Title: Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion. Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Author(s): Menelaos Christopoulos, Efimia D. Karakantza, Olga Levaniouk (ed.)
Publisher: Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 0739138987
ISBN-13: 978-0739138984
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From the Bryn Mawr Classic Review:[/size]
This conference volume (Patras 2007) covers a wide range of topics. The organising categories work well, although an afterword (drawing together various themes and overlaps) would have been useful. Colour semantics is a natural place to start, but many essays touch on seeing and visuality, so a more physical section (e.g. ‘Cult’ or ‘Eye-sight/In-sight’) could also have worked. Overall, the volume fascinates most where it goes beyond obvious colour associations: several of the essays hint at more complex conceptions, certainly deserving further exploration.
After a concise introduction by Burkert and Marinatos, Buxton sets the tone with a welcome acknowledgement that dark need not always read negative, though context is always critical. Considering how sources provide evidence to locate – or not – the colour significance of such names as Melanthos, Melanion, Melampous, etc., he emphasises the importance of treating references as wholes in illuminating aspects beyond good/bad in black and white.
Read the full review at the Bryn Mawr Classic Review web site.
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Additional Description:[/size]
Light and darkness played an important role beyond the division of time in ancient Greek myth and religion; the contributors to Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion consider its function on both the individual and social level as manifested in modes of thought and behavior and expressed in language, beliefs, ritual, and iconography.
The book is divided into five parts: color semantics, appearance and concealment, eye sight/insight, being and beyond, and cult. Each subdivision contains a wealth of information for the reader, ranging from detailed explanations of the interplay between lexical categories that denote darkness and light and the effect of blindness on metaphysical matters to the qualities of cultic light. This unique volume will be of interest to readers in fields as diverse as ancient Greek history, metaphysics, and iconography.
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