Here is the first survey of the surviving evidence for the growth, development, and influence of the Neoplatonist allegorical reading of the Iliad and Odyssey. Professor Lamberton argues that this tradition of reading was to create new demands on subsequent epic and thereby alter permanently the nature of European epic. The Neoplatonist reading was to be decisive in the birth of allegorical epic in late antiquity and forms the background for the next major extension of the epic tradition found in Dante.
Homer the Theologian
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Editorial Reviews
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"Extraordinarily thought-provoking for all theologicans and especially for biblical theologians, since both are concerned with inspired and normative ancient narratives." -- A. T. Kraabel, Religious Studies Review
"It is Robert Lamberton's task in this dense and closely argued book to show how. . . . Homer was to become in the hands of the Third-Century A.D. Neo- platonists Porphyry and Plotinus a wholly and quite intentionally allegorical bard, imbued with a mystical understanding of nature and of the fate of souls, and who could be quoted as authoritative evidence against Christianity in much the same way as the scriptures were quoted for it." -- Peter Jones, London Times
"Lamberton has written an important history that is not just literary, but also cultural and intellectual." -- William G. Thalmann, Philosophy and Literature
"This is real scholarship. It is also, I submit, a far more valid version of Classical studies, and a work of far more central concern to the real meaning of any education, but particularly the Classical, than most of what passes for Classical scholarship today." -- Ingrid D. Rowland, Favonius
"It is Robert Lamberton's task in this dense and closely argued book to show how. . . . Homer was to become in the hands of the Third-Century A.D. Neo- platonists Porphyry and Plotinus a wholly and quite intentionally allegorical bard, imbued with a mystical understanding of nature and of the fate of souls, and who could be quoted as authoritative evidence against Christianity in much the same way as the scriptures were quoted for it." -- Peter Jones, London Times
"Lamberton has written an important history that is not just literary, but also cultural and intellectual." -- William G. Thalmann, Philosophy and Literature
"This is real scholarship. It is also, I submit, a far more valid version of Classical studies, and a work of far more central concern to the real meaning of any education, but particularly the Classical, than most of what passes for Classical scholarship today." -- Ingrid D. Rowland, Favonius
About the Author
Robert Lamberton is Assistant Professor of Classics at Princeton University.
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Homer the Theologian is a comprehensive and professional study on the various perspectives which shaped the ancient/medieval Homeric persona; and it also extensively covers the neoplatonic/allegorical method of interpretation with regard to the Iliad and Odyssey. The book reveals the esoteric and super-religious tendencies of philosophy during the last great explosion of Hellenistic culture; and it encourages the reader to consider the magnitude and importance of this tradition in the formation of our own religious and philosophical traditions. Lamberton displays a profound knowledge of the entire Greek/Latin corpus of mytho-poetic and theo-sophic literature; and he possesses a command of the sources that asserts itself on every page.
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60
books
cite this book:
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- Romance for Sale in Early Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction by Steve Mentz on page 53, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Pedagogy, Intellectuals, and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages: Lollardy and Ideas of Learning (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature) by Rita Copeland in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community (Joan Palevsky Classic Literature Book) by Margaret Beissinger on page 51, and page 294
- The Odyssey" Re-formed (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology) by Frederick Ahl in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Birth of the Symbol: Ancient Readers at the Limits of Their Texts by Peter T. Struck on page 230, and Back Matter
See all 60 books citing this book
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