Space and Time in Ancient Greek Narrative

Traces a shift in authorial perspective in ancient Greek narrative inspired by advances in cartography, travel, and geometry.

Alex C. Purves (Author)

9781107647909, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 January 2014

286 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

"...its questions and observations are probing and deeply engaging—expanding our horizons." --Classical Review

In this wide-ranging survey of ancient Greek narrative from archaic epic to classical prose, Alex Purves shows how stories unfold in space as well as in time. She traces a shift in authorial perspective, from a godlike overview to the more focused outlook of human beings caught up in a developing plot, inspired by advances in cartography, travel, and geometry. Her analysis of the temporal and spatial dimensions of ancient narrative leads to new interpretations of important texts by Homer, Herodotus, and Xenophon, among others, showing previously unnoticed connections between epic and prose. Drawing on the methods of classical philology, narrative theory, and cultural geography, Purves recovers a poetics of spatial representation that lies at the core of the Greeks' conception of their plots.

Introduction: the perfect surveyor
1. The Eusynoptic Iliad: visualizing space and movement in the poem
2. Paths and measures: epic space and the Odyssey
3. The world in the hand: Anaximander, Pherecydes, and the invention of cartography
4. Map and narrative: Herodotus' Histories
5. Losing the way home: Xenophon's Anabasis
6. Finding (things at) home: Xenophon's Oeconomicus.

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