Inventing Origins? Aetiological Thinking in Greek and Roman Antiquity

Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-50014-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 222 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 508 g

Reihe: Euhormos: Greco-Roman Studies in Anchoring Innovation

Aetiologies seem to gratify the human desire to understand the origin of a phenomenon. However, as this book demonstrates, aetiologies do not exclusively explore origins. Rather, in inventing origin stories they authorise the present and try to shape the future. This book explores aetiology as a tool for thinking, and draws attention to the paradoxical structure of origin stories. Aetiologies reduce complex ambivalence and plurality to plainly causal and temporal relations, but at the same time, by casting an anchor into the past, they open doors to progress and innovation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Wessels, Antje

Klooster, Jacqueline

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Inventing Anchors? Aetiological Thinking in Greek and Roman Antiquity

Antje Wessels and Jacqueline Klooster

PART 1: Aetiological Thinking. Old & New. From Present to Past to Future

1 Anchoring Innovations through Aetiology

Annette Harder

2 The Parallels between Aetiology and Prophecy in Ancient Literature. Hindsight as Foresight Makes Sense

Jacqueline Klooster

PART 2: Aetiology and Politics

3 Veterem atque antiquam rem novam ad vos proferam. A New Drama, a Surprised Audience, and a ‘Live Aetiology’. Performing the Origin of the Amphitruo

Andrea de March

4 Callimachus Romanus. Propertius’ Love Elegy and the Aetiology of Empire

Alexander Kirichenko

5 The Origins of Rome in the Renaissance. Revival & Reinvention, Rejection & Replacement

Susanna de Beer

PART 3: Aetiology in Myth and Science. From Religion to Research

6 Resistance to Origins. Cult Foundation in the Myths of Dionysus, Apollo, and Demeter

Susanne Gödde

7 Beginning with Hermes: Promoting Hermeticism through Aetiology in Corpus Hermeticum 1

Sean E. McGrath

8 The Aetiology of Myth

Hugo Koning

9 Patroclus Was a Parasite. Lucian’s Satirical Aitia

Inger N.I. Kuin

10 Crossing Borders. Aetiological Overlap in Plutarch’s Collections of Questions

Michiel Meeusen

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Antje Wessels, Dr. phil. (2001), University of Heidelberg, Habilitation (2011), Free University Berlin, is Full Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Leiden University. She has published books on aesthetic theory, history of scholarship, and reception of antiquity.

Jacqueline Klooster, PhD (2009), University of Groningen, is assistant professor of Greek Literature. She has published widely on Hellenistic Poetry and other topics, including the monograph Poetry as Window and Mirror. Positioning the Poet in Hellenistic Poetry (Brill, 2011).

Contributors are Susanna de Beer, Susanne Gödde, Annette Harder, Alexander Kirichenko, Jacqueline Klooster, Hugo Koning, Inger N.I. Kuin, Andrea de March, Sean E. McGrath, Michiel Meeusen, Antje Wessels.