Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of HellenismAlthough Apollonius of Rhodes' extraordinary epic poem on the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece has begun to get the attention it deserves, it still is not well known to many readers and scholars. This book explores the poem's relation to the conditions of its writing in third century BCE Alexandria, where a multicultural environment transformed the Greeks' understanding of themselves and the world. Apollonius uses the resources of the imagination - the myth of the Argonauts' voyage and their encounters with other peoples - to probe the expanded possibilities and the anxieties opened up when definitions of Hellenism and boundaries between Greeks and others were exposed to question. Central to this concern with definitions is the poem's representation of space. Thalmann uses spatial theories from cultural geography and anthropology to argue that the Argo's itinerary defines space from a Greek perspective that is at the same time qualified. Its limits are exposed, and the signs with which the Argonauts mark space by their passage preserve the stories of their complex interactions with non-Greeks. The book closely considers many episodes in the narrative with regard to the Argonauts' redefinition of space and the implications of their actions for the Greeks' situation in Egypt, and it ends by considering Alexandria itself as a space that accommodated both Greek and Egyptian cultures. |
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Contents
1 Outline of an Approach | 3 |
Space and Time in the Argonautika | 25 |
3 Greece as Center | 53 |
4 Colonial Spaces | 77 |
Colchis and the Interplay of Similarity and Difference | 115 |
6 Rivers Shores Margins and Boundaries | 147 |
7 The Roundabout Homecoming | 169 |
Alexandria Poetry and Space | 191 |
| 221 | |
| 235 | |
| 247 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adriatic Aietes aitia aition Alexander’s Alexandria Apollo Apollonius Apollonius’s Argo Argo’s voyage Argonautika Argonauts barbarian Black Sea Boreads Bosporos boundaries Callimachus catalogue chap Clare coast Colchians Colchis connection construction of space contrast Corcyra cult Cyrene Delage describes discussion Doliones Drepane earth Egypt Egyptian epic episode Eridanos especially Fränkel Gegeneis geography gives Greece Greek colonial Greek culture harbor Hekate Hellenism Hellenistic Herakles heroes Homeric human culture Hunter Idmon implies important inhabitants Iolkos island Jason journey Khalkiope Kyzikos Lake Tritonis landscape Lemnos Libya meaning Medea Mount Dindymon movement narrative narrator nauts non-Greek nymph Odysseus’s Odyssey passage perspective Phaiakians Phasis Phineus Phrixos poem poem’s produced production of space Propontis Ptolemies reader relation representation river sail scene seems ship shore significance signs simile story suggests temple Thera Thynias tion Tiphys tomb tradition Vian and Delage Vian in Vian Zeus καὶ
Bibliographic information
| Title | Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism Classical Culture and Society |
| Author | William G. Thalmann |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2011 |
| ISBN | 0199875715, 9780199875719 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Ancient / General History / Ancient / Greece Literary Collections / Ancient & Classical |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |