Homer on the gods and human virtue: creating the foundations of classical civilization
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Festland Spanien
- Verlag CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
- ISBN13 9780521193887
- ISBN10 0521193885
- Gegenstandsart Buch
- Buchseiten 271
- Jahr der Ausgabe 2014
- Sprache Englisch
- Bindung Stoffeinband
Abschnitte
Griechische LiteraturwissenschaftHomer on the gods and human virtue: creating the foundations of classical civilization
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Festland Spanien
Buch Details
This book seeks to restore Homer to his rightful place among the principal figures in the history of political and moral philosophy. Through this fresh and provocative analysis of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Peter J. Ahrensdorf examines Homer's understanding of the best life, the nature of the divine, and the nature of human excellence. According to Ahrensdorf, Homer teaches that human greatness eclipses that of the gods, that the contemplative and compassionate singer ultimately surpasses the heroic warrior in grandeur, and that it is the courageously questioning Achilles, not the loyal Hector or even the wily Odysseus, who comes closest to the humane wisdom of Homer himself. Thanks to Homer, two of the distinctive features of Greek civilization are its extraordinary celebration of human excellence, as can be seen in Greek athletics, sculpture, and nudity, and its singular questioning of the divine, as can be seen in Greek philosophy.