The politics of sacrifice in early Greek myth and poetry / Charles H. Stocking.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stocking, Charles H., 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hesiod. Theogony.

Hesiod.

Homer. Odyssey.

Homer.

Homeric hymns.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Sacrifice in literature.

Sacrifice--Greece.

Sacrifice.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 198 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

This book offers a new interpretation of ancient Greek sacrifice from a cultural poetic perspective. Through close readings of the Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, and the Odyssey in conjunction with evidence from material culture, it demonstrates how sacrifice narratives in early Greek hexameter poetry are intimately connected to a mythic-poetic discourse referred to as the 'politics of the belly'. This mythic-poetic discourse presents sacrifice as a site of symbolic conflict between the male stomach and female womb for both mortals and immortals. Ultimately, the book argues that the ritual of sacrifice operates as a cultural mechanism for the perpetuation of patriarchal ideology not just in early Greek hexameter, but throughout Greek cultural history.

Contents:

Introduction: the paradox of sacrifice and the politics of feasting

Hesiod and the interpretation of Greek sacrifice

Reevaluating the value of sacrifice: commensal politics

The use of sacrifice: gendered politics

Interpreting the politics of Greek sacrifice through poetics

Anger and honorary shares: the Promethean division revisited

The anger of Zeus in the Theogony

Metaphors of anger and the mythic origin of sacrifice

Why Zeus is angry: the socio-poetics of anger and distribution

Conclusion: contested portions in poetry and practice

Sacrifice, succession, and the politics of patriarchy

Contest and deception, sacrifice and birth in Hesiod's Theogony

Controlling consumption: sacrifice and Pandora

Ending sacrifice, challenging patriarchy in the Homeric hymn to Demeter

Conclusion: sacrifice and patriarchy in poetry and practice

The desire of a god: semiotic sacrifice and patriarchal identity in the Homeric hymn to Hermes

Desire, deception, and Hermes' conflicted genealogy

Conspicuous consumption and sanctuary economics

Hermes' semiotic sacrifice

Sacrifice and song: the poetics of distribution

Conclusion: Hermes' sacrificial self-fashioning

Cities where men sacrifice: Odysseus returns to the fatherland

Not misrecognizing Hermes

Returning to the fatherland, returning to sacrifice

Consumption without return: Odysseus' companions and the suitors

Recognizing fathers and sons

Conclusion: sacrifice, genealogy, and patriarchy in the Odyssey

Conclusion: sacrificial narrative and the politics of the belly.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 21 Apr 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-73251-7

1-316-73058-1

1-316-74409-4

1-316-74602-X

1-316-68704-X

1-316-75374-3

1-316-74795-6