The Age of Grace: Charis in Early Greek Poetry
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Although "grace" in today's secular usage often connotes beauty or good manners, to the ancient Greeks it was both an aesthetic and a moral concept central to social order--a transformative power grounded in favor, thanks, repayment, delight, pleasure, and, above all, reciprocity. Here Bonnie MacLachlan explores the Greek concept of grace, or charis, as depicted in poetic works from Homer to Aeschylus, to tap into the essential meaning behind the manifold uses of the term. She also relates it to other important concepts in the moral language of the eighth century \B.C.E.
Examining epic, lyric, erotic, epinician, and tragic poetry, and the cult of the Charites themselves, MacLachlan shows how charis governed human relations of all sorts, from the battlefield to bed: Achilles sulks, and jeopardizes the Greek victory in the Trojan War, because there was no charis in Agamemnon's gesture of reconciliation; the young Telemachus, filled with the gift of charis, speaks persuasively before the assembly of Ithacans; young men and women in erotic poems shine with charis when they are sexually mature. In shaping her definition of charis as a mutually shared pleasure that breaks down the barriers of the self, MacLachlan seeks to elucidate many poetic passages that have long mystified the commentators.
Originally published in 1993.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Related to The Age of Grace
Titles in the series (6)
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGibeon, Where the Sun Stood Still: The Discovery of the Biblical City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's Urabi Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
Spontaneity and Tradition: A Study in the Oral Art of Homer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreek and Roman Necromancy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Weeping for Dido: The Classics in the Medieval Classroom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Music of Tragedy: Performance and Imagination in Euripidean Theater Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice and mercy: Moral theology and the exercise of law in twelfth-century England Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sexual Labor in the Athenian Courts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Essay on Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Capture of Constantinople: The "Hystoria Constantinopolitana" of Gunther of Pairis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of Ambiguity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Urbanization and Social Response in the Making of the Hellenistic Kingdoms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWords from Abroad: Trauma and Displacement in Postwar German Jewish Writers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNational Reckonings: The Last Judgment and Literature in Milton’s England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Birth of Hedonism: The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking the Other in Antiquity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThomas Mann's War: Literature, Politics, and the World Republic of Letters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Politics and Exegesis: Origen and the Two Swords Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Greek Thomist: Providence in Gennadios Scholarios Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnecdotes of Enlightenment: Human Nature from Locke to Wordsworth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sense of the Past: Essays in the History of Philosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlexander's Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity of Thucydides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides: The Sicilian Expedition and Its Aftermath Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemory and Re-Creation in Troubadour Lyric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Czech Manuscripts: Forgery, Translation, and National Myth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreek Satyr Play: Five Studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbsorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dionysius of Halicarnassus: On Thucydides: Based on the Greek Text of Usener-Radermacher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Ancient History For You
Sex and Erotism in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When God Had a Wife: The Fall and Rise of the Sacred Feminine in the Judeo-Christian Tradition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh My Gods: A Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hero Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mythos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holy Bible: From the Ancient Eastern Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Survive in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sumerians: A History From Beginning to End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Visionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alexander the Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paul: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enduring Ancient Egyptian Musical System -- Theory and Practice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lysistrata Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stolen Legacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Age of Grace
0 ratings0 reviews