Inscribing sorrow : fourth-century Attic funerary epigrams / by Christos C. Tsagalis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tsagalis, Christos.

Series:

Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes ; v. 1.

Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes ; v. 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epigrams, Greek--History and criticism.

Epigrams, Greek.

Funeral rites and ceremonies in literature.

Funeral rites and ceremonies--Greece.

Funeral rites and ceremonies.

Greece.

Physical Description:

xiv, 368 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Fourth-century Attic funerary epigrams

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter De Gruyter, [2008]

Summary:

The journal "Trends in Classics", and the accompanying "Supplementary Volumes" publish innovative, interdisciplinary work which brings to the study of Greek and Latin texts the insights and methods of related disciplines such as narratology, intertextuality, reader-response criticism, and oral poetics. Both publications seek to publish research across the full range of classical antiquity.

Fourth-century Attic grave epigrams reflect a transitional phase in the evolution of the genre of epigram. They testify to a shift of interest towards social issues such as the family, the deceased's age and profession. In a turbulent period of restlessness and uncertainty that followed the devastating Peloponnesian war, the commemoration of the departed in private monuments became an effective mechanism of displaying publicly a new set of social concerns.

It is within these contexts that special emphasis has been put on the composition of sepulchral epigrams, their gradual autonomization and sophistication. This book explores this decisive phase in the evolution of epigram by reconstructing as many ancient contexts as possible on the one hand, and studying sepulchral epigrams as poetic art on the other.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Use of Gnomic Expressions

The Greek Concept of [characters not reproducible] 10

Modern Approaches 16

Corpus of [characters not reproducible] 17

A Gnomic Grammar 19

Quantificatory Terminology 19

Anaphoric 'Generalizing' Markers ([characters not reproducible], [characters not reproducible]) and Deixis 21

Evaluative Terminology 26

Tenses 28

Particles 31

Style 32

Contextualizing the [characters not reproducible] 37

The Community of Death 38

Honoring the Deceased in the Underworld 39

Honoring the Dead 40

Chains with Nested Maxims 41

Orational Maxims and the Vocality of the Performance 44

Expanded Maxims 48

Opposition 49

Mnemonic Devices 50

Meter 51

Chapter 2 Poetic Imagery

The Light of Life 63

[characters not reproducible] 65

Individual [characters not reproducible] Expressions 67

[characters not reproducible] 77

(a) [characters not reproducible] 77

(b) [characters not reproducible] (CEG 520) 81

The Chamber(s) of Persephone 86

Chapter 3 Public Display, Private Focus: Redefining Social Virtues

Towards a Typology of [characters not reproducible] and [characters not reproducible] 135

(a) [characters not reproducible] and/or [characters not reproducible] + Quantitative Terms 137

(b) [characters not reproducible] 142

(c) [characters not reproducible] 149

(d) [characters not reproducible] 150

(e) [characters not reproducible] 158

Praising the Deceased 160

[characters not reproducible] 161

[characters not reproducible] 169

(a) Professional [characters not reproducible] 171

(b) Family-Oriented [characters not reproducible] 175

(c) Gender-Based [characters not reproducible] 178

[characters not reproducible]-epitaphs 180

The 'Thick and Thin' Theory: Family, Age, Profession 183

Family 183

Age 198

Youth 200

Old Age/Longevity 204

Profession 208

Men 209

Women 210

Chapter 4 Narrative Development and Poetic Technique

The Epitaph as Inscription 216

(a) Deictic Topography 217

(b) The Reader as Passer-By 219

The Epitaph as Narrative 224

(a) Extended Epigrams 224

(a1) Parataxis + Relative Expansion 225

(a2) Relative Pronouns + [characters not reproducible] Expansion 226

(a3) Relative Pronouns + [characters not reproducible] Expansion 227

(a4) Chains of Relative Expansions 228

(a5) The [characters not reproducible] ... [characters not reproducible] Relative Device 230

(b) Subordinate Clauses 233

(c) Parataxis 237

(d) Asyndeton 241

(e) Names 243

(f) The Interplay between Speaker and Addressee 252

(f1) Presentation of the Deceased or the Monument (CEG 529) 253

(f2) Report of the Death-Situation (CEG 554) 254

(f3) The 'I-Style' (CEG 473) 254

(f3.1) First-Person Mourner 255

(f4) Address Forms (CEG 604) 256

(f5) Dialogue 257

(f5.1) Question-Answer Device 258

(f5.2) Grave-Situated Conversation 259

The Poetic Grammar of the Epitaph 261

(a) Diction 261

(a1) Epic Vocabulary 262

(a2) Tragic Vocabulary 268

(a3) Varia 273

(a4) Compound Epithets 276

(a5) Influence of the Language of Decrees and Dedicatory Inscriptions 278

(b) Style 281

(b1) Wordplay and Soundplay 281

(b2) Priamel 284

(c) Meter 285

(c1) Outer Metric 286

(c2) Inner Metric 291

(c3) Violations 292

(c4) Unmetrical Verses 297

(c4.1) Unmetrical Hexameters and Pentameters 297

(c4.2) Combined Forms 300

(c5) Coterminacy and Enjambment 302.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [323]-342) and indexes.

ISBN:

3110201321

9783110201321

OCLC:

220330045