Conversing with Chaos in Graeco-Roman Antiquity by Esther Eidinow

Conversing with Chaos in Graeco-Roman Antiquity by Esther Eidinow

How did ancient Greeks and Romans perceive their environments: did they see order or chaos, chance or control? And how do their views compare to modern perceptions? Conversing with Chaos in Graeco-Roman Antiquity challenges prevailing ideas that ancient perceptions of the non-human world rested on a profound belief in universal order, and that the cosmos was harmonious and under human control. Engaging with the concept of chaos in both its ancient and modern meanings, and focusing on the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, this book reveals another sense of environmental awareness, one that paid equal attention to chance and chaos, and the sometimes-fatal consequences of human interventions in nature. Bringing together a team of international scholars, the volume investigates the experience of the interaction of humans with the environment, as reflected in ancient evidence from myths and philosophical treatises, to epigraphic evidence and archaeological remains. The contributors consider the role of the human in the formation of perspectives about the natural world and explore themes of agency, affordances, ecophobia, gender and temporality. Overall, the volume reveals how, in ancient imaginations, environments were perceived as living entities with their own agency, and respondent (or even vulnerable) to human actions and decision-making. It highlights how modern insights can enrich our understanding of the past, and demonstrates the increasing relevance of ancient historical research for reflecting on current relations to the natural world.

A rich and remarkable union of the latest in environmental theory with texts and cultures from the ancient world, which promises to advance both classics and the environmental humanities* Will Brockliss, Bradshaw Knight Professor of the Environmental Humanities, University of Wisconsin—Madison, USA *

Esther Eidinow is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol, UK. She is a series editor for the Bloomsbury series Ancient Environments, co-editor of Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience (2022) and author of Envy, Poison and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens (2016).

Christopher Schliephake is Assistant Professor of Ancient History at Augsburg University, Germany. He is author of The Environmental Humanities and the Ancient World (2020) and editor of Ecocritisim, Ecology and Cultures in Antiquity (2017).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781350344198
ISBN 10	1350344192
Title	Conversing with Chaos in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
Author	Esther Eidinow
Series	Ancient Environments
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2024-12-12
Number of pages	232
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.