Chiara Thumiger

Hidden paths analyses the representation of character in Greek tragedy, focusing on one of the most important and controversial theatre plays of all times the Bacchae. Euripides' last play has always been a favourite, enjoying an enormous success for centuries on and off the stage. This book argues that in the representation of characters in the play we can find a development in the view of self and representation of man. This development, which is also to be partly traced in the works of Sophocles and in earlier plays by Euripides, finds a fuller expression in the Bacchae and culminates in the catastrophe of ignorance and incommunicability which has Pentheus at its centre. The construction of character in the text and the view of self which it entails are explored through a meticulous analysis of keywords, while verbal usage, imagery and style are exposed as the very 'stuff' of characterisation. The book uncovers the 'hidden paths' along which human life is experienced in the play and through which human characterisation materializes from the fabric of the text.

Self and Characterization in Greek Tragedy : Euripides' Bacchae

Hidden Paths

Ed Sanders

Nick Lowe

Christopher Carey

This edited volume brings together eighteen articles which examine the role of erôs as an emotion in ancient Greek culture. The volume ranges from Archaic epic and lyric poetry, through tragedy and comedy, to philosophical and technical treatises and more, and includes contributions from a variety of international scholars well published in the field of ancient Greek emotions.Taking into account all important thinking about thenature of erôs from the eighth century BCE to the third century CE, it covers a very broad range of sources and theoretical approaches, both in the chronological and the generic sense. The variety of topics discussed build on recent advances in the understanding of ancient Greek homo- and heterosexual customs andpractices, visual and textual erotica, and philosophical approaches to erôs as manageable appetite or passion. However, the principal aim of the volume is to apply to the study of erôs the theoretical insights offered by the rapidly expanding field of emotion studies, both in ancient cultures and elsewhere in the humanities and social sciences, thus maintaining throughout the focus on erôs as emotion.

Erôs in Ancient Greece

The Hippocratic texts and other contemporary medical sources have often been overlooked in discussions of ancient psychology. They have been considered to be more mechanical and less detailed than poetic and philosophical representations, as well as later medical texts such as those of Galen. This book does justice to these early medical accounts by demonstrating their richness and sophistication, their many connections with other contemporary cultural products and the indebtedness of later medicine to their observations. In addition, it reads these sources not only as archaeological documents but also in the light of methodological discussions that are fundamental to the histories of psychiatry and psychology. As a result of this approach, the book will be important for scholars of these disciplines as well as those of Greek literature and philosophy, strongly advocating the relevance of ancient ideas to modern debates.

The Life and Health of the Mind in Classical Greek Medical Thought

This volume aims at exploring the ancient roots of ‘holistic’ approaches in the specific field of medicine and the life sciences, with attention to the larger theoretical implications of these discussions, and their reception in modern debates.

Holism in Ancient Medicine and Its Reception

Georgia Petridou

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World is a collection of studies about the patients of the Graeco-Roman world, their role in the ancient medical encounters and their relationship to the health providers and medical practitioners of their time.

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World

A. D. Morrison

Pindar's fifteen victory odes for Sicilian victors include some of Pindar's most impressive and widely admired poems, such as the first two Olympians and first three Pythians. The majority of the Sicilian odes date from between about 476 to 466 BC and were composed to celebrate the victories of the great tyrants of Sicily Hieron of Syracuse and Theron of Akragas or their families or courtiers at the crown games. The Sicilian tyrants made spectacular use of their wealth and power in competing in equestrian events at the games and in commissioning Pindar and Bacchylides to celebrate their victories in song. This book examines the Sicilian odes of Pindar as a group, investigating the ways in which they interact and exploit their overlapping and intersecting audiences. It studies the different performances of Pindar's odes (including reperformances subsequent to the first performance) and the audiences of these performances, and argues that these have important consequences for our view of the role victory odes played in the self-display of the Sicilian tyrannies to one another and the wider Greek world, the intertexts between the odes, the 'conventional' material in Pindar and the ways in which Pindar fulfils his promise of lasting fame for his patrons.

Chiara Thumiger

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