THE THEBAN EPICS by Malcolm Davies ( 9780674417243 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

THE THEBAN EPICS

By:

Malcolm Davies

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£18.95

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£14.78

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22% off

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£4.17

ISBN 10:

0674417240

ISBN 13:

9780674417243

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Publisher:

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CENTER FOR HELLENIC STUDIES

Pub. date:

15 December, 2014

Series:

Hellenic Studies Series

Pages:

225

Description:

Malcolm Davies provides the first full commentary on the surviving fragments of the four epics that recount the story of the Seven's failed assault against Thebes and the successful assault in the next generation. He sets them in context and examines whether artistic depictions of the relevant myths can help reconstruct the lost epics' contents.

Synopsis:

In antiquity, the story of the failed assault of the Seven against Thebes ranked second only to the Trojan War. But whereas the latter was immortalized by Homer's Iliad, the account of the former in the epic Thebais survives only in fragments preserved in later authors. The same is true of the Oedipodeia and Epigoni, which dealt respectively with events leading up to the Seven's campaign and with the successful assault on the city in the next generation. The Thebais was probably the most important of the three--certainly more and longer fragments of it have survived--and it has been alleged that its recovery would tell us more about Homer than any comparable discovery.Paradoxically, these fragments suggest very un-Homeric content and style (in particular its detail of the hero Tydeus forfeiting immortality by gnawing on the head of a dying enemy). The same is true of the epic Alcmaeonis, named after one of the Epigoni, whose few surviving fragments pullulate with un-Homeric features. Malcolm Davies provides the first full commentary on all four epics' fragments. He attempts to set them in context and examines whether artistic depictions of the relevant myths can help reconstruct the lost epics' contents.

Publication:

Imprint:

Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies

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Returnable

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