This book discusses the problems involved in attempts to make sense of ancient Greek society, in particular its texts and images, rituals and myths. The collection of seven previously published papers is prefaced by an introduction which explains the methodological approach common to each. This approach draws on a variety of disciplines such as social anthropology and social history, the psychology of perception, semiology, cognitive studies, and literary theory.

"Reading" Greek Culture: Texts and Images, Rituals and Myths

History

Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane

Ancient Civilizations

Oxford University Press

"Reading" Greek Death: To the End of the Classical Period

This fascinating book offers a series of in-depth studies of the beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding death in ancient Greece from the Minoan and Mycenean period to the end of the classical age. Drawing on a wide range of evidence--from literary texts, to inscriptions, to images in art--the author sheds light on many key, still problematic, aspects of Greek life, myth, and literature. Among the topics discussed are the world of the dead in Homer; grave monuments; the myths of Charon, Hermes, and the journey of death; and the shifting attitudes toward death in a changing society. The book also looks at the problem of "reading" this material within the context of our own culturally-determined beliefs.

Literature & Fiction

Classics

This book offers a series of in-depth studies of the beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding death in ancient Greece, from the Minoan and Mycenean period to the end of the classical age. Drawing on a wide range of evidence--from literary texts, to inscriptions, to images in art--Sourvinou-Inwood sheds light on many key, still problematic, aspects of Greek life, myth, and literature. She also looks at the problem of "reading" this material within the context of our own culturally-determined beliefs.

History & Criticism

Clarendon Press

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, the late Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. She studies the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. Sourvinou-Inwood also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. Her book, brought to completion by Robert Parker, displays all the attention to detail and the concern for methodological rigour that have made her an iconic figure among students of Greek religion.

Athenian Myths and Festivals: Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

The focus of this book is the reconstruction of the mythicoritual nexus in Kios in Mysia through the in-depth investigation of the evidence (surviving in accounts by, and so shaped by the filters of, outsiders) and also of other issues implicated in its Problematik: ethnicity, cultural and religious interactions between Greeks and non-Greeks, colonial discourses (with special emphasis on the foundation mythopea of Kios’ mother city, Miletos), the nature and functions of the Nymphs, the different personalities of Dionysos, advent festivals, certain problematic categories of cult recipients. Hylas’ myth and ritual had been constructed, through complex interactions between several mythicoritual schemata and included also elements that appear in non-Greek nexuses located in the area of Kios. The myth was both a foundation myth constructing cultural continuity with the heroic age and an immortalization myth: a Greek youth was abducted by Nymphs and became a diety rooted to the landscape and symbolically rooting the colony to the land; it established a poliouchos figure unique to Kios, connected Herakles with the city’s foundation, and articulated a relationship of cooperation and integration between Greeks and Non-Greeks. A ritual celebrated Hylas’ advent and commemorated the events that had led to Kios’ foundation, articulating a cooperative relationship between Greeks and locals.

Hylas, the Nymphs, Dionysos & Others: Myth, Ritual, Ethnicity

Paul Forlag Astroms

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Books by Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

"Reading" Greek Culture: Texts and Images, Rituals and Myths

"Reading" Greek Death: To the End of the Classical Period

"Reading" Greek Death: To the End of the Classical Period

Athenian Myths and Festivals: Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

Hylas, the Nymphs, Dionysos & Others: Myth, Ritual, Ethnicity