Eve of the festival
Subtitle: making myth in Odyssey 19
By: Olga Levaniouk
Series: Hellenic studies -- 46
Publisher: Center for Hellenic Studies; Distributed by Harvard University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Washington, D.C; Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780674053359
Subjects: Odysseus (Greek mythology) in literature; Penelope (Greek mythology) in literature; Greek Epic poetry; Myth in literature; History and criticism
Description: Eve of the Festival is a study of Homeric myth-making in the first and longest dialogue between Penelope and Odysseus (Odyssey 19). The author makes a case for seeing virtuoso myth-making as an essential part of this conversation, a register of communication which provides the speakers with a coded way of exchanging their thoughts. At the core of the book is a detailed examination of several myths in the dialogue to understand what is being said and to what effect. The dialogue is interpreted as an exchange of performances which have for their occasion the eve of Apollo's festival and which amount to activating, and even enacting, the myth corresponding within the Odyssey to this ritual event. --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-344) and indexes.