The Staying Power of Thetis : Allusion, Interaction, and Reception from Homer to the 21st Century.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paprocki, Maciej.

Contributor:

Vos, Gary Patrick.

Wright, David John.

Series:

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes Series

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes Series ; v.140

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (536 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Staying Power of Thetis

Place of Publication:

Berlin/Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2023.

Summary:

In 1991, Laura Slatkin published The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the Iliad, in which she argued that Homer knowingly situated the storyworld of the Iliad against the backdrop of an older world of mythos by which the events in the Iliad are explained and given traction. Slatkin’s focus was on Achilles’ mother, Thetis: an ostensibly marginal and powerless goddess, Thetis nevertheless drives the plot of the Iliad, being allusively credited with the power to uphold or challenge the rule of Zeus. Now, almost thirty years after Slatkin’s publication, this timely volume re-examines depictions and receptions of this ambiguous goddess, in works ranging from archaic Greek poetry to twenty-first century cinema. Twenty authors build upon Slatkin’s readings to explore Thetis and multiple roles she played in Western literature, art, material culture, religion, and myth. Ever the shapeshifter, Thetis has been and continues to be reconceptualised: supporter or opponent of Zeus’ regime, model bride or unwilling victim of Peleus’ rape, good mother or child-murderess, figure of comedy or monstrous witch. Hers is an enduring power of transformation, resonating within art and literature.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Introduction: The Power of Thetis, 30 Years On

Part I: The Powers of Thetis - Strife, Succession, and Cosmic Balance

The Power and Failures of Thetis in Early Poetic Traditions and Beyond

The Rape and Binding of Thetis in Its Mythological Context

Divine Even If Not Olympian: The Mobility of Thetis in the Iliad

Suggestions and Themes in Thetis' rhesis in Euripides' Andromache

Thetis in Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo: Dynasty and Succession

Secrets and Lies: The Power of Thetis in Roman Culture

Neque ... sine numine uincis: Thetis, Medusa and (Literary) Creation in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Part II: Thetis' Family Matters

In the Bosom of the Goddess: Thetis and Dionysus in Il. 6.130-140

Motherhood and Shapeshifting in Depictions of Thetis

Forging Families with Thetis: "Tentacular Thinking" and Queer Kinship in Homer's Iliad

Mourning Mothers and Premature Deaths: Thetis' Example in Greek Funerary Epigrams

Part III: Material Culture

'A Dread and Revered Goddess': Thetis and Other Gods in Attic Vases

Saviour Mermaids of the Ancient Mediterranean: Thetis and the Nereids as Patrons of Ancient Greek Mariners

Part IV: Reception - Thetis' Aftermaths

The Wicked Witch of the West? Thetis' Controversial Transformations in 14th- Century Middle English Vernacular Poetry

Reading Thetis in Tirso de Molina's El Aquiles

Thetis and the Shield of Achilles - Reading the Iliad with Auden

Thetis of the Silver Screen: The Vengeful and Cosmic Goddess in Clash of the Titans

Sea Witches in Exile: Thetidean Figures in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989/2008) and Pirates of the Caribbean (2006/2007)

Reception in Performance: Interview and Poetry

Afterword to the Staying Power of Thetis

List of Contributors

Index Locorum

Subject Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9783110678437

3110678438

OCLC:

1376932739