Ariadne

Ariadne
Author: Jennifer Saint
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250773571

A mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe. Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind? Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.

The Marriage between Perfume and the Lyric Stage

The Marriage between Perfume and the Lyric Stage
Author: Mary May Robertson
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 866
Release: 2023-09-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1527531287

“But what is this scent of balmy air? What this ray of light in my tomb? I seem to see an angel, amid a scent of roses” sings Florestan in Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera. The role of scents, smells, fragrances, and odours in opera has long been neglected, just as how much opera and its stars have influenced the world of perfumery from the nineteenth century to the present day. In the first book-length study on the topic, Professor Mary May Robertson explores the relationship between opera, perfumes, and their respective protagonists in order to map out the previously undiscussed connection between the two. Through compelling close readings of librettos and rigorous research through thousands of bottles of perfume, the reader will come to appreciate and recognise the influences and exchanges between operas and perfumes and their ultimate marriage in the previously unrecognised genre of Operatic Perfumes, which is to say, perfumes named after operas, composers, and their divas.

Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ

Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ
Author: Abbe Lind Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-02-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351060171

This volume argues that ancient Greek girls and early Christian virgins and their families made use of rhetorically similar traditions of marriage to an otherworldly bridegroom in order to handle the problem of a girl’s denied or disrupted transition into adulthood. In both ancient Greece and early Christian Rome, the standard female transition into adulthood was marked by marriage, sex, and childbirth. When problems arose just before or during this transition, the transitional girl’s status within society became insecure. Walker presents a case for how and why the dead Greek virgin girl, depicted in Archaic through Hellenistic sources, in both texts and inscriptions, as a bride of Hades, and the life-long female Christian virgin or celibate ascetic, dubbed the bride of Christ around the third century CE, provide a fruitful point of comparison as particular examples of strategies used to neutralize the tension of disrupted female transition into adulthood. Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ offers a fascinating comparative study that will be of interest to anyone working on virginity and womanhood in the ancient world.

The Golden Bough: Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. The Burden of Royalty

The Golden Bough: Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. The Burden of Royalty
Author: James George Frazer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 444
Release: 1911
Genre: Magic
ISBN:

Frazer's series which attempted to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat, and many other symbols and practices whose influences had extended into 20th-century culture. His thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic through religious belief to scientific thought.

The Origin of Attic Comedy

The Origin of Attic Comedy
Author: Francis MacDonald Cornford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2011-02-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521182077

Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy Francis Macdonald Cornford (1874-1943)investigates the origin of Attic Comedy.

The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World

The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World
Author: Jeffrey Beneker
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299328406

The famous polymath Plutarch often discussed the relationship between spouses in his works, including Marriage Advice, Dialogue on Love, and many of the Parallel Lives. In this collection, leading scholars explore the marital views expressed in Plutarch's works and the art, philosophy, and literature produced by his contemporaries and predecessors. Through aesthetically informed and sensitive modes of analysis, these contributors examine a wealth of representations—including violence in weddings and spousal devotion after death. The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World demonstrates the varying conceptions of an institution that was central to ancient social and political life—and remains prominent in the modern world. This volume will contribute to scholars' understanding of the era and fascinate anyone interested in historic depictions of marriage and the role and status of women in the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods.