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Time, tense, and genre in ancient Greek literature /

This collection of 24 essays provides the first comprehensive study of the way the passing of time, temporal setting, and the relationship between past, present, and future are presented in diverse genres of ancient Greek literature over the span of nearly a millennium.

Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Bloomfield-Gadêlha, Connie (Editor), Hall, Edith, 1959- (Editor)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Subjects:
Greek literature > History and criticism.
Time in literature.
Greek literature > Themes, motives.
Littérature grecque > Histoire et critique.
Temps dans la littérature.
Speeches.
LITERARY COLLECTIONS.
LITERARY CRITICISM.
Ancient & Classical.
Poetry.
Greek literature > Themes, motives
Time in literature
Literature: history & criticism.
Literature.
Electronic books.
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover
  • Time, Tense, and Genre in Ancient Greek Literature
  • Copyright
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contents
  • List of Contributors
  • 1 Introduction: Time, Tense, and Genre through the Ages
  • A (Very) Brief History of Time, Tense, and Genre
  • Classicists and Time
  • Summary
  • Notes
  • Section A Divine and Human Time
  • 2 Divine and Human Narratives: Time and Being
  • Introduction
  • Time, Being, Narrative
  • Case Study 1: Making Selves
  • Case Study 2: Making Gods
  • Case Study 3: Divine Genres
  • Conclusion: Experiencing the Divine
  • Notes
  • 2. Sound and Vision: An Embodied Experience of Time
  • 3. Seeing the Future in the Present Tense
  • 4. Seeing (and Hearing) the Future in the Future Tense
  • 5. Seeing Others See, Feeling Others Feel
  • 6. Seeing (and Feeling) without a Body
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • 6 One Precise Day c. 547 bce : Playing with Time in Lucian's Charon
  • Introduction
  • 1: Guess the Date with Homer
  • 2: The Deathly Comedy of Herodotus' Potentates
  • 3: Tragicomic Theatre: The Brevity of Human Life
  • 4: Funeral Games
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Section B Temporalities of Knowledge
  • 7 Time and Genre: Cosmology and Verbal Tenses in Ancient Greek Literature
  • Introduction
  • The Tenses of Presocratic Cosmogony
  • Plato
  • Plutarch
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • 8 Nine Thousand Years Ago: The Erasure of the Navy from Plato's Atlantis Fictions
  • Introduction
  • Medium, Genre, and Time
  • Time, Memory, and Historicity
  • Ideology and Sea Power Past and Present
  • The Tenses of Prehistory
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • 9 Aesop and the Future
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Transmission of the Fables and Their Morals
  • 3. Aesopic Fables and the Future
  • 3.1. Failing to Think Carefully about the Future
  • 3.2. Anticipating the Future by Forethought
  • 3.3. Pre-Empting Future Threats by Preparation
  • 3.4. Waiting for Future Opportunity at the Expense of Others
  • 4. Some Inferences
  • 5. Conclusion
  • Notes
  • 10 The Living Past: Tense and Genre in the Critical Essays of Dionysius of Halicarnassus
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Tenses in Biography
  • 3. Tenses in Criticism
  • 4. Conclusion
  • Notes
  • 11 Tense Usage and Temporal Form in Herodotean Conversation Scenes
  • Introduction
  • Tragic Momentum: Gyges before Candaules and the Queen