Poetry and Its Public in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the Fifth Century

Brilliantly applying insights and methodologies from anthropology, literary theory, and the social sciences to the historical study of archaic lyric, Poetry and Its Public in Ancient Greece, winner of Italy's prestigious Viareggio Prize, develops a new Picture of the literary history of Greece.

An essentially practical art, ancient Greek poetry was clocely linked to the realities of social and political life and to the actual behavior of individuals within a community. Its mythological content was didactic and pedagogical. But Greek poetry differs radically from modern forms in its mode of communication: it was designed not for reading but for performance, with musical accompaniment, before an audience. In analyzing the formal and social aspects of this performance context, Gentili illuminates such topics as oral composition and improvisation, oral transmission and memory, the connections betweek poetry and music, the changing socioeconomic situation of the artist, and the relations among poets, patrons, and the public.

Author: Bruno Gentili
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 02/01/1990
Pages: 408
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.08w x 0.97d
ISBN: 9780801840197

About the Author
Cole, A. Thomas: - Thomas Cole is professor of Greek and Latin at Yale University.

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