An essential guide to the myth of Oedipus, the first book to analyze its long and varied history from antiquity to modern times, while simultaneously presenting a valid overview of its reception, examining Oedipus in both art and music, as well as in literature.
Lowell Edmunds, Emeritus Professor of Classics at Rutgers University, sees the variations of the myth as the driving force behind its longevity and popularity. Avoiding the search for a primal form of the myth, Edmunds relates changes in the content of the Oedipus myth to changes in its meaning, rejecting the idea that a specific version can be regarded as definitive.
Following Zeus and Dionysus, the third book in the series Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World is released, illuminating many of the most significant beings that became objects of worship in classical antiquity in a new way. Edmunds' Oedipus achieves what no other work on this particular myth has ever succeeded in doing. It analyzes the varied story of the myth from ancient times to the present and the wide range of media through which it has been represented, making it an indispensable guide to the myth of Oedipus.
The story of Oedipus has traveled the paths of history in many guises and forms. This authoritative study by Lowell Edmunds considers variations of the myth as the driving force behind its longevity and popularity. By avoiding the search for a primal form of the specific myth, he correlates changes in content with changes in meanings, thus distancing himself from the perception that a specific variation of the myth can be defined as the standard.
Edmunds' Oedipus traverses the extensive history of the myth, from the earliest, pre-tragic Oedipus to the tragic poetry of the fifth century BCE, and from there to Roman times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment, all the way to the Oedipus of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In depicting this long history, the book shows, from one perspective, the presence of some continuity, and from another, a discontinuity followed by a resurgence.
The representative of continuity is Seneca, whose Oedipus looked back to ancient Greek models, gained some popularity during the medieval times, found many imitators in the Renaissance, and continues to occasionally reappear, such as in Ted Hughes' adaptation (1961). However, as Edmunds shows, the European Middle Ages also signify a remarkable discontinuity in the tradition: for about a millennium, the Oedipus of ancient Greek tragedy is essentially forgotten and will not be rediscovered until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Thereafter, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus would become the standard for the myth of Oedipus.
Number of pages
288
Cover
Soft
Year of publication
2024
Publisher
Kalentis
13 Coins
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