Space, Place, and Landscape in Ancient Greek Literature and Culture

This collection of essays produces new ways of understanding place, space, and landscape in classical Greek literature.

Kate Gilhuly (Edited by), Nancy Worman (Edited by)

9781107042124, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 September 2014

294 pages
23.1 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 0.59 kg

'… offers a thoughtful, sophisticated investigation …' M. J. Johnson, Choice

This book brings together a collection of original essays that engage with cultural geography and landscape studies to produce new ways of understanding place, space, and landscape in Greek literature from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. The authors draw on an eclectic collection of contemporary approaches to bring the study of ancient Greek literature into dialogue with the burgeoning discussion of spatial theory in the humanities. The essays in this volume treat a variety of textual spaces, from the intimate to the expansive: the bedroom, ritual space, the law courts, theatrical space, the poetics of the city, and the landscape of war. And yet, all of the contributions are united by an interest in recuperating some of the many ways in which the ancient Greeks in the archaic and classical periods invested places with meaning and in how the representation of place links texts to social practices.

1. Pindar's Delphi Chris Eckerman
2. Space and landscape in Xenophon's Anabasis Tim Rood
3. In the bedroom: interior space in Herodotus' Histories Alex Purves
4. Ships, walls, men: classical Athens and the poetics of infrastructure Carol Dougherty
5. Corinth, courtesans, and the politics of place Kate Gilhuly
6. Mapping literary styles in Aristophanes' Frogs Nancy Worman
7. The permeable spaces of the Athenian law court Alastair J. L. Blanshard.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], History of architecture [AMX], Landscape art & architecture [AMV]