Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and BeyondLament seems to have been universal in the ancient world. As such, it is an excellent touchstone for the comparative study of attitudes towards death and the afterlife, human relations to the divine, views of the cosmos, and the constitution of the fabric of society in different times and places. This collection of essays offers the first ever comparative approach to ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern traditions of lament. Beginning with the Sumerian and Hittite traditions, the volume moves on to examine Bronze Age iconographic representations of lamentation, Homeric lament, depictions of lament in Greek tragedy and parodic comedy, and finally lament in ancient Rome. The list of contributors includes such noted scholars as Richard Martin, Ian Rutherford, and Alison Keith. Lament comes at a time when the conclusions of the first wave of the study of lament-especially Greek lament-have received widespread acceptance, including the notions that lament is a female genre; that men risked feminization if they lamented; that there were efforts to control female lamentation; and that a lamenting woman was a powerful figure and a threat to the orderly functioning of the male public sphere. Lament revisits these issues by reexamining what kinds of functions the term lament can include, and by expanding the study of lament to other genres of literature, cultures, and periods in the ancient world. The studies included here reflect the variety of critical issues raised over the past 25 years, and as such, provide an overview of the history of critical thinking on the subject. |
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Contents
| 3 | |
| 18 | |
The Lament of the TaptaraWomen in the Hittite Sallis Wastais Ritual | 53 |
4 Mycenaean Memory and Bronze Age Lament | 70 |
5 Reading the Laments of Iliad 24 | 93 |
Troy to Ulster | 118 |
Gender and Athenian Death Ritual | 139 |
8 Male Lament in Greek Tragedy | 156 |
9 Greek Comedys Parody of Lament | 181 |
10 Lament and Hymenaios in Erinnas Distaff | 200 |
11 Lament in Lucans Bellvm Civile | 233 |
Gender Genre and Lament in Ancient Rome | 258 |
INDEX | 281 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Aegean Alexiou ancient Greek Andromache argues Aristophanes Athenian Athens Ayia Triada Bachvarova Baukis Bronze Age burial century b.c.e. choral chorus city laments Classical comedy context Cornelia corpse cult dead death deceased dialect Dionysus discussion Distaff Dumuzi epic epitaphios Erinna ershemma Euripides example female lamentation Foley function funeral ritual funerary ritual gala priests gender genre gods Greece grief Hektor Helen hero heroic Hittite Holst-Warhaft 1992 Homeric Hymenaios ideology Iliad Inanna Ishkur Lament in Greek larnakes larnax laudatio Loraux Lucan male lament marriage Minoan modern mother mourners mourning Mycenae Mycenaean myth Nagy nenia ŒĘd parody performance play poem poem’s poet poetic poetry political Pompey Pompey’s praeficae Princeton prothesis references represented lament rites ritual lament role Roman Sappho scene Seaford social speech Stears Studies suggests Sumerian Suter Tanagra taptara taptara-women themes Thesmophoriazusae tomb tradition tragic Trojan Tsagalis wailing Warrior Vase wedding song woman women Women’s Laments words
Bibliographic information
| Title | Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond |
| Editor | Ann Suter |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0199714274, 9780199714278 |
| Length | 304 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Ancient / General History / Social History |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |