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Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name

  • Karel Thein
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The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis
This chapter is in the book The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis

Abstract

Aratus’ didactic poem Phaenomena may seem to contradict the view of Hellenistic ekphrasis as the affair of small-scale refinement. On a closer look, however, the Phaenomena not only has an undeniable ekphrastic pedigree but also contributes to the ekphrastic art of matching the scale of the poem with the scale of its object. To bring together various threads of the poem, the chapter’s first section discusses not only the Phaenomena’s relation to previous ekphrastic tradition but also its philosophical background. The second section then focuses on the proem and the origin and history of constellations, a history where Aratus carves a place for himself. Finally, the third section deals with the ekphrastic encoding of those constellations that play a pivotal role in the overall structure of Aratus’ didactic enterprise, including the Dragon and the Hydra.

Abstract

Aratus’ didactic poem Phaenomena may seem to contradict the view of Hellenistic ekphrasis as the affair of small-scale refinement. On a closer look, however, the Phaenomena not only has an undeniable ekphrastic pedigree but also contributes to the ekphrastic art of matching the scale of the poem with the scale of its object. To bring together various threads of the poem, the chapter’s first section discusses not only the Phaenomena’s relation to previous ekphrastic tradition but also its philosophical background. The second section then focuses on the proem and the origin and history of constellations, a history where Aratus carves a place for himself. Finally, the third section deals with the ekphrastic encoding of those constellations that play a pivotal role in the overall structure of Aratus’ didactic enterprise, including the Dragon and the Hydra.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. List of Abbreviations
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
  8. Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
  9. Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
  10. Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
  11. Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
  12. Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
  13. The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
  14. Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
  15. A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
  16. Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
  17. Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
  18. Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
  19. Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
  20. Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
  21. Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
  22. A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
  23. List of Contributors 361
  24. Index Nominum
  25. Index Rerum
  26. Index Locorum
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112207697-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. List of Abbreviations
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
  8. Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
  9. Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
  10. Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
  11. Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
  12. Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
  13. The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
  14. Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
  15. A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
  16. Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
  17. Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
  18. Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
  19. Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
  20. Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
  21. Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
  22. A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
  23. List of Contributors 361
  24. Index Nominum
  25. Index Rerum
  26. Index Locorum
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