Animal Encounters in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-51960-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 460, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 610 g

Reihe: Mnemosyne, Supplements

This first in-depth study of Valerius Flaccus’ animals reveals their role in his poetic programme and the manifold ways in which he establishes their subjectivity. In one encounter, a trapped bird becomes a tragic victim, while the trapper is dehumanized. Elsewhere there are touching portrayals of animal/human camaraderie and friendship. Furthermore, Valerius’ provocative consideration of the ‘monstrous’ challenges simplistic definitions of any being’s nature, or the nature of relationships across species. His challenge entails profound ethical implications for his Roman readership, which resonate with us as we assess our own relationship to animals and the natural world today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Elyse Tuttle MacKay, Anne

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Lateinische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

General Introduction

1 Background 1: Discussions in Valerian Scholarship

2 Background 2: The Literary & Cultural Contexts of Valerius’ Animals

3 Methodology

1 Empathy: Animal Experience in Simile

1 Bulls & Herds: Safety in Numbers

2 The Animal Mother: Gender & Generic Boundaries

3 Behaviour Patterns: Life Cycles & Phases

Conclusion

2 Relating: Human/Animal Interactions

1 Human Dominion

2 Human & Animal Trans-Species Collaboration

Conclusion

3 Identity: Human Appropriation of Animal Skins

1 Heroic Identification

2 (Re)emergence of the Animal

Conclusion

4 Presence: Animal Emissaries & Cult Companions

1 Sight: Jupiter’s Birds

2 Sound: The Animal Voice

Conclusion

5 Serpentine: Meditation on the Monstrous

1 Snaky Monsters & the New World Order

2 Snakes on Cyzicus, Arg. 3.456–458

3 Medea & Her draco

Conclusion

General Conclusion

Appendix: Indices of Animal & Related References in Valerius Flaccus.

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Anne Tuttle Mackay, Ph.D. (2019), University College London, currently cares for her three young sons while conducting research in Latin poetry. Her PhD dissertation focused on animal/human dynamics in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica. She has also published articles on animal focalization in Valerius Flaccus in Classical Literature and Posthumanism (Bloomsbury, 2020), and on prophecy in Statius’ Thebaid in Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013).