Reception in the Greco-Roman World
Literary Studies in Theory and Practice

Harnesses the insights generated by 30 years of reception studies to enhance the study of classical Greek literature.

Marco Fantuzzi (Edited by), Helen Morales (Edited by), Tim Whitmarsh (Edited by)

9781316518588, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 May 2021

478 pages, 7 tables
22.3 x 14.5 x 2.9 cm, 0.68 kg

The embrace of reception theory has been one of the hallmarks of classical studies over the last 30 years. This volume builds on the critical insights thereby gained to consider reception within Greek antiquity itself. Reception, like 'intertextuality', places the emphasis on the creative agency of the later 'receiver' rather than the unilateral influence of the 'transmitter'. It additionally shines the spotlight on transitions into new cultural contexts, on materiality, on intermediality and on the body. Essays range chronologically from the archaic to the Byzantine periods and address literature (prose and verse; Greek, Roman and Greco-Jewish), philosophy, papyri, inscriptions and dance. Whereas the conventional image of ancient Greek classicism is one of quiet reverence, this book, by contrast, demonstrates how rumbustious, heterogeneous and combative it could be.

Introduction Tim Whitmarsh
Section A. Archaic and Classical Poetics: 1. Neighbors and the Poetry of Hesiod and Pindar Anna Uhlig
2 Stesichorus and the Name Game Richard P. Martin
3. From Epinician Praise to the Poetry of Encomium on Stone: CEG 177, 819, 888–9, and the Hyssaldomus Inscription Ettore Cingano
4. Geometry of Allusions: The Reception of Earlier Poetry in Aristophanes' Peace Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Section B. Classical Philosophy and Rhetoric, and their Reception: 5. On Coming After Socrates Laura Viidebaum
6. Chimeras of Classicism in Dionysius of Halicarnassus' Reception of the Athenian Funeral Orations Johanna Hanink
7. 'Our Mind went to the Platonic Charmides': The Reception of Plato's Charmides in Wilde, Cavafy and Plutarch Timothy Duff
8. Naked Apes, Featherless Chickens, and Talking Pigs: Adventures in the Platonic History of Body-hair and other Human Attributes Alastair J. L. Blanshard
Section C. Hellenistic and Roman Poetics: 9. Before the Canon: The Reception of Greek Tragedy in Hellenistic Poetry Annette Harder
10. Pun-fried Concoctions: Wor(l)d-Blending in the Roman Kitchen Emily Gowers
11. Powerful Presences: Horace's Carmen Saeculare and Hellenistic Choral Traditions Giovan Battista D'Alessio
Section D. Multimedia and Intercultural Receptions in the Second Sophistic and Beyond: 12. Received into Dance? Parthenius' Er?tika Path?mata in the Pantomime Idiom Ismene Lada-Richards
13. Sappho in Pieces Susan A. Stephens
14. Hesiodic Rhapsody: The Sibylline Oracles Helen Van Noorden
15. Homer and the Precarity of Tradition: Can Jesus be Achilles? Simon Goldhill.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature & literary studies [D]