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Published by Princeton University Press, 1994
ISBN 10: 0691001049ISBN 13: 9780691001043
Seller: Ancient World Books, Toronto, ON, Canada
Book
Paperback. Condition: Very Good+. Foxing to top of textblock. ; Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis. The author challenges Sir James Frazer's thesis that the vegetation god Adonis-- whose premature death was mourned by women and whose resurrection marked a joyous occasion--represented the annual cycle of growth and decay in agriculture. Using the analytic tools of structuralism, Detienne shows instead that the festivals of Adonis depict a seductive but impotent and fruitless deity--whose physical ineptitude led to his death in a boar hunt, after which his body was found in a lettuce patch. Contrasting the festivals of Adonis with the solemn ones dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of grain, he reveals the former as a parody and negation of the institution of marriage. Detienne considers the short-lived gardens that Athenian women planted in mockery for Adonis's festival, and explores the function of such vegetal matter as spices, mint, myrrh, cereal, and wet plants in religious practice and in a wide selection of myths. His inquiry exposes, among many things, attitudes toward sexual activities ranging from "perverse" acts to marital relations. ; Mythos: the Princeton/ Bollingen Series in World Mythology; 256 pages.
Published by Princeton University Press, 1994
ISBN 10: 0691001049ISBN 13: 9780691001043
Seller: Ancient World Books, Toronto, ON, Canada
Book
Paperback. Condition: Very Good+. Scholar's name to ffep (Bonnie Maclachlan [née Ward]). ; Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis. The author challenges Sir James Frazer's thesis that the vegetation god Adonis-- whose premature death was mourned by women and whose resurrection marked a joyous occasion--represented the annual cycle of growth and decay in agriculture. Using the analytic tools of structuralism, Detienne shows instead that the festivals of Adonis depict a seductive but impotent and fruitless deity--whose physical ineptitude led to his death in a boar hunt, after which his body was found in a lettuce patch. Contrasting the festivals of Adonis with the solemn ones dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of grain, he reveals the former as a parody and negation of the institution of marriage. Detienne considers the short-lived gardens that Athenian women planted in mockery for Adonis's festival, and explores the function of such vegetal matter as spices, mint, myrrh, cereal, and wet plants in religious practice and in a wide selection of myths. His inquiry exposes, among many things, attitudes toward sexual activities ranging from "perverse" acts to marital relations. ; Mythos: the Princeton/ Bollingen Series in World Mythology; 256 pages.
Published by University of Chicago Press, 1991
ISBN 10: 0226143473ISBN 13: 9780226143477
Seller: Ancient World Books, Toronto, ON, Canada
Book
Softcover. Condition: Very Good+. Very Minor shelfwear. Scholar's name to ffep (Bonnie Maclachlan [née Ward]). ; 5.5 X 0.75 X 8.5 inches; 344 pages.