Synopses & Reviews
Greek mythology is known to us from various artistic and literary sources. Of the latter, the poetic sources (such as Homer and tragedy) are familiar to many readers, but the prose sources are much less so.
Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2 is a detailed commentary on the texts of
Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1, which provided a critical edition of the twenty-nine authors of this genre of Greek prose from the late sixth to the early fourth centuries BC.
After a general introduction, this volume offers in its first part a mythological commentary on the texts, arranged according to the major topics of Greek mythology (the Trojan Cycle, Herakles, the Argonauts, etc.). The aim is to recover, so far as possible, what each writer said about the stories, with full consideration of their historical context and significance for Greek literature, mythology, and religion. The synoptic, topic-by-topic approach allows all the fragments pertinent to any given myth to be treated together, so that one can more easily identify variants and trends, and plot the history of the myth. The second part of the volume is a philological commentary on the separate authors, discussing their life, works, and contribution to the genre, as well as textual problems and non-mythological questions raised by individual fragments.
About the Author
Robert L. Fowler is the Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol.
Table of Contents
Preface Introduction
Part A: Mythological Commentary
1. Theogony
2. Pelasgians, Leleges, Dryopes, Arcadians
3. Deukalion
4. Deukalionidai
5. Aiolidai
6. Argonauts
7. Inachidai
8. Herakles
9. Herakleidai
10. Agenoridai and Early Thebes
11. Crete
12. The Theban Cycle
13. Atlantides
14. Pelopidai
15. Asopides
16. Attic Legend
17. Local Histories
18. The Trojan Cycle
19. The Migrations
20. Other Fragments
Part B: Philological Commentary
Akousilaos
Aethlios
Agias And Derkylos
Anaximander
Andron
Antiochos
Aristophanes
Armenidas
Charon
Damastes
Dei(l)ochos
Demokles
Epimenides Pseudepigraphus
Euagon
Eudemos
Eumelos
Hekataios
Hellanikos
Herodoros
Ion
Kreophylos
Menekrates
Metrodoros
Pherekydes
Polos
Simonides
Skamon
Skythinos
Xenomedes
Two Addenda to Volume 1
Corrigenda to Volume 1
Abbreviations and Bibliography
Indices