The interest in the performance of ancient Greek poetry has grown dramatically in recent years. But the competitive dimension of Greek poetic performances, while usually assumed, has rarely been directly addressed. This study provides for the first time an in-depth examination of a central mode of Greek poetic competition--capping, which occurs when speakers or singers respond to one another in small numbers of verses, single verses, or between verse units themselves. With a wealth of descriptive and technical detail, Collins surveys the wide range of genres that incorporated capping, including tragic and comic stichomythia, lament, forms of Platonic dialectic and dialogue, the sympotic performance of elegy, skolia, and related verse games, Hellenistic bucolic, as well as the rhapsodic performance of epic. Further, he examines historical evidence for actual performances as well as literary representations of live performances to explore how the features of improvisation, riddling, and punning through verse were developed and refined in different competitive contexts.   Anyone concerned with the performance of archaic and classical Greek poetry, or with the agonistic social, cultural, and poetic gamesmanship that prompted one performer to achieve "mastery" over another, will find this authoritative volume indispensable.

Master of the Game: Competition and Performance in Greek Poetry (Hellenic Studies Series)

Literature & Fiction

Collins, Derek

History & Criticism

Center for Hellenic Studies

Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role and Social Functions (Greek Studies) (Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches)

In this groundbreaking work, Claude Calame argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices.  Using semiotic and anthropologic theory, Calame reconstructs the religious and social institutions surrounding the songs, demonstrating their function in an aesthetic education that permitted the young girls to achieve the stature of womanhood and to be integrated into the adult civic community. This first English edition includes an updated bibliography.

Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role and Social Functions (Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches)

Calame, Claude

Orion, Janice

Religion & Spirituality

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

In this groundbreaking work, Claude Calame argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Using semiotic and anthropologic theory, Calame reconstructs the religious and social institutions surrounding the songs, demonstrating their function in an aesthetic education that permitted the young girls to achieve the stature of womanhood and to be integrated into the adult civic community. This first English edition includes an updated bibliography.

Immortal Armor

Although military concepts in Homeric poetry have been studied since Alexandrian times, there has not been until now an extended study of the concept of alke, "defensive strength," as it unfolds intertextually within the Iliad and the Odyssey and archaic Greek poetry generally. Derek Collins uses evidence from Homeric poetry to reveal that alke, unlike other concepts of strength in archaic Greek, plays a central role in defining a warrior at the peak of his prowess, which can be related in turn to its application to kings and to its use by Zeus and Athena as divine emblems of warfare. Just as importantly, Collins shows how alke functions poetically as a plot device for the Odyssey as the poem retrospectively views the Iliad. Finally, by integrating evidence from linguistics, anthropology, and comparative literature, Collins argues that the meaning of alke cannot be divorced from the oral-traditional media from which it emerges, and that its conceptual structure depends as much on archaic Greek as it does on the poetic demands of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Dramas & Plays

Although military concepts in Homeric poetry have been studied since Alexandrian times, there has not been until now an extended study of the concept of alke, 'defensive strength,' as it unfolds intertextually within the Iliad and the Odyssey and archaic Greek poetry generally. Derek Collins uses evidence from Homeric poetry to reveal that alke, unlike other concepts of strength in archaic Greek, plays a central role in defining a warrior at the peak of his prowess, which can be related in turn to its application to kings and to its use by Zeus and Athena as divine emblems of warfare. Just as importantly, Collins shows how alke functions poetically as a plot device for the Odyssey as the poem retrospectively views the Iliad. Finally, by integrating evidence from linguistics, anthropology, and comparative literature, Collins argues that the meaning of alke cannot be divorced from the oral-traditional media from which it emerges, and that its conceptual structure depends as much on archaic Greek as it does on the poetic demands of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible in ancient Greece. 
<ul> <li>Explores the widespread use of spells, drugs, curse tablets, and figurines, and the practitioners of magic in the ancient world 
</li> <li>Uncovers how magic worked. Was it down to mere superstition? Did the subject need to believe in order for it to have an effect? 
</li> <li>Focuses on detailed case studies of individual types of magic 
</li> <li>Examines the central role of magic in Greek life</li> </ul>

Magic in the Ancient Greek World (Blackwell Ancient Religions)

History

Ancient Civilizations

Wiley/Blackwell

Magic in the Ancient Greek World

Color your way to bliss with The Great Alaskan Coloring Book! Blue Moose? Red Polar Bears with polka dots? You choose with this treasure trove of artwork. Loaded with amazing fun facts, you will gain great wisdom while coloring with this wonderful book of Alaska. So grab your colored pencils and crayons! It's time to have fun with this GIANT book of Alaskan adventure!

The Great Alaskan Coloring Book

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Crafts & Hobbies

Pine Soot Press

Excel: Your No-Fuss Guide to Mastering Functions, Formulas, and Charts: Step-by-Step Instructions and Expert Tips for Rapid Learning | From Beginner to Advanced in 7 Days

Computers & Technology

Certification

Chapter Zero

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