Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, Aug 22, 2005 - Art - 290 pages
From the Archaic period to the Greco-Roman age, the figure of the wanderer held great significance in ancient Greece. In the first comprehensive study devoted to this theme, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture unearths the many meanings attached to this practice over the centuries. Employing a broad range of literary and philosophical texts, Silvia Montiglio demonstrates how wandering has been conceptualized from Homer's Odysseus—the hero "who wandered much"—in the eighth century BCE to pagan sages of the early Roman Empire such as Saint John the Baptist in the first century AD.

Attitudes toward wandering have evolved in accordance with cultural perspectives, causing some characterizations to persist while others have faded. For instance, the status of wanderers in Greek societies varied from outcasts and madmen to sages, who were recognized as mystical, even divine. Examining the act of wandering through many lenses, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture shows how the transformation of the wanderer coincided with new perceptions of the world and of travel and invites us to consider its definition and import today.
 

Contents

1 Wandering in Space and Time
6
2 Pains and Privations of Wandering
24
3 Wandering and the Human Condition
42
The Wandering of the Gods
62
5 Itinerant Sages in Archaic and Classical Greece
90
Herodotus and Ionian Theōria
118
From Parmenides to Plato
146
The Cynics
180
Cosmic Citizens and Godlike Travelers
204
10 Wandering in the Greek Novel
220
What Greek Wanderers Did Not Do
262
Bibliography
268
Index
284
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Silvia Montiglio is associate professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Silence in the Land of Logos.

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