Heat and Lust: Hesiod's Midsummer Festival Scene Revisited

by J. C.B. Petropoulos

Overview

J.C.B. Petropoulos examines the description of midsummer in Hesiod's Works and Days, explores modern Greek agrarian practices and relevant folk beliefs, proverbs, symbols, and songs, and cautiously attempts a "backward extrapolation". With the help of comparative ethnographic models, readers will not only better appreciate the seasonal settings of Hesiod's harvest and its midsummer aftermath, but also will obtain a provocative sidelight into the local song traditions and general lore that underlie the famous passage and Alcaeus's poem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847679027
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/27/1994
Series:	Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches Series
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	5.92(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

J.C.B. Petropoulos is assistant professor of ancient Greek literature at Democritean University of Thrace at Alexandroupoli and Komotini.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword by Gregory Nagy Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 The Problem Stated: A Look at Hesiod's Feast and Beyond Chapter 4 The Harvest Chapter 5 The Threshing Chapter 6 The Village of Avdemi: A Case Study in Wanton Women? Chapter 7 Enter the Cicada Chapter 8 Hesiod's Festival Reconsidered Chapter 9 Towards a Conclusion: The Farmer and His Wife. Appendices: Commentary on WD 582-596 Chapter 10 On Zephyros (WD 594) Chapter 11 On kr D=enD=e, Sexual Mischief, and the Migration of Reapers Chapter 12 Commentary on WD 448-452 Chapter 13 Commentary on WD 486-490 Chapter 14 Commentary on Athenaeus 8.360B=carmen populare (PMG) Chapter 15 Harvest Songs Chapter 16 The Avdemi Songs Chapter 17 Canicular Period (Chart): Bibliography Chapter 18 Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert Lamberton

What you will find here in Petropoulos's study . . . is an admirably high standard of scholarship and a persuasive case for the relevance of themes and motifs widely attested in the poetry of the dying folk culture of the southern Balkans to Hesiod's odd evocation of the horrors as well as the compensations of the Dog Days.

Editorial Reviews

What you will find here in Petropoulos's study . . . is an admirably high standard of scholarship and a persuasive case for the relevance of themes and motifs widely attested in the poetry of the dying folk culture of the southern Balkans to Hesiod's odd evocation of the horrors as well as the compensations of the Dog Days.

Robert Lamberton

. . . raises some interesting questions about how far one can use modern anthropology as a tool for the analysis of ancient texts . . .

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Read More