Search all library resources

Aristophanes and his tragic muse : comedy, tragedy and the polis in 5th century Athens

Aristophanes and His Tragic Muse considers the opposition of comedy and tragedy in 5th century Athens and its effect on the drama of Aristophanes. The study examines tragedy's focus on necessity and a quest for meaning as a complement to a neglected but critical element in Athenian comedy, a concern with freedom and an underlying ambivalent vision of reality.

God and the land [electronic resource] : the metaphysics of farming in Hesiod and Vergil

The Works and Days of Hesiod and Vergil's Georgics are fundamental texts in the classical canon. Here Nelson brings them together with a metaphysical eye, showing how the two writers each viewed the farming lifestyle as a system of belief unto itself. She represents the ethos of the farm as a way of understanding the earth, the gods, and man between them in vital relation to each other. This study also includes a sparkling new translation of Works and Days by esteemed translator David Grene.

Online Ebook Central

Time and identity in Ulysses and the Odyssey

"A unique in-depth comparative study of two classic literary works, this volume examines essential themes in James Joyce's Ulysses and Homer's Odyssey, showing how each work highlights and clarifies aspects of the other"--A comparative study of two classic literary works, from a specialist in Joyce and Homer Time and Identity in "Ulysses" and the "Odyssey" offers a unique in-depth comparative study of two classic literary works, examining essential themes such as change, the self, and humans' dependence on and isolation from others. Stephanie Nelson shows that in these texts, both Joyce and Homer address identity by looking at the paradox of time-that people are constantly changing yet remain the same across the years. In Nelson's analysis, both Ulysses and the Odyssey explore dichotomies such as the permanence of names and shifting of stories, independence and connection, and linear and cyclical narrative. Nelson discusses Homer's contrast of ordinary to mythic time alongside Joyce's contrast of "clocktime" to experienced time. She analyzes the characters Odysseus and Leopold Bloom, alienated from their previous selves; Telemachus and Stephen Dedalus, trapped by the past; and Penelope and Molly Bloom, able to recast time through weaving, storytelling, and memory. These concepts are also explored through Joyce's radically different narrative styles and Homer's timeless world of the gods. Nelson's thorough knowledge of ancient Greece, Joyce, narratology, oral tradition, and translation results in a volume that speaks across literary specializations. This book makes the case that Ulysses and the Odyssey should be read together and that each work highlights and clarifies aspects of the other. As Joyce's characters are portrayed as both flux and fixity, readers will see Homer's hero fight his way out of myth and back into the constant changes of human existence.