Epic Grief

This study of the gooi or personal laments in Homer ́s Iliad once and for all articulates the poetic techniques regulating this type of speech. Going beyond the tendency to view lament as a repetitive and group-based activity, this work shows instead the primacy of the goos, a sub-genre which the Iliad has "produced" by absorbing the funerary genre of lament. Oral theory, narratology, semiotics, rhetorical analysis are deftly applied to explore the ways personal laments develop principal epic themes and unravel narrative threads weaving the thematical texture of the entire Iliad (and beyond): the wrath of Achilles, the deaths of Patroclus and Hector, the grief of Achilles and his future death, the foreshadowing of Troy ́s destruction. Winner of the Annual Award in Classics (2007) of the Academy of Athens.

Grief and the Hero examines Achilles’ experience of the futility of grief in the context of the Iliad’s study of anger. No action can undo his friend Patroklos’ death, but the experience of death drives him to behave as though he can achieve something restorative. Rather than assuming that grief gives rise to anger, as most scholars have done, Grief and the Hero pays close attention to the poem’s representation of the origin of these emotions. In the Iliad, only Achilles’ grief for Patroklos is joined with the word pothê, “longing”; no other grief in the poem is described with this term. The Iliad depicts Achilles’ grief as the rupture of shared life—an insight that generates a new way of reading the epic. Achilles’ anguish drives him to extremes, oscillating between self-isolation and seeking communal expressions of grief; between weeping abundantly and relentlessly pursuing battle; between varied threats of mutilation, deeds of vengeance, and other vows. Yet his yearning for life shared with Patroklos is the common denominator. Here lies the profound insight of the Iliad. All of Achilles’ grief-driven deeds arise from his longing for life with Patroklos, and thus all of these deeds are, in a deep sense, futile. He yearns for something unattainable—undoing the reality of death. Grief and the Hero will appeal not only to scholars and students of Homer but to all humanists. Loss, longing, and even revenge touch many human lives, and the insights of the Iliad have broad resonance.

In Women and War in Roman Epic, Elina Pyy discusses the narrative and ideological functions of gender in the works of Virgil, Lucan, Statius, Silius Italicus and Valerius Flaccus. By examining the themes of violence, death, guilt, grief, and anger in their epics, she offers an account of the intertextual tradition of the genre and its socio-political background. Through a combination of classical narratology and Julia Kristeva’s subjectivity theory, Pyy scrutinises how gendered marginality is constructed in the genre and how it contributes to the fashioning of Roman imperial identity. Focusing on the ambiguous elements of epic, the study looks beyond the binary oppositions between the Self and the Other, male and female, and Roman and barbarian.

The inspiring story of a mother who took unimaginable tragedy and used her grief as a force to do good by transforming the lives of others. When Maria Kefalas’s daughter Calliope was diagnosed with a degenerative, uncurable genetic disease, the last thing Maria expected to discover in herself was a superpower. She and her husband, Pat, were head over heels in love with their youngest daughter, whose spirit, dancing eyes, and appetite for life captured the best of each of them. When they learned that Cal had MLD (metachromatic leukodystrophy), their world was shattered. But as she spent time listening to and learning from Cal, Maria developed the superpower of grief. It made her a fearless warrior for her daughter. And it gave her voice a bell-like clarity—poignant and funny all at once. This superpower of grief also revealed a miracle—not the conventional sort that fuels the prayers of friends and strangers but a realization that, in order to save themselves, Maria and Pat would need to find a way to save others. And so, with their two older children, they set out to raise money so that they, in their son PJ’s words, could “find a cure for Cal’s disease.” They had no way of knowing that a research team in Italy was closing in on an effective gene therapy for MLD. Though the therapy came too late to help Cal, this news would be the start of an unexpected journey that would introduce Maria and her family to world-famous scientists, brilliant doctors, biotech CEOs, a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback, and a wise nun, and it would also involve selling 50 thousand cupcakes. They would travel to the FDA, the NIH, and the halls of Congress in search of a cure that would never save their child. And their lives would become inextricably intertwined with the families of 13 children whose lives would be transformed by the biggest medical breakthrough in a generation. A memoir about heartbreak that is also about joy, Harnessing Grief is both unsparing and generous. Steeped in love, it is a story about possibility.

Setting out from the observation made in the social sciences that maternal grief can at times be a motor of societal change, Ekaterina E. Kozlova demonstrates that a similar mechanism operates also in the biblical world. Kozlova argues that maternal grief is treated as a model or archetype of grief in biblical and Ancient Near Eastern literature. The work considers three narratives and one poem that illustrate the transformative power of maternal grief in the biblical presentation: Gen 21, Hagar and Ishmael in the desert; 2 Sam 21: 1-14, Rizpah versus King David; 2 Sam 14, the speech of the Tekoite woman; Jer 31: 15-22, Rachel weeping for her children. Although only one of the texts literally refers to a bereaved mother (2 Sam 21 on Rizpah), all four passages draw on the motif of maternal grief, and all four stage some form of societal transformation.

After a significant loss, grief is normal and necessary. But sometimes a mourner’s grief becomes naturally heightened, stuck, or made more complex by especially difficult circumstances, such as suicide, homicide, or multiple losses within a short time period. This is called “complicated grief.” In this primer by one of the world’s most respected grief educators, Dr. Wolfelt helps caregivers understand the various factors that often contribute to complicated grief. He presents a model for identifying complicated grief symptoms and, through real-life examples, offers guidance for companioning mourners through their challenging grief journeys. This book rounds out Dr. Wolfelt’s resources on the companioning philosophy of grief care, making it an essential addition to your professional library.

This book proposes and explores a novel conceptualisation of the grieving process grounded in evolutionary psychology that integrates cognitive behavioural approaches such as compassion focused therapy, metacognitive awareness, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Starting with an introduction of the historical and theoretical basis for the Principles of Loss model, the book then outlines methods of assessment and describes the processes of formulation and case conceptualisation, with specific guidance on how to navigate these in the context of loss. The book provides an in-depth exploration of the Five-Phase Principles for the Treatment of Loss and Grief (intervention), as well as guidance on the supervision of loss. The chapters, accompanied by case studies, provide an overview of the novel model, followed by specific and tailor-made guidance on assessment (including a novel self-report measure), formulation, treatment, and supervision. This guide is intended for clinicians familiar with or interested in the theory and practice of third-wave cognitive behavioural therapies.

Presenting a wide range of relevant, translated texts on death, burial and commemoration in the Roman world, this book is organized thematically and supported by discussion of recent scholarship. The breadth of material included ensures that this sourcebook will shed light on the way death was thought about and dealt with in Roman society.