7-8, D8)
- Prefatory promises (B 10, D12)
- Heavenly births (B 11, D11)
- Love and rings (B 12, D14)
- The inadequate moon (B 14, D27)
- Thought and the limbs (B 16, D51)
- 7: Seneca, Natural Questions
- Throwing stones (1.2.1-2)
- Deceptive speed (1.14.2)
- Can fire fall? (2.13.1-4)
- Two active old men (3.pr.1, 4, 6)
- Roundness (4b.3.3-5)
- Winds got wrong (5.2)
- A typology of earthquakes (6.21.2)
- Comets sure and steady (7.23.2-3)
- Sailing to war (5.18.5-10)
- A whirlwind gets above itself (7.8.1-9.1, 10.2)
- 8: Conclusion
- Endmatter
- Bibliography
- Index of Passages and Works of Art
- General Index
About the author
Professor G. O. Hutchinson studied at Balliol College, Oxford, as an undergraduate, then took up a position at Christ Church as a Research Lecturer. In 1984 he became Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Exeter College, Oxford, and in 1998 Professor of Greek and Latin Languages and Literature, before being appointed to the Regius Chair of Greek in 2015 and returning to Christ Church. Motion in Classical Literature is his tenth single-authored book; the others, mostly published by OUP, are commentaries on Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes (1985), a selection of Greek lyric poetry (2001), and Propertius' Elegies, Book IV (CUP, 2006), and the monographs Hellenistic Poetry (1988), Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: A Critical Study (1993), Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary Study (1998), Talking Books: Readings in Hellenistic and Roman Books of Poetry (2008), Greek to Latin: Frameworks and Contexts for Intertextuality (2013), and Plutarch's Rhythmic Prose (2018).
Summary
Classical literature is full of humans, gods, and animals in impressive motion, though motion has yet to receive significant attention in scholarship and criticism. The case-studies in this volume explore how motion is treated in Greek and Latin visual art and literature, offering a new and stimulating approach to these well-known works.
