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Wandering in ancient Greek culture

"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 B.C.E. to pagan sages of the early Roman Empire." "Examining the act of wandering through many lenses, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture addresses questions such as: Why did the Greeks associate the figure of the wanderer with the condition of exile? How was the expansion of the world under Rome reflected in the connotations of wandering? Does a person learn by wandering, or is wandering a deviation from the truth? In the end, this matchless volume shows how the transformations that affected the figure of the wanderer coincided with new perceptions of the world and of travel, and invites us to consider its definition and import today."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2005
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ©2005
Criticism, interpretation, etc
290 pages ; 24 cm
9780226534978, 0226534979
57406042

Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture


By Silvia Montiglio

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-226-53497-8

Contents

Acknowledgments........................................................................................ixList of Abbreviations..................................................................................xiIntroduction...........................................................................................11.  Wandering in Space and Time........................................................................7On the Deep, at the EdgesAt the BeginningTransition and Crisis2.  Pains and Privations of Wandering..................................................................24"For Mortals, Nothing Is Worse than Wandering"The Exile as WandererMadness: Wandering with No Return3.  Wandering and the Human Condition..................................................................42Homo Viator: Before PhilosophyThe "Fault" of OdysseusDo Not Forget Your Wanderings: Odysseus under Circe's Spell4.  To Judge and to Deceive: The Wandering of the Gods.................................................62Wandering and Divine PowerDemeter's Destructive WanderingDionysus, the WandererWandering Enfants Terribles: Eros and Hermes5.  Itinerant Sages in Archaic and Classical Greece....................................................91Wandering, Lying, and PoetryThe Aura of Wandering: Xenophanes and EmpedoclesWandering for the Sake of Profit: From Homer to the Sophists6.  Choosing to Be Odysseus: Herodotus and Ionian Theoria..............................................118The Excitement of Theoria in Fifth-Century AthensWanderers Discover the WorldTo Observe and to CollectWandering Writing and Truthfulness in Herodotus's Histories7.  Wandering along the Journey to Truth: From Parmenides to Plato.....................................147Parmenides' "Unwandering" Journey to BeingIn Search of Wisdom: Plato's Presentation of Socrates' WanderingPlato on Traveling and WisdomBetween Ascent and NavigationWalking, Sitting, and Standing8.  In Praise of Homeless Wandering: The Cynics........................................................180Diogenes, the Outcast of TragedyCynic Wandering in Greco-Roman LiteratureDio Chrysostom's Self-Presentation as a Wandering Philosopher9.  The World as Home: Cosmic Citizens and Godlike Travelers...........................................204Stay Where You Are Stationed, Go Where You Are Sent: The Stoics on WanderingThe Godlike Wanderings of Apollonius of Tyana in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius10. Wandering in the Greek Novel.......................................................................221Ignorance and AlienationThe Meaning of "Home" in One's Journey: From Apollonius's Argonautica to the NovelLove and PhilosophyThe Ruler of Wandering: Fortune or Providence?Wandering, Fiction, and StorytellingEpilogue: What Greek Wanderers Did Not Do..............................................................263Bibliography...........................................................................................269Index..................................................................................................285


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