Cultural Poetics in Archaic Greece: Cult, Performance, Politics

by Carol Dougherty (Editor)

This volume brings together essays by archaeologists, historians, and literary scholars in a comprehensive examination of the Greek archaic age. A time of dramatic and revolutionary change when many of the institutions and thought patterns that would shape Greek culture evolved, this period has become the object of renewed scholarly interest in recent years. Yet it has resisted reconstruction, largely because its documentation is less complete than that of the classical period. In order to read the text of archaic Greece, the contributors here apply new methods--including anthropology, literary theory, and cultural history--to central issues, among them the interpretation of ritual, the origins of hero cult and its relation to politics, the evolving ideologies of colonization and athletic victory, the representation of statesmen and sages, and the serendipitous development of democracy. With their interdisciplinary approaches, the various essays demonstrate the interdependence of
politics, religion, and economics in this period; the importance of public performance for negotiating social interaction; and the creative use of the past to structure a changing present. Cultural Poetics in Ancient Greece offers a vigorous and coherent response to the scholarly challenges of the archaic period.

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 1993

Reviews

[Hubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A challenging series of papers on ancient Greek history, politics, and symbology. It would be useful to know about the core texts and to know something of the basic or general historical outline before delving into this. Nonetheless the research that went into this work is much appreciated.