Singing for the Gods: Performances of Myth and Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece

ISBN-13: 9780199219964 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 528 str.

Barbara Kowalzig

Opis

Singing for the Gods develops a new approach towards an old question in the study of religion - the relationship of myth and ritual. Focusing on ancient Greek religion, Barbara Kowalzig exploits the joint occurrence of myth and ritual in archaic and classical Greek song-culture. She shows how choral performances of myth and ritual, taking place all over the ancient Greek world in the early fifth century BC, help to effect social and political change in their own time. Religious song emerges as integral to a rapidly changing society hovering between local, regional, and panhellenic identities and between aristocratic rule and democracy. Drawing on contemporary debates on myth, ritual, and performance in social anthropology, modern history, and theatre studies, this book establishes Greek religion's dynamic role and gives religious song-culture its deserved place in the study of Greek history.

Recenzje

Anyone with an interest in Greek religion or choral poetry will have to consult this study. Its richness lies in its cumulative detail and its bringing together of literatry, historical, anthropological and archeological evidence to contextualize the dynamics of cultic performance throughout the Greek world.

O autorze

Barbara Kowalzig is Leverhulme Research Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London.