Playing Hesiod: The 'myth Of The Races' In Classical Antiquity

Synopsis

This Book Offers A New Description Of The Significance Of Hesiod's 'myth Of The Races' For Ancient Greek And Roman Authors, Showing How The Most Detailed Responses To This Story Go Far Beyond Nostalgia For A Lost 'golden' Age Or Hope Of Its Return. Through A Series Of Close Readings, It Argues That Key Authors From Plato To Juvenal Rewrite The Story To Reconstruct 'hesiod' More Broadly As Predecessor In Forming Their Own Intellectual And Rhetorical Projects; Disciplines Such As Philosophy, Didactic Poetry And Satire All Engage In Implicit Questions About 'hesiodic' Teaching. The First Chapter Re-evaluates The Account In Hesiod's Works And Days. A Major Chapter Outlines Plato's Use Of Hesiod Through Close Study Of The Protagoras, Republic And Statesman. Subsequent Chapters Focus On Aratus' Phaenomena And Ovid's Metamorphoses; The Final Chapter, On The Octavia Attributed To Seneca And Juvenal's Sixth Satire, Broadens Ideas Of Hesiod's Reception In Rome. Acknowledgements -- Texts, Translations And Abbreviations -- Chapter 1: Approaching Hesiod -- The Argument Of This Book: An 'alternative Account' -- Identifying A 'hesiodic' Project -- Ages And Stages, Heroes And Chronologies -- Reading The Races In Hesiod, And Hesiod In The Races -- Chapter 2: Embedding The Races In Hesiod -- Introduction -- The Works And Days: ''argument' Is Perhaps Too Grand A Word'? -- The Importance Of The 'myth Of The Races' -- Framing The Races -- Structures In The 'myth Of The Races' -- Emphases In The Narrative Of The Races -- The Emergence Of 'hesiod' -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: 'hesiod's Races And Your Own': Plato's 'hesiodic' Projects -- Introduction: Challenging The Unimportance Of Hesiod -- Didactic (re)constructions: The Protagoras -- Socrates' 'hesiodic' Project: The Republic -- Further Experiments: The Statesman -- Conclusion: Transforming Hesiodic Pedagogy -- Chapter 4: 'they Called Her Justice ... ': Reading Hesiod In Aratus' Phaenomena -- Introduction: Approaching The Phaenomena -- The Maiden And The Phaenomena -- Hesiod In The Phaenomena -- Conclusion: Didactic Ramifications -- Chapter 5: Hesiod Ad Mea Tempora In Ovid's Metamorphoses -- Introduction: Backgrounds -- Periodization -- Alternative Accounts -- Conclusion: Ovid's 'hesiod' -- Chapter 6: Saeculo Premimur Graui: Re-performing 'hesiod' In Rome -- Prologue: Ovid's Pythagoras And The Degeneration Of Didactic -- Didactic Hazard A: The Pupil In The Octavia -- Didactic Hazard B: The Speaker In Juvenal Satire 6 -- Conclusion -- Conclusion: Playing 'hesiod'. Helen Van Noorden. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.