Homer the Theologian : Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition

Here is the first survey of the surviving evidence for the growth, development, and influence of the Neoplatonist allegorical reading of the __Iliad__ and __Odyssey.__ Professor Lamberton argues that this tradition of reading was to create new demands on subsequent epic and thereby alter permanently the nature of European epic. The Neoplatonist reading was to be decisive in the birth of allegorical epic in late antiquity and forms the background for the next major extension of the epic tradition found in Dante. CONTENTS PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABBREVIATIONS I. THE DIVINE HOMER AND THE BACKGROUND OF NEOPLATONIC ALLEGORY II. MIDDLE PLATONISM AND THE INTERACTION OF INTERPRETIVE TRADITIONS III. PLOTINIAN NEOPLATONISM IV. THE INTERACTION OF ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION AND DELIBERATE ALLEGORY V. PROCLUS VI. THE TRANSMISSION OF THE NEOPLATONISTS' HOMER TO THE LATIN MIDDLE AGES AFTERWORD. PRECONCEPTION AND UNDERSTANDING: THE ALLEGORISTS IN MODERN PERSPECTIVE APPENDIX I APPENDIX II APPENDIX III APPENDIX IV WORKS CITED ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PASSAGES CITED INDEX OF GREEK TERMS GENERAL INDEX "Here is the first survey of the surviving evidence for the growth, development, and influence of the Neoplatonist allegorical reading of the Iliad and Odyssey. Professor Lamberton argues that this tradition of reading was to create new demands on subsequent epic and thereby alter permanently the nature of European epic. The Neoplatonist reading was to be decisive in the birth of allegorical epic in late antiquity and forms the background for the next major extension of the epic tradition found in Dante."-- Provided by publisher Here is the first survey of the surviving evidence for the growth, development, and influence of the Neoplatonist allegorical reading of the Iliad and Odyssey. Professor Lamberton argues that this tradition of reading was to create new demands on subsequent epic and thereby alter permanently the nature of European epic. The Neoplatonist reading was to be decisive in the birth of allegorical epic in late antiquity and forms the background for the next major extension of the epic tradition found in Dante.