Human and Animal in Ancient Greece: Empathy and Encounter in Classical Literature

ISBN-13: 9781784537616 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 272 str.

Tua Korhonen; Erika Ruonakoski

Opis

Animals were omnipresent in the everyday life of classical Greece, and its culture was not merely anthropocentric. Through close textual analysis of ancient Greek literature, the authors present a nuanced understanding of the classical relationship to animals. They explore how different non-humans such as domestic and wild animals, and mythological hybrid creatures were depicted in varying ways that reveal unique perspectives on categories of animal. Central to the book s enquiry is the question of empathy: investigating the ways in which ancient Greek authors invited their readers to empathise with non-human counterparts. Literary subjects discussed include the animal similes in the Iliad, the addresses to animals and nature in Sophocles Philoctetes, the human-bird hybrids in The Birds by Aristophanes and the animal protagonists of Anyte s epigrams. Throughout, the authors present an innovative methodology that combines philological and historical analysis with the philosophy of embodiment or phenomenology of the body. Shedding new light on how animals were regarded in ancient Greek society, the book will be of interest to classicists, historians, philosophers, literary scholars and all those studying empathy and the human-animal relationship."

Spis treści

Introduction: ???????? is a Greek Word PART I READING ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE THROUGH PHENOMENOLOGY 1. Situated Bodies: Embodiment and Empathy 2. Different Aspects of Empathy 3. Viewpoint and Embodiment 4. The Other’s Voice Inside Me: Intimacy and Strangeness of Reading 5. The Problem of Historicity Summary PART II ANCIENT RHETORICAL STRATEGIES OF EMPATHETIC ENCOUNTER 1. Greek Reflections on Poets and Poetics 2. The “Vividness” of Artwork and Mimesis 3. Pity versus Identification and Engagement 4. Addresses, Apostrophes and Prosopopoeia Summary PART III ON HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS IN ANTIQUITY 1. Alterity and Otherness of Animals in Greek Antiquity 2. Interaction, Interplay, and Encounters 3. Metaphorical Animals 4. Greek Anthropocentrism and Anthropomorphism 5. Hybrids and Metamorphoses Summary PART IV FOUR CASE STUDIES 1. Animal Similes in Homer’s Iliad 2. Sophocles’ Philoctetes 3. Aristophanes’ Birds 4. Anyte’s Epigrams Summary Conclusion