The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology

572 Pages·2007·10.946 MB·English

by  Roger D. Woodard

The Cambridge Companion to
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
S
TheCambridgeCompaniontoGreekMythologypresentsacomprehensive
and integrated treatment of ancient Greek mythic tradition. Divided
intothreesections,theworkconsistsofsixteenoriginalarticlesauthored
by an ensemble of some of the world’s most distinguished scholars of
classical mythology. Part I provides readers with an examination of the
forms and uses of myth in Greek oral and written literature from the
epic poetry of the eighth century BC to the mythographic catalogs
of the early centuries AD. Part II looks at the relationship between
myth, religion, art, and politics among the Greeks and at the Roman
appropriationofGreekmythictradition.ThereceptionofGreekmyth
from the Middle Ages to modernity, in literature, feminist scholarship,
andcinema,roundsouttheworkinPartIII.TheCambridgeCompanion
to Greek Mythology is a unique resource that will be of interest and
valuenotonlytoundergraduateandgraduatestudentsandprofessional
scholars,butalsotoanyoneinterestedinthemythsoftheancientGreeks
and their impact on western tradition.
RogerD.WoodardistheAndrewV.V.RaymondProfessoroftheClas-
sics and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Buffalo (The State
UniversityofNewYork).HehastaughtintheUnitedStatesandEurope
and is the author of a number of books on myth and ancient civiliza-
tion, most recently Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult.
Dr.WoodardiseditorofTheCambridgeEncyclopediaoftheWorld’sAncient
Languages, which received a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
award in 2006.

The Cambridge Companion to
G R E E K
M Y T H O L O G Y
S
Edited by
Roger D. Woodard
AndrewV.V.RaymondProfessoroftheClassics
ProfessorofLinguistics
UniversityofBuffalo(TheStateUniversityofNewYork)
cambridge university press
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TheCambridgecompaniontoGreekmythology/editedbyRogerD.Woodard.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn 978-0-521-84520-5(hardback)–isbn 978-0-521-60726-1(pbk.)
1.Mythology,Greek. I.Woodard,RogerD. II.Title.
bl783.c36 2007
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Contents
S
List of Illustrations page vii
List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction: Muthoi in Continuity and Variation 1
ROGERD.WOODARD
Part 1: Sources and Interpretations 15
1 Lyric and Greek Myth 19
GREGORYNAGY
2 Homer and Greek Myth 52
GREGORYNAGY
3 Hesiod and Greek Myth 83
ROGERD.WOODARD
4 Tragedy and Greek Myth 166
RICHARDBUXTON
5 Myth in Aristophanes 190
ANGUSBOWIE
6 Plato Philomythos 210
DISKINCLAY
7 Hellenistic Mythographers 237
CAROLYNHIGBIE
v
Contents
Part 2: Response, Integration,
Representation 255
8 Greek Myth and Greek Religion 259
CLAUDECALAME
9 Myth and Greek Art: Creating a Visual Language 286
JENIFERNEILS
10 Mythic Landscapes of Greece 305
ADACOHEN
11 Politics and Greek Myth 331
JONATHANM.HALL
12 Ovid and Greek Myth 355
A.J.BOYLE
Part 3: Reception 383
13 Women and Greek Myth 387
VANDAZAJKO
14 Let Us Make Gods in Our Image: Greek Myth in
Medieval and Renaissance Literature 407
H.DAVIDBRUMBLE
15 ‘Hail, Muse! et cetera’: Greek Myth in English and
American Literature 425
SARAHANNESBROWN
16 Greek Myth on the Screen 453
MARTINM.WINKLER
Bibliography 481
Index 511
vi
Illustrations
S
Figures
Figures follow page 304
1 A Fox Telling Aesop Fables. Red-figure kylix of the Bologna
Painter from Vulci.
2 The Charioteer of the Phaedrus. Andrea Sansovino.
3 Deeds of Theseus. Attic red-figure cup attributed to the Codrus
Painter from Vulci.
4 Tyrannicides.CastsofRomanmarblecopiesafterbronzeoriginals
by Kritios and Nesiotes.
5 Departure of a Hero. Attic Late Geometric spouted crater from
Thebes.
6 DeathofPriam;Atticblack-figureamphorabyLydosfromVulci.
7 Return of Hephaestus. Attic red-figure skyphos attributed to the
Curti Painter.
8 Return of Hephaestus. Attic red-figure volute-crater by Polion
from Spina.
9 HeraclesandtheNemeanLion.MetopefromtheTempleofZeus
at Olympia.
10 Birth of Erichthonius. Attic red-figure squat lekythos attributed
to the Meidias Painter.
11 BattleofAthenaandaGiant.Atticred-figurelekythosattributed
to Douris.
12 Naval Fresco from Akrotiri.
13 Nymphs and Pan. Marble votive relief.
14 The Blinding of Polyphemus. Fragment from a vase.
15 Meeting of Odysseus and Nausicaa. Lid of a red-figure pyxis
attributed to Aison.
16 AbductionoftheLeucippidesbytheDioscuriandtheGardenof
the Hesperides. Attic red-figure hydria by the Meidias Painter.
vii
Illustrations
17 Odysseus’ Descent to the Underworld. Drawing of Attic red-
figure pelike attributed to the Lykaon Painter.
18 The Suicide of Ajax. Black-figure amphora by Exekias.
19 Book 2, Emblem 2, in Frances Quarles, Emblemes.
20 “Venus,”fromTheCopenhagenPlanetBook.SeeFiledtKok(1985)
forasimilarblockbookbytheMasteroftheAmsterdamCabinet.
21 Clash of the Titans. Zeus and the “Arena of Life.”
22 Jason and the Argonauts. Hera observing Jason and Medea on the
Olympian screen.
23 Jason and the Argonauts. Talos towering above the Argonauts.
24 Hercules.Ourheroattheclimaxofthefilmthatmadehimimmor-
tal on the screen.
25 Hercules Conquers Atlantis. Hercules, descended from his twelve-
horsechariot,discoversmassacrevictimsatthepalaceofAtlantis.
Note the panther reliefs on the wall.
Tables
3.1 Comparison of Indo-Iranian Traditions: Cosmogonic
and Cosmologic page 132
3.2 Comparison of Greek and Indic Traditions 142
viii
Contributors
S
ANGUS BOWIE is Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford, and the
Lobel Praelector in Classics. His publications include The Poetic Dialect
of Sappho and Alcaeus (1981) and Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Com-
edy (1993). Dr. Bowie also serves as editor of the Journal of Hellenic
Studies.
A. J. BOYLE is professor of classics at the University of South-
ern California. His recent publications include Tragic Seneca (1997),
Ovid’s Fasti (with R. D. Woodard 2000), Flavian Rome (with W. J.
Dominik 2003), Ovid and the Monuments (2004), and Roman Tragedy
(2006).
Professor SARAH ANNES BROWN is professor of English at Anglia
RuskinUniversity,Cambridge.SheistheauthorofTheMetamorphosisof
Ovid:FromChaucertoTedHughes(1999)andthecoeditor(withCharles
Martindale) of Nicholas Rowe’s translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia (1997).
She has also published numerous shorter pieces on various aspects of
classicalreception,includingarticlesonitsrelationshipwithqueerthe-
ory and science fiction. She is currently editing a collection of essays,
Tragedy in Transition (with Catherine Silverstone).
H. DAVID BRUMBLE is professor of English at the University of
Pittsburgh. Among his scholarly works are Classical Myths and Legends
in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: A Dictionary of Allegorical Meanings
(1998) and Street Gangs and Warrior Tribes (forthcoming).
RICHARDBUXTONisprofessorofGreeklanguageandliteratureatthe
University of Bristol. Among the works he has authored are Persuasion
inGreekTragedy(1982),Sophocles(1984;reprintedwithAddenda1995),
ix
Contributors
Imaginary Greece: The Contexts of Mythology (1994), and The Complete
World of Greek Mythology (2004). Professor Buxton is editor of From
Myth to Reason? (1999) and Oxford Readings in Greek Religion (2000).
Since 2006, Professor Buxton has been President of the Fondation pour
le Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae.
CLAUDECALAMEisDirectorofStudiesattheE´coledesHautesE´tudes
enSciencesSocialesinParisandHonoraryProfessorofGreekLanguage
and Literature at the University of Lausanne. In English, he has pub-
lished The Craft of Poetic Speech in Ancient Greece (1995), The Poetics of
ErosinAncientGreece(1999), ChorusesofYoungWomeninAncientGreece
(secondedition2001), MythandHistoryinAncientGreece(2003), Masks
ofAuthority.FictionandPragmaticsinAncientGreece(2005),and,onGreek
mythology, The´se´e et l’imaginaire athe´nien. Le´gende et culte en Gre`ce clas-
sique (second edition 1996) and Poe´tique des mythes dans la Gre`ce antique
(2000).
DISKIN CLAY is professor of classical studies at Duke University. His
interests have focused on the intersection of ancient poetry and phi-
losophy. He is the author of many studies of the Platonic dialogues,
Lucretius and Epicurus (1983), Platonic Questions: Dialogues with the Silent
Philosopher (2000), and Archilochos Heros: The Cult of Poets in the Greek
Polis (2004). At present he is working on a study of The Art of Hell:
Reflections of Dante’s Inferno in the Religious Art of Tuscany from the Early
Trecento to 1579.
ADACOHENisanassociateprofessorofarthistoryatDartmouthCol-
lege. She has written essays on various aspects of Greek art, including
genderandsexuality,myth,andlandscape.SheisauthorofTheAlexander
Mosaic:StoriesofHistoryandDefeat(1997)andcoeditorofandcontribu-
tortoConstructionsofChildhoodintheGreekandRomanAntiquity(2007).
She recently completed a book on masculinity and power in late Clas-
sical and Hellenistic art titled Paradigms of Manhood: Art and Culture in
the Times of Alexander the Great and is working on a study of feminine
beauty in ancient Greece.
JONATHAN M. HALL is the Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the
Humanities, professor and chair of classics, and professor of history at
the University of Chicago. He is the author of Ethnic Identity in Greek
Antiquity(1997),Hellenicity:BetweenEthnicityandCulture(2002),andA
History of the Archaic Greek World (2007).
x