Lexington Books
Pages: 324
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-7391-3898-4 • Hardback • September 2010 • $150.00 • (£115.00)
978-0-7391-3901-1 • eBook • September 2010 • $142.50 • (£110.00)
Menelaos Christopoulos is associate professor of ancient Greek literature in the Department of Philology at Patras University. Efimia D. Karakantza is a lecturer in ancient Greek literature in the Department of Philology at Patras University. Olga Levaniouk is an associate professor of Classics at the University of Washington.
Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction
Part 3 Colour Semantics
Chapter 4 Chapter 1. The Significance (or Insignificance) of Blackness in Mythological Names
Chapter 5 Chapter 2. Dark Skin and Dark Deeds; Danaides and Aigyptioi in a Culture of Light
Chapter 6 Chapter 3. Brightness and Darkness in Pindar's Pythian 3: Aigla-Coronis-Arsinoe and her Initiatory Experience
Chapter 7 Chapter 4. S-light Anomaly; Dark Brightness in Euripides' Medea
Part 8 Appearance and Concealment
Chapter 9 Chapter 5. The Light Imagery of Divine Manifestation in Homer
Chapter 10 Chapter 6. Trojan Night
Chapter 11 Chapter 7. Tithonus and Phaon. Mythical Allegories of Light and Darkness in Sappho's Poetry
Chapter 12 Chapter 8. Erinyes as Creatures of Darkness
Chapter 13 Chapter 9. Hephaistos: God of Light
Part 14 Eye-sight/Insight
Chapter 15 Chapter 10. Blind People and Blindness in Ancient Greek Myth
Chapter 16 Chapter 11. Blindness as Punishment
Part 17 Being and Beyond
Chapter 18 Chapter 12. Light and Darkness and Archaic Cosmogony
Chapter 19 Chapter 13. Mystic Light and Near-Death Experience
Chapter 20 Chapter 14. Dark Winged Nyx and Bright Winged Eros in Aristophanes' "Orphic" Cosmogony: The Birds, 693-703
Chapter 21 Chapter 15. The Bright Cypress of the Orphic Golden Tablets: Direction and Illumination in Myths of the Underworld
Chapter 22 Chapter 16. Milk on Pelinna Tomb Tablets
Part 23 Cult
Chapter 24 Chapter 17. Light and Darkness in Dionysiac Rituals as Illustrated on Attic Vase Paintings of the 5th century BC
Chapter 25 Chapter 18. Light and Lighting Equipment in the Eleusinian Mysteries: Symbolism and Ritual Use
Chapter 26 Chapter 19. Magic Lamps, Luminous Dreams: Lamps in PGM Recipes
A beautiful bunch of manifold studies, which lets us grasp the issue of light and darkness within the Greek world under several aspects and explore its very complexity.
— Vinciane Pirenne, Université de Liège
Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion is an instructive and stimulating collection of authoritative essays on the semiotics and symbolism, the ritual, cosmological, social, and spiritual dimensions of light and darkness in ancient Greece. The editors draw on a wide range of literary, anthropological, religious, and historical scholarship to break new ground in the interpretation of Greek culture.
— Seth L. Schein, University of California at Davis