Synopses & Reviews
Here is the first scholarly, comprehensive and succinct survey of the treatment of myth by the artists of ancient Greece. With its copious illustrations, it forms an indispensable and unrivaled reference work for everybody interested in art, drama, poetry, anthropology or religion. There is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of of stories as important as the fall of Troy or Theseus and the Minotaur. It is to visual sources that we have to turn for much of our knowledge of the myths. Vase paintings, engraved gems and sculpture in bronze and and stone often pre-date reference to the myths in literature or offer alternative versions to the familiar accounts; always they throw light on the way the Greeks understood the stories of gods and heroes.
Synopsis
"Contains something of value for enthusiasts of mythology in art and literature at every level of knowledge." - Classical World The Greek myths are so much part of our visual and literary culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place. The most familiar sources are the great works of Homer or the Greek dramatists, but they were addressing an audience intimately familiar with the stories and so are often allusive and incomplete. There is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of stories as important as the Fall of Troy or Theseus and the Minotaur, and it is to the visual sources that we have to turn for much of our knowledge of the myths. Here is the first comprehensive survey of the treatment of myth by Greek artists. With its copious illustrations, it forms an indispensable and unrivaled reference work for everybody interested in the art, drama, poetry, anthropology or religion of ancient Greece.
Synopsis
The Greek Myths are so much of our visual and literary culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-249) and indexes.
About the Author
Thomas H. Carpenter is the Charles J. Ping Professor of Humanities and Professor of Classics at Ohio University. After earning his D. Phil in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford, he worked for four years as chief researcher at the Beazley Archive at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He was awarded a degree in Theology at Harvard University. Professor Carpenter's other books include Mythology, Greek and Roman (1977), Dionysian Imagery in Archaic Greek Art (1986), and Dionysian Imagery in Fifth Century Athens (1997).