Essay On The Life And Poetry Of Homer

This bilingual edition, with introduction and brief commentary, makes accessible for the first time in English a text of great importance for the history and interpretation of Homer. Although attributed to Plutarch, the Essay is probably the work of a grammaticus of the second and thirdcentury and is the single most valuable source of evidence for the nature of the teaching of Homer in the schools of the Roman Empire. Well represented in the manuscript tradition, the Essay was used as prefatory material by Renaissance editors of Homer, beginning with the editio princeps (1488), and so exercised a powerful influence on Renaissance and early-modern readers, who often refer to "Plutarch" as an authority on Homer. The newly edited Greek text is presented with facing translation.

The essays in this collection addresses questions of intense interest in Homeric studies today: the questions of performance and poet-audience interaction, especially as depicted in idealized performances within the Iliad and the Odyssey; the ways in which epic incorporates material of diverse genres, such as women's laments, blame poetry, or folk tales; how the ideological balance of epic can change and be influenced by 'alternative ideologies' introduced through the incorporation of new material; the implications of the continuity of tradition for etymological studies; and how the traditional nature of epic affects textual criticism. The essays differ in focus and method, but all share one fundamental approach to Homer: an understanding of the Homeric tradition as a poetic system that expresses and preserves what is culturally important and a view of the Homeric epics as instances of a cultural tradition which they attempt to explore through the epics themselves and through the comparative, anthropological, and linguistic evidence they bring to bear on these texts. A unique collection that explores Homeric poetry through a variety of tools and approaches--linguistics, philology, cultural anthropology, sociology, textual criticism, and archeology--this volume will be of interest to all scholars and students of oral poetry and Classical literature.

With a thorough examination of ancient views of literary and artistic realism, allegory and symbolism, The Poetics of Phantasia brings together a study of the ways in which the concept of imagination (phantasia in Greek) was used in ancient aesthetics and literary theory. The Greeks and Romans tended to think of the production of works of art in terms of imitation, either of the world around us or of a transcendent ideal world, rather than in terms of originality and creativity. Study of the way phantasia is used in ancient writing about literature and art reveals important features of the ancient approach to the arts and in doing so will also shed light on modern concepts of imagination and the literary and artistic differences between realism and allegory. Covering a range of literary and philosophical material from the beginnings of Greek literature down to the Neoplatonist philosophers of late antiquity, The Poetics of Phantasia discusses three discrete senses of imagination in ancient thought. Firstly, phantasia as visualization is explored: when a writer 'brings before his eyes' what he is describing and enables his audience or reader to visualise it likewise. The second theory of phantasia is that which is capable not only of conveying images from sense-perception but also of receiving images from intellectual and supra-intellectual faculties in the soul, and thus helping people grasp mathematical, metaphysical or even mystical concepts. Finally, phantasia is seen as a creative power which can conjure up an image that points beyond itself and to express ideas outside our everyday experience.

Throughout the early modern period, political theorists in France and England drew on the works of Plutarch to offer advice to kings and princes. Elizabeth I herself translated Plutarch in her later years, while Jacques Amyot's famous translations of Plutarch's The Parallel Lives led to the wide distribution of his work and served as a key resource for Shakespeare in the writing of his Roman plays, through Sir Thomas North's English translations. Rebecca Kingston's new study explores how Plutarch was translated into French and English during the Renaissance and how his works were invoked in political argument from the early modern period into the 18th century, contributing to a tradition she calls 'public humanism'. This book then traces the shifting uses of Plutarch in the Enlightenment, leading to the decline of this tradition of 'public humanism'. Throughout, the importance of Plutarch's work is highlighted as a key cultural reference and for its insight into important aspects of public service.

Do the writings of the church fathers support a literalist interpretation of Genesis 1? Young earth creationists have maintained that they do. And it is sensible to look to the Fathers as a check against our modern biases. But before enlisting the Fathers as ammunition in our contemporary Christian debates over creation and evolution, some cautions are in order. Are we correctly representing the Fathers and their concerns? Was Basil, for instance, advocating a literal interpretation in the modern sense? How can we avoid flattening the Fathers' thinking into an indexed source book in our quest for establishing their significance for contemporary Christianity? Craig Allert notes the abuses of patristic texts and introduces the Fathers within their ancient context, since the patristic writings require careful interpretation in their own setting. What can we learn from a Basil or Theophilus, an Ephrem or Augustine, as they meditate and expound on themes in Genesis 1? How were they speaking to their own culture and the questions of their day? Might they actually have something to teach us about listening carefully to Scripture as we wrestle with the great axial questions of our own day? Allert's study prods us to consider whether contemporary evangelicals, laudably seeking to be faithful to Scripture, may in fact be more bound to modernity in our reading of Genesis 1 than we realize. Here is a book that resets our understanding of early Christian interpretation and the contemporary conversation about Genesis 1. BioLogos Books on Science and Christianity invite us to see the harmony between the sciences and biblical faith on issues including cosmology, biology, paleontology, evolution, human origins, the environment, and more.

Explores the philosophical dimensions present in the works of ancient Greek poets and playwrights.