The values of nighttime in classical antiquity : between dusk and dawn / edited by James Ker, Antje Wessels.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ker, James, editor.

Wessels, Antje, editor.

Series:

Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; Volume 434.

Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava ; Volume 434

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Light and darkness in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020.

Summary:

In ancient Greece and Rome, nighttime encompassed a distinctive array of cultural values that went far beyond the inversion of daytime. Night was a mythological figure, a locus of specialized knowledge, a socially significant semantic space in various literary genres, and a setting for unique experiences. These facets of night are explored here through fifteen case-studies, that range from Hesiod to imperial Roman painting and cultural history. The contributors took part in a conference on this theme at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, where they pursued a common goal: to consider how nighttime was employed in the ascription of specific values—in determining what values a thing or a person might have, or lack, in a nocturnal context.

Contents:

Introduction: The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity

Antje Wessels and James Ker

Part 1 Who or What Is the Night?

1 Night as Measure, Mother, and Metaphor in the Hesiodic Cosmos

Adrienne Atkins

2 First-Born of Night or Oozing from the Slime? Deviant Origins in Orphic Cosmogonies

Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

Part 2 Nocturnal Knowledge: Medicine, Philosophy, Religion, Astronomy

3 Night as Diagnostic Marker in Hippocratic Medicine

Ralph M. Rosen

4 Nights of Insight: Plato on the Philosophical Qualities of the Night

Albert Joosse

5 Night’s Fictions: The Religious Institutions of Numa in Lucilius fr. 484–489 (Marx)

Cynthia Damon

6 The Astronomer-Poet at Night: The Evolution of a Motif

Kathryn Wilson

Part 3 Society and Gender: Men and Women at Work, by Night

7 A Night Attack in the Seven Against Thebes

Isabella Reinhardt

8 Tragedy of Darkness: The Role of Night in Euripides’ Rhesus

Marie-Charlotte von Lehsten

9 The Witching Hour: Wakeful Women at Work in Homer, Apollonius, and Theocritus

Amelia Bensch-Schaus

10 Nox rei publicae ? Catiline’s and Cicero’s Nocturnal Activities in the Catilinarians

Christoph Pieper

11 Inn-Dependent: Spending the Night in a Hostel in the Roman World

Jane Sancinito

Part 4 Experiencing by Night

12 Better Safe Than Sorry: Nocturnal Divinatory Signs from a First-Century BCE Roman Perspective

Kim Beerden

13 Through the Eyes of the Night: Ecphrasis of Nocturnal Ambush Scenes in Roman Epic and Historiography

Selina Weissmantel

14 Nocturnal Negotiations: Experiencing the Night Scenes from the Iliad at the House of Octavius Quartio, Pompeii II 2.2

Barbara Kellum

15 Persius’ Nocturnal Inspiration in the Light of Day

Jennifer Ferriss-Hill

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

90-04-43636-7

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004436367 DOI