The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception
The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception
Cite
Abstract
In the ancient Mediterranean world, the sea was an essential domain for trade, cultural exchange, communication, exploration, and colonisation. In tandem with the lived reality of this maritime space, a parallel experience of the sea emerged in narrative representations from ancient Greece and Rome, of the sea as a cultural imaginary. This imaginary seems often to oscillate between two extremes: the utopian and the catastrophic; such representations can be found in narratives from ancient history, philosophy, society, and literature, as well as in their post-classical receptions. Utopia can be found in some imaginary island paradise far away and across the distant sea; the sea can hold an unknown, mysterious, divine wealth below its surface; and the sea itself as a powerful watery body can hold a liberating potential. The utopian quality of the sea and seafaring can become a powerful metaphor for articulating political notions of the ideal state or for expressing an individual’s sense of hope and subjectivity. Yet the catastrophic sea balances any perfective imaginings: the sea threatens coastal inhabitants with floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes and sailors with storms and the accompanying monsters. From symbolic perspectives, the catastrophic sea represents violence, instability, the savage, and even cosmological chaos. The twelve chapters in this volume explore the themes of utopia and catastrophe in the liminal environment of the sea, through the lens of history, philosophy, literature and classical reception.
-
Front Matter
- Introduction
-
Section One Ancient Society: History, Historiography, Philosophy, and Politics
-
One
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea: Tsunamis and Coastal Catastrophes in the Ancient Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean
Guy D. Middleton
-
Two
The Greek Notions of Sea Power
Vilius Bartninkas
-
Three
Plato Sailing against the Current: The Image of the Ship in the Republic
Gabriele Cornelli
-
Four
Sailing to Find Utopia or Sailing to Found Utopia? The Pragmatic and Idealistic Pursuit of Ideal Cities in Greek and Roman Political Philosophy
Aaron L. Beek
-
Five
Ruling the Catastrophic Sea: Roman Law and the Gains of a Utopic Mediterranean
Emilia Mataix Ferrándiz
-
One
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea: Tsunamis and Coastal Catastrophes in the Ancient Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean
-
Section Two Ancient Literature and Myth
-
Six
The Seas are Full of Monsters: Divine Utopia, Human Catastrophe
Georgia L. Irby
-
Seven
Order among Disorder: Poseidon’s Underwater Kingdom and Utopic Marine Environments
Ryan Denson
-
Eight
The Women and the Sea: The Subjective Seascape in Ovid’s Heroides
Simona Martorana
-
Nine
The Anti-Tyrannical Adriatic in Lucan’s Civil War
Isaia Crosson
-
Six
The Seas are Full of Monsters: Divine Utopia, Human Catastrophe
-
Section Three Classical Receptions
-
Ten
How to Detain a Tsunami: Impassable Boundaries against Ocean Chaos in Ancient and Modern Imaginaries
Manuel Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar
-
Eleven
Classical Dimensions of the Robinsonade Pantomime: Neptune, Aphrodite, and the Threat to Civilization
Rhiannon Easterbrook
-
Twelve
Minoan Utopias in British Fiction, after the Thalassocracy: Lawrence Durrell’s The Dark Labyrinth and Robert Graves’ Seven Days in New Crete
Hamish Williams
-
Ten
How to Detain a Tsunami: Impassable Boundaries against Ocean Chaos in Ancient and Modern Imaginaries
-
End Matter
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
May 2023 | 1 |
June 2023 | 5 |
June 2023 | 1 |
July 2023 | 1 |
July 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 1 |
December 2023 | 1 |
December 2023 | 2 |
January 2024 | 2 |
January 2024 | 2 |
February 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 3 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 2 |
April 2024 | 2 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 3 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 1 |
May 2024 | 3 |
June 2024 | 3 |
June 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
September 2024 | 4 |
October 2024 | 5 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 6 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 4 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 3 |
November 2024 | 1 |
November 2024 | 1 |
November 2024 | 2 |
December 2024 | 2 |
December 2024 | 3 |
January 2025 | 3 |
January 2025 | 1 |
January 2025 | 1 |
January 2025 | 2 |
February 2025 | 1 |
February 2025 | 1 |
March 2025 | 5 |
March 2025 | 1 |
April 2025 | 1 |
April 2025 | 2 |
April 2025 | 1 |
April 2025 | 2 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.