Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Shipwrecked Spouses: Leukothea’S Veil And Marital Reunion In The Odyssey, David West
Shipwrecked Spouses: Leukothea’S Veil And Marital Reunion In The Odyssey, David West
New England Classical Journal
This article proposes a new view of the mysterious incident in which Odysseus wears Leukothea’s veil to make it safely ashore in Odyssey 5, arguing that it bears directly on one of the epic’s fundamental themes, the reunion of the hero with Penelope. Through an analysis of the traditional referentiality of the veil in the Homeric epics and of Odyssean similes associating shipwreck with family reunion, it is shown that Leukothea’s veil identifies Odysseus with Penelope while both signifying and magically effecting the recovery of chastity, and ultimately of his marriage.
Landscape And Lore: River Acheron And The Oracle Of The Dead, Lashante St. Fleur
Landscape And Lore: River Acheron And The Oracle Of The Dead, Lashante St. Fleur
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In order to explore the cultural relationships between people, landscape, memory and ritual, this master’s thesis focuses on the Acheron River in Epirus, Greece, long believed to harbor an entrance into Hades, the Greek underworld. Various entrances into the chthonic, or subterranean land of the dead, are peppered throughout Greece, with each tied to their own local myths, legends, folklore and cults. According to those traditions, Hades could be accessed from several terrestrial rivers thought to be connected to Oceanus, the primordial world-encompassing river surrounding all of creation. Flowing forth from River Ocean were all above- and underground rivers and …
The Gift In The Iliad, Tyler Jordan
The Gift In The Iliad, Tyler Jordan
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
In this thesis I challenge the dominant conception of gift giving in the Iliad. In Chapter 1 I show that the textual evidence does not support the idea that different categories of gift giving are denoted by word choice. In Chapter 2, I show that modern theories are not able to explain perfectly the instances of gift giving in the Iliad. Furthermore, I show that the use or avoidance of gift-terms in the poem can carry meaning. In Chapter 3, I take the conclusions from the previous two chapters and apply them to a focused analysis of the …
Mythic Background, Erwin F. Cook
Mythic Background, Erwin F. Cook
Classical Studies Faculty Research
This essay focuses on the influence of Indo-European and ancient Near Eastern myth on Homeric poetry. It considers the relationship between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad, and the motif of the hero’s combat with a dragon.
Mythic Background, Erwin F. Cook
Mythic Background, Erwin F. Cook
Classical Studies Faculty Research
Myth, according to a well known formulation by Walter Burkert, “is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance” (1979: 23). Andrew von Hendy, who declares Burkert’s definition the “gold standard” in classical studies, offers a Marxist reformulation, so that myth “is traditional narrative with a high degree of ideological saturation” (2002: 269, 277). This definition accords with the fact that muthos, the Greek word that most closely approximates myth, also designates “story” generally, and, as we might expect in an oral culture, “speech” (its meaning of “fiction” is post-Homeric). It also allows …