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Table des matières
Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Introduction
1. Heraclean Force and the Representation of Violence
2. Hero or Monster? Justifying Violence against Geryon
3. Heroic Competition and the Home in Sophocles’ Trachiniae
4. Coping with Violence: Victory and Friendship in Euripides’ Heracles
5. Heracles the Fool: Laughing at Violence
Conclusion: Which Path Did Heracles Choose?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A propos de l'auteur
Katherine Lu Hsu is Assistant Professor of Classics at College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, USA. She has published on topics ranging from literary papyrology to Greek tragedy and classical reception.
Résumé
This book uses the mythological hero Heracles as a lens for investigating the nature of heroic violence in Archaic and Classical Greek literature, from Homer through to Aristophanes. Heracles was famous for his great victories as much as for his notorious failures. Driving each of these acts is his heroic violence, an ambivalent force that can offer communal protection as well as cause grievous harm.
Drawing on evidence from epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, and comedy, this work illuminates the strategies used to justify and deflate the threatening aspects of violence. The mixed results of these strategies also demonstrate how the figure of Heracles inherently – and stubbornly – resists reform. The diverse character of Heracles’ violent acts reveals an enduring tension in understanding violence: is violence a negative individual trait, that is to say the manifestation of an internal state of hostility? Or is it one specific means to a preconceived end, rather like an instrument whose employment may or may not be justified? Katherine Lu Hsu explores these evolving attitudes towards individual violence in the ancient Greek world while also shedding light on timeless debates about the nature of violence itself.
Préface
A new perspective on the nature of heroic violence in Archaic and Classical Greek literature, focusing on the mythological character of Heracles.
Texte suppl.
Lu Hsu’s close readings are good starting points for taking students through the different manifestations of Heracles in classical Greek literature.
