The ears of Hermes : communication, images, and identity in the classical world / Maurizio Bettini ; translated by William Michael Short.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bettini, Maurizio.

Contributor:

Short, William Michael, 1977-

Standardized Title:

Orecchie di Hermes. English.

Language:

English

Italian

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Literature and anthropology--Greece.

Literature and anthropology.

Literature and anthropology--Rome.

Hermes (Greek deity)--In literature.

Hermes.

Greece.

Physical Description:

xv, 278 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Though in many respects similar to us moderns, the Greeks and Romans often conceived JL things differently than we do. The cultural inheritance we have received from them can therefore open our eyes to many "manners of life" we might otherwise overlook. The ancients told fascinating-but different-stories; they elaborated profound-but different-symbols. Above all, they confronted many of the problems we still face today- memory and forgetfulness; identity and its strategies; absolutist moralism and behavioral relativity-only in profoundly different ways, since their own cultural forms and resources were different. In The Ears of Hermes: Communication, Images, and Identity in the Classical World, renowned scholar and author Maurizio Bettini explores these different cultural experiences, choosing paths through this territory that are diverse and sometimes unexpected: a little-known variant of a myth or legend, such as that of Brutus pretending, like Hamlet, to be a Fool; a proverb, like lupus in fabula (the wolf in the tale), that expresses the sense of foreboding aroused by the sudden arrival of someone who was just the subject of conversation; or great works, like Plautus' Amphitruo and Vergil's Aeneid, where we encounter the mysteries of the Doppelganger and of "doubles" fabricated to ease the pain of nostalgia. Or the etymology of a word-its own "story"-leads us down some unforeseen avenue of discovery. While scholarly in presentation, this book, in an elegant English translation by William Michael Short, will appeal not only to classicists but also students, as well as to anthropologists and historians of art and literature beyond classics. Book jacket.

Contents:

Hermes' ears : places and symbols of communication in ancient culture

Brutus the fool

Mos, mores, and mos maiorum : the invention of morality in Roman culture

Face to face in ancient Rome : the vocabulary of physical appearance in Latin

Sosia and his substitute : thinking the double at Rome

Ghosts of exile : doubles and nostalgia in Vergil's Parva troia

Death and its double : imagines, ridiculum, and honos in the Roman aristocratic funeral

Argumentum.

Notes:

Translated from the Italian.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814211700

0814211704

9780814292716

0814292712

OCLC:

723528889