| Description |
1 online resource (432 pages) |
| Contents |
Introduction : Representing ritual and religion in Flavian epic / Antony Augoustakis -- Part I: Gods and humans -- With (a) God on our side : ancient ritual practices and imagery in Flavian epic / Marco Fucecchi -- Divine messages and human actions in the Argonautica / Gesine Manuwald -- Competing visions : prophecy, spectacle, and theatricality in Flavian epic / Helen Lovatt -- Argive augury and portents in the Thebaid / Anne Tuttle -- 'Considering the image of Thebes': celestial and poetic auspicy in the Thebaid / Eleni Manolaraki -- Malae preces and their articulation in the Thebaid / Ann Hubert -- Hymnic features in the Statian epic and the Siluae / Bruce Gibson -- Religion and power in the Thebaid / Federica Bessone -- Part 2: Death and ritual -- Chthonic ingredients and thematic concerns : the shaping of the necromancy in the Thebaid / Ruth Parkes -- Wasted water : the failure of purification in the Thebaid / Nicholas Dee -- Patterns of darkness : chthonic illusion, gigantomachy, and sacrificial ritual in the Punica / R. Joy Littlewood -- Back out of hell : the virtual katabasis and initiation of Silius' Minucius / Robert Cowan -- Ritual murder and suicide in the Thebaid / Neil W. Bernstein -- The death and funeral rites of Opheltes in the Thebaid / Randall Ganiban -- Epitaphic gestures in Statius and Silius Italicus / Martin T. Dinter -- Part 3: Ritual and the female -- Reconcilable differences : Anna Perenna and the battle of Cannae in the Punica / Raymond Marks -- Medusa, Python, and Poine in Argive religious ritual / Alison Keith -- Orphic ritual and myth in the Thebaid / Christopher Chinn -- Dancing in Scyros : masculinity and young women's rituals in the Achilleid / Vassiliki Panoussi |
| Summary |
This edited collection addresses the role of ritual representations and religion in the epic poems of the Flavian period (69-96 CE): Valerius Flaccus' 'Argonautica', Silius Italicus' 'Punica', Statius' 'Thebaid', and the unfinished 'Achilleid'. Drawing on various modern studies on religion and ritual, and the relationship between literature and religion in the Greco-Roman world, it explores how we can interpret the poets' use of the relationship between gods and humans, cults and rituals, religious activities, and the role of the seer / prophet and his identification with poetry. Divided into three major sections, the volume includes essays on the most important religious activities (prophecy or augury, prayers and hymns) and the relationship between religion and political power under the Flavian emperors. It also addresses specific episodes in Flavian epic which focus on religious activities associated with the dead and the Underworld, such as purification, necromancy, katabasis, suicide, and burial |
| Notes |
Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 17, 2013) |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Epic poetry, Latin -- History and criticism
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Ritual in literature.
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Religion in literature.
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Classical philology.
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Philology, Classical
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FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY -- Ancient Languages.
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Classical philology
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| SUBJECT |
Rome -- History -- Flavians, 69-96.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85115137
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Augoustakis, Antony
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| ISBN |
9780191626050 |
|
0191626058 |
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9780191745010 |
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0191745014 |
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