Ancient memory : remembrance and commemoration in Graeco-Roman literature / Katherine Mawford, Eleni Ntanou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mawford, Katherine, author.

Ntanou, Eleni, author.

Series:

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes ; 119

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Memory in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (IX, 320 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston, MA : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Although the recent ‘memory boom’ has led to increasing interdisciplinary interest, there is a significant gap relating to the examination of this topic in Classics. In particular, there is need for a systematic exploration of ancient memory and its use as a critical and methodological tool for delving into ancient literature. The present volume provides just such an approach, theorising the use and role of memory in Graeco-Roman thought and literature, and building on the background of memory studies. The volume’s contributors apply theoretical models such as memoryscapes, civic and cultural memory, and memory loss to a range of authors, from Homeric epic to Senecan drama, and from historiography to Cicero’s recollections of performances. The chapters are divided into four sections according to the main perspective taken. These are: 1) the Mechanics of Memory, 2) Collective memory, 3) Female Memory, and 4) Oblivion. This modern approach to ancient memory will be useful for scholars working across the range of Greek and Roman literature, as well as for students, and a broader interdisciplinary audience interested in the intersection of memory studies and Classics.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: The Mechanics of Memory

Taking a Walk through Rome…: Comedic Itineraries and Early Republican Spatial Memory

Quoting from Memory? Shared Knowledge in Cicero’s Book Fragments of Accius’ Atreus

Part II: Collective Memory

Memories of Glory: Poetry, Prose, and Commemoration in the Heraclidae

Ovid’s Poetics of Memory and Oblivion in his Exilic Poetry

The Memory of Marcus Regulus and Cannae in Plautus’ Captivi

Divine Memories and the Shaping of Olympus in the Iliad

Part III: Female Memory

The Manipulation of Memory in Apollonius’ Argonautica

Bound to Break Boundaries: Memory and Identity in Seneca’s Medea

Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea

Part IV: Oblivion

Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses

Divine Memory, Mortal Forgetfulness and Human Misfortune

Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories

Part V: Further Thoughts

Memory and its Discontents in Ancient Literature

List of Contributors

Index Rerum et Nominum

Index Locorum

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-11-072879-6