Greek myths in Roman art and culture : imagery, values and identity in Italy, 50 BC-AD 250 / Zahra Newby, University of Warwick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newby, Zahra, author.

Series:

Greek culture in the Roman world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mythology, Greek, in art.

Art, Roman--Greek influences.

Art, Roman.

Art, Roman--Themes, motives.

Rome--Civilization--Greek influences.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Civilization.

Physical Description:

xx, 387 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Images of episodes from Greek mythology are widespread in Roman art, appearing in sculptural groups, mosaics, paintings and reliefs. They attest to Rome's enduring fascination with Greek culture, and its desire to absorb and reframe that culture for new ends. This book provides a comprehensive account of the meanings of Greek myth across the spectrum of Roman art, including public, domestic and funerary contexts. It argues that myths, in addition to functioning as signifiers of a patron's education or paideia, played an important role as rhetorical and didactic exempla. The changing use of mythological imagery in domestic and funerary art in particular reveals an important shift in Roman values and senses of identity across the period of the first two centuries AD, and in the ways that Greek culture was turned to serve Roman values"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Art and power in the public sphere

Recreating myth in the Roman villa

Paideia, rhetoric and self-representation: responses to mythological wall-paintings

Mythological wall-paintings in the Roman house

From home to tomb: myths in the funerary realm

The rhetoric of mythological sarcophagi: praise, lament and consolation

Epilogue: the Roman past, the culture of exemplarity and a new role for Greek myth.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107072244

1107072247

OCLC:

948670195