European University Institute Library

Memories of Odysseus, frontier tales from ancient Greece, François Hartog ; translated by Janet Lloyd

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Memories of Odysseus

bibliography

46784936

François Hartog ; translated by Janet Lloyd

frontier tales from ancient Greece

The conception of the Other has long been a problem for philosophers. Emmanuel Levinas, best known for his attention to precisely that issue, argued that the voyages of Ulysses represent the very nature of Western philosophy: "His adventure in the world is nothing but a return to his native land, a complacency with the Same, a misrecognition of the Other." In Memories of Odysseus, François Hartog examines the truth of Levinas' assertion and, in the process, uncovers a different picture. Drawing on a remarkable range of authors and texts, ancient and modern, Hartog looks at accounts of actual travelers, as well as the way travel is used as a trope throughout ancient Greek literature, and finds that, instead of misrecognition, the Other is viewed with doubt and awe in the Homeric tradition. In fact, he argues, the Odyssey played a crucial role in shaping this attitude in the Greek mind, serving as inspiration for voyages in which new encounters caused the Greeks to revise their concepts of self and other. Ambitious in scope, this book is a sophisticated exploration of ancient Greece and its sense of identity--, Provided by Publisher

Odysseus in Auschwitz / Paul Cartledge -- Travellers and frontier-men -- 1. The return of Odysseus -- A voyage and a return journey -- Anthropology -- The return to Ithaca -- The voyages of a name -- 2. Egyptian voyages -- Seeing Egypt -- Greek views -- Egypt, the first civilizing power? -- From thrice greatest Hermes to Champollion -- 3. The invention of the Barbarian and an inventory of the world -- Barbarians and Greeks -- Representing the world -- Centre and extremities -- Viewing the world from Alexandria -- 4. Greek voyages -- The voyages of the elder Anacharsis and frontiers forgotten -- Frontiers within, or ordinary kinds of discrimination -- The limits of Arcadia -- Alexander between Rome and Greece -- 5. Roman voyages -- The voyages of Polybius -- The voyages of Dionysius of Halicarnassus -- The voyages of Strabo and Aelius Aristides -- Memories of Apollonius and the name of Pythagoras