Description
Book SynopsisIn ancient Greece and Rome, nighttime encompassed a distinctive array of cultural values that went far beyond the inversion of daytime. Night was a mythological figure, a locus of specialized knowledge, a socially significant semantic space in various literary genres, and a setting for unique experiences. These facets of night are explored here through fifteen case-studies, that range from Hesiod to imperial Roman painting and cultural history. The contributors took part in a conference on this theme at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, where they pursued a common goal: to consider how nighttime was employed in the ascription of specific values—in determining what values a thing or a person might have, or lack, in a nocturnal context.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity Antje Wessels and James Ker Part 1 Who or What Is the Night? 1 Night as Measure, Mother, and Metaphor in the Hesiodic Cosmos Adrienne Atkins 2 First-Born of Night or Oozing from the Slime? Deviant Origins in Orphic Cosmogonies Radcliffe G. Edmonds III Part 2 Nocturnal Knowledge: Medicine, Philosophy, Religion, Astronomy 3 Night as Diagnostic Marker in Hippocratic Medicine Ralph M. Rosen 4 Nights of Insight: Plato on the Philosophical Qualities of the Night Albert Joosse 5 Night’s Fictions: The Religious Institutions of Numa in Lucilius fr. 484–489 (Marx) Cynthia Damon 6 The Astronomer-Poet at Night: The Evolution of a Motif Kathryn Wilson Part 3 Society and Gender: Men and Women at Work, by Night 7 A Night Attack in the Seven Against Thebes Isabella Reinhardt 8 Tragedy of Darkness: The Role of Night in Euripides’ Rhesus Marie-Charlotte von Lehsten 9 The Witching Hour: Wakeful Women at Work in Homer, Apollonius, and Theocritus Amelia Bensch-Schaus 10 Nox rei publicae? Catiline’s and Cicero’s Nocturnal Activities in the Catilinarians Christoph Pieper 11 Inn-Dependent: Spending the Night in a Hostel in the Roman World Jane Sancinito Part 4 Experiencing by Night 12 Better Safe Than Sorry: Nocturnal Divinatory Signs from a First-Century BCE Roman Perspective Kim Beerden 13 Through the Eyes of the Night: Ecphrasis of Nocturnal Ambush Scenes in Roman Epic and Historiography Selina Weissmantel 14 Nocturnal Negotiations: Experiencing the Night Scenes from the Iliad at the House of Octavius Quartio, Pompeii II 2.2 Barbara Kellum 15 Persius’ Nocturnal Inspiration in the Light of Day Jennifer Ferriss-Hill Index
