The Epic Gaze: Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic

by Helen Lovatt

Overview

The epic genre has at its heart a fascination with the horror of viewing death. Epic heroes have active visual power, yet become objects, turned into monuments, watched by two main audiences: the gods above and the women on the sidelines. This stimulating, ambitious study investigates the theme of vision in Greek and Latin epic from Homer to Nonnus, bringing the edges of epic into dialogue with celebrated moments (the visual confrontation of Hector and Achilles, the failure of Turnus' gaze), revealing epic as massive assertion of authority and fractured representation. Helen Lovatt demonstrates the complexity of epic constructions of gender: from Apollonius' Medea toppling Talos with her eyes to Parthenopaeus as object of desire. She discusses mortals appropriating the divine gaze, prophets as both penetrative viewers and rape victims, explores the divine authority of epic ecphrasis, and exposes the way that heroic bodies are fragmented and fetishised.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107272422
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/27/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Helen Lovatt is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham and her teaching includes epic and its reception. She is the author of Statius and Epic Games (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and co-editor, with Caroline Vout, of Epic Visions (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. The divine gaze; 3. The mortal gaze; 4. The prophetic gaze; 5. Ecphrasis and the Other; 6. The female gaze; 7. Heroic bodies on display; 8. The assaultive gaze; 9. Fixing it for good. Medusa and monumentality.

Editorial Reviews

"The Epic Gaze is distinguished by the comprehensiveness of its discussion from Homer to Nonnus … strongly recommended for anyone interested in Greco-Roman epic, ancient narrative, or ancient theories of vision."
Neil W. Bernstein, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"… a detailed, thoughtful examination of vision in classical epic … Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty."
S. E. Goins, Choice

From the Publisher