Space and Time in Ancient Greek Narrative »

In this wide-ranging survey of ancient Greek narrative from archaic epic to classical prose, Alex Purves shows how stories unfold in space as well as in time. She traces a shift in authorial perspective, from a godlike overview to the more focused outlook of human beings caught up in a developing plot, inspired by advances in cartography, travel, and geometry. Her analysis of the temporal and spatial dimensions of ancient narrative leads to new interpretations of important texts by Homer, Herodotus, and Xenophon, among others, showing previously unnoticed connections between epic and prose. Drawing on the methods of classical philology, narrative theory, and cultural geography, Purves recovers a poetics of spatial representation that lies at the core of the Greeks' conception of their plots.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The Perfect Surveyor 1

1 The Eusynoptic Iliad: Visualizing Space and Movement in the Poem 24

2 Paths and Measures: Epic Space and the Odyssey 65

3 The World in the Hand: Anaximander, Pherecydes, and the Invention of Cartography 97

4 Map and Narrative: Herodotus's Histories 118

5 Losing the Way Home: Xenophon's Anabasis 159

6 Finding (Things at) Home: Xenophon's Oeconomicus 196

Bibliography 235

General Index 257

Index Locorum 269