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This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of Copyright Law.CDL Article Request (Owned by home campus) 20... 1of2 Subject: CDL Article Request (Owned by home campus) 20071223085616522 From: CDL Request Service Date: 23 Dec 2007 08:56:18 -0800 To: circ@orion.oac.uci.edu Name: PORTER, JAMES IVAN Address: _Classies Dept., 120 HOB2, UCI E-mail: james.porter@uci.edu Account No: 21970005031801 Dept: classics Status: Faculty Need By: No time limit Note: YES DTD Database: _ Melvyl Catalog Author: Ziolkowski, T Title: A MULTIPLICITY OF RECEPTIONS Journal: International journal of the classical tradition :. v14, n3 (2005):439-448 me——~ ISSN: 1073-0508 PE Holdings: Call Numbers: UCB Curr Peri PN883 .I54 Current Issues Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials UCB Main PN883 154 BOUND 4(summer 1994)-12(spring 2006)-CUMULATIVE INDEXES: 1(1994/85)-10(2003/04) Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials UCB_ WebResrce PN883 Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials UCLA YRL — PN883_I58 Stacks-Current issues in Periodicals Stacks v.1-4(1994/1995-1997/1998)v.5:no.1(1998),v.6-11(1999/20 (00-2004/2008); Current issues:v.12:no.1-4(2005/2008)v.13:no.1, 4(2008/2007); Indexes:v. 1-10(1994/1995-2003/2004) Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials UCLA Online PN883 Online access Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials UCI_Langson PN 883 154 Bound Periodicals v. 8- (2001)- Cire Status: Circulation Information is unavallable for serials UCI _Langson PN 883 154 Current Periodicals Room Cire Status: Circulation information is unavallable for serials UCR Rivera PN883 I54 Recent in Current Periodicals; older in stacks v.1(1994)-12(2005/2006)-; index;v. 1-10(1994-2004)- Cire Status: Circulation information is unavailable for serials g 1/2/2008 08:54 AMA Multiplicity of Receptions ‘Michael von Albrecht, Literatur als Brlcke: Studien zur Rezeptionsgeschichte und Komparati- tik, Spudasmata 90 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2003), 370 pp. Martin Korenjak, et al. (eds. Pontes I~Akten der ersten Innsbrucker Tagung zur Rezeption der kiassischen Antike, Comparanda 2 (Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2001), 292 pp. Bernd Seidensticker and Martin Vohler (eds.), Lirgeschichten der Moderne: Die Arstike ins 2. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart: J.B. Metaler Verlag, 2001), 278 pp. Bernd Seidensticker and Martin Vohler(eds.), Mythen in nachmythischer Zeit: Die Anti in der deutschsprachigen Literatur der Gegenwart (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2002), 378 pp. Anneke Thiel, Midas: Mythos und Verwandlung, Neves Forum fiir allgemeine und verglei- chende Literaturwissenschaft 8 (Heidelberg: Universititsverlag C. Winter, 2000), 238 pp. Antiquity is in! In the winter of 1999-2000 a blockbuster exhibition in Munich's Haus der Kunst assembled from 77 private donors and museums around the world a spectacu- Jar collection of classical artefacts depicting Odysseus.' The Pergamon Altar remains the leading tourist attraction in Berlin. One ofthe international bestsellers of 2008 was Robert Haarris’s novel Pompeii, which recounted yet again, this time in vulcanological detail, the story of the epochal eruption of Vesuvius as background to the adventures of & young. Roman inspector of aqueducts and his melodramatic love affair? Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses was the sensation of the 2001/2002 theater season in New York? while a daring production of Seneca’s Thyestes in Mannheim’s National- theater in a translation by Durs Grinbein, doctissimus among, contemporary German poeta, stirred admiration and controversy: The 2004 epic film Troy, foregrounding a hunky Achilles, generated excited feature stories in magazines from U.S. Netos and World Report (May 24, 3004) and Italy's Panorama (June 5, 2004) to Germany's Focus (no. 20,2004)—not to mention just two months later the covers of Tite New Yorker and Der Spiegel celebrating the 2004 Olympics in Athens by picturing scenes from the ancient games. This striking phenomenon has not failed to attract the notice of publishers. In 2001 ‘Oxford University Press brought out Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classi! Myths, a rich anthology edited by Nina Kossman. For the past ten years Reclam Leipzig has been issuing useful volumes in its Mythos series, which gather translations of poems on various mythological figures (eg., Ariadne, Ikarus, Medea, Orpheus, Prometheus) from 1. Bernard Andreae: Oiysseus. Mythos und Erinmerung. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Haus der Kunst in Mitrichen von 1. Oktober 1995 bis 9, January 2000 (Mainz: Zabera, 1989). Robert Harris, Pompeii (New York: Random House, 2003). Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses. A Play (Bvanston: Northwestern University Press, 2002). Seneca, Thyeses, tans. Duts Grinbein, ed, Bernd Seidensticker (Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 2002). See in this connection my article "Seneca: A New German Icon?", above in this same volume (JJCT M1 [2004-2005], 47-77). PEN440 Intertational Journal of she Classical Tradition / Winter 2005 sar are te present Nor have the scholars lagged behind. During the 1960s this jour TaAUCD sas founded, joining two existing journals partially dedicated to reception, on of Germarespeaking scholars has eagerly followed these stimulating examples” xt Pays to remind ourselves that “reception” of classical antiquity goes well beyond the Renaissance notion of imitai, beyond traditional conceptions of wlecncc (whether {Apxious" or nod) and beyond contemporary theories of reader-esponse and intereee ‘lity, all of wiih are essentially literary in scope. Indeed Reception, knowe along with Renaissance and Reformation as one of the Three R's of the fiftenth and eiteorth ve Sacs: initially meant the reception of Roman law: Accordingly the present volumes Social ato a ne aie fils as architecture, art, emblematis, music, philosophy, and SOG stony to trace the variety of reception through centuries extending fiom antiquity to the present. In this sense and in his introduction to Literatur als Brlicke, Michael von Albrecht ‘denies four bridging functions associated with reception history: between citer Shocks; between spatially separated cultures; between literature and the other ale sed 5 Polke Riedel LtrericeAntiterczpton ujlae wid Vornge,Jenat Studien 2 (ena Verlag Pe ser & Partner, 1996); "Der Beste der richen"—"Achl das Vik Aufaiog ed Vortrige aaecten Anteezptin I, Jeaer Studien 5 Gena: Verlag Dr. Bassett & Stadeley 200 apace te de deutch Literatur vom Renaisance-Humanismus bis sr GepetaeBi Einfhrug (Statigart/ Weimar; Metzler, 2000).See my review in Inervationst, Journal ofthe Clas sion! Tyeition 8 (2001-2002) 603-08, $ Jp adiltion tothe volume reviewed here, see Michael von Albrecht, Ro Spiegel Europus. Das Fortwirken autter Texte wd Themen in Europa, 2nd ed. Ad fortes 1 (Tabingen: Stauffenburg, Heubl and Oui: Werk und Wirkung.Feslgnbe fr Michel on Albecht weno Geburtstag, ed. ree schulbert2 vols, Studien zur Klassichen Philologe 10 (Fankiut an wan pone, Lang, 1995. 7 Two further examples are epresentative: Wemer Fick, “Die nythiche Meth" Kompartist- Se Sten zur Trnsformaion der griechschen Tragic Dron der Hssbeen Maceo oe, See Georg von Below, Die Urschen der Rexption des Risen Recs in Detslland(Mnchen Bredesen, atenbours, 1905; and Paul Koschaker, Eurpa und das Rinse eo Barn Biederstein, 1947)Review Articles a down to Joseph Brodsky. Von Albrecht’s textually subtle analyses—he is one of the few Western classicists with an easy command of Russian—show how Catullus, despite scholarly neglect, emenges in post-Renaissance literature through allusion, paraphrase, adaptation, and other devices. (He does not go on to mention the dozen-plus novels based on Catullus's life that have appeared since 1950, attesting tothe poet's conspicu- ously renewed popularity in our own time)” While the Catullus piece traces the process of reception forward through time, the essay on Durs Grinbein’s volume Nach den Satiren looks from the present toward the past, as the author zeviews the poet's obsession with classical antiquity and notably his evocation of Juvenal as a tool forthe criticism of modern European society. The second section contemplates bridges between different cultural realms. A long essay (which initially appeared in 1972) examines the figured tapestry /carpet as a liter- ary motif from Aeschylius’s Agamemnon down to such modems as Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Thornton Wilder. Von Albrecht’ examples enable him to distinguish the classical secularization of the mythie-religious tapestry (in Ovid, Claudian, and Eu ripides) from the symbolic sublimation of bouzgeois interiors in modem poetry. (Fe does, not go on to locate his tapestries along the spectrum of textiles extending from the sym- bolic process of weaving across to the related image of the veil, both of which have ex- cited considerable scholarly attention in the past decade." The second piece analyzes Turgenev’s use of Greek and Latin quotations and allusions (mainly from Homer, Vergil, and Catullus) as means of characterization in his fiction. The third pair of examples first introduces Lucretius to exemplify the bridge be- tween literature and the natural sciences, tracing attitudes toward and uses of De rerum natura in classical antiquity (Ovid, Seneca), early Christianity (Tertullian, Lactantiu), the Middle Ages (notably Dante), the Renaissance (Pascal), and on by way of Montaigne, Moliére, Voltaire, and Shelley down (again) to Durs Griinbein. At times the discussion tends to become a catalog—yeta catalog that omits, for instance, the considerable impact that Lucretius had on major pre-Romantic English writers!" or his surprising role in EL Doctorow’s novel Ragtime (1973) The second essay—the only piece written originally for this volume—makes a persuasive case forthe fruitful connections in antiquity between literature and the cultural sciences (Linguistics, hermeneutics, philosophy of history) and such natural sciences as cosmology, moving from the early identification of poetry and learning to such examples as Virgil (poeta doctus), Ovid (antiquities and natural science), Lucan (history and physics), and Augustine (asa witness for Varro’s contribution to the Roman sense of identity) soca tnwcen he at svelte The first essay of the concluding pair—bridges between the arts, social strata, an peoples—is an abbreviated version ihe author's monograph on Goethe und das Volkslied 2. Eig Sie Piewon Dion, Fare, Cts (London: Holl Cater, 1989 Tom Holland Ais {Ceincton: Alison de Busby 195) and Wanda Menihel, Cll eee nore (Milano Cem Sia. 1995), Fo further examples sete website isiogeaphy of istorcl novel th cssicl theieeatte/ nomena de/hon/ SC 10, Erg Jahn Sled andJeper Sven, Le mie de Zu: the sage es ds enone Teeny (ari Editions La Decouerte 199) (= The Cr of Zu Myths of Weigand Write, te Corl Wolk: Revealing Ansiqlly 9 [Cambidge, MA: Harvard University Press, {abe and jn Assmann, Das sli Bild Sa. Sclers alae die rhe und adgupttcten Hinengrinde eet Teubneians 8 (tatgart and Leip Tene, 1959) 1. eee for instance, Wolfgang Beran Fescimann, Laces ond English Liewtue 1680-1740 (Paris: Nizet, 1968) aolwe International Journal ofthe Classical Tradition / Winter 2005 (Qn ed. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986) and, while perceptive, not precisely rele- arte weception of classical antiquity. But the final contribution is « model or scholarly Alri a cca comparison of eight diferent German translations of Deng final words ished! and skills ranlator of other Roman poets (Ovid and Catal, among others) carersinly hs comments on translations from the late eighteenth to ela eee re rec longa leader in the field, sees reception in tems of bridges. tis ap- Egeaty 055) ore thatthe fst Innsbruck conference onthe Reception of Cisien ay vihich caommpnoul publish ts prooedings under he tile Ponts The eights papers, es ——— oo , -————— ee ,——————————_—CN late eighteenth century, when Christian Gottlob Heyne art ethene acknowledged mythos es thereby provid Ine the basis for a criticism of logos that extends to Desrde and Ce disciples, Sotera cs otherwise informative analysis of Friedrich Creaser's von ye dis- mute, which cic not emerge uni ater in the nineteenth centay 2 rate Harrauer reprxlces and discusses Masi Pci’ brie Latin fable about Sev iah of Apologus from the union of Venus and Mercurius yet hg persuasive conclu weighty term mythos to designate the slight plece. Henrie Harich-Schwarabauer ex- re ehh pautner’s forgotten novel Xontippe (1884) as an early fetnnal statement of {he philosopher's theory of language and itt problematicn sin ‘sum, as an unexpected document of the much discussed fin-de-siele Spracitoie ‘A.cluster of six essays deals withthe reception of, Homeric-Virgilian epic, beginning with Georg Danek’s fascinating study of an Gighteenth-century Dalmatian “return song” tion OF teceny a Punitive version ofthe Homeric Otssey, Marks lanka ane tion of recent stage and radio adaptations of the Odyssey culminates in the provocative creat peat at Botho Strauss's Haka constitutes an argument for seen songs” as the Seana! basis for Homer's epic, JOrg Ricker makes the face for fourteenth-century Vir- silts in prosaas distinct from the more familiat Excidinn Troje with which itis usually col- lafecl and copied, while Hans-Ludwig Oertel reads Jan de hone he Exequine Turni—an- Famatgy ose supplements tothe Aeneid of which Voghus's Asse Lae XIllis the most famillar—as a plea for peace toward the end of the ‘Thirty Years War. Sabine Grebe views the gaield ekphraseis in the Aeneid and in Tasso's Cernariansy Liberata in contrast to ‘pose in Homer, as ctcal commentaries on, respectively, ‘Augustus and Alfonso Il and as appeals for socal order. And Peter Stolz, contemplating Crefeche Vitriacensis's com- 12. See Theodore Zolkowsk, “Der Hunger nich den Myles: 2uyselchen Gastronomie der Deutschen Resmond oie Jere” is Die soenamuen Danziger ene Pe Wea Workshop, ed Genie Siem and Jost Hermand, Schaiften aur Litrato 3 (Oe Hombung/Berlin/Zitich: Gehlen, 1970), 169-201Review Articles in rank to the original poem and who, in contrast to most of his contemporaries, is con- cemed not just with grammar and style but with uncovering the intentio auctor, Studying the six dramas of Hrotsvit von Gandersheim, Kurt Smolak concludes, un- many scholars, that the gradual shift away from their Terentian model is not so much a sign of dramatic weakness on the author's part as, rather, her conscious didactic deci- sion to shift the emphasis from drama to a more philosophical and theological language and aim. Hildegard Miller interprets Metellus von Tegernsee’s poem-cycle Quirinalia (c 1165), based on Horace’s Carmina, as a millennial celebration in honor of (Julius Verus) Philippus, who was long (albeit falsely) honored as the first Christian emperor. To com- pensate for a common overemphasis on the Greeks, Ulrich Schunitzer catalogs Goethe's frequent allusions to Roman literature of the early principate. (Goethe's fondness for Ovid and what he called the “cloverleaf” of love poets—Tibullus, Catullus, and Proper- tius—is well known)? ‘The next two articles emerge from the Viennese research project Poetische Habsburg Panegyrik in lateinischer Sprache vom 15. bis ins 18. Jhundert, Beginning, with a ceiling fresco in the church of St. Catherine in Graz, Elisabeth Klecker demonstrates elegantly that the frequent Virgilian quotations in seventeenth-century Austrian emblems reflect both a belief in the translatio imperii and a laudatory equation of the Habsburg emperors with Augustus. Consistent with that theory is the 300-line Ovidian Alexandri Magni Epis- tola ad Inclitum Archiducem Austrie Carolum (1558), which Franz Romer reprints and ana- lyzes plausibly as a panegyric on the ascension to the throne of Ferdinand L The last authorial pair turns to architecture. Andrea Scheithauer impressively scruti- nizes scores of references in classical Roman authors to public buildings as evidence for panegyric as well as subtle criticism before moving on to several medieval travel guides for Christian visitors to Rome, for whom the classical edifices served merely as land- marks. Hartmut Wolfram reads Leon Batista Albert's De re aeiificetoria as a typical Re- naissance immilatio, inasmuch at it takes for granted an acquaintance with Vitruvius's De Architectura without directly naming it or citing his sources. The volume ends with an odd but interesting piece by Jiingen Werner, who identifies the classical roots of many An glicisms in contemporary German, “von Aborigines bis Telewisch.” While the studies in Pontes deal exclusively with the pre-modern reception of (mainly) Latin literature in various countries, the two volumes edited by the team of Bernd Seidensticker and Martin Vohler (a third volume has just appeared) ** focus on twentieth-century German literature. The earlier of the two, Urgeschichten der Moderne, should more precisely be subtitled “Die griechische Antike in der ersten Hilfte des 20. Jahrhunderts” since it deals almost exclusively with the reception of Greek antiquity and only three of the fourteen essays go tentatively beyond 1950, The underlying theme of the volume, which in fact governs only a few of the essays, is the shift of interest from classi~ cal to archaic antiquity initiated principally by Nietesche. The first essay—Albert Hen- rich’s “Gétterdimmerung und Gétterglanz’—borrows the Wagnerian term to highlight the massive “paradigm shift” of the late nineteenth century that depersonalized the gods and subordinated them to abstract categories. Glenn W. Most then focuses on “the dis- covery of the archaic,” which he traces back to lectures and books by the Munich archae- 13. Goethe ina letter to Knebel of 25 October 1788. 14. Mythionkorrekturen: Zu einer paradoxalen Form der Mythenrezeption, Spectrum Literaturwis- senschaft/Spectrum Literature 3 (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2005).Internationa Journal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2005 ologist Heinrich Brunn in the late 1860s, andl follows forward to its poeticization in Rilk’s powerful sonnet “Archaischer Torso Apollos” (1908). Michael Diers analyzes Aby Warburg “image alias” Mnemasyre to single out the so-called “Ninfa,” a figure repre: senting the intrusion of movement and action (evident in the familiar Gracliva-reiet, which inspired Withelm Jensen’s novella and excited Freud’s commentary) ad which he then wittly traces down to such modem works as Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential photographs of running girls (188-486) and a 1997 video-installation by Pipilotti The next triad of articles seeks to relate the interest in archaism to modern philoso- phy. Uwe Steiner's characterization of Benjamin's Passagen-project as an "Lirgeschichte der ‘Maderne;” while not uninteresting as a study of Benjamin, is related to the reception of antiquity by little more than wordplay. Michael Theunissen’s crisp technical discussion of Heidegger's appeal to the pre-Socratcs remains similarly remote from the practical question of reception. Klaus Laermann’s piece on Horkheimer /Adorno’s Dialektik der Auufiliran, in contrast, isan incisive analysis of the Odysseus excursus (a key chapter in the postwar reception of the theme) as the story of a weak Ego that develops, in the = course of its journey through the archaic world of myth, into a modern self-conscious. ae fess 7an analysis that exposes, ultimately, the authors’ Kulturhass underlying that text es book ofthe German sity-eighters i. {nthe next section Hubert Cancik exposes the surprising role of classical antiquity in ie the German youth movement (1901-1933), whose members were mainly young men e trained in the humanistic gymnasium and which often featured trips to Greeve (from ae. a piece on rt Cancik quotes illuminatingly), Alexander Demandt follows up with a ip: pice on “Hiller und die Antike,” documenting with solid detail from diaries fnel core . Pie neery iter’s well-known fascination with classical antiquity and its relevance for 5 his racial theories. - . set only three articles that look beyond Germany constitute a section on art, archi 3 prance and musi, Pascal Weitmann catalogs the use of classical themes tn the paintings, Bhetorapt,and sculpts of rane von Shuck Herbert Lice Pensa {il Usprng econ ces of ang n achiecares! Goad on a a eae Prado a (his design fora Chicago Tribune Column) and Robert Ventuti gee made m a a as background for his analysis of the Ricola ! hs tay of ani hein int modem mesial Toews ea escal mot. seamen musologal deal haw musi enabler cospene eae Ae pias Bact and ecko ude myth cap tea ce eects antag gts ofthe cay focuses on ear. Pete Sprengel sees the ten to nee Fd euing in Viemes moderna es eee also tothe neny Albert Ee e ters of Hofmannsthal and Richard Beer-Hofmann but conan 2A Eee paytlevocaton cl a eg een Bt ch ane eect atilig se of mitogen cess tert hina Bona ee), al a ey tht cotinine anes Ue tene Cayce neces alae fv ceta Chm and Oe ee! Ceron eines Mer see ya ot POU cae reat Gites asthe archetype ofthe homecoming soldier, as depicted in numer. Bear German ove bua amped fae ot Set aas Allin all, the essays in Urgeschicten der Moderne are provocative rather than fulfll- ing because the allocated space permits the authors in most cases only to skim lightly over the surface and not to treat their topics exhaustively. The situation changes when we turn to the second collection by Seidensticker and Vohler, Mythen in nachiuythischer Zeit Here sixteen German writers are represented by statements regarding attitudes toward classical antiquity, followed in each case by a critical assessment of their classicizing, works by as many scholar-crtics. In some cases the writers’ statements, only a few of which were specially written for the occasion, are too brief or irrelevant to be useful, The individual critiques vary considerably in approach and usefulness. Antje Janssen- Zimmermann’s account of myth in the work of the DDR-writer Thomas Brasch focuses on his version of the flaying of Marsyas as the story of a worker rebelling against author- ity, but might have benefited from a comparative context for this popular theme (eg, Franz Fathmann and Giinter Kunert or Zbigniew Herbert and Robin Robertson), Heinz Peter PreuBer contrasts Volker Braun's brief scenic text Iphigenie in Freiheit with Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris and Jochen Berg's im Taurerland to expose Braun's underlying discon- tent with civilization (though he does not mention Freud). Manfred Weinberg discusses the role of “Mein Freund Herodot” in the ethnographic writings of Hubert Fichte, who pre- sents the Greek historian as an wr-ethnographer. Oddly, Timo Gtinther’s account of Erich Fried’s use of classical rhetorical traditions does not deal with the poet's translations of = Euripides’ Bacchae and Aristophanes’ Lysisinta, even though Fried emphasizes that as- pect in his own comments. One of the most successful pairings in the volume is Durs Griinbein’s fascinating. statement “Zwischen Antike und X” and Michael von Albrecht’s assessment of antiquity in his volume of poems Nach den Satiren (essentially the same essay that appears in von Albrecht’s Literatur als Bricke), Here Griinbein discusses in concrete detail his indebted- ness to Roman literature for his “most important writing lesson" (97), Peter Hacks makes the significant point that “the lasting value of a myth does not depend upon its original meaning” (118), and on that basis Frank Stucke discusses Hacks's adaptations of Aristo- phanes as critiques of his own East German society. Peter Habermehl reads Gisbert Haefs’s novel Harmibal (1989) asa projection of ad venture stories a la Karl May into past enlivened by details borrowed from Flaubert’s Salarambs. Oswald Panagl’s essay concen trates on Peter Handke's 1986 translation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound and a few other scattered references to (mostly) Greek literature, but fails to mention the centrality of Virgil and his Georgios in Handke’s novel Der Chinese des Schmerzes (1983). ‘Walter Jens, himself a classcist and closer in spirit to the Greeks than to the Romans, provides a gratifying subject for Bernd Seidensticker, who offers a useful survey of Jens’s critical works, travel journals, novels, and adaptations of classical materials. In the light of hael Kéhimeier’s statement that “antiquity is a distant mirror in which Tsee ourselves” (209), Karlheinz Téchterle discusses his narratively complex Oryssey-novels Telemach (1995) and Kalypso (1997), along with his retellings of Die Sagen des Klassischen Altertumas (1996, 1998), Giinter Kunezt, finding the ancient myths rich in analogies (227; “analo- gietriichtig") for the DDR in the 1960s and 1970s, provides a wealth of material in his poems for Wolfgang Maaz, who sees modern Berlin as “Kunert’s antiquity.” Wilfried Barner subjects Heiner Miller's Philottet (1965) to a scrupulous analysis as an anti-war 15, See Theodore Ziolkowski, Virgil and the Modems (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 231-33,A 1 ERE AUB eee | 46 International Journal ofthe Classical Tradition / Winter 2008 Statement with a profoundly pessimistic les’ drama as well as Brecht’s Antigone undertone, comparing it fruitfully with Sopho- {Chuistoph Ransmayr’s Ovidian novel Die Lette Welt (1988), along with Christa eas Kassena, is one oF the to best-known intemationally (ane he ‘most widely ana- lyzed) among recent German adaptations of classical antiquity, and Ulrich Schmitzer's skepticism about myth, by way of Kalldewry ant to Ithaka, a theatrical work that uses the “return fon Fiesap Posed tthe usual reading of Odysseus as the resourseial bees oe civiliza- voor: etal, ina eitical and even polemical assessment of Chvists Werk attempted discrediting of Buripides's version amotints ea vast oversimplification of the Somubies motivations and that the imagined “scholarly basis” of Mtars rehabilitation Constitutes a misunderstanding ofthe actual mythic situation Mythen in nachmythischer Zeit, valuable source and resource, is illuminating for the wide variety of approaches represented, from the ethnographic by way of the politicat 2nd literary to the technical (translation). It is typical moreover, of the continuing icrranny of Greece over Germany” in the predominance of Geeks sources among con Sree ante dimension leeding beyond German literature, (A comparison with recent Anglo-American literature would show, Roman poets as Virgil and Ovid is much for instance, thatthe literary influence of such ‘more conspicuous abroad than in Germany,} Metamorphoses provided the source for subsequent tearm, (62). Unlike many other jar colosical themes (eg, Odysseus, Prometheus, Meden) the Magar story (comprising teal characteris Met 1185-185) isnot often mold asanaratice Inne ioe individ a 16. See Theodore Ziotkowski, Ovi and the Mader (thaea: Comel University Press, 2005) PEEReview Articles 47 the motif of the betraying barber (still evident in Persius and Petronius) before culminat- ing in the great syncretism of Ovid's Metamorphoses. In part 2 the author analyzes the psy- chopathology of gold and the Midas-complex in the works of Freud and other modern writers, depicts his ambiguous image as wise man and fool, and explores the connota- tions associated with ass’s ears (dumb, unmusical, etc). Part 3, which makes the all too frequent mistake of assuming that Ovid himself used the term and title Metamorphoses (which was added only later by such writers as Seneca and Quintilian) discusses trans formations of the theme of “metamorphosis” and applies it to Midas, who both had transforming power (things into gold) and was himself transformed (human ears into 1ass’s ears). In part 4 the author considers the “moralized Midas” of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, as evident in the figure of the avarus in Dante, John Gower, and Boccaccio; in the “judge judged” of Christine de Pisan; and in the allegorized Ovid of many works during the transition to early modetn times. The book concludes with a brief catalog of poetic reminiscences of Midas in works by such modem German- language poets as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Stefan George, ‘Anneke Thiel’s book shows all the hallmarks of a dissertation: itis a busy book with mottoes, extensive notes, and bibliography—but no index. It begins with the ritual bow to theory and method (which, however, misses a number of useful American works on thematics and thematology)."” Why, one wonders (other than to satisfy a thesis adviser), does the author spend eight pages (161-68) discussing Berthelot’s complicated struc- turalistic approach to myth,” only to disclaim its usefulness for her project? Because of her narrowly German focus in the post-medieval period the author misses such examples as Carol Ann Dutffy’s witty poem "Mis Midas” or the extensive Midas-scene in Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, both of which contradict the idea that Midas shows up only as an allegorical reference point and mainly in non-literary texts. And there are oc- casional slips in the discussion of the Metamorphases, as when the author states that Dionysus’s restoration of Midas to his original non-transformative condition is unique because the Metamorphoses “as a matter of principle do not provide for a reversion of transformations that have once taken place” (155). What about Tiresias's sex changes? In general, however, Thiel’s book isa useful contribution to the growing body of studies on the reception of antiquity and, in subject matter, nicely complements the Pontes volume. ‘The five works reviewed here display the manifold possibilities of reception-history rather than any consensus or coherence of approach. But their publication attests gratify ingly to the renewed awareness that an acquaintance with the classical tradition is in- dispensable not only for our understanding of the past two millennia, but also for a full appreciation of the thought, art, and literature of our own time. In this connection, 17. Big, The Return of Thematic Criticism, ed. Werner Sollors (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993); Horst §. Daemmarich and Ingeid G. Daemmaich, Spirals and Circles: A Key to The- matic Patterns in Classicism end Realism, 2 vols. Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature 7-8, (New York: Peter Lang, 1994); and Thematics Reconsidered, Essays in Honor of Forst S. Daenni~ rich, ed, Frank Trommier, Internationale Forschungen zur Aligemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturvvissenschaft 9 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995) 18. Francis Berthelot, La méamorphase généalisée. Du poome mythologique 2 la science-fiction (Paris: Nathan, 1993). 19. In After Ovid: New Metamorphoses, ed. Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), 261-63, walSSH OF CALORIE Unnany Bi: 448 International Journal ofthe Classical Tradition / Winter 2005 oul be noted the volumes display a common tendency: the comparative aspect nar- Gorman oe nov past the Renaissance into modernity. Yet the unique characte teres of NeSUaT Os any oer national tersture cannot be flly appresiated wither eee sap andl proces and nature of reception in othe literatures If any apereech ee then Surly fs alt should be comparative and international in scope and eth, then surely itis the reception of the classical tradition, ‘Theodore Ziolkowski Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Princeton University A Poetics of Modern Popular Narrative? ea apkunen, Aristo in Holywood: The Anatomy of Successful Storytelling (Bristol: Intet- lect, 2002) XIX + 143 pp, The arresting short title of Ari Hiltunen’s book is validated by the substantial proportion Of devoted to consideration of both Aristotle and Hollywood Nevertheless, itis most fe outed if tis understood with the following qualifications in rane we "Aristo- Be’ should be taken as an umbrella term for those approaches te popular narrative which Here Close commonality between auditors/readers’ emotion] experience and story- telling; that ‘Hollywood’ stands for the dominant mode of storytelling in such non-cine- matic elds also as stage plays, novels, the interactive games of cyberspace. linen ites reason its subtitle may be a more accurate inating of the concerns 5S Pook. ln his foreword, julian Friedmann, editor of ‘intellects Sinners SerPtoritng highlights the practical relevance of the book nea fein element in that se- swe auth tS more vocational aspect to the fore, however It ee oe scarcely an- movies aan Pottant questions as why there is no guarantoe of snceee fer Hollywood, Hiltesen Ret they do attempt to full the ‘proper pleasure” Principles isolated by jultinen. ‘The “proper pleasure” is nota formula the write tle on p. 129, "Formu- tas. lead to the death of creativity and clumsy seul “ Only a few out of thousands ashuctament in Die Letzte Weis ony enhanced by comparicon ee finest among the many Bochenanal Heetmenis of Ovid, such as Vine Hovis Dies ee eri (1960), Jacek. Rachenski's Nexo poeta (1969; Carman translation, Der Takey ‘eit Ovid (1975)), or Mazin cae dt d Orie (987. Simi ts Wuminatng to compare the conspictious pop- py ofthe Prometheus theme in literature of the DDR ites ‘tery different treatment Theatdt comtemporary English poets as Rober Graves iwie gfe Ted Hughes. See Preaee Gtolkowski, The Sin of Knoulege Anion! Themes ang Msi ae intions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), —