Pain and pleasure in classical times / edited by W.V. Harris.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harris, William V. (William Vernon), editor.

Series:

Columbia studies in the classical tradition ; v. 44.

Columbia studies in the classical tradition ; volume 44

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pain in literature.

Pleasure in literature.

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xiii, 265 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2018]

Summary:

Pain and Pleasure in Classical Times attempts to blaze a trail for the cross-disciplinary humanistic study of pain and pleasure, with literature scholars, historians and philosophers all setting out to understand how the Greeks and Romans experienced, managed and reasoned about the sensations and experiences they felt as painful or pleasurable. The book is intended to provoke discussion of a wide range of problems in the cultural history of antiquity. It addresses both the physicality of eros and illness, and physiological and philosophical doctrines, especially hedonism and anti-hedonism in their various forms. Fine points of terminology (Greek is predictably rich in this area) receive careful attention. Authors in question run from Homer to (among others) the Hippocratics, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Seneca, Plutarch, Galen and the Aristotle-commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Pain and Pleasure as a Field of Historical Study p. 1 / W.V. Harris

2 Post-primordial Pleasures: The Pleasures of the Flesh and the Question of Origins p. 15 / James Davidson

3 Must We Suffer in Order to Stay Healthy? Pleasure and Pain in Ancient Medical Literature p. 36 / Véronique Boudon-Millot

4 Pain and Medicine in the Classical World p. 55 / W. V. Harris

5 Pleasure and the Medians in Roman Literature p. 83 / Caroline Wazer

6 What is Hedonism? p. 93 / Katja Maria Vogt

7 Pleasure, Pain, and the Unity of the Soul in Plato's Protagoras p. 111 / Wolfgang-Rainer Mann and Vanessa de Harven

8 Lucretian Pleasure p. 139 / Elizabeth Asmis

9 Joy, Flow, and the Sage's Experience in Seneca p. 156 / Sam McVane

10 Alexander of Aphrodisias on Pleasure and Pain in Aristotle p. 174 / Wei Cheng

11 On Grief and Pain p. 201 / David Konstan

12 Nero in Hell: Plutarch's De Sera Numinis Vindicta p. 213 / Marcus Folch.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Pain and pleasure in classical times

ISBN:

9789004379497

9004379495

OCLC:

1042107674