Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion

(Hardback)

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Light and darkness played an important role beyond the division of time in ancient Greek myth and religion; the contributors to Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion consider its function on both the individual and social level as manifested in modes of thought and behavior and expressed in language, beliefs, ritual, and iconography. The book is divided into five parts: color semantics, appearance and concealment, eye sight/insight, being and beyond, and cult. Each subdivision contains a wealth of information for the reader, ranging from detailed explanations of the interplay between lexical categories that denote darkness and light and the effect of blindness on metaphysical matters to the qualities of cultic light. This unique volume will be of interest to readers in fields as diverse as ancient Greek history, metaphysics, and iconography.

Reviews

A beautiful bunch of manifold studies, which lets us grasp the issue of light and darkness within the Greek world under several aspects and explore its very complexity. -- Vinciane Pirenne, Universit de Lige
Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion is an instructive and stimulating collection of authoritative essays on the semiotics and symbolism, the ritual, cosmological, social, and spiritual dimensions of light and darkness in ancient Greece. The editors draw on a wide range of literary, anthropological, religious, and historical scholarship to break new ground in the interpretation of Greek culture. -- Seth L. Schein, University of California at Davis
This is a productive and welcome contribution to an under explored field, particularly in bringing the work of Greek scholars to an English-speaking audience....The index is useful, while extensive endnoting renders references unobtrusive to the casual reader, but valuable to the researcher. Overall, it is a physically and intellectually solid volume, well worth its price, and of more general interest than the title perhaps suggests. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

Author Bio

Menelaos Christopoulos is associate professor of ancient Greek literature in the Department of Philology at Patras University. Efimia D. Karakantza is a lecturer in ancient Greek literature in the Department of Philology at Patras University. Olga Levaniouk is an associate professor of Classics at the University of Washington.