Greek Heroes in and out of Hades
By (author) Stamatia Dova
Publication date:
02 August 2012Length of book:
242 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
236x158mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739144978
Greek Heroes in and out of Hades is a study on heroism and mortality from Homer to Plato. In a collection of thirty enjoyable essays, Stamatia Dova combines intertextual research and thought-provoking analysis to shed new light on concepts of the hero in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Bacchylides 5, Plato's Symposium, and Euripides' Alcestis.
Through systematic readings of a wide range of seemingly unrelated texts, the author offers a cohesive picture of heroic character in a variety of literary genres. Her characterization of Achilles, Odysseus, and Heracles is artfully supported by a comprehensive overview of the theme of descent to the underworld in Homer, Bacchylides, and Euripides. Aimed at the specialist as well as the general reader, Greek Heroes in and out of Hades brings innovative Classical scholarship and insightful literary criticism to a wide audience.
Through systematic readings of a wide range of seemingly unrelated texts, the author offers a cohesive picture of heroic character in a variety of literary genres. Her characterization of Achilles, Odysseus, and Heracles is artfully supported by a comprehensive overview of the theme of descent to the underworld in Homer, Bacchylides, and Euripides. Aimed at the specialist as well as the general reader, Greek Heroes in and out of Hades brings innovative Classical scholarship and insightful literary criticism to a wide audience.
Dova (Hellenic College and Center for Hellenic Studies) considers key aspects of the ancient Greek hero in relation to his mortality, primarily by reference to the type-scene of the katabasis. Her study centers on Odysseus, Heracles, and Achilles, across the genres of epic, lyric, tragedy, and Platonic dialogue, and takes as its starting point Odysseus's confrontations with Achilles and Heracles in the underworld in Odyssey 11. A series of brief, closely focused discussions sets these heroes in relation to Agamemnon, Meleager (in Bacchylides 5), and Alcestis (in Euripides's drama of the same name), and combine to articulate a cumulative argument that distinguishes between Odysseus's success in tampering with the limits of mortality (in the Odyssey), Heracles's attainment of an Olympian alternative to mortality (in Bacchylides), and Achilles's acceptance of his mortality (in the Iliad). Dova is at her most interesting in the final chapter, where she trains her attention, and philological methods honed in reading Homer, on Euripides's Alcestis and Plato's Symposium to discern a dialogue between genders and genres that sheds light on the epic heroes precisely through inversion of the heroic model. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.