Cosmology and the polis : the social construction of space and time in the tragedies of Aeschylus / Richard Seaford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Seaford, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aeschylus--Criticism and interpretation.

Aeschylus.

Cosmology in literature.

Space and time in literature.

Social interaction in literature.

Money in literature.

Ritual in literature.

Greek drama (Tragedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Tragedy).

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 366 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Cosmology & the Polis

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book further develops Professor Seaford's innovative work on the study of ritual and money in the developing Greek polis. It employs the concept of the chronotope, which refers to the phenomenon whereby the spatial and temporal frameworks explicit or implicit in a text have the same structure, and uncovers various such chronotopes in Homer, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Presocratic philosophy and in particular the tragedies of Aeschylus. Mikhail Bakhtin's pioneering use of the chronotope was in literary analysis. This study by contrast derives the variety of chronotopes manifest in Greek texts from the variety of socially integrative practices in the developing polis - notably reciprocity, collective ritual and monetised exchange. In particular, the Oresteia of Aeschylus embodies the reassuring absorption of the new and threatening monetised chronotope into the traditional chronotope that arises from collective ritual with its aetiological myth. This argument includes the first ever demonstration of the profound affinities between Aeschylus and the (Presocratic) philosophy of his time.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. The Social Construction of Space, Time and Cosmology: 1. Homer: the reciprocal chronotope; 2. Demeter Hymn: the aetiological chronotope; 3. From reciprocity to money

Part II. Dionysiac Festivals: 4. Royal household and public festival; 5. Aetiological chronotope and dramatic mimesis; 6. Monetisation and tragedy

Part III. Confrontational and Aetiological Space in Aeschylus: 7. Telos and the unlimitedness of money; 8. Suppliants; 9. Seven against Thebes; 10. Confrontational space in Oresteia; 11. The unlimited in Oresteia; 12. Persians

Part IV. The Unity of Opposites: 13. Form-parallelism and the unity of opposites; 14. Aeschylus and Herakleitos; 15. From the unity of opposites to their differentiation

Part V. Cosmology of the Integrated Polis: 16. Metaphysics and the polis in Pythagoreanism; 17. Pythagoreanism in Aeschylus; 18. Household, cosmos and polis; Appendix: was there a skēnē for all the extant plays of Aeschylus?

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-22821-2

1-139-20973-6

1-280-48510-8

1-139-22262-7

9786613580085

1-139-21782-8

1-139-21473-X

1-139-22433-6

0-511-92079-2

1-139-22090-X

OCLC:

776694669