Homeric Contexts
Homeric Contexts

Author: Franco Montanari

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-04-26

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 3110272016

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This volume aims at offering a critical reassessment of the progress made in Homeric research in recent years, focussing on its two main trends, Neonalysis and Oral Theory. Interpreting Homer in the 21st century asks for a holistic approach that allows us to reconsider some of our methodological tools and preconceptions concerning what we call Homeric poetry. The neoanalytical and oral 'booms', which have to a large extent influenced the way we see Homer today, may be re-evaluated if we are willing to endorse a more flexible approach to certain scholarly taboos pertaining to these two schools of interpretation. Song-traditions, formula, performance, multiformity on the one hand, and Motivforschung, Epic Cycle on the other, may not be so incompatible as we often tend to think.

Oral Epics of Central Asia
Oral Epics of Central Asia

Author: Nora K. Chadwick

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-06-03

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9780521148283

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This book examines the oral literature of the nomadic Turkic peoples.

Animal and Shaman
Animal and Shaman

Author: Julian Baldick

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2012-10-22

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0814771653

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"Animal and Shaman, a comparative study of the indigenous pre-Christian and pre-Muslim religions of Central Asia, describes a common inheritance among the beliefs of the various peoples who have lived in Central Asia or have migrated from there: Scythians, Huns, Mongols, Manchus, Finns and Hungarians." "Shamans - holy men and healers among the pagan faiths - relied heavily on animal sacrifices to create spiritual purity and to nourish the soul and, as a result, animals and spirituality were locked in a mutually dependent embrace. Julian Baldick demonstrates that in pagan times there were remarkable common features in the forms of worship and spiritual expression and that these similarities were largely based on the roles of animals in the different cultures of Central Asia. He shows that these have not only survived in the myths and legends of the region but have also found their way into the mythologies of the West." "This analysis will be of importance to historians as well as to cultural and social anthropologists."--Jacket.

The Making of the Odyssey
The Making of the Odyssey

Author: The late M. L. West

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0191028150

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The poet of the Odyssey was a seriously flawed genius. He had a wonderfully inventive imagination, a gift for pictorial detail and for introducing naturalistic elements into epic dialogue, and a grand architectural plan for the poem. He was also a slapdash artist, often copying verses from the Iliad or from himself without close attention to their suitability. With various possible ways of telling the story bubbling up in his mind, he creates a narrative marked by constant inconsistency of detail. He is a fluent composer who delights in prolonging his tale with subsidiary episodes, yet his deployment of the epic language is often inept and sometimes simply unintelligible. The Making of the Odyssey is a penetrating study of the background, composition, and artistry of the Homeric Odyssey. Martin West places the poem in its late seventh-century context in relation to the Iliad and other poetry of the time. He also investigates the traditions that lie behind it: the origins of the figure of Odysseus, and folk tales such as those of the One-eyed Ogre and the Husband's Return.

Central Asia Reader: The Rediscovery of History
Central Asia Reader: The Rediscovery of History

Author: H.B. Paksoy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-16

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1315485036

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An anthology, translated from original languages and annotated, which documents the rediscovery of history and aims to establish foundations for current political action and cultural revival in the Turkic regions of the former Soviet Union.

Ariadne's Thread
Ariadne's Thread

Author: William F. Hansen

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9780801436703

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"Ariadne's Thread is a mini-encyclopedia of more than a hundred such international oral tales, all present in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. It takes into account writings, including early Jewish and Christian literature, recorded in or translated into Greek or Latin by writers of any nationality. As a result, this book will be invaluable not only to classicists and folklorists but also to a wide range of other readers who are interested in stories and storytelling."--BOOK JACKET.