Front cover image for Wandering in ancient Greek culture

Wandering in ancient Greek culture

"From the Archaic period to the Greco-Roman age, the figure of the wanderer held great significance in ancient Greece. In the first comprehensive study devoted to this theme, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture unearths the many meanings attached to this practice over the centuries. Employing a broad range of literary and philosophical texts, Silvia Montiglio demonstrates how wandering has been conceptualized from Homer's Odysseus - the hero "who wandered much"--In the eighth century B.C.E. to pagan sages of the early Roman Empire." "Examining the act of wandering through many lenses, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture addresses questions such as: Why did the Greeks associate the figure of the wanderer with the condition of exile? How was the expansion of the world under Rome reflected in the connotations of wandering? Does a person learn by wandering, or is wandering a deviation from the truth? In the end, this matchless volume shows how the transformations that affected the figure of the wanderer coincided with new perceptions of the world and of travel, and invites us to consider its definition and import today."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2005
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ©2005
Criticism, interpretation, etc
290 pages ; 24 cm
9780226534978, 0226534979
57406042
Acknowledgmentsix
List of Abbreviations
xi
Introduction1(6)
Wandering in Space and Time
7(17)
On the Deep, at the Edges
At the Beginning
Transition and Crisis
Pains and Privations of Wandering
24(18)
``For Mortals, Nothing Is Worse than Wandering''
The Exile as Wanderer
Madness: Wandering with No Return
Wandering and the Human Condition
42(20)
Homo Viator: Before Philosophy
The ``Fault'' of Odysseus
Do Not Forget Your Wanderings: Odysseus under Circe's Spell
To Judge and to Deceive: The Wandering of the Gods
62(29)
Wandering and Divine Power
Demeter's Destructive Wandering
Dionysus, the Wanderer
Wandering Enfants Terribles: Eros and Hermes
Itinerant Sages in Archaic and Classical Greece
91(27)
Wandering, Lying, and Poetry
The Aura of Wandering: Xenophanes and Empedocles
Wandering for the Sake of Profit: From Homer to the Sophists
Choosing to Be Odysseus: Herodotus and Ionian Theoria
118(29)
The Excitement of Theoria in Fifth-Century Athens
Wanderers Discover the World
To Observe and to Collect
Wandering Writing and Truthfulness in Herodotus's Histories
Wandering Along the Journey to Truth: From Parmenides to Plato
147(33)
Parmenides' ``Unwandering'' Journey to Being
In Search of Wisdom: Plato's Presentation of Socrates' Wandering
Plato on Traveling and Wisdom
Between Ascent and Navigation
Walking, Sitting, and Standing
In Praise of Homeless Wandering: The Cynics
180(24)
Diogenes, the Outcast of Tragedy
Cynic Wandering in Greco-Roman Literature
Dio Chrysostom's Self-Presentation as a Wandering Philosopher
The World as Home: Cosmic Citizens and Godlike Travelers
204(17)
Stay Where You Are Stationed, Go Where You Are Sent: The Stoics on Wandering
The Godlike Wanderings of Apollonius of Tyana in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius
Wandering in the Greek Novel
221(42)
Ignorance and Alienation
The Meaning of ``Home'' in One's Journey: From Apollonius's Argonautica to the Novel
Love and Philosophy
The Ruler of Wandering: Fortune or Providence?
Wandering, Fiction, and Storytelling
Epilogue: What Greek Wanderers Did Not Do263(6)
Bibliography269(16)
Index285