Publisher Description

A wide examination of the ways in which the Greeks constructed, de-constructed, engaged with and relied on their pastsThis volume in The Edinburgh Leventis Studies series collects the papers presented at the sixth A. G. Leventis conference organised under the auspices of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. As with earlier volumes, it engages with new research and new approaches to the Greek past, and brings the fruits of that research to a wider audience. Although Greek historians were fundamental in the enterprise of preserving the memory of great deeds in antiquity, they were not alone in their interest in the past. The Greeks themselves, quite apart from their historians and in a variety of non-historiographical media, were constantly creating pasts for themselves that answered to the needs - political, social, moral and even religious - of their society. In this volume eighteen scholars discuss the variety of ways in which the Greeks constructed de-constructed, engaged with, alluded to, and relied on their pasts whether it was in the poetry of Homer, in the victory odes of Pindar, in tragedy and comedy on the Athenian stage, in their pictorial art, in their political assemblies, or in their religious practices. What emerges is a comprehensive overview of the importance of and presence of the past at every level of Greek society.In the final chapter the three discussants present at the conference (Simon Goldhill, Christopher Pelling and Suzanne Saïd) survey the contributions to the volume, summarise its overall contributions as well as indicate new directions that further scholarship might follow.

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AUTHOR APPROVED'If this brilliant collection allows any one unarguable inference, it is that there's no such thing as "the past", any more than there's one single and uncontestable definition of, or way of doing, "history". Going back to the very roots of Western historiography in early Greece, John Marincola and his expert team do a grand job of radical conceptual reappraisal in this far-reaching, deeply scholarly and yet accessible addition to the outstanding Edinburgh Leventis Studies series.'Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek CultureA wide examination of the ways in which the Greeks constructed, de-constructed, engaged with and relied on their pastsThis book looks at Greek notions and beliefs about the past as they are revealed in areas other than historical texts. A range of experts from diverse fields examine, amongst other things, epic, didactic, lyric and epinician poetry, tragedy, comedy and philosophy in an attempt to tease out how the Greeks in the archaic and classical eras thought about, imagined and constructed their pasts.But it is not only literary texts that are studied here. Material culture, cult acts, inscriptions and monumental buildings are analysed to see what each of these can tell us about the relationship between past and present and about the important role that the past played for Greeks of all social classes.John Marincola is Leon Golden Professor of Classics at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh. Calum Maciver is a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Leeds.

Author Biography

John Marincola is Leon Golden Professor of Classics at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is senior lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh. Calum Maciver is lecturer in Classics at the University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Preface; List of Illustrations; 1. Introduction: A Past without Historians, John Marincola; 2. Homer and Heroic History, Jonas Grethlein; 3. Hesiod on Human History, Bruno Currie; 4. Helen and 'I' in Early Greek Lyric, Deborah Boedeker; 5. Stesichorus and Ibycus: plain tales from the western front, Ewen Bowie; 6. Pindar and the Reconstruction of the Past, Maria Pavlou; 7. Debating the Past in Euripides' Troades and Orestes and in Sophocles' Electra, Ruth Scodel; 8. Tragic Pasts and Euripidean Explainers, Allen Romano; 9. Old Comedy and Popular History, Jeffrey Henderson; 10. Attic Heroes and the Construction of the Athenian Past in the Fifth Century, H. A. Shapiro; 11. Family time: temporality, gender and materiality in ancient Greece, Lin Foxhall; 12. Common knowledge and the contestation of history in some fourth-century Athenian trials, Jon Hesk; 13. Plato and the Stability of History, Kathryn Morgan; 14. Inscribing the Past in Fourth-Century Athens, S. D. Lambert; 15. The Politics of the Past: Remembering Revolution at Athens, Julia L. Shear; 16. 'Remembering the ancient way of life': primitivism in Greek sacrificial ritual, Emily Kearns; 17. The Great Kings of the Fourth Century and the Greek Memory of the Persian Past, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones; 18. Commentary, Simon Goldhill, Suzanne Sa

Review

...offer[s] much to anyone interested in scholarly debates as well as in archaic and classical Greece more broadly... The editors deserve thanks, then, for a volume that should do much to inform and nuance future debate.--Tim Rood, St. Hugh's College, Oxford "Classical Journal Online"
John Marincola opens this volume with a lucid critique of Jacoby's influential entwicklungsgeschichtliches model, according to which the development of Greek historiography (and of the Greeks' historical consciousness in general) resided in the individual progress of Herodotus from geographer and ethnographer to historian. What follows is a tour-de-force from Homer to third-century inscriptions. The sixteen contributors and three commentators (Simon Goldhill, Suzanne Sad and Christopher Pelling) break down the old dichotomy of critical historiography, on the one hand, and other, inferior forms of engagement with the past, on the other. This book provides excellent snapshots of the current state of the study of social memory in ancient Greece, but also shows the way for further research in this exciting field... Everybody interested in the manifold uses and meanings of the past in archaic and classical Greece should read it. --Bernd Steinbock, University of Western Ontario "Bryn Mawr Classical Review"

Long Description

A wide examination of the ways in which the Greeks constructed, de-constructed, engaged with and relied on their pasts This volume in The Edinburgh Leventis Studies series collects the papers presented at the sixth A. G. Leventis conference organised under the auspices of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. As with earlier volumes, it engages with new research and new approaches to the Greek past, and brings the fruits of that research to a wider audience.

Review Quote

...offer[s] much to anyone interested in scholarly debates as well as in archaic and classical Greece more broadly... The editors deserve thanks, then, for a volume that should do much to inform and nuance future debate.

Promotional "Headline"

A wide examination of the ways in which the Greeks constructed, de-constructed, engaged with and relied on their pasts

Description for Reader

This volume in The Edinburgh Leventis Studies series collects the papers presented at the sixth A. G. Leventis conference organised under the auspices of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. As with earlier volumes, it engages with new research and new approaches to the Greek past, and brings the fruits of that research to a wider audience. Although Greek historians were fundamental in the enterprise of preserving the memory of great deeds in antiquity, they were not alone in their interest in the past. The Greeks themselves, quite apart from their historians and in a variety of non-historiographical media, were constantly creating pasts for themselves that answered to the needs - political, social, moral and even religious - of their society. In this volume eighteen scholars discuss the variety of ways in which the Greeks constructed de-constructed, engaged with, alluded to, and relied on their pasts whether it was in the poetry of Homer, in the victory odes of Pindar, in tragedy and comedy on the Athenian stage, in their pictorial art, in their political assemblies, or in their religious practices. What emerges is a comprehensive overview of the importance of and presence of the past at every level of Greek society. In the final chapter the three discussants present at the conference (Simon Goldhill, Christopher Pelling and Suzanne Sa

Feature

Key Features: Includes a wide examination of the notion of 'the past' Includes a range of experts in extremely diverse fields Not only literary texts are examined, but also material culture, religious rituals, inscriptions and monumental buildings

Description for Sales People

This volume in The Edinburgh Leventis Studies series collects the papers presented at the sixth A. G. Leventis conference organised under the auspices of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. It engages with new research and new approaches to the Greek past, and brings the fruits of that research to a wider audience. In this volume eighteen scholars discuss the variety of ways in which the Greeks constructed de-constructed, engaged with, alluded to, and relied on their pasts whether it was in the poetry of Homer, in the victory odes of Pindar, in tragedy and comedy on the Athenian stage, in their pictorial art, in their political assemblies, or in their religious practices. What emerges is a comprehensive overview of the importance of and presence of the past at every level of Greek society.

Description for Teachers/Educators

Classics; Ancient/Greek History; Art History; History and Cultural Studies

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