Description
Book SynopsisIn Chronos on the Threshold: Time, Ritual, and Agency in the Oresteia Marcel Widzisz combines various anthropological, philological, and narratological perspectives in order to consider afresh both the textual details and structural elements of Aeschylus' Oresteia. Included among the approaches is first a consideration of normative ritual structure in Archaic and Classical Greece and then a demonstration of its regular reconfiguration throughout the many individual scenes and choruses of the trilogy. This framework not only provides a new view of the micro and macro structure of the Oresteia, but also paves the way for an elucidation of the many references to time and its workings, references which, however well attested in the manuscripts, are being more strongly challenged if not altogether removed from recent editions of the Greek text. Time, however, beyond appearing as a subject at these key junctures, pervades the trilogy in a number of subtler ways: in how characters use timing,
Trade ReviewMarcel Andrew Widzisz sheds new light on Aeschylus’ Oresteia by combining close reading of the text with an anthropologically informed perspective on the power of ritual to shape the experience of time. Many studies of time in literature confine themselves to formal analysis. This study demonstrates how much more fruitful it is to ground such analysis in the realities of Greek religion. -- Richard Seaford, University of Exeter
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Agamemnon Chapter 3: Choephoroi Chapter 4: Eumenides Epilogue
