Sanctified Violence in Homeric Society
Oath-Making Rituals in the Iliad
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:7th Nov '05
Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 2nd December 2024, but could change
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£30.99(9780521174244)
This book focuses on oath-making narratives in the Iliad, through which it articulates a theory of ritualized violence.
In this book, Margo Kitts focuses on oath-making narratives found in the Iliad through which she articulates a theory of ritualized violence. She analyzes ritual paradigms, metaphors, fictions, and poetic registers as oath-making principles, which she traces through Homeric references and texts from the ancient New East.In Sanctified Violence in Homeric Society, Margo Kitts focuses on oath-making narratives found in the Iliad through which she articulates a theory of ritualized violence. She analyzes ritual paradigms, metaphors, fictions, and poetic registers as oath-making principles, which she then traces through Homeric references and texts from the ancient New East. Discussing ritual features that are common to acts of religious violence throughout the world, Kitts makes use of the theory of ritual performance as communication.
Kitts presents a detailed study of oath making in Homer's Iliad, both the ritual details and the consequences of oath breaking; in particular, she distinguishes between commensal sacrifices and those involving oaths, and she looks at instances in which deaths on the battlefield are compared to the deaths of sacrificial animals. In doing so, Kitts makes good use of comparative Near Eastern material, including Hittite, Assyrian, and biblical texts. Choice
"The book is fluently written and the discussion throughout is careful and detailed. There are many useful references to secondary material, and a valuable appendix of the key passages in Greek." - Fiona McHardy, Roehampton University
"Margo Kitt offers scholars a number of intriguing new views on well-known pieces of poetic material...anyone interested in studying religious rituals-actual or imagined-will profit intellectually from observing Iliadic oath sacrifices through Kitt's wide-ranging and often keen-sighted eyes." Shubha Pathak, The Journal of Religion
ISBN: 9780521855297
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm
Weight: 480g
258 pages