• List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvii
• INTRODUCTION I. An Elusive Quarry: In Search of Ancient Greek Popular Culture 2 II. Explaining the Joke: A Road Map for Classicists 16 III. Synopsis of Method and Structure of Argument 46
• PART I: Competitive Wisdom and Popular Culture 51
• CHAPTER 1: Aesop and the Contestation of Delphic Authority 53 I. Ideological Tensions at Delphi 54 II. Th e Aesopic Critique 59 III. Neoptolemus and Aesop: Sacrifi ce, Hero Cult, and Competitive Scapegoating 75
• CHAPTER 2: Sophia before/beyond Philosophy 95 I. Th e Tradition of Sophia 95 II. Sophists and (as) Sages 102 III. Aristotle and the Transformation of Sophia 115
• CHAPTER 3: Aesop as Sage: Political Counsel and Discursive Practice 125 I. Aesop among the Sages 125 II. Political Animals: Fable and the Scene of Advising 142
• CHAPTER 4: Reading the Life: Th e Progress of a Sage and the Anthropology of Sophia 159 I. An Aesopic Anthropology of Wisdom 160 II. Aesop and Ahiqar 176 III. Delphic Th e?ria and the Death of a Sage 185 IV. Th e Bricoleur as Culture Hero, or the Art of Extorting Self-Incrimination 191
• CHAPTER 5: Th e Aesopic Parody of High Wisdom 202 I. Demystifying Sophia: Hesiod, Th eognis, and the Seven Sages 204 II. Aesopic Parody in the Visual Tradition? 224
• PART II: Aesop and the Invention of Greek Prose 239
• CHAPTER 6: Aesop at the Invention of Philosophy 241 Prelude to Part II: Th e Problematic Sociopolitics of Mimetic Prose 241 I. Mim?sis and the Invention of Philosophy 244 II. Th e Generic Affi liations of S?kratikoi logoi 251
• CHAPTER 7: Th e Battle over Prose: Fable in Sophistic Education and Xenophon's Memorabilia 265 I. Sophistic Fables 268 II. Traditional Fable Narration in Xenophon's Memorabilia 288
• CHAPTER 8: Sophistic Fable in Plato: Parody, Appropriation, and Transcendence 301 I. Plato's Protagoras: Debunking Sophistic Fable 301 II. Plato's Symposium: Ringing the Changes on Fable 308
• CHAPTER 9: Aesop in Plato's S?kratikoi Logoi: Analogy, Elenchos, and Disavowal 325 I. Sophia into Philosophy: Socrates between the Sages and Aesop 326 II. Th e Aesopic Bricoleur and the "Old Socratic Tool-Box" 330 III. Sympotic Wisdom, Comedy, and Aesopic Competition in Hippias Major 344
• CHAPTER 10: Histori? and Logopoiia: Two Sides of Herodotean Prose 361 I. History before Prose, Prose before History 362 II. Aesop Ho Logopoios 370 III. Plutarch Reading Herodotus: Aesop, Ruptures of Decorum, and the Non-Greek 382
• CHAPTER 11: Herodotus and Aesop: Some Soundings 398 I. Cyrus Tells a Fable 400 II. Greece and (as) Fable, or Resignifying the Hierarchy of Genre 404 III. Fable as History 412 IV. Th e Aesopic Contract of the Histories: Herodotus Teaches His Readers 426
• Bibliography 433 Index Locorum 463 General Index 478.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Examining the figure of Aesop and the traditions surrounding him, "Aesopic Conversations" offers a portrait of what Greek popular culture might have looked like in the ancient world. What has survived from the literary record of antiquity is almost entirely the product of an elite of birth, wealth, and education, limiting our access to a fuller range of voices from the ancient past. This book, however, explores the anonymous Life of Aesop and offers a different set of perspectives. Leslie Kurke argues that the traditions surrounding this strange text, when read with and against the works of Greek high culture, allow us to reconstruct an ongoing conversation of 'great' and 'little' traditions spanning centuries. Evidence going back to the fifth century BCE suggests that Aesop participated in the practices of nonphilosophical wisdom (sophia) while challenging it from below, and Kurke traces Aesop's double relation to this wisdom tradition. She also looks at the hidden influence of Aesop in early Greek mimetic or narrative prose writings, focusing particularly on the Socratic dialogues of Plato and the Histories of Herodotus. Challenging conventional accounts of the invention of Greek prose and recognizing the problematic sociopolitics of humble prose fable, Kurke provides a new approach to the beginnings of prose narrative and what would ultimately become the novel. Delving into Aesop, his adventures, and his crafting of fables, Aesopic Conversations shows how this low, noncanonical figure was - unexpectedly - central to the construction of ancient Greek literature.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvii
• INTRODUCTION I. An Elusive Quarry: In Search of Ancient Greek Popular Culture 2 II. Explaining the Joke: A Road Map for Classicists 16 III. Synopsis of Method and Structure of Argument 46
• PART I: Competitive Wisdom and Popular Culture 51
• CHAPTER 1: Aesop and the Contestation of Delphic Authority 53 I. Ideological Tensions at Delphi 54 II. Th e Aesopic Critique 59 III. Neoptolemus and Aesop: Sacrifi ce, Hero Cult, and Competitive Scapegoating 75
• CHAPTER 2: Sophia before/beyond Philosophy 95 I. Th e Tradition of Sophia 95 II. Sophists and (as) Sages 102 III. Aristotle and the Transformation of Sophia 115
• CHAPTER 3: Aesop as Sage: Political Counsel and Discursive Practice 125 I. Aesop among the Sages 125 II. Political Animals: Fable and the Scene of Advising 142
• CHAPTER 4: Reading the Life: Th e Progress of a Sage and the Anthropology of Sophia 159 I. An Aesopic Anthropology of Wisdom 160 II. Aesop and Ahiqar 176 III. Delphic Th e?ria and the Death of a Sage 185 IV. Th e Bricoleur as Culture Hero, or the Art of Extorting Self-Incrimination 191
• CHAPTER 5: Th e Aesopic Parody of High Wisdom 202 I. Demystifying Sophia: Hesiod, Th eognis, and the Seven Sages 204 II. Aesopic Parody in the Visual Tradition? 224
• PART II: Aesop and the Invention of Greek Prose 239
• CHAPTER 6: Aesop at the Invention of Philosophy 241 Prelude to Part II: Th e Problematic Sociopolitics of Mimetic Prose 241 I. Mim?sis and the Invention of Philosophy 244 II. Th e Generic Affi liations of S?kratikoi logoi 251
• CHAPTER 7: Th e Battle over Prose: Fable in Sophistic Education and Xenophon's Memorabilia 265 I. Sophistic Fables 268 II. Traditional Fable Narration in Xenophon's Memorabilia 288
• CHAPTER 8: Sophistic Fable in Plato: Parody, Appropriation, and Transcendence 301 I. Plato's Protagoras: Debunking Sophistic Fable 301 II. Plato's Symposium: Ringing the Changes on Fable 308
• CHAPTER 9: Aesop in Plato's S?kratikoi Logoi: Analogy, Elenchos, and Disavowal 325 I. Sophia into Philosophy: Socrates between the Sages and Aesop 326 II. Th e Aesopic Bricoleur and the "Old Socratic Tool-Box" 330 III. Sympotic Wisdom, Comedy, and Aesopic Competition in Hippias Major 344
• CHAPTER 10: Histori? and Logopoia: Two Sides of Herodotean Prose 361 I. History before Prose, Prose before History 362 II. Aesop Ho Logopoios 370 III. Plutarch Reading Herodotus: Aesop, Ruptures of Decorum, and the Non-Greek 382
• CHAPTER 11: Herodotus and Aesop: Some Soundings 398 I. Cyrus Tells a Fable 400 II. Greece and (as) Fable, or Resignifying the Hierarchy of Genre 404 III. Fable as History 412 IV. Th e Aesopic Contract of the Histories: Herodotus Teaches His Readers 426
• Bibliography 433 Index Locorum 463 General Index 478.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Examining the figure of Aesop and the traditions surrounding him, "Aesopic Conversations" offers a portrait of what Greek popular culture might have looked like in the ancient world. What has survived from the literary record of antiquity is almost entirely the product of an elite of birth, wealth, and education, limiting our access to a fuller range of voices from the ancient past. This book, however, explores the anonymous Life of Aesop and offers a different set of perspectives. Leslie Kurke argues that the traditions surrounding this strange text, when read with and against the works of Greek high culture, allow us to reconstruct an ongoing conversation of 'great' and 'little' traditions spanning centuries. Evidence going back to the fifth century BCE suggests that Aesop participated in the practices of nonphilosophical wisdom (sophia) while challenging it from below, and Kurke traces Aesop's double relation to this wisdom tradition. She also looks at the hidden influence of Aesop in early Greek mimetic or narrative prose writings, focusing particularly on the Socratic dialogues of Plato and the Histories of Herodotus. Challenging conventional accounts of the invention of Greek prose and recognizing the problematic sociopolitics of humble prose fable, Kurke provides a new approach to the beginnings of prose narrative and what would ultimately become the novel. Delving into Aesop, his adventures, and his crafting of fables, Aesopic Conversations shows how this low, noncanonical figure was - unexpectedly - central to the construction of ancient Greek literature.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvii Introduction Toward an Imaginary History of Coinage 3 I. What Is Coinage for? Numismatic and Historical Debates 6 II. Literary Methodology 23 III. The Structure of the Argument 32 PART ONE: DISCOURSES Chapter One The Language of Metals 41 I. Forging the Language of Metals 45 II. Metals and Others in Herodotus 60 Chapter Two Tyrants and Transgression: Darius and Amasis 65 I. Darius and the Daric 68 II. Darius Kapelos 80 III. Amasis the Vulgar Tyrant 89 Chapter Three Counterfeiting and Gift Exchange: The Fate of Polykrates 101 I. Counterfeiting and Violated Exchange 101 II. Cosmic Reciprocity ill III. Gift Exchange as Civic Violence 121 Chapter Four Kroisos and the Oracular Economy 130 I. Kroisos in Epinikion 131 II. Gift Exchange, the Grotesque Body, and the Civic Norm 142 III. Competing Economies, Competing Epiphanies 152 IV. Lydians and Ludopatheis: The Gap between History and Ethnography 165 PART TWO: PRACTICES Chapter Five The Hetaira and the Porne 175 I. Inventing the Hetaira 178 II. The Porne and the Public Sphere 187 III. Ideological Faultlines 199 Chapter Six Herodotus's Traffic in Women 220 I. Herodotean Pressure: Destabilizing the Terms 220 II. Herodotean Alternatives: Reimagining the Public Sphere 227 Chapter Seven Games People Play 247 I. Games and Other Symbolic Systems 248 II. Pessoi: The Mediation of the Game Board 254 III. Aristocratic Games: Embodiment, Chance, and Ordeal 275 IV. Herodotean Games 295 Chapter Eight Minting Citizens 299 I. The Two Sides of the Coin: Materiality as Ideology 301 II. Coins Are Good to Think with 316 III. Changing the Currency 328 Conclusion Ideology, Objects, and Subjects 332 Bibliography 337 Index Locorum 365 General Index 373.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The invention of coinage in ancient Greece provided an arena in which rival political groups struggled to imprint their views on the world. Here Leslie Kurke analyzes the ideological functions of Greek coinage as one of a number of symbolic practices that arise for the first time in the archaic period. By linking the imagery of metals and coinage to stories about oracles, prostitutes, Eastern tyrants, counterfeiting, retail trade, and games, she traces the rising egalitarian ideology of the polis, as well as the ongoing resistance of an elitist tradition to that development. The argument thus aims to contribute to a Greek "history of ideologies, " to chart the ways ideological contestation works through concrete discourses and practices long before the emergence of explicit political theory.To an elitist sensibility, the use of almost pure silver stamped with the state's emblem was a suspicious alternative to the para-political order of gift exchange. It ultimately represented the undesirable encroachment of the public sphere of the egalitarian polis. Kurke re-creates a "language of metals" by analyzing the stories and practices associated with coinage in texts ranging from Herodotus and archaic poetry to Aristotle and Attic inscriptions. She shows that a wide variety of imagery and terms fall into two opposing symbolic domains: the city, representing egalitarian order, and the elite symposium, a kind of anti-city. Exploring the tensions between these domains, Kurke excavates a neglected portion of the Greek cultural "imaginary" in all its specificity and strangeness.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
The invention of coinage in ancient Greece provided an arena in which rival political groups struggled to imprint their views on the world. This book analyzes the ideological functions of Greek coinage, using the imagery to trace the rising egalitarian ideology of the polis.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction Carol Dougherty and Leslie Kurke-- Part I. The Circulation of Cultures:
• 2. 'Culture' of 'cultures'?: Hellenism in the late-sixth century Jonathan M. Hall--
• 3. The Aristonothos Krater: competing stories of conflict and collaboration Carol Dougherty--
• 4. Hybridity and the cultures within Greek culture Carla Antonaccio-- Part II. Negotiation and Conflict at the Margins: The Case of Delphi:
• 5. Aesop and the contestation of Delphic authority Leslie Kurke--
• 6. Aristocratic victory memorials and the absent charioteer Nigel Nicholson--
• 7. Framing and gift: the Siphnian treasury at Delphi and the politics of public art Richard T. Neer-- Part III:
• 8. The pipes are brawling: conceptualizing musical performance in archaic Athens Richard P. Martin--
• 9. The sound of cultural conflict: Kritias and the culture of Mousike in Athens Peter Wilson--
• 10. Becoming the 'other': attitudes and practices at Attic cemeteries Katarzyna Hagemajer Allen--
• 11. Postscript: culture, thin coherence, and the persistence of politics Josiah Ober.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture challenges the conventional perception of ancient Greece as the paradigm for unified models of culture. It offers an alternative view of archaic and classical Greece, one in which the contact, conflict and collaboration of a variety of 'sub-cultures' combine to comprise what we now understand as 'Greekness'. This volume argues for the recognition and analysis of cultural contact within Greece, focussing on the micromechanics of cultural exchange, the permeability of cultural boundaries, and the significance of Delphi's geographically marginal, yet symbolically central location as an 'internal contact zone'. Through attention to everyday practices and professions, the essays reveal important new ways of conceiving of diversity within Greek culture, ranging from the non-elite culture of athletic trainers to the competing musical cultures at work in fifth-century Athens.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction / Carol Dougherty and Leslie Kurke
• Poetics of power : the interpretation of ritual action in Archaic Greece / Ian Morris
• The archaeology of ancestors / Carla Antonaccio
• Divine selection : epiphany and politics in Archaic Greece / Rebecca H. Sinos
• Hipparchos and the rhapsodes / H.A. Shapiro
• The seven sages as performers of wisdom / Richard P. Martin
• The economy of kudos / Leslie Kurke
• Hero cult and politics in Herodotus : the bones of Orestes / Deborah Boedeker
• It's murder to found a colony / Carol Dougherty
• Thucydides' Solonian reflections / Andrew Szegedy-Maszak
• The Athenian revolution of 508/7 B.C.E. : violence, authority, and the origins of democracy / Josiah Ober.

This is a paperback reprint of a hardback originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1993, and derived from a seminal conference held at Wellesley in 1990. Among the scholarly community, the book is generally regarded as the first critical milestone in the cultural poetics movement, which lies at the intersection of New Historicism and classical studies.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. The Uses of the Past: Part II. Politics and Performance: Part III. Negotiating Civic Crisis: Part IV. The End of an Era.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Cultural Poetics in Archaic Greece brings together essays by archaeologists, historians, and literature scholars as an interdisciplinary examination of the Greek archaic age. A time of dramatic and revolutionary change when many institutions and thought patterns that gave Greek culture its distinctive shape were formed, this period has become the object of renewed scholarly interest in recent years. Yet it has resisted reconstruction, largely because its documentation is less complete than that of the classical period. In order to constitute and 'read the text' of archaic Greece, the contributors here apply new methods, including anthropology, literary theory, and cultural history, to central issues: the interpretation of ritual, the origins of the hero and its relation to politics, the evolving ideologies of colonisation and athletic victory, the representation of statesmen and sages, and the serendipitous development of democracy. With their interdisciplinary approaches to the archaic period, the various essays demonstrate how completely politics, religion and economics were interdependent in this period; the importance of performance for negotiating social interaction; and the creative use of the past to structure a changing present.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Poetics of Power: The Interpretation of Ritual Action in Archaic Greece
• 3. The Archaeology of Ancestors
• 4. Divine Selection: Epiphany and Politics in Archaic Greece
• 5. Hipparchos and the Rhapsodes
• 6. The Seven Sages as Performers of Wisdom
• 7. The Economy of Kudos
• 8. Hero Cult and Politics in Herodotus: The Bones of Orestes
• 9. It's Murder to Found a Colony
• 10. Thucydides' Solonion Reflections
• 11. The Athenian Revolution of 508/7 BCE: Violence, Authority, and the Origins of Democracy
• Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This is a paperback reprint of a hardback originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1993, and derived from a seminal conference held at Wellesley in 1990. Among the scholarly community, the book is generally regarded as the first critical milestone in the cultural poetics movement, which lies at the intersection of New Historicism and classical studies.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface and Acknowledgments Note on Abbreviations, Texts, and Translations List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors
• Introduction Margaret Foster, Leslie Kurke and Naomi Weiss
• Part 1 Keynote Address
• 1 Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited, with Special Reference to the "Newest Sappho" Gregory Nagy
• Part 2 Genre, Generification, and Performance
• 2 Linus: The Rise and Fall of Lyric Genres Andrew Ford
• 3 Sappho's Parachoral Monody Timothy Power
• 4 The Speaking Persona: Ancient Commentators on Choral Performance Francesca Schironi
• Part 3 Genre Mixing
• 5 Chorus Lines: Catalogues and Choruses in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Hexameter Poetry and Choral Lyric Deborah Steiner
• 6 Generic Hybridity in Athenian Tragedy Naomi Weiss
• 7 Athens and Apolline Polyphony in Bacchylides' Ode 16 Margaret Foster
• Part 4 Affect, Materiality, and the Body: The Somatics of Genre
• 8 Is Korybantic Performance a (Lyric) Genre? Mark Griffith
• 9 Iambic Horror: Shivers and Brokenness in Archilochus and Hipponax Mario Telo
• 10 Experiencing Elegy: Materiality and Visuality in the Ambracian Polyandrion Seth Estrin
• 11 Pindar, Paean
• 6: Genre as Embodied Cultural Knowledge Sarah Olsen
• Bibliography Index Locorum General Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry foregrounds innovative approaches to the question of genre, what it means, and how to think about it for ancient Greek poetry and performance. Embracing multiple definitions of genre and lyric, the volume pushes beyond current dominant trends within the field of Classics to engage with a variety of other disciplines, theories, and models. Eleven papers by leading scholars of ancient Greek culture cover a wide range of media, from Sappho's songs to elegiac inscriptions to classical tragedy. Collectively, they develop a more holistic understanding of the concept of lyric genre, its relevance to the study of ancient texts, and its relation to subsequent ideas about lyric.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This dissertation is a study in the style of paradeigmata ([Greek word omitted], mytho- logical exempla, exemplary tales) in Archaic Greek poetry and wisdom discourse. Part One comprises two corpus-based studies of Homeric poetry in terms of three linguistic features (discourse markers, relative clauses, and register); each of these studies is fol- lowed by a comparative study in Hesiodic poetry. Here I suggest that genealogical cata- logue poetry known from the Hesiodic tradition is an important traditional resource for these narratives. Part Two makes an analogous study of non-hexameter poetry from the Archaic Period as well as wisdom discourse attributed to Aesop and the Seven Sages. In these chapters I emphasize two strategies in particular: the creation and 'mythologization' of authoritative personae, and the sociocultural import of the stylistic features of ge- nealogical catalogue in select Pindaric odes. Drawing on the findings of Part One and Part Two, the two studies in Part Three present readings of the Iliad and Odyssey through an analysis of how the linguistic features and themes of paradeigmata work at the level of poetic composition.