The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: Constructions and Reconstructions

by Richard Hunter

Overview

The Catalogue of Women, ascribed to Hesiod, one of the greatest figures of early hexameter poetry, maps the Greek world, its evolution and its heroic myths through the mortal women who bore children to the gods. In this collection a team of international scholars offers an attempt to explore the poem's meaning, significance and reception. Individual chapters examine the organization and structure of the poem, its social and political context, its relation to other early epic and Hesiodic poetry, its place in the development of a pan-Hellenic consciousness, and attitudes to women. The wider influence of the Catalogue is considered in chapters on Pindar and the lyric tradition, on Hellenistic poetry, and on the poem's reception at Rome. This collection provides a significant approach to the study of the Catalogue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521836845
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2005
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Richard Hunter is Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. He has published extensively on Greek literature and his previous titles include Theocritus: Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Berkeley, 2003), Plato's Symposium (Oxford, 2004), and Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (0521835119).

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Ordering women in Hesiod's Catalogue Robin Osborne; 2. The beginning and end of the Catalogue of Women and its relation to Hesiod Jenny Strauss Clay; 3. Gods among men? The social and political dynamics of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Elizabeth Irwin; 4. Heracles in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Johannes Haubold; 5. Mestra at Athens: Hesiod fr. 43 and the poetics of panhellenism Ian Rutherford; 6. A catalogue within a catalogue: Helen's suitors in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (frr. 196–204) Ettore Cingano; 7. Pulp epic: the Catalogue and the Shield Richard P. Martin; 8. The Megalai Ehoiai: a survey of the fragments Giovan Battista D'Alessio; 9. Ordered from the Catalogue: Pindar, Bacchylides and Hesiodic genealogical poetry Giovan Battista D'Alessio; 10. The Hesiodic Catalogue and Hellenistic poetry Richard Hunter; 11. From genealogy to Catalogue: the Hellenistic adaptation of the Hesiodic catalogue form Helen Asquith; 12. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and Latin poetry Philip Hardie; 13. Or such as Ovid's Metamorphoses … Richard Fletcher; Bibliography; Index of passages discussed; General index.

Editorial Reviews

"This collection is a welcome sign, signaling new attention to a complicated and tantalizing set of fragments." —Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher