The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-108-48303-2 (ISBN)
The Moon exerted a powerful influence on ancient intellectual history, as a playground for the scientific imagination. This book explores the history of the Moon in the Greco-Roman imaginary from Homer to Lucian, with special focus on those accounts of the Moon, its attributes, and its 'inhabitants' given by ancient philosophers, natural scientists and imaginative writers including Pythagoreans, Plato and the Old Academy, Varro, Plutarch and Lucian. ní Mheallaigh shows how the Moon's enigmatic presence made it a key site for thinking about the gaze (erotic, philosophical and scientific) and the relation between appearance and reality. It was also a site for hoax in antiquity as well as today. Central issues explored include the view from elsewhere (selēnoskopia), the relation of science and fiction, the interaction between the beginnings of science in the classical polis and the imperial period, and the limits of knowledge itself.
Karen ní Mheallaigh is Professor of Greek in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter. She is the author of Reading Fiction with Lucian: Fakes, Freaks and Hyperreality (Cambridge, 2014).
Acknowledgements; Abbreviations, text references and translations; Part I. The Moon in the Mythic Imagination: Introduction: to the Moon! Journey into the ancient scientific imagination; 1. The Moon in ritual, myth and magic; Part II. The Moon in the Scientific Imagination: 2. Making sense of the Moon: philosophy and science; 3. Life on the Moon: between philosophy, science and fantasy; 4. The Moon of many faces: Plutarch's great lunar dialogue De facie; Part III. The Moon in the Fantastic Imagination: 5. The imaginary Moon: lunar journeys; 6. Selçnoskopia: the Moon-view from fiction to reality; Envoi: the legacy of ancient selenography; Bibliography; Index.
| Erscheinungsdatum | 12.10.2020 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Greek Culture in the Roman World |
| Zusatzinfo | Worked examples or Exercises; 6 Halftones, color; 2 Halftones, black and white; 3 Line drawings, black and white |
| Verlagsort | Cambridge |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 160 x 240 mm |
| Gewicht | 800 g |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-108-48303-8 / 1108483038 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-108-48303-2 / 9781108483032 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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