Epic lessons: an introduction to ancient didactic poetry

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Didactic Epic was enormously popular in the ancient world. It was used to teach Greeks and Romans technical and scientific subjects, but in verse. Epic Lessons shows how this scientific poetry was intended not just to instruct but also to entertain. Praise for its predecessor, Reading Epic'Toohey's erudition makes the complexities and the strangeness of these ancient poems appear as clear as daylight and his enthusiasm renders them as attractive as the latest blockbuster.' - JACT Review.

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Title Statements

Full title :Epic lessons : an introduction to ancient didactic poetry / Peter Toohey.

Summary

Edition Statements

Publication Date:1996.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Routledge
Place of Publication:London
Language:eng
Publication Date:1996.

The Physical Object

Description:1 online resource (x, 271 pages)

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9781135035341, 1135035342, 1299480071, 9781299480070
oclc:ocn605589641
LC Classification:PA3022.D5
Dewey Decimal:880/.09

Cover; EPIC LESSONS; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Introduction; 1 WHO READS DIDACTIC EPIC?; What was didactic epic?; Didactic epic and narrative epic; The archaeology of the didactic aesthetic; What makes didactic poetry work?; Why read didactic epic?; 2 WORD OF MOUTH: ORALITY AND DIDACTIC POETRY FROM HESIOD TO EMPEDOCLES; Hesiod: didactic characteristics of the Works and Days; Hesiod: the Works and Days as an oral epic; Hesiod: what makes the Works and Days successful?; Presocratic epic: Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Empedocles; Orality and two versions of didactic experience.

3 THE UNIVERSE AS A BOOK: HELLENISTIC LITERACY AND THE POEMS OF ARATUS AND NICANDERAratus' didactic epic, the Phaenomena; Writing up Zeus' creation; Nicander's didactic epics, the Theriaca and the Alexipharmaca; Nicander's parsing of the natural world; Aratus, Nicander, Callimachus, and Alexandrian Aesthetics; 4 ROMAN RENEWAL: CICERO AND LUCRETIUS; Cicero and his Phaenomena; An orator's Aratea?; Lucretius' innovations; Why the changes (Lucretius in his era)?; Death and the gods (Lucretius' argument); What sort of a poem was On the Universe?; The Anti-Lucretius in Lucretius.

Lucretius' impo…

Subjects

Criticism, interpretation, etc Didactic poetry, Classical Didactic poetry, Classical -- History a… Didactische poëzie Epic poetry, Classical Epic poetry, Classical -- History and c… Gedichten Greece Klassieke talen LITERARY CRITICISM -- Ancient & Classic… Literature and science Literature and science -- Greece Literature and science -- Rome Littérature et sciences -- Grèce Littérature et sciences -- Rome Poésie didactique ancienne -- Histoire … Poésie épique ancienne -- Histoire et c… Rome (Empire) Science in literature Sciences dans la littérature