The Master of Signs - Signs and the Interpretation of Signs in Herodotus' Histories

Informationen zum Autor Alexander Hollmann is Assistant Professor of the Classics at the University of Washington. Klappentext Readers of Herodotus's Histories are familiar with its reports of bizarre portents! riddling oracles! and striking dreams. But Herodotus draws our attention to other types of signs too! beginning with human speech itself as a coded system that can manipulate and be manipulated. Objects! gifts! artifacts! markings! even the human body! are all capable of being invested with meaning in the Histories and Herodotus shows that conventionally and culturally determined actions! gestures! and ritual all need decoding. This book represents an unprecedented examination of signs and their interpreters! as well as the terminology Herodotus uses to describe sign transmission! reception! and decoding. Through his control and involvement in this process he emerges as a veritable "master of signs." Zusammenfassung In Herodotus’s Histories, almost anything is capable of being invested with meaning—human speech, gifts, markings, and even the human body. This book represents an unprecedented examination of signs and their interpreters, as well as the terminology Herodotus uses to describe sign transmission, reception, and decoding.

Product details

• Authors: Alexander Hollmann
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.03.2011
• EAN: 9780674055889
• ISBN: 978-0-674-05588-9
• Series: Hellenic Studies Series; Hellenic Studies; Hellenic Studies; Hellenic Studies Series; Hellenic Studies (HUP)
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies