The trials of Orpheus : poetry, science, and the early modern sublime /
A revealing look at how the Orpheus myth helped Renaissance writers and thinkers understand the force of eloquence. In ancient Greek mythology, the lyrical songs of Orpheus charmed the gods, and compelled animals, rocks and trees to obey his commands. This mythic power inspired Renaissance philosoph...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Princeton, New Jersey :
Princeton University Press,
[2021]
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| Summary: | A revealing look at how the Orpheus myth helped Renaissance writers and thinkers understand the force of eloquence. In ancient Greek mythology, the lyrical songs of Orpheus charmed the gods, and compelled animals, rocks and trees to obey his commands. This mythic power inspired Renaissance philosophers and poets, from Bacon to Shakespeare, as they attempted to discover the hidden powers of verbal eloquence. They wanted to know how do words produce action? In The Trials of Orpheus, Jenny Mann examines the key role the Orpheus story played in helping early modern writers and natural philosophers understand the mechanisms of rhetorical force. Mann demonstrates that the forms and figures of ancient poetry indelibly shaped the principles of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific knowledge. Mann explores how Ovid's version of the Orpheus myth gave English poets and natural philosophers the lexicon with which to explain language's ability to move individuals without physical contact. These writers and thinkers came to see eloquence as an aesthetic force capable of binding, drawing, softening and scattering audiences. Bringing together a range of examples from drama, poetry and philosophy by Bacon, Lodge, Marlowe, Montaigne, Shakespeare and more, Mann demonstrates that the fascination with Orpheus produced some of the most canonical literature of the age. Delving into the impact of ancient Greek thought and poetry in the early modern era, The Trials of Orpheus sheds light on how the powers of rhetoric became a focus of English thought and literature. |
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| Physical Description: | xix, 271 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780691219226 0691219222 |