04464nam 2200805 a 450 991081037790332120200520144314.01-282-08743-61-282-93536-4978661208743197866129353671-4008-2609-810.1515/9781400826094(CKB)2670000000491267(EBL)445553(OCoLC)368312289(SSID)ssj0000112634(PQKBManifestationID)11128404(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000112634(PQKBWorkID)10087790(PQKB)10883543(MdBmJHUP)muse41515(DE-B1597)446323(OCoLC)979905195(DE-B1597)9781400826094(Au-PeEL)EBL445553(CaPaEBR)ebr10284172(CaONFJC)MIL293536(MiAaPQ)EBC445553(dli)HEB31910(MiU)MIU01000000000000012918775(EXLCZ)99267000000049126720030324d2004 uy 0engurnn#---|u||utxtccrBirth of the symbol ancient readers at the limits of their texts /Peter T. StruckCourse BookPrinceton, N.J. Princeton University Pressc20041 online resource (331 p.)Based on author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Chicago.0-691-11697-0 0-691-16226-3 Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-296) and indexes.Front matter --CONTENTS --ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --Introduction. The Genealogy of the Symbolic --1. Symbols and Riddles: Allegorical Reading and the Boundaries of the Text --2. Beginnings to 300 B.C.E.: Meaning from the Void of Chance and the Silence Of The Secret --3. From the Head of Zeus: The Birth of the Literary Symbol --4. Swallowed Children and Bound Gods: The Diffusion of The Literary Symbol --5. 300 B.C.E.-200 C.E.: The Symbol as Ontological Signifier --6. Iamblichus and the Defense of Ritual: Talismanic Symbols --7 Moonstones and Men that Glow: Proclus and the Talismanic Signifier --Epilogue. Symbol Traces: Post-Proclean Theories --Appendix. Chrysippus'S Reading and Authorial Intention: The Case of the Mural at Samos --Bibliography Of Ancient Authors --Bibliography Of Modern Authors --Index Locorum --General IndexNearly all of us have studied poetry and been taught to look for the symbolic as well as literal meaning of the text. Is this the way the ancients saw poetry? In Birth of the Symbol, Peter Struck explores the ancient Greek literary critics and theorists who invented the idea of the poetic "symbol." The book notes that Aristotle and his followers did not discuss the use of poetic symbolism. Rather, a different group of Greek thinkers--the allegorists--were the first to develop the notion. Struck extensively revisits the work of the great allegorists, which has been underappreciated. He links their interest in symbolism to the importance of divination and magic in ancient times, and he demonstrates how important symbolism became when they thought about religion and philosophy. "They see the whole of great poetic language as deeply figurative," he writes, "with the potential always, even in the most mundane details, to be freighted with hidden messages." Birth of the Symbol offers a new understanding of the role of poetry in the life of ideas in ancient Greece. Moreover, it demonstrates a connection between the way we understand poetry and the way it was understood by important thinkers in ancient times.ACLS Fellows' publications.Classical poetryHistory and criticismSymbolism in literatureBooks and readingGreeceBooks and readingRomeRhetoric, AncientAllegoryClassical poetryHistory and criticism.Symbolism in literature.Books and readingBooks and readingRhetoric, Ancient.Allegory.881/.010915Struck Peter T301197MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910810377903321Birth of the symbol1771151UNINA