Against Penelope
An Invective Theme from Hellenistic Greece
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9675589 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Craig A Gibson, Craig Gibson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 113 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 53-63 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical World (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8418 • E-ISSN: 1558-9234 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/clw.2019.0077 |
| OpenAlex | W2990720109 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
In the course of criticizing his predecessor Timaeus, Polybius mentions a paradoxical invective exercise (ψόγος) against Penelope. No such exercise survives from antiquity. A review of rhetorical handbook instructions, encomia and invectives of Homeric characters, and ancient traditions about Penelope suggests that this assignment would have been challenging but not impossible for intermediate students of rhetoric. Since little is known about Penelope's life outside of the Odyssey , students would have searched for passages in the epic that could be taken out of context or otherwise distorted in order to disparage one of the most praiseworthy women in Greek literature
Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology) · EPIC · Invective · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Theme (computing) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Computer Science · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |