Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Epic Engagements
- Part II Epic Space
- Part III Epic Time
- Part IV Epic People
- Part V Epic Feelings
- 14 Before, Beneath, Beyond Emotions
- 15 Humour in Greek Epic
- 16 Love, Desire and Erotics
- Part VI Epic Without End
- Epilogue
- Timeline of Ancient Greek Epic
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
14 - Before, Beneath, Beyond Emotions
Reading Affects in Epic
from Part V - Epic Feelings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Epic Engagements
- Part II Epic Space
- Part III Epic Time
- Part IV Epic People
- Part V Epic Feelings
- 14 Before, Beneath, Beyond Emotions
- 15 Humour in Greek Epic
- 16 Love, Desire and Erotics
- Part VI Epic Without End
- Epilogue
- Timeline of Ancient Greek Epic
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Summary
This chapter focuses on emotions and affects in Greek epic. Leven demarcates the difference between emotion and affect in this context: emotions are defined as complex phenomena that involve embodied minds, gendered individuals and their societies, as well as instincts, cognition and values; and affects are understood as more ineffable feelings, which lie ‘beneath’ the surface: the innumerable microevents that bodies and selves undergo in their experience of the world around them, rarely indexed in conventional language. The chapter then starts by outlining the main questions that have divided scholarship on ancient emotions in general, and epic emotions in particular, with special focus on two cases, anger and fear. It then turns to episodes featuring what Leven calls ‘scenes of affect’ and argues, first, that epic is not in fact solely dominated by ‘big emotions’ but is rather shaped by a multitude of affects. Focusing on representative passages of the Odyssey, the Argonautica, and the Posthomerica, the chapter ultimately shows that epic provides its own tools to conceptualise these affects.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic , pp. 297 - 317Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024