Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China: Patterns of Literary Circulation
In this book, Alexander Beecroft explores how the earliest poetry in Greece (Homeric epic and lyric) and China (the Canon of Songs) evolved from being local, oral, and anonymous to being textualized, interpreted, and circulated over increasingly wider areas. Beecroft re-examines representations of authorship as found in poetic biographies such as Lives of Homer and the Zuozhuan, and in the works of other philosophical and historical authors like Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Confucius, and Sima Qian.
Contained within this illustrated anthology are thoughts and insights from all the key thinkers of Ancient Greek civilization, from Homer to Herodotus, and Sophocles to Socrates. Spanning the entire range of poetry, prose, philosophy and drama, the themed categories in this little book offer insight into areas as diverse as politics and personal fulfilment.
Witness the "works and wonders" of the ancient world through the eyes of its first great historian. Given the number and the superb quality of the courses on classical literature that Professor Elizabeth Vandiver has contributed to The Great Courses, we knew that we had to bring her into our studio to lecture on Herodotus. His monumental work, the Histories, was the subject of her doctoral dissertation and first book. These lectures introduce you to the book—Herodotus's only known work—that came out of these "inquiries." (The title Histories, by the way, is a now-common mistranslation of the original title, as Professor Vandiver explains.) You learn what makes Herodotus one of those rare, landmark figures in the story of thought as Professor Vandiver traces the influences Herodotus assimilated and the new methods he used in crafting this monumental work. (see original news) (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
