Oxford University Press, USA
Mapping the Afterlife: From Homer to Dante
Mapping the Afterlife: From Homer to Dante
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There are very few accounts of the afterlife across the period from Homer to Dante. Most traditional studies approach the classical afterlife from the point of view of its evolution towards the Christian afterlife. This book tries to do something different: to explore afterlife narratives in
spatial terms and to situate this tradition within the ambit of a fundamental need in human psychology for the synthesis of soul (or self) and universe. Drawing on the works of Homer, Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and Dante, among others, as well as on modern works on psychology, cartography, and music theory, Mapping the Afterlife argues that the topography of the afterlife in the Greek and Roman tradition, and in Dante, reflects the state of scientific
knowledge at the time of the various contexts in which we find it. The book posits that there is a dominant spatial idiom in afterlife landscapes, a journey-vision paradigm--the horizontal journey of the soul across the afterlife landscape, and a synoptic vision of the universe. Many scholars have
argued that the vision of the universe is out of place in the underworld landscape. However, looking across the entire tradition, we find that afterlife landscapes, almost without exception, contain these two kinds of space in one form or another. This double vision of space brings the underworld,
as the landscape of the soul, into contact with the scientific universe; and brings humanity into line with the cosmos.
Author: Emma Gee
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/20/2020
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780190670481
spatial terms and to situate this tradition within the ambit of a fundamental need in human psychology for the synthesis of soul (or self) and universe. Drawing on the works of Homer, Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and Dante, among others, as well as on modern works on psychology, cartography, and music theory, Mapping the Afterlife argues that the topography of the afterlife in the Greek and Roman tradition, and in Dante, reflects the state of scientific
knowledge at the time of the various contexts in which we find it. The book posits that there is a dominant spatial idiom in afterlife landscapes, a journey-vision paradigm--the horizontal journey of the soul across the afterlife landscape, and a synoptic vision of the universe. Many scholars have
argued that the vision of the universe is out of place in the underworld landscape. However, looking across the entire tradition, we find that afterlife landscapes, almost without exception, contain these two kinds of space in one form or another. This double vision of space brings the underworld,
as the landscape of the soul, into contact with the scientific universe; and brings humanity into line with the cosmos.
Author: Emma Gee
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/20/2020
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780190670481
About the Author
Emma Gee is an independent scholar and tutor in the Classics. Her previous books include Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition and Ovid, Aratus, and Augustus.
