Intended Audience
College Audience
LCCN
2021-033198
Reviews
This book offers a fresh look at early creation myths in Greece (Hesiod's Theogony , the Orphic poem of the Derveni Papyrus and Plato's Protagoras ) challenging the traditional interpretations and opening new paths to the understanding of the Greeks' views on the origins of gods, humans and cosmos., "This book offers a fresh look at early creation myths in Greece (Hesiod's Theogony , the Orphic poem of the Derveni Papyrus and Plato's Protagoras ) challenging the traditional interpretations and opening new paths to the understanding of the Greeks' views on the origins of gods, humans and cosmos." - Marco Antonio Santamaría, Associate Professor of Greek, University of Salamanca, Spain "Almqvist offers a striking and thought-provoking new insight on the Greek cosmological myths, imposing anthropological lenses on founding texts. It is not only "Descola among the Greeks": this book investigates the Greeks' own exploration on ontological differences through poetry, and proposes a contribution to the ontological turn, via a fifth ontology, the pantheism." - Manon Brouillet, Associate Professor, Université de Picardie Jules-Verne, France
Dewey Edition
23
Dewey Decimal
292.24
Table Of Content
Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Myth, Philosophy, and Ontological Pluralism 2. Cosmos and Chaos in Hesiod's Theogony 3. Beyond the Golden Age: Sacrifice, Sharing, and Affinity in Hesiod's Mekone 4. Orpheus and the Reinvention of the Cosmos 5. Dionysus Dismembered 6. Conclusion: Protagoras and Greek Naturalism Appendix: Some Key Orphic Texts Notes Bibliography Index
Synopsis
Cosmological narratives like the creation story in the book of Genesis or the modern Big Bang are popularly understood to be descriptions of how the universe was created. However, cosmologies also say a great deal more. Indeed, the majority of cosmologies, ancient and modern, explore not simply how the world was made but how humans relate to their surrounding environment and the often thin line which separates humans from gods and animals. Combining approaches from classical studies, anthropology, and philosophy, this book studies three competing cosmologies of the early Greek world: Hesiod's Theogony ; the Orphic Derveni theogony; and Protagoras' creation myth in Plato's eponymous dialogue. Although all three cosmologies are part of a single mythic tradition and feature a number of similar events and characters, Olaf Almqvist argues they offer very different answers to an ongoing debate on what it is to be human. Engaging closely with the ontological turn in anthropology and in particular with the work of Philippe Descola, this book outlines three key sets of ontological assumptions - analogism, pantheism, and naturalism - found in early Greek literature and explores how these competing ontological assumptions result in contrasting attitudes to rituals such as prayer and sacrifice., Cosmological narratives like the creation story in the book of Genesis or the modern Big Bang are popularly understood to be descriptions of how the universe was created. However, cosmologies also say a great deal more. Indeed, the majority of cosmologies, ancient and modern, explore not simply how the world was made but how humans relate to their surrounding environment and the often thin line which separates humans from gods and animals. Combining approaches from classical studies, anthropology, and philosophy, this book studies three competing cosmologies of the early Greek world: Hesiod's Theogony ; the Orphic Derveni Theogony; and Protagoras' creation myth in Plato's eponymous dialogue. Although all three cosmologies are part of a single mythic tradition and feature a number of similar events and characters, Olaf Almqvist argues they offer very different answers to an ongoing debate on what it is to be human. Engaging closely with the ontological turn in anthropology and in particular with the work of Philippe Descola, this book outlines three key sets of ontological assumptions - analogism, pantheism, and naturalism - found in early Greek literature and explores how these competing ontological assumptions result in contrasting attitudes to rituals such as prayer and sacrifice.
LC Classification Number
BL795.C68A46 2022
