Epic and History
Published on 13. October 2009
456 pages
978-1-4443-1564-6 (ISBN)
Description
With contributions from leading scholars, this is a uniquecross-cultural comparison of historical epics across a wide rangeof cultures and time periods, which presents crucial insights intohow history is treated in narrative poetry.
* The first book to gain new insights into the topic of'epic and history' through in-depth cross-culturalcomparisons
* Covers epic traditions across the globe and across a wide rangeof time periods
* Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is editedby two internationally regarded scholars
* An important reference for scholars and students interested inhistory and literature across a broad range of disciplines
Reviews / Votes
"I would recommend this volume both for scholars of epic and heroic literature (especially if they have interests in comparative literature or in questions of orality and historicity), who will no doubt enjoy its generally succinct essays with pertinent bibliography for each tradition." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 9 February 2011) "Essential. Graduate students and researchers." (Choice, October 2010) "A remarkably wide-ranging collection, deeply learned,ecumenical in spirit, and diverse in its approaches." Martin Mueller, Northwestern University "This book is an 'epic' undertaking in its ownright, extending across four millennia in time, and most of theglobe in setting. The challenging mosaic of studies takesshape as an exploratory chart of how memory, story-telling and thedesire for heroes may relate to what we might want to call'History.'" Oliver Taplin, Magdalen College, Oxford University "Answers come and go. Questions persist. One of the manyvirtues of this volume of collected essays is its ability tore-open some fundamental discussions about epic, history, genre,and memory. It does so in a sophisticated, learned, and wideranging manner. This book problematizes the relationships betweenliterary form, fact, and tradition in a way that will inform andexcite scholars in many fields for many years." Ahuvia Kahane, Royal Holloway, University of LondonMore details
Other editions
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David Konstan | Kurt A. Raaflaub
Epic and History
Book
01/2014
Wiley
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David Konstan | Kurt A. Raaflaub
Epic and Ancient History
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12/2009
Wiley-Blackwell
€140.66
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David Konstan | Kurt A. Raaflaub
Epic and History
Book
12/2009
1st Edition
Wiley
€186.50
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Persons
David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University. He is the author of Friendship in the Classical World (1997), Pity Transformed (2001), The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks (2006), A Life Worthy of the Gods: The Materialist Psychology of Epicurus (2008), and Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea (2010).
Kurt A. Raaflaub is the David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University. His previous works include War and Peace in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (with J. Ober and R. W. Wallace, 2007), Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies (with R. J. A. Talbert, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (with J. Arnason, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (with J. Arnason and P. Wagner, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).
Content
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Series Editor's Preface xiv
1 Introduction 1
David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub
2 Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian HeroicPoetry 7
Piotr Michalowski
3 Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation inAkkadian Heroic Traditions 26
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
4 Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a LocalHero 51
Amir Gilan
5 Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and EasternMediterranean Didactic Epic 66
Mary R. Bachvarova
6 Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions,"Ethnic Genres," and the Challenges of CulturalIdentity
in the Biblical Book of Judges 86
Susan Niditch
7 No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of thePa08ava Heroes of the MahAbhArata 103
James L. Fitzgerald
8 From "Imperishable Glory" to History: The Iliadand the Trojan War 122
Jonas Grethlein
9 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical GreekElegy 145
Ewen Bowie
10 Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic 167
Sander M. Goldberg
11 The Song and the Sword: Silius's Punica and the Crisisof Early Imperial Epic 185
Raymond D. Marks
12 The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in PersianEpic and Beyond 212
Olga M. Davidson
13 Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths 223
Susana Torres Prieto
14 Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf 243
Geoffrey Russom
15 The Nibelungenlied - Myth and History: A Middle HighGerman Epic Poem at the Crossroads of Past and Present, Despair andHope 262
Albrecht Classen
16 Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Literatures280
Joseph J. Duggan
17 Roland's Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to RoyalFrench Chronicle History 293
Michel-André Bossy
18 A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaintsand Laments by Noble Women 310
Mercedes Vaquero
19 History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and theNorthwest European Context 328
Robert D. Fulk
20 Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic 347
John Miles Foley
21 Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of RabinalMeet Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France 362
Dennis Tedlock
22 History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African NguniPraise Poetry 381
Richard Whitaker
23 Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition 392
Dwight F. Reynolds
24 Comments on "Epic and History" 411
Dean Miller
Index 425
