Polytropos Ajax: Roots, Evolution, and Reception of a Multifaceted Hero

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Polytropos Ajax

Roots, Evolution, and Reception of a Multifaceted Hero

Edited by: Silvia Speriani and Stephen Harrison

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2024

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This book is in the series

Volume 168 | Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

About this book

Meanings are realized at the point of reception and this volume intends to offer an in-depth discussion of some of the meanings associated with and raised by the figure of Telamonian Ajax at various, specifically contextualized, and yet somehow connectable ‘points of reception’.

Part 1 looks at how, and from where, and with what effects, the epic and tragic figure of Ajax is constructed and re-defined in archaic and classical Greece. Part 2 moves on to Roman Ajax(es), evaluating how he is used in and by Latin literature as a tool for window-references and innovation, and for reflecting on national identity and cultural categories. Part 3 discusses various ways in which the myth of Ajax, especially in its Sophoclean version, has been translated into theatrical, psychological, and philosophical discussions.

This is not an attempt to look for Ajax’s true nature (an ill-posed question in itself). Nor is it a claim to evaluate Ajax’s features as if they could be placed on a straight evolutionary line (they never can be). On the contrary, the volume provides a multiform and interconnected ensemble of relevant patterns, always particularly situated, and constantly changing.

Author / Editor information

Silvia Speriani, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Stephen J. Harrison, Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Editors’ Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Introduction Silvia Speriani Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Part I: Constructing Ajax
A Primitive and yet Civilized Hero: Further Observations on Ajax in the Iliad Giampiero Scafoglio Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	11
Pre-Homeric Ajax Sophie Bocksberger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
Sophocles’ Ajax between Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus Glenn W. Most Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	45
Sophocles’ Ajax: Solitude and Change Francesco Morosi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	57
A Hero through his Objects: The Construction of Ajax’s Image on Attic Red-figure Vases Anna Anguissola Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	71
Part II: Romanising Ajax
Ajax and the Reception of the ‘Alius Achilles’ Theme in the Augustan Epic Tradition Sophia Papaioannou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	103
Ajax vs Hector and the Roman Single Combat Silvia Speriani Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	117
Hero, Antagonist, and Cousin: Some Remarks on Telamonian Ajax in the Ilias Latina Maria J. Falcone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	131
Siblings by Blood: Ajax and Teucer from the Iliad to the Ilias Latina George Prekas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	147
Part III: Performing Ajax
On Staging or not Staging Sophocles’ Ajax Fiona Macintosh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	165
Between Individual Trauma and Collective Mourning: The Reception of Sophocles’ Ajax on French Stages in the 1990s Estel Baudou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	177
Three Thousand Years of the Thousand-Yard Stare: The Experience of War, from the Ancient Greeks to Now Ellen McLaughlin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	189
What Made Ajax Kill Himself? An Existential Reading of Sophocles’ Ajax Maor M. Liscia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	203
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	217
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	219

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

October 7, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9783111450469

Hardcover published on:

October 7, 2024

Hardcover ISBN:

9783111450353

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

10

Main content:

221

Illustrations:

18

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111450469

eBook ISBN: 9783111450469

Hardcover ISBN: 9783111450353

Keywords for this book

Telamonian Ajax; Classical Literature; Classical Reception; Contemporary Theatre

Audience(s) for this book

Classical and Reception scholars and students, Theatre studies scholars and students, Archaeology scholars and students

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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Polytropos Ajax

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data