A Companion to Ancient Epic

Front Cover
John Miles Foley
John Wiley & Sons, 2008 M11 3 - 704 pages
A Companion to Ancient Epic presents for the first time a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of ancient Near Eastern, Greek and Roman epic. It offers a multi-disciplinary discussion of both longstanding ideas and newer perspectives.
  • A Companion to the Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman epic traditions
  • Considers the interrelation between these different traditions
  • Provides a balanced overview of longstanding ideas and newer perspectives in the study of epic
  • Shows how scholarship over the last forty years has transformed the ways that we conceive of and understand the genre
  • Covers recently introduced topics, such as the role of women, the history of reception, and comparison with living analogues from oral tradition
  • The editor and contributors are leading scholars in the field
  • Includes a detailed index of poems, poets, technical terms, and important figures and events
 

Selected pages

Contents

Issues and Perspectives
7
Epic and Myth
31
Performance
45
Epic and History
55
The Epic Hero
71
Women in Ancient Epic
105
Archaeological Contexts
119
Tablet Scroll Codex
142
Apollonius of Rhodes
353
Quintus of Smyrna
364
Nonnus
374
Epic and Other Genres in the Ancient Greek World
386
Homers Postclassical Legacy
397
The Origins and Essence of Roman Epic
417
Early Republican Epic
429
Lucretius
440

Ancient Reception
164
Translating Ancient Epic
174
Modern Oral Epics
196
Comparative Observations on the Near Eastern Epic Traditions
215
Mesopotamian Epic
233
Epic in Ugaritic Literature
246
Hittite and Hurrian Epic
255
PersianIranian Epic
264
The Challenge of Israelite Epic
277
Near Eastern Connections
291
Homers Iliad
302
Homers Odyssey
315
Hesiod
330
Virgils Aeneid
452
Ovid
476
Lucan
492
Valerius Flaccus
503
Statius
514
Silius Italicus
528
Claudian
538
Latin Christian Epics of Late Antiquity
550
Epic and Other Genres in the Roman World
562
Virgils Postclassical Legacy
574
Bibliography
589
Index
651
Copyright

Other editions - View all

A Companion to Ancient Epic
John Miles Foley
Limited preview - 2005
A Companion to Ancient Epic
John Miles Foley
Limited preview - 2008
A Companion to Ancient Epic
John Miles Foley
No preview available - 2008
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Common terms and phrases

Achilles Aeneas Aeneid Aithiopis Akkadian allusion Anchises ancient epic antiquity Apollo Apollonius Aqhat archaeology archaic Argonautica Athena audience battle Book century BCE Chapter classical Claudian codex composition contemporary context culture death Dido divine early Enkidu Enmerkar Ennius Epic Cycle epic hero epic poetry epic traditions epic's episode example father Ferdowsi Foley genre Gilgamesh goddess gods Greek epic Hektor Hellenistic heroic Hesiod hexameter historical Hittite Homeric epic human Hymns Iliad and Odyssey important Indo-European king language later Latin lines literary literature Lucan Lucretius Lugalbanda Mesopotamian modern myth Nagy narrative narrator Nonnus Odyssey oral epic oral tradition Ovid papyrus parallel performance poem poet poetic political prose readers role Roman epic Rome scenes scholars scroll Shahnama Shulgi Silius singers song Statius Stilicho story Sumerian tablet textual Theb Thebaid theme translation Trojan Trojan War Troy Turnus Ugaritic Valerius verse Virgil words Zeus

About the author (2008)

John Miles Foley is the Curators’ and Byler Professor of Classical Studies and English at the University of Missouri. He is the founder and Director of the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition. He is the author of The Theory of Oral Composition (1988), The Singer of Tales in Performance (1995), Homer’s Traditional Art (1999), and How to Read an Oral Poem (2002).

Bibliographic information

TitleA Companion to Ancient Epic
Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
EditorJohn Miles Foley
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons, 2008
ISBN1405188383, 9781405188388
Length704 pages
  
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