Symbol: Torch, Corn plant (though popcorn works, too) Hard to make a cheeseburger with no grain for bread and no grass for the cows. When Hades stole her daughter Persephone, Demeter stopped all plants from growing, and people started starving. If you wanted to eat, you had to make sure you kept on Demeter’s good side. As long as the crops were growing and the farmers were happy, Demeter was content. Then: Demeter was one of the quieter goddess. She should’ve married the god of doctors! He’s still not good enough for Persephone. Now: Demeter divides her time between the upper world, where she oversees the growing season and produces commercials encouraging people to eat more cereal products (part of a balanced breakfast!), and the Underworld, where she visits her daughter Persephone and plays the wicked mother-in-law to Hades, who kidnapped her poor little daughter eons ago. Symbol: pomegranate, cow (the motherly animal – no comments, please!), peacockĭistinguishing Features: The goddess prefers simple dresses of green or gold, though you can often find her in gardening clothes. If an old woman asks you to carry her piggyback across a river, do it. She was the enemy of Heracles and many others, though she did have a soft spot for mortal heroes, like Jason. Hera has no patience with demigods, the children of godly affairs. Then: It’s tough to be the goddess of marriage in a family where everyone cheats on everybody. She’s likely to smash you into the ground. When Hera is mad, she doesn’t just ground you. As the goddess of family, Hera will be happy to pack your lunch or comb your hair or give you a ride to school, but don’t talk back to her. That strange woman you saw at Laser Quest, serving pizza and singing Happy Birthday? Yes, that was probably her. Now: She hangs out where family life is strongest: the car pool line at school, weekend soccer games, and birthday parties. She usually appears as a beautiful older woman, and enjoys turning into birds when she needs to hide or spy. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.Goddess of Marriage, Mothers and Families (Hair’-ah)ĭistinguishing Features: Usually prefers classic Greek dresses and a simple silver crown, though she can blend in as needed. This is an important, enjoyable, and illuminating book.' - Alex Purves, Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Literature, UCLA, author of Space and Time in Ancient Greek Narrative This is a subtle, wide-ranging, and illuminating study, from which any student of Greek literature stands to learn a great deal.' - Sheila Murnaghan, Allen Memorial Professor of Greek, University of Pennsylvania It is rare to find a study that deals so expertly with such a diverse span of genres, and rare again to find one that does so through such an absorbing topic. Silvia Montiglio has written a masterpiece of literary analysis which at the same time discloses a fascinating chapter in the history of Greek culture.' - Marco Fantuzzi, Professor of Ancient Greek Literature, University of Macerata and Visiting Professor of Greek, Columbia University, author of Achilles in Love: Intertextual Studies 'The sleepscapes revealed here are fascinating for the windows they open onto such fruitful topics as emotion and agency, isolation and belonging, or divine and poetic justice. 'This enthralling and thoroughly enjoyable book helps us to understand how different literary genres deal with the seemingly unremarkable and inactive - but actually deeply nuanced and intriguing - things that happen while the ancients either sleep or wrestle with wakefulness. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Exploring recurring tropes of somnolence and wakefulness in the Iliad, the Odyssey, Athenian drama, the Argonautica and ancient novels by Xenophon, Chariton, Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius, this is a unique contribution to better understandings of ancient Greek writing. Doom hangs by a thread as Agamemnon - in Iphigenia in Aulis - paces, restless and sleepless, while around him everyone else dozes on. The author shows that sleeplessness, too, carries great weight in classical literature. Silvia Montiglio's imaginative and comprehensive study of the topic illuminates the various ways writers in antiquity used sleep to deal with major aspects of plot and character development. It might mark the transition in a narrative relationship, as when Penelope for the first time in weeks slumbers happily through Odysseus' vengeful slaughter of her suitors. It could be the site of dramatic intervention by a god or goddess. It could be interrupted, often by a dream. But neither was sleep straightforward, nor safe. Sleep was viewed as a boon by the ancient Greeks: sweet, soft, honeyed, balmy, care-loosening, as the Iliad has it.
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