| Poetic and Performative Memory in Ancient Greece: Heroic Reference and Ritual Gestures in Time and Space Contributor(s): Calame, Claude (Author) |
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ISBN: 067402124X ISBN-13: 9780674021242 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $19.75 Product Type: Paperback Published: October 2009 Annotation: Philosophers have often reflected on the Ancient Greeks' concepts of time, but an anthropological approach is necessary to understand their practical concept of time as tied to space. The Greeks not only spoke of time unfolding in a specific space, but also projected the past upon the future in order to make it active in the social practice of the present. Hesiod's history of humanity was intended to establish justice in the modern city; Bacchylides sang the celebration of the Athenian hero Theseus in a present-day cultic and ideological framework; the city of Cyrene used the heroic act of its founding to reaffirm its civic identity; and the Greeks embossed poetic texts on leaves of gold to ensure the ritual passage of the dead to a blessed afterlife. Explicating these examples, "Poetic and Performative Memory in Ancient Greece" shows how the Ancient Greeks' collective memory was based on a remarkable faculty for the creation of ritual and narrative symbols. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Ancient And Classical |
| Dewey: 881.010 |
| LCCN: 2008014630 |
| Series: Hellenic Studies |
| Physical Information: 0.71" H x 5.98" W x 8.94" (1.02 lbs) 275 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Philosophers have often reflected on the Ancient Greeks' concepts of time, but an anthropological approach is necessary to understand their practical concept of time as tied to space. The Greeks not only spoke of time unfolding in a specific space, but also projected the past upon the future in order to make it active in the social practice of the present. Hesiod's history of humanity was intended to establish justice in the modern city; Bacchylides sang the celebration of the Athenian hero Theseus in a present-day cultic and ideological framework; the city of Cyrene used the heroic act of its founding to reaffirm its civic identity; and the Greeks embossed poetic texts on leaves of gold to ensure the ritual passage of the dead to a blessed afterlife. Explicating these examples, Poetic and Performative Memory in Ancient Greece shows how the Ancient Greeks' collective memory was based on a remarkable faculty for the creation of ritual and narrative symbols. |
Contributor Bio(s): Calame, Claude: - Claude Calame is Directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. |