Somewhere I Have Never Travelled: The Hero's JourneyThe ancient hero's quest for glory offers metaphors for our own struggles to reach personal integrity and wholeness. In this compelling book, Van Nortwick traces the heroic journeys in three seminal works of ancient epic poetry, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad, and Virgil's Aeneid. In particular, he focuses on the relationship of the hero to one or more second selves, or alter egos, showing how the poems address central truths about the cost of heroic self-assertion: that the pursuit of glory can lead to alienation from one's own deepest self, and that spiritual wholeness can only be achieved by confronting what appears, at first, to be the very negation of that self. With his unique combination of literary, psychological, and spiritual insights, Van Nortwick demonstrates the relevance of ancient literature to enduring human problems and to contemporary issues. Somewhere I Have never Travelled will interest anyone who wishes to explore the roots of human behavior and the relationship between life and art. |
Contents
Metaphors | 3 |
The Epic of Gilgamesh | 8 |
The Iliad 1 | 39 |
The Iliad 2 | 62 |
The Aeneid 1 | 89 |
The Aeneid 2 | 124 |
The Aeneid 3 | 162 |
Metaphor Revisited | 183 |
Further Reading | 185 |
Bibliographical Essay | 189 |
| 194 | |
| 199 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accept Achaians Achates Achilles and Patroclus Achilleus Aeneas Aeneid Aeneid 12 Agamemnon Anchises anger appears Ascanius battle beginning bring Briseis Camilla Carthage comes companion context corpse culture dark dead denial destiny Dido Dido's Dido’s divine drive Enkidu Enkidu's death Epic of Gilgamesh episode Euryalus fate father fight finally further Gilgamesh and Enkidu Gilgamesh epic give goddess gods Greek grief grieving heart Hector hero story hero's heroic heroism Homer human Humbaba Iliad 22 Ishtar issues journey Juno Juno's Jupiter katabasis killing kind king Latin Latium literature look male metaphors mission mortals mother nature Ninsun Nisus Odysseus Pallas particular Patroklos Peleus perspective poem Priam qualities reintegration relationship response role Roman Rome scene second-self motif seems sense sexual ships Sibyl simile spiritual suggests tell Thetis tion traditional Trojans Troy turn Turnus underworld Uruk Utnapishtim Venus Virgil wild Zeus