Satirical Descriptions of the Underworld in the Greek Tradition

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Satirical Descriptions of the Underworld in the Greek Tradition

Nilsson, Ingela. Professor. Uppsala University, Sweden. True Lies about a Crucial Journey: Satirical descriptions of the underworld in the Greek tradition The decent to the underworld (katabasis) is a mythological and literary motif known from several traditions around the world. One of the most well-known examples is found in the 11th book of the Odyssey, which describes the descent of Odysseus to Hades and his meeting with various characters. Homer’s version provided a model for the long Greek tradition of katabasis, and while the fabulous tales of the Homeric epics were reworked and ridiculed in Lucian’s A True Story, Odysseus’ descent to Hades was turned into witty satire in the Dialogues of the Dead. Lucian employed the underworld setting for making fun of and criticizing both politics, religion, and intellectual culture. The fictional framework made it possible to voice criticism of late antique society without risks of being punished, and Lucian’s satire, along with his sarcastic use of ancient literature, won great popularity. Almost a thousand years later, in the 12th century, Byzantine authors picked up the katabasis motif and once again turned it into social criticism. In the anonymous dialogue Timarion, the narrator Timarion tells a friend of his recent descent to the underworld, displaying a confusing mixture of ancient and Byzantine elements. Timarion descends from a contemporary Byzantine world (Thessalonike in the 1150s) to a more or less traditional ancient Hades (complete with Kerberos and Elysian fields). The problem from a Christian perspective is that this Hades houses also Byzantines (e.g. one of Timarion’s former teachers, Theodore of Smyrna, and the famous Michael Psellos). Even more problematic: Timarion’s Hades is a really nice place – having nothing to do with the dark place of torment that the Christians envisaged. In this paper, I shall discuss the katabasis as a fictional motif with great potential for satirical criticism of power structures, from late Antiquity onwards. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Spring 1986 Editor: the Cover Is the Work of Lydia Sparrow
'sReview Spring 1986 Editor: The cover is the work of Lydia Sparrow. J. Walter Sterling Managing Editor: Maria Coughlin Poetry Editor: Richard Freis Editorial Board: Eva Brann S. Richard Freis, Alumni representative Joe Sachs Cary Stickney Curtis A. Wilson Unsolicited articles, stories, and poems are welcome, but should be accom panied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope in each instance. Reasoned comments are also welcome. The St. John's Review (formerly The Col lege) is published by the Office of the Dean. St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. William Dyal, Presi dent, Thomas Slakey, Dean. Published thrice yearly, in the winter, spring, and summer. For those not on the distribu tion list, subscriptions: $12.00 yearly, $24.00 for two years, or $36.00 for three years, paya,ble in advance. Address all correspondence to The St. John's Review, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. Volume XXXVII, Number 2 and 3 Spring 1986 ©1987 St. John's College; All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. ISSN 0277-4720 Composition: Best Impressions, Inc. Printing: The John D. Lucas Printing Company Contents PART I WRITINGS PUBLISHED IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM O'GRADY 1 The Return of Odysseus Mary Hannah Jones 11 God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Joe Sachs 21 On Beginning to Read Dante Cary Stickney 29 Chasing the Goat From the Sky Michael Littleton 37 The Miraculous Moonlight: Flannery O'Connor's The Artificial Nigger Robert S. Bart 49 The Shattering of the Natural Order E. A. Goerner 57 Through Phantasia to Philosophy Eva Brann 65 A Toast to the Republic Curtis Wilson 67 The Human Condition Geoffrey Harris PART II 71 The Homeric Simile and the Beginning of Philosophy Kurt Riezler 81 The Origin of Philosophy Jon Lenkowski 93 A Hero and a Statesman Douglas Allanbrook Part I Writings Published in Memory of William O'Grady THE ST.
[Show full text]
Novelty and Canonicity in Lucian's Verae Historiae
Parody and Paradox: Novelty and Canonicity in Lucian’s Verae Historiae Katharine Krauss Barnard College Comparative Literature Class of 2016 Abstract: The Verae historiae is famous for its paradoxical claim both condemning Lucian’s literary predecessors for lying and also confessing to tell no truths itself. This paper attempts to tease out this contradictory parallel between Lucian’s own text and the texts of those he parodies even further, using a text’s ability to transmit truth as the grounds of comparison. Focusing on the Isle of the Blest and the whale episodes as moments of meta-literary importance, this paper finds that Lucian’s text parodies the poetic tradition for its limited ability to transmit truth, to express its distance from that tradition, and yet nevertheless to highlight its own limitations in its communication of truth. In so doing, Lucian reflects upon the relationship between novelty and adherence to tradition present in the rhetoric of the Second Sophistic. In the prologue of his Verae historiae, Lucian writes that his work, “τινα…θεωρίαν οὐκ ἄµουσον ἐπιδείξεται” (1.2).1 Lucian flags his work as one that will undertake the same project as the popular rhetorical epideixis since the Verae historiae also “ἐπιδείξεται.” Since, as Tim Whitmarsh writes, “sophistry often privileges new ideas” (205:36-7), Lucian’s contemporary audience would thus expect his text to entertain them at least in part through its novelty. Indeed, the Verae historiae fulfills these expectations by offering a new presentation of the Greek literary canon. In what follows I will first explore how Lucian’s parody of an epic katabasis in the Isle of the Blest episode criticizes the ability of the poetic tradition to transmit truth.
[Show full text]
Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus' Aithiopika
W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 5-2017 Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus' Aithiopika Lauren Jordan Wood College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons Recommended Citation Wood, Lauren Jordan, "Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus' Aithiopika" (2017). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1004. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1004 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus’ Aithiopika A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from The College of William and Mary by Lauren Wood Accepted for ___________________________________ (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) ________________________________________ William Hutton, Director ________________________________________ Vassiliki Panoussi ________________________________________ Suzanne Hagedorn Williamsburg, VA April 17, 2017 Wood 2 Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus’ Aithiopika Odyssean and more broadly Homeric intertext figures largely in Greco-Roman literature of the first to third centuries AD, often referred to in scholarship as the period of the Second Sophistic.1 Second Sophistic authors work cleverly and often playfully with Homeric characters, themes, and quotes, echoing the traditional stories in innovative and often unexpected ways. First to fourth century Greek novelists often play with the idea of their protagonists as wanderers and exiles, drawing comparisons with the Odyssey and its hero Odysseus.
[Show full text]
Narrative Techniques in Twenty-First Century Popular
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POPULAR HOLOCAUST FICTION By Andrea Gapsch April 2021 ________________________ A Thesis presented to The Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University ________________________ In partial fulfillMent of the requireMents for graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English. ________________________ Gapsch 2 Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One CaMp Sisters: Representations of FeMale Friendship and Networks of Support in Rose Under Fire and The Lilac Girls Chapter Two FaMilies and Dual TiMelines: Exploring Representations of Third Generation Holocaust Survivors in The Storyteller and Sarah’s Key Chapter Three The Nonfiction Novel: Comparing The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Librarian of Auschwitz Conclusion Gapsch 3 Introduction As I began collecting sources for this project in early 2020, Auschwitz celebrated the 75th anniversary of its liberation. Despite more than 75 years of separation from the Holocaust, AMerican readers are still fascinated with the subject. In her book A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, Ruth Franklin mentions the fear of “Holocaust fatigue” that was discussed in 1980s and 1990s AMerican media, by which she meant the worry that AMericans had heard too about the Holocaust and could not take any more (222). This, Franklin feared, would lead to insensitivity from the general public, even in the face of a massive tragedy such as the Holocaust. After all, in his 1994 book Holocaust Representation: Art within the Limits of History and Ethics, Berel Lang estiMates Holocaust writing to include “tens of thousands” texts, spanning fiction, draMa, MeMoir, poetry, history monographs, and more (35).
[Show full text]
Book Discussion Kit Book Summaries
New titles! Webster Public Library Book Discussion Kits These kits comprised of 8 books and discussion guides are all ready for your reading group. The kits may be borrowed for up to 6 weeks at a time, just ask when you check out. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker her father has brought to the city to decorate the family's Imagines the coming-of-age story of young Julia, whose world Florentine palazzo. is thrown into upheaval when it is discovered that the Earth's rotation has suddenly begun to slow, posing a catastrophic Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen threat to all life. Fran Benedetto tells a spellbinding story: how at 19 she fell in love with Bobby Benedetto; how their passionate marriage The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho became a nightmare; why she stayed and then what happened A fable about undauntingly following one's dreams, listening to on the night she finally decided to run away with her son and one's heart, and reading life's omens features dialogue start a new life under a new name. between a boy and an unnamed being. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood Angels & Demons by Dan Brown Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist The murder of a world-famous physicist raises fears that the but now poor and eighty-two, recalls her far from exemplary Illuminati are operating again after centuries of silence, and life, and the events leading up to her sister’s death, who drove religion professor Robert Langdon is called in to assist with the a car off a bridge ten days after the war ended, gradually case.
[Show full text]
Durham E-Theses
Durham E-Theses `Dangerous Creatures': Selected children's versions of Homer's Odyssey in English 16992014 RICHARDS, FRANCESCA,MARIA How to cite: RICHARDS, FRANCESCA,MARIA (2016) `Dangerous Creatures': Selected children's versions of Homer's Odyssey in English 16992014 , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11522/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 ‘Dangerous Creatures’: Selected children’s versions of Homer’s Odyssey in English 1699–2014 Abstract This thesis considers how the Odyssey was adapted for children, as a specific readership, in English literature 1699-2014. It thus traces both the emergence of children’s literature as a publishing category and the transformation of the Odyssey into a tale of adventure – a perception of the Odyssey which is still widely accepted today (and not only among children) but which is not, for example, how Aristotle understood the poem.
[Show full text]
4Th and 5Th Grade Suggested Summer Reading List 2013
AOSR Suggested Summer Reading List 2014 4th and 5th Grades KEY = Title is available on myOn * = Series All book descriptions on this list were created by the ES Librarian or amazon.com or myOn.com. FICTION Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad by Monica Edinger This story, inspired by a true account, is about a 9-year-old girl from Sierra Leone who is captured by slavers and taken aboard the ship called the Amistad. Mutiny arises on the ship and when they arrive in the United States, court proceedings begin and the case reaches the Supreme Court. A Girl Called Problem by Katie Quirk 13-year-old Shida, whose name means "problem" in Swahili, has lots of problems. Her father is dead, her mother is rumored to be a witch, her family is cursed, and everyone expects her to marry rather than pursue her dream. When the elders decide to move everyone to a nearby village, she welcomes the change. Unfortunately, mysterious calamities occur to her people after the move and she must prove to the entire village that life can be better in their new home. *The Apothecary by Maile Meloy It’s 1952 and Janie and her family must flee to London from America because they are suspected to be Communists. Janie isn’t thrilled with London until she befriends Benjamin, a wannabe spy. Together they stumble upon a sinister, mysterious meeting which leads them on a thrilling adventure chockfull of twists and turns. This book is a spectacular blend of history, magic, science! Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies by Andrea Beaty Hysterically funny summer camp adventures of twin brothers Joules and Kevin are anything but typical! Care for fluffy aliens and marshmallows, anyone? A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler Jenni’s world is turned upside down when she steps out an elevator and realizes she has skipped an entire year! And life has not changed for the better.
[Show full text]
2019 Book Group in a Bag Survey - Titles Under Consideration: Instructions: Please Read Over the List of Titles We Are Considering Adding and Their Descriptions
2019 Book Group in a Bag Survey - Titles Under Consideration: Instructions: Please read over the list of titles we are considering adding and their descriptions. For each one, mark if you “like” “dislike” or are “not sure” about it. After marking this, please answer the two questions at the end. The Book Group in a Bag team thanks you so much for your feedback. We are glad that we can have our groups participate in this process. This survey can also be taken online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BGIB2019 Please return this survey to a Media Room staff person at the main Library building by Sunday, May 28, 2019. Your group can also place their completed surveys in a book kit that is returned before that date. Here are the choices, in alphabetical order by title: Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan Fiction; Published in 2017, 513 pages Like Dislike Not Sure Based on a true story, this novel tells the story of Pino Lella, a normal Italian teenager wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier. After Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler's left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich's most mysterious and powerful commanders. Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior, and for the life he dreams they will one day share.
[Show full text]
Dialogues Between Readers and Writers in Lucian's Verae Historiae
Dialogues between Readers and Writers in Lucian’s Verae Historiae MARÍLIA FUTRE PINHEIRO University of Lisbon If we can say that all literary discourse is a microcosm of varied languages and a convergence point of several voices, this obviously applies also to Lucian’s Verae Historiae too. If we assume that every literary text is the replica of a particular dialogue it holds with all texts that preceded it, we shall have to interpret A True Story as a dialogic expression of a polyphonic discourse which embodies a wide range of topics, languages and styles orga- nised in literary terms into a coherent whole. This dialogic principle was underlined by M. Bakhtin,1 who defined the novel as a ‘pluristylistic, plurilinguistic and plurivocal phenomenon’,2 as a harmonious literary system which results from a social diversity of speech types, of languages and individual voices. Due to this plurilinguism and plurivocality, the novel orchestrates all its themes and its significant universe as represented and stated in itself. The basic distinguishing feature of the stylistics of the novel lies in its dialogic nature, that is, in the fact that it en- compasses multiple resonances of social voices and their several relations and correlations, of their incessant mutual relationships, always more or less dialogised. According to Bakhtin,3 any utterance (énoncé) enters a universe of foreign words, agitated by dialogues and tense with words, judgements, and alien accents; this deep interaction (both peaceful and hostile) with other rhetorical or literary genres splits discourse into all its semantic senses, com- plicates its expression and modifies all of its stylistic aspects.
[Show full text]
“Weaving a Design: the Irony of Disguise in the Odyssey”
CIVILIZATION SEQUENCE 201 and 205 18 October 2010 R. S. Smith “Weaving a design: the irony of disguise in the Odyssey” 1. “Come, weave the design (mētis )” (13: 386). “I weave my own wiles” (19: 137). “Which of the immortals is weaving deception against me?” (5: 356) 2. Namelessness to recognition as hero; story-telling/singing as part of a plan ( mētis ) to achieve advantage and to control one’s own story. (For singing see also 8:479-81, 496-8. For mētis see below.) 1st half: Odysseus goes from nothing (Book 6) to being asked to identify himself (end of Book 8), singing his own fame (Books 9-12), acknowledgement/recognition, and conveyance home with gifts. “I am Odysseus son of Laertes, known before all men for the study of crafty designs” (9: 19). Alkinoös: “We as we look upon you do not imagine that you are a deceptive or thievish man (…), making up lying stories from which no one could learn anything. You have a grace upon your words, and there is sound sense within them and expertly, as a singer would do, you have told the story of the dismal sorrows befallen yourself and all of the Argives [Greeks]. But come now, tell me this (…): Did you see any of your godlike companions, who once with you went to Ilion [Troy] and there met their destiny?” (11: 363-72). 2nd half: from nothing to disguise, telling stories of the real Odysseus, revelation, recognition and restoration of order. Eumaios: “Such stories he tells! he would charm out the dear heart within you..
[Show full text]
A Fine White Flying Myth of One's Own: Sylvia Plath in Fiction – a Review
278 A Fine White Flying Myth of One’s Own: Sylvia Plath in Fiction – A Review Essay Luke Ferretter, Baylor University Emma Tennant, Sylvia and Ted: A Novel (New York: Henry Holt, 2001). 177 pp. $22.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-7567-9474-9. Kate Moses, Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath (New York: Anchor, 2003). 313 pp. $14.00 (paper). ISBN 1-4000-3500-7. Robert Anderson, Little Fugue (New York: Ballantine, 2005). x + 367 pp. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-345-45411-1. Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Poison: A Novel (New York and London: Norton, 2006). 606 pp. $15.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-393-32979-7 Grace Medlar, The Lost Papers of Sylvia Plath (CreateSpace, 2009). 214 pp. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 1-4414-6480-8. From just a few years after the publication of Ariel , artists in many media have produced a vast array of aesthetic responses to the work of Sylvia Plath. Music, songs, poetry, plays and short films based on Plath’s poetry have been written, and continue to be written, in great profusion. 1 This last decade has seen the response of novelists. 2 It is 1 The complete bibliography, and indeed the complete study, of cultural representations of Plath’s life and work remain to be written. I will give just two or three example of each genre here: for musical settings of Plath’s works, see Rorem, Burton, and Knussen; for songs, see The Bangles, Adams, and Etheridge; for poetry, see Ackerman, Hurdle, and Bowman; for plays, see Kyle, Goldemberg, and Anthony; for films, see Sylvia , The Girl Who Would Be God , and Lady Lazarus .
[Show full text]
Test # Book Title Author Reading Level Point Value 61130EN 100
Unity Grove Elementary School (January 2006) Accelerated Reader Test List sorted by Book Title Test # Book Title Author Reading Level Point Value 61130EN 100 School Days Anne Rockwell 2.8 0.5 35821EN 100th Day Worries Margery Cuyler 3 0.5 56576EN 101 Facts About Horses & Ponies Julia Barnes 5.2 0.5 18751EN 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents Lee Wardlaw 3.9 5 14796EN The 13th Floor: A Ghost Story Sid Fleischman 4.4 4 8251EN 18-Wheelers (Cruisin') Linda Lee Maifair 5.2 1 661EN The 18th Emergency Betsy Byars 4.7 4 11592EN 2095 Jon Scieszka 3.8 1 6201EN 213 Valentines Barbara Cohen 4 1 166EN 4B Goes Wild Jamie Gilson 4.6 4 8252EN 4X4's and Pickups (Cruisin') A.K. Donahue 4.2 1 60317EN The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solvi Claudia Logan 4.7 1 59347EN 5 Ways to Know About You Karen Gravelle 8.3 5 8001EN 50 Below Zero Robert N. Munsch 2.4 0.5 9001EN The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubb Dr. Seuss 4 1 57142EN 7 x 9 = Trouble! Claudia Mills 4.3 1 51654EN Aaron's Hair Robert Munsch 2.4 0.5 70144EN ABC Dogs Kathy Darling 4.1 0.5 11151EN Abe Lincoln's Hat Martha Brenner 2.6 0.5 101EN Abel's Island William Steig 5.9 3 46490EN Abigail Adams Alexandra Wallner 4.7 0.5 9751EN Abiyoyo Pete Seeger 2.2 0.5 86635EN The Abominable Snowman Doesn't R Debbie Dadey 4 1 14931EN The Abominable Snowman of Pasade R.L.
[Show full text]