The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context (Hardback)
$49.29 - Save $13.03 20% off - RRP $62.32 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for The Writing of Orpheus An understanding of Ancient Greek myth in its cultural contexts. Marcel Detienne explores the mythological repertoire flowing from the writing of Orpheus, then moves on from the Orphic writings to broader mysteries, such as how Greek gods became myths, and how myths informed religious thinking.
Full description- Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
- Published: 30 December 2002
- Format: Hardback 216 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Literary Studies: Classical, Early & Medieval | Literary Studies: Poetry & Poets | Folklore, Myths & Legends | European History | Ancient History: To C 500 CE | History Of Religion | Ancient Religions & Mythologies
- ISBN 13: 9780801869549 ISBN 10: 0801869544
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Full description for The Writing of Orpheus
Son of a mortal king and an immortal Muse, Orpheus possessed a gift for music unmatched among humans; with his lyre he could turn the course of rivers, drown the fatal song of the Sirens, and charm the denizens of the underworld. The allure of his music speaks through the myths and stories of the Greeks and Romans, who tell of his mysterious compositions, with lyrics that only the initiated could understand after undergoing secret rites. Where readers of subsequent centuries have been content to understand these mysteries as the stuff of obfuscation or mere folderol, Marcel Detienne finds in the writing of Orpheus a key to the thinking of the ancient Greeks. A profound understanding of ancient Greek myth in its cultural contexts allows Detienne to recover a cultural system from fragments and ephemera-to reproduce, with sensitivity to variation and nuance, the full richness of the mythological repertoire flowing from the writing of Orpheus. His investigation moves from the Orphic writings to broader mysteries: how Greek gods became myths, how myths informed later religious thinking, and how myths have come into play in polemics between competing religions. An eloquent answer to some of the most vexing questions about the myth of Orpheus and its far-reaching ramifications through time and culture, Detienne's work ultimately offers a major rethinking of Greek mythology.
