Classical Closure: Reading the End in Greek and Latin Literature

327 Pages·1997·5.444 MB·English

by  Deborah H. Roberts

CLASSICAL CLOSURE

CLASSICAL CLOSURE
READING THE END IN GREEK
AND LATIN LITERATURE
Edited by Deborah H. Roberts,
Francis M. Dunn, and
Don Fowler
PRJNCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCE TON. NEW JERSEY
Copyright CJ1 997 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West
Sussex
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Ulm,,y of Congru, Cataloging-in-P,,l,lication Data
Classical closure : reading the end in Greek and Latin literature /
edited by Deborah H. Roberts, Francis M. Dunn, and Don Fowler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-04452-X (alk. paper)
I. Classical literature-History and criticism-Theory, etc.
2. Narration {Rhetoric) 3. Greece-Civilization. 4. Rome
Civilization. 5. Closure {Rhetoric) 6. Rhetoric, Ancient.
I. Roberts, Deborah H. II. Dunn, Francis M. Ill. Fowler, Don,
1955-
PA3009.C53 1997
880' .09-dc21 96-44439
CIP
This book has been composed in Bembo
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton Academic Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For Sophia, Andrew, Alexander, and Hannah

The common end of all na"ative, nay of all, Poems
is to convert a series into a 14'hole:t o make these
events, which in realo r imaginedH istory move on in a
strait line, assume to our Understandings a drcular
motion-the snake with it's Tail in it's Mouth.
-Coleridge, CollectedL etters

__________ Contents _________ _
Preface X1
Notes on the Contributors X1ll
Abbreviatiom xv
Chapter 1. Second Thoughts on Closure 3
D011F owler
Chapter 2. Equal Honor and Future Glory: The Plan of
Zeus in the fliad 23
Sheila Murnaghan
Chapter 3. Odes and Ends: Closure in Greek Lyric 43
Ian Ruthe,ford
Chapter 4. Wanton Kings, Pickled Heroes, and Gnomic
Founding Fathers: Strategies of Meaning at the End of
Herodotus's Histories 62
Carolyn Dewald
Chapter 5. Ends and Means in Euripides' Heracles · 83
FrancisM . Dunn
Chapter 6. Lucretian Conclusions 112
Peta Fowler
Chapter 7. Closure in Latin Epic 139
Philip Hardie
Chapter 8. Final Exit: Propertius 4.11 163
WR.Johnson
Chapter 9. Endgames: Ovid's Metamorphoses1 5 and Fasti 6 181
AlessandroB archiesi
Chapter 10. How Novels End: Some Patterns of Closure in
Ancient Narrative 209
Massimo Fusillo
X CONTENTS
Chapter 11. Is Death the End? Closure in Plutarch 's lives 228
ChristopherP elling
Chapter 12. Afterword: Ending and Aftermath, Ancient and
Modern 251
DeborahH . Roberts
Bibliography 27 5
Index 303