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Winner of the Translation Prize for non-fiction from the French-American Foundation. Son of a mortal king and an immortal Muse, Orpheus possessed a gift for music unmatched among humans; with his lyre he could turn the course of rivers, drown the fatal song of the Sirens, and charm the denizens of the underworld. The allure of his music speaks through the myths and stories of the Greeks and Romans, who tell of his mysterious compositions, with lyrics that only the initiated could understand after undergoing secret rites. Where readers of subsequent centuries have been content to understand these mysteries as the stuff of obfuscation or mere folderol, Marcel Detienne finds in the writing of O...
The tales told of Orpheus are legion. He is said to have been an Argonaut--and to have saved Jason's life. Rivers are reported to have stopped their flow to listen to the sounds of his lyre and his voice. Plato cites his poetry and Herodotus refers to "practices that are called Orphic." Did Orpheus, in fact, exist? His influence on Greek thought is undeniable, but his disciples left little of substance behind them. Indeed, their Orphic precepts have been lost to time. W.K.C. Guthrie attempts to uncover and define Orphism by following its circuitous path through ancient history. He tackles this daunting task with the determination of a detective and the analytical rigor of a classical scholar. He ferries his readers with him on a singular voyage of discovery.
THE SONG OF ORPHEUS: THE GREATEST GREEK MYTHS YOU NEVER HEARD is a funny, adventure-filled collection of wonderfully weird "new" Greek myths. This unforgettable collection spins tales of love and loss, hilariously vain superheroes, ancient robots, untrappable giant foxes, men reborn after being torn apart by dragons, and even the world's first monkeys. A few of these tales may seem familiar at first, but be prepared for the unexpected. Others are wonderfully strange and puzzling. All of them are entertaining. All of them deserve to be better known. Retold by author and scholar Tracy Barrett (THE SHERLOCK FILES, ANNA OF BYZANTIUM, THE STEPSISTER'S TALE) with accuracy, suspense, and humor, using authoritative translations into English of ancient source material, the myths in THE SONG OF ORPHEUS will make readers, and especially fans of THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS series, laugh, gasp, and geek out.
Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, surprising plot twists, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. In this fifth volume of the new Loeb Classical Library Euripides, David Kovacs presents a freshly edited Greek text and a faithful and deftly worded translation of three plays. For his Helen the poet employs an alternative history in which a virtuous Helen never went to Troy but spent the war years in Egypt, falsely blamed for the adulterous behavior of her divinely created double in Troy. This volume also includes Phoenician Women, Euripides' treatment of the battle between the sons of Oedipus for control of Thebes; and Orestes, a novel retelling of Orestes' lot after he murdered his mother, Clytaemestra. Each play is annotated and prefaced by a helpful introduction.
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 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 thinkers understand the mechanisms of rhetorical force. Mann demonstrates that the forms and figures of ancient poetry indelibly shaped the princip...
Today's poets provide a new spin on Greek myths.
This volume surveys the literary treatment of the Orpheus myth as the myth of the essence of poetry - the ability to encounter the fullest possible intensity of beauty and sorrow and to transform them into song. The first half of the book concentrates on the ancient literary tradition, from the myth's Greek origins through the influential poetic versions of Ovid and Virgil and its treatment by other Latin authors such as Horace and Seneca. Later chapters focus on the continuities of the myth in modern literature, including the poetry of H.D., Rukeyser, Rich, Ashbery, and, especially, Rilke. The author's leitmotif throughout is the relation of poetry to art, love and death, the 'three points of the Orphic triangle'. Through close readings of individual texts, he shows how various versions of the myth oscillate between a poetry of transcendence that asserts its power over the necessities of nature - including the ultimate necessity, death - and a poetry that celebrates its immersion in the stream of life.
Long ago, when gods and heroes walked the earth in triumph and tragedy, true love and epic deeds were set among the stars... In the ancient land of Greece, at a time when kings warred and the people suffered, the Fates fixed their timeless eyes upon the son of a muse, and his story inspired hope and beauty in a ravaged world. Raised by the daughters of Zeus in the shadow of Mount Olympus, Orpheus is filled with a love of the world, of creation, and of song. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he inspires mortals, birds, beasts, and even the Gods with his music. He is blessed with a humility and unmatched skill that make him the greatest musician of the age. However, when the god Apollo tells...
Master storytellers Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden bring three of the most famous myths of the ancient Greek world to life. Vividly illustrated by award-winning French illustrator Carole Hénaff, Greek Myths is a captivating introduction to the stories of Demeter and Persephone, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Orpheus and Eurydice.