Greek and Roman stories of origin, or aetia, provide a fascinating window onto ancient conceptions of time. Aetia pervade ancient literature at all its stages, and connect the past with the present by telling us which aspects of the past survive "even now" or "ever since then". Yet, while the standard aetiological formulae remain surprisingly stable over time, the understanding of time that lies behind stories of origin undergoes profound changes. By studying a broad range of texts and by closely examining select stories of origin from archaic Greece, Hellenistic Greece, Augustan Rome, and early Christian literature, Time in Ancient Stories of Origin traces the changing forms of stories of origin and the underlying changing attitudes to time: to the interaction of the time of gods and men, to historical time, to change and continuity, as well as to a time beyond the present one. Walter provides a model of how to analyse the temporal construction of aetia, by combining close attention to detail with a view towards the larger temporal agenda of each work. In the process, new insights are provided both into some of the best-known aetiological works of antiquity (e.g. by Hesiod, Callimachus, Vergil, Ovid) and lesser-known works (e.g. Ephorus, Prudentius, Orosius). This volume shows that aetia do not merely convey factual information about the continuity of the past, but implicate the present in ever new complex messages about time.
Author(s): Anke Walter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 304
City: Oxford
Cover
Time in Ancient Stories of Origin
Copyright
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1: Introduction
1.1 Scholarship on aetia
1.2 Aetia in ancient literature: an overview
1.3 Narratological characteristics of aetia
Aetia and the surrounding narrative
Aetia and narrated/narrative time
Aetia and memory
Aetia and continuity vs change
1.4 Aim and method of this study
1.5 Choice of texts and chapter overview
2: Archaic aetia: Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Agamemnon’s aetiology
2.3 Hesiod’s Theogony
The hymn to Hecate
The birth of Zeus
Prometheus and Pandora
2.4 The Homeric Hymn to Hermes
The invention of the lyre: forging a bond between Olympus and earth
‘The fourth of the month’
Apollo and ‘earth-time’: looking back through prophecy
The lyre as missing link between Olympus and earth
2.5 Conclusion
3: Hellenistic Literature: Ephorus, Callimachus, and Apollonius Rhodius
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ephorus’ Histories
Apollo and the foundation of the Delphic oracle (F 31b)
Aetia and the dynamics of language: F 149
3.3 Callimachus’ Aetia and Hymns
The Aetia
The Hymn to Apollo
3.4 Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica
The Argonautic time-frame
The ‘dating’ of the Argonauts’ foundational deeds
The previous generations of gods
‘Apollo of the Morning’
3.5 Conclusion
4: Augustan aetia: Livy, Vergil, and Ovid
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Livy’s ab urbe condita
General characteristics of Livian aetia
Camillus and the refoundation of Rome
Aetia and exemplarity
4.3 Vergil’s Aeneid
‘arriving’ in time
Anticipating Roman time
ending ‘in time’
4.4 Ovid’s Fasti
Aetiological time in the Fasti
The Parilia
The birth of Rome
4.5 Conclusion
5: Early Christian Literature: Prudentius and Orosius
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Prudentius’ Peristephanon
Peristephanon 2 and its aetiological structure
Aetiology and typology
The poem’s aetiological centre
Converting the tex
5.3 Orosius’ Histories
A landscape of destruction
Preserving the traces
5.4 Conclusion
6: Conclusion
Bibliography
Index locorum
Index
