Imperial Mythography

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23404151
AutoresCharles Delattre (0000-0001-6702-6887, Université de Lille, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Páginas78-96
Data de publicação2022-10-20
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoCHAPTER
PeriódicoThe Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190648312.013.5
OpenAlexW4307715065
ISBN9780190648312
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas26

This chapter aims to describe what is specifically imperial in imperial mythography, in comparison with what can be reconstructed of Hellenistic mythographic practices. The sheer number of documents (papyri, complete texts) from the imperial era is a huge change and modifies our knowledge and even definition of mythography. The study focuses on the diversity of mythographic practices, and characterizes them as a specific mode of understanding, listing, and conveying information. Mythographic texts of the imperial time can be read as a kind of secondary literature, as summaries of or commentaries on a literary work, but they are also a way to organize and combine different sources into a common textual production that will be accessed in different forms. The study acknowledges that we cannot dismiss the proximity of mythography to other literary practices. In this respect, mythography is almost coextensive with cultured literacy. As a consequence, we can get access to some aspects of the social importance of mythography in the imperial elite circles. Mythography not as written text but as oral statement happens everywhere in elite circles, where erudition is not only a matter of taste but is also a way to gain social prestige. Some mythographic texts can be conceived as tools; others, as a reflection of a social rivalry embedded in mythological erudition.

Aesthetics · Art · Diversity (politics) · Elite · Linguistics · Literature · Mythology · Political science · Prestige · Rhetoric · Rivalry · Sociology · Taste · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Anthropology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology