The pregnant male as myth and metaphor in classical Greek literature / David D. Leitao.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leitao, David D., 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Philosophy in literature.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)--History--To 1500.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Masculinity in literature.

Metaphor in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 307 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

The Pregnant Male as Myth & Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book traces the image of the pregnant male in Greek literature as it evolved over the course of the classical period. The image - as deployed in myth and in metaphor - originated as a representation of paternity and, by extension, 'authorship' of ideas, works of art, legislation, and the like. Only later, with its reception in philosophy in the early fourth century, did it also become a way to figure and negotiate the boundary between the sexes. The book considers a number of important moments in the evolution of the image: the masculinist embryological theory of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and other fifth century pre-Socratics; literary representations of the birth of Dionysus; the origin and functions of pregnancy as a metaphor in tragedy, comedy and works of some Sophists; and finally the redeployment of some of these myths and metaphors in Aristophanes' Assemblywomen and in Plato's Symposium and Theaetetus.

Contents:

The new father of Anaxagoras: the one-seed theory of reproduction and its reception in Athenian tragedy

The thigh birth of Dionysus: exploring legitimacy in the classical city-state

From myth to metaphor: intellectual and poetic generation in the age of the sophists

Blepyrus's turd-child and the birth of Athena

The pregnant philosopher: masculine and feminine procreative styles in Plato's Symposium

Reading Plato's midwife: Socrates and intellectual paternity in the Theaetetus.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-23065-9

1-139-41156-X

1-280-68304-X

9786613659989

1-139-42292-8

1-139-08363-5

1-139-41990-0

1-139-42195-6

1-139-41786-X

1-139-42399-1

OCLC:

794663510