Geography, Topography, Landscape

Configurations of Space in Greek and Roman Epic

Marios Skempis, Ioannis Ziogas

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9783110314731
• eBook ISBN: 9783110315318
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism
• Index: History

By introducing a multifaceted approach to epic geography, the editors of the volume wish to provide a critical assessment of spatial perception, of its repercussions on shaping narrative as well as of its discursive traits and cultural contexts. Taking the genre-specific boundaries of Greco-Roman epic poetry as a case in point, a team of international scholars examines issues that lie at the heart of modern criticism on human geography. Modern and ancient discourse on space representations revolves around the nation-shaping force of geography, the gendered dynamics of landscapes, the topography of isolation and integration, the politics of imperialism, globalization, environmentalism as well as the power of language and narrative to turn space into place. One of the major aims of the volume is to show that the world of the Classics is not just the origin, but the essence of current debates on spatial constructions and reconstructions.

Table of contents

• Introduction: Putting Epic Space in Context
• Ethnography in the Iliad
• Thick Descriptio. From Auerbach to the Boar’s Lair (Od. 19.388–475)
• Homer’s Social-Psychological Spaces and Places
• The Ethical Geography of Hesiod’s Works and Days
• Uncertain Geographies of Female Desire in the Hesiodic Catalogue: Atalanta
• Mapping Counterfactuality in Apollonius’ Argonautica
• Landscape Markers and Time in Quintus’ Posthomerica
• Crossing the Hydaspes. Nonnus’ Dionysiaca and the Boundaries of Epic
• Space and Geography in Ennius’ Annales
• From Delos to Latium. Wandering in the Unknown
• Phenomenology of Space, Place Names and Colonization in the ‘Caieta-Circe’ Sequence of Aeneid 7
• The Topography of Epic Narrative in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• Ovidian Geographies in Flavian Mythological Epic
• Lucan’s Catalogues and the Landscape of War
• The Long Road to Thebes. The Geography of Journeys in Statius’ Thebaid
• The Voyage of Rediscovery. Consuming Global Space in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica
• Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica. The Argo’s Maiden Voyage from Europe into the Unknown
• Bibliography
• List of Contributors
• Index rerum et nominum
• Index locorum