3.164-5) before being taken up in Gorgias’s Encomium and dramatized in the agôn of Helen and Hecabe in Euripides’ Troades (919-62). The exculpatory claim that Helen was brought to Troy under a god’s compulsion – a suspension of divine/human “double determination” in favor of a unicausal explanation – first appears in Homer ( Il. 7) examines the tradition of argument in defense of Helen. Marren’s chapter is a literary essay on the Oedipus’s “tyrannical” character in the same play. Hatab focuses on the role of mortality and negative eschatology for value-construction within the Homeric world and in Sophocles’ OT, drawing a concluding contrast with Plato’s positive eschatology. 6) offer ethical readings of Greek literature. 108 (sundial with solstices and equinox) would be better placed with the discussion on p. The chapter is generously furnished with visuals: Figure 4.6 on p. Hahn offers an ingenious (if highly speculative) reconstruction of the sundial, provocatively suggesting that Anaximander’s world map and globe were in fact features of the gnômôn constructed in Lacedaemon (though testimonia mention these as separate inventions). marking solstice and equinox) was developed to meet needs of Spartan and Milesian festival calendars and was influenced by architectural techniques. According to Hahn, Anaximander’s seasonal sundial (i.e. Hahn incorporates a wealth of ancient evidence, both written and material, as well as experimental reconstructions. ![]() 4) studies Anaximander’s sundial (gnômôn) (fr. Noted in an appendix is the Neoplatonist Olympiodorus’s use of Orphic anthropogenic myth to argue the immorality of suicide ( In Phd. Tracing shared assumptions among myths of this type, Brisson also makes clear that this myth-making framework could accommodate a variety of inflections with different ethical consequences. 3) examines mythical accounts of the origins of the human condition (Hesiod’s Pandora, Orphic anthropogony, and Aristophanes’ speech in Plato’s Symposium) and the ethical implications of such stories, especially regarding sexual difference and the relationship of gods and humans. Wians follows other scholars who have studied the importance of traditional poetic self-presentation for early philosopher-poets (especially Parmenides and Empedocles). Xenophanes, Wians suggests, extends this traditional role to reflect skeptically on the limits of human knowledge about the gods themselves. In both Homer and Hesiod, the Muses’ inspiration authorizes the poet to pronounce on human epistemological limitations. 2) studies poetic authority in Homer, Hesiod, and Xenophanes. Naiden’s Ancient Supplication, which casts doubt on the chapter’s assumptions about rejection of suppliants, is not cited. Discussions of xenia and hiketeia largely follow classic studies by Moses Finley and John Gould F. 1) examines guest-friendship (xenia) and supplication (hiketeia) in Homer and their role in shaping interpersonal ethics. Contributors again include both philosophers and classicists, with no repeat appearances from the first collection apart from the editor.įollowing a brief editorial introduction, Kevin Robb (Ch. Whereas the original volume focused on Homer and Athenian tragedy, the sequel addresses a wider range of topics, sources, and authors. The present volume enlarges upon its predecessor (as the shift from singular to plural in its title implies) while maintaining the same central aims. ![]() As Wians and the contributors to these two volumes demonstrate, this interpretive lens is especially suited to Greek literature and philosophy, where mythos and logos often manifest themselves together in complex interdependency. Although the once-accepted notion of historical development from (irrational) mythos to (rational) logos in Greek thought during the Archaic and Classical periods has been rightly discredited, Wians argues persuasively that the paired categories of mythos (tradition, poetry, story, performance) and logos (inquiry, argument) remain valuable as tools of analysis for classicists and philosophers. This volume is a sequel to the same editor’s Logos and Muthos (2009).
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