| Description |
1 online resource (x, 339 pages) |
| Contents |
1. Rhythmic Prose in Imperial Greek Literature -- 2. Rhythmic Prose in Plutarch's Lives -- 3. Density in Plutarch -- 4. Life as Art (Plutarch, Timoleon 35) -- 5. Taking Fratricide Too Hard (Timoleon 5-6) -- 6. Peace Pervades (Numa 20.4-5) -- 7. What to Write under a Statue (Caro Maior 19.4-6) -- 8. Dangerous Leap (Alexander 63.2-6) -- 9. Brutus and His Mirrors (Brutus 10.4-6, 13.7-10, 29.2-3, 40.7-8) -- 10. Daggers and Dangers (Brutus 1.5, 16.4, 52.1-4, 7-8; 19-20) -- 11. Surprise from Cato (Pompey 54.5-9) -- 12. Mist or Smoke? (Flamininus 4.8-12) -- 13. Terrible Retreat (Nicias 26.3-6) -- 14. Fall of the Crassi (Crassus 23.7-24.3, 25.12-14, 26.6-9,30.2-5) -- 15. Antigonus and the Athenians Change Their Tunes (Demetrius 28, 29.4, 30.2-31.1) -- 16. Cornelia Blames Herself (Pompey 74.5-75.2) -- 17. Deaths of King and Kindred (Agis 16.6-17.5, 17.9-18.3; 19.5-21.1) -- 18. Distraught Hero (Chariton 3.5.5-6) -- 19. Blase Mother (Plutarch, Cleomenes 43 (22).4-5) -- 20. Bewilderments of Joy (Heliodorus 10.38.3-4) -- 21. Chaereas Lives (Chariton 5.8.1-3) -- 22. King of Persia is Put in His Place (Chariton 8.5.5-7) -- 23. Father Struggles (Heliodorus 10.16.1-2) -- 24. Some Tears in Achilles Tatius (Achilles 6.7.3-7) -- 25. More Tears in Achilles Tatius (7.4.3-6) |
| Summary |
Greek literature is divided, like many literatures, into poetry and prose; but in the earlier Roman Empire, 31 bc to ad 300, much Greek (and Latin) prose was written in one organized rhythmic system. Whether most, or hardly any, Greek prose adopted this patterning has been entirely unclear; this book for the first time adequately establishes an answer. It then seeks to get deeper into the nature of prose-rhythm through one of the greatest Imperial works, Plutarch’s Lives. All its phrases, almost 100,000, have been scanned rhythmically. Prose-rhythm is revealed as a means of expression, which draws attention to words and word-groups. (Online readings are offered too.) Some passages in the Lives pack rhythms together more closely than others; the book looks especially at rhythmically dense passages. These do not occur randomly; they attract attention to themselves, and are marked out as climactic in the narrative, or as in other ways of highlighted significance. Comparison emerges as crucial to the Lives on many levels. Much of the book closely discusses particular dense moments, in commentary form, to show how much rhythm contributes to understanding, and is to be integrated with other sorts of criticism. These remarkable passages make apparent the greatness of Plutarch as a prose-writer: a side not greatly considered amid the huge resurgence of work on him. The book also analyses closely rhythmic and unrhythmic passages from three Greek novelists. Rhythm illuminates both a supreme Greek writer, Plutarch, and three prolific centuries of Greek literary history |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Text in English and Greek |
|
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed July 17, 2018) |
| Subject |
Plutarch -- Criticism and interpretation
|
|
Plutarch. Lives -- Criticism and interpretation
|
| SUBJECT |
Plutarch fast |
|
Lives (Plutarch) fast |
| Subject |
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Ancient & Classical.
|
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780192554796 |
|
0192554794 |
|
9780191860928 |
|
0191860921 |
|
