Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This book treads new paths through the labyrinths of our human thought. It meanders through the darkness to encounter the monsters at the heart of the maze: Minotaurs, Centaurs, Automata, Makers, Humans. One part of our human thought emerges from classical Ionia and Greek civilisation more generally. We obsessively return to that thought, tread again its pathways, re-enact its stories, repeat its motifs and gestures. We return time and time again to construct and re-construct the beings which were part of its cosmology and mythology – stories enacted from a classical world which is itself at once imaginary and material. The “Never Never Lands” of the ancient world contain fabulous beasts and humans and landscapes of desire and violence. We encounter the rioting Centaurs there and never again cease to conjure them up time and time again through our history. The Centaur mythologies display a fascination with animals and what binds and divides human beings from them. The Centaur hints ultimately at the idea of the genesis of civilisation itself. The Labyrinth, constructed by Daedalus, is itself a prison and a way of thinking about making, designing, and human aspiration. Designed by humans it offers mysteries that would be repeated time and time again – a motif which is replicated through human history. Daedalus himself is an archetype for creation and mastery, the designer of artefacts and machines which would be the beginning of forays into the total domination of nature. Centaurs, Labyrinths, Automata offer clues to the origins and ultimately the futures of humanity and what might come after it.

classical literature, ancient history, monsters, mythology, centaurs

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

By opposing sectarian discourses with the universal weapons of history, philology and anthropology, in short, the entire arsenal of science and reason, the history of religions of the past enables us to deflate modern myths, and not only those of others but also our own. It allows us to identify the projection, in the imaginary past, of the “origins” of nationalist, religious or racist fantasies, and to disarm exaggerated interpretations of the sacred texts. Within nations inherited from the ...

religion, institutions, archeology, ancient history, history of religions

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Why did human beings first begin to write history? Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across. Hau also shows how moral didacticism was an integral part of the writing of history from its inception in the 5th century BC, how it developed over the next 500 years in parallel with the development of historiography as a genre and how the moral messages on display remained surprisingly stable across this period. For the ancient Greek historiographers, moral didacticism was a way of making sense of the past and making it relevant to the present; but this does not mean that they falsified events: truth and morality were compatible and synergistic ends.

Classics --- Classical --- Early and Medieval --- Ancient History --- Literary Studies

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

When talking about monuments, size undeniably matters – or does it? But how else can we measure monumentality? Bringing together researchers from various fields such as archaeology, museology, history, sociology, Mesoamerican studies, and art history, this book discusses terminological and methodological approaches in both theoretical contributions and various case studies. While focusing on architectural aspects, this volume also discusses the social meaning of monuments, the role of forced and free labour, as well as textual monumentality. The result is a modern interdisciplinary take on an important concept which is notoriously difficult to define. When talking about monuments, size undeniably matters – or does it? But how else can we measure monumentality? Bringing together researchers from various fields such as archaeology, museology, history, sociology, Mesoamerican studies, and art history, this book discusses terminological and methodological approaches in both theoretical contributions and various case studies. While focusing on architectural aspects, this volume also discusses the social meaning of monuments, the role of forced and free labour, as well as textual monumentality. The result is a modern interdisciplinary take on an important concept which is notoriously difficult to define.

Monumentality --- Architecture --- Energetics --- Identity --- Labour --- Monument --- Perception --- Reception --- Cultural History --- Ancient History --- History --- Monumentality --- Architecture --- Energetics --- Identity --- Labour --- Monument --- Perception --- Reception --- Cultural History --- Ancient History --- History

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Überlieferte Originalstelen mit Inschriften der großen Könige Sargon und Narām-Sîn von Akkade, die im 23. Jahrhundert v. Chr. als erste ein Weltreich eroberten, sowie mündlich tradierte Sagen haben diesen beiden Königen einen herausragenden Stellenwert in der historischen Erinnerung der Babylonier und Assyrer verschafft. Dies führte zu einer Reihe erzählender Werke, die zum Teil wie echte Heldenlieder gestaltet sind, zum Teil sich aber auch als authentische Königsinschriften gebärden. Das Verständnis dieser heterogenen Textgruppe in verschiedenen Fragerichtungen zu erhellen, ist das Ziel vorliegender Studie. Zu den Fragestellungen gehören die Bestimmung der Gattungen, denen die Texte angehören, und ihre Scheidung von den authentischen Königsinschriften, die durch das Merkmal der Fiktionalität gekennzeichnet ist. Des Weiteren soll die zum Teil hohe literarische Qualität dieser Werke herausgearbeitet werden. Schließlich wird untersucht, inwiefern sich an diesen Werken die Mechanismen und Bedingungen ihrer Überlieferung ablesen lassen, ob sie Spuren eines mündlichen Sargon- und Narām-Sîn-Sagenschatzes aufweisen und welche literarischen Funktionen sie erfüllten. Die Reihe “Göttinger Beiträge zun Alten Orient” setzt die erfolgreichen “Göttinger Arbeitshefte zur Altorientalischen Literatur” fort. Die Reihe wird vom Seminar für Altorientalistik der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen herausgegeben und behandelt die Erschließung und Deutung der reichhaltigen Schriftdenkmäler in akkadischer oder sumerischer Sprache aus der Zeit von ca. 3100 - 500 v. Chr.

Ancient History --- History of the Middle East --- History of Literature --- Classical Studies --- Royal Stela