The choice of Odysseus : Homeric ethics in Renaissance epic and opera / Sarah Van der Laan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van der Laan, Sarah Phillips, author.

Series:

Classical presences.

Oxford scholarship online.

Classical presences

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Homer--Influence.

Homer.

Homer--Appreciation.

Epic poetry--History and criticism.

Epic poetry.

European poetry--Renaissance, 1450-1600--History and criticism.

European poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2024.

Summary:

'The Choice of Odysseus' demonstrates how the 'Odyssey' provided Renaissance authors and readers with a poetic ethics for their age. Sarah Van der Laan reconstructs Renaissance readings of the 'Odyssey' by Petrarch, Poliziano, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser, Monteverdi, and Milton to recover a powerful Renaissance tradition of Odyssean epic.

Contents:

Intro

Series page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication page

Acknowledgements

Contents

Note on Texts and Translations

Introduction

The Choice of Odysseus (I): Homeric Alternatives to Virgilian Paradigms

The Choice of Penelope: Odyssean Marriage as Epic Matter and Epic Telos

The Choice of Odysseus (II): A New (Old) Reading of Odyssey 7

Parenthesis: Counterfactual Narratives and Heroic Prudence

The Choice of Odysseus in Renaissance Epic

1. Speaking with Homer: Authorizing Conversations and Dream Visions in Petrarch and Poliziano

Petrarch

Poliziano

2. Ariosto's Fractured Odysseys: Allusive Interlace and the Limits of Exemplarity in Orlando furioso

From Poliziano to Ariosto: Humanism and the Schoolroom

A Case Study in Odyssean Failure: Norandino

Unending Odysseys: Medoro, Angelica, Orlando

The Choice of Odysseus: Rinaldo

Ariosto's Odyssean Endings: Bradamante, Ruggiero, Leone

3. From Public Duty to Private Pleasures: Odyssean Eros and Heroism in Gerusalemme liberata

Theory and Practice, Renaissance and Modern

Homer's Armida: From Circe to Nausicaa

Rinaldo's Choice of Odysseus

Rinaldo's Odyssean Education: Allusion and Allegory

Tasso's Odyssean Ending

Epic Romance?

4. Spenser's Legends of Sōphrosunē: Temperance, Chastity, and Odyssean Eros in The Faerie Queene

Moral Allegory and the Problem of Temperate Pleasure

Guyon's 'Choice of Odysseus': The Rejection of Eros

Siren Pleasures

The Destruction of Eros: The Legend of Temperance and the Bower of Bliss

The Recovery of Odyssean Eros: The Legend of Chastity

Fugitive Eros: Second Thoughts

5. The Choice of Penelope: Exemplary Women and Exemplary Marriage in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

Setting the Scene: Duelling Prologues.

From Clever to Chaste: Penelope's Exemplary Web and the Nature of Homophrosunē

Unweaving and Reweaving: Rehabilitating Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

From Page to Stage: Restoring Homophrosunē to Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

The Choice of Penelope: Exemplarity in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

6. Milton's Odyssean Ethics: Arminian Theology and Homeric Heroism in Paradise Lost

Openings: Odyssey 1 and Paradise Lost 3

7. Falling into Epic: The Choice of Odysseus and the Road to Redemption in Paradise Lost

Setting the Odyssean Scene: Eden and Scheria

The Choice of Odysseus in malo: Satan's Seduction of Eve

The Choice of Odysseus in bono: Adam's Fall

Milton's Odyssean Marriage: Homophrosunē and Female Heroism after the Fall

The Sinews of Ulysses: Odyssean Epic as Postlapsarian Ideal

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2024.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on January 5, 2024).

ISBN:

0-19-182381-3

0-19-108417-4

0-19-252426-7

OCLC:

1416893051