The sea in the Greek imagination / Marie-Claire Beaulieu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beaulieu, Marie-Claire, 1979- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ocean--Religious aspects.

Ocean.

Ocean--Mythology.

Mythology, Greek.

Liminality.

Life.

Death.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (281 p.)

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The sea is omnipresent in Greek life. Visible from nearly everywhere, the sea represents the life and livelihood of many who dwell on the islands and coastal areas of the Mediterranean, and it has been so since long ago—the sea loomed large in the Homeric epics and throughout Greek mythology. The Greeks of antiquity turned to the sea for food and for transport; for war, commerce, and scientific advancement; and for religious purification and other rites. Yet, the sea was simultaneously the center of Greek life and its limit. For, while the sea was a giver of much, it also embodied danger and uncertainty. It was in turns barren and fertile, and pictured as both a roadway and a terrifying void. The image of the sea in Greek myth is as conflicting as it is common, with sea crossings taking on seemingly incompatible meanings in different circumstances. In The Sea in the Greek Imagination, Marie-Claire Beaulieu unifies the multifarious representations of the sea and sea crossings in Greek myth and imagery by positing the sea as a cosmological boundary between the mortal world, the underworld, and the realms of the immortal. Through six in-depth case studies, she shows how, more than a simple physical boundary, the sea represented the buffer zone between the imaginary and the real, the transitional space between the worlds of the living, the dead, and the gods. From dolphin riders to Dionysus, maidens to mermen, Beaulieu investigates the role of the sea in Greek myth in a broad-ranging and innovative study.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List Of Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Hygra keleutha: The Paths of the Sea

Chapter 2. Heroic Coming-of-Age and the Sea

Chapter 3. The Floating Chest: Maidens, Marriage, and the Sea

Chapter 4. Dolphin Riders Between Hades and Olympus

Chapter 5. Leaps of Faith ? Diving into the Sea, Women, and Metamorphosis

Chapter 6. Dionysus and the Sea

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Based on author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008; originally entitled: Sea as a two-way passage between life and death in Greek mythology.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812291964

0812291964

OCLC:

926092737