The Ancient Fable: An Introduction

Title

en_US The Ancient Fable: An Introduction

en_US Studies in Ancient Folklore and Popular Culture

Description

en_US Original language: ger

en_US First printing

en_US Niklas Holzberg

Creator

en_US Holzberg, Niklas

Date

2016-01-25T20:19:20Z

en_US 2003-11

en_US 2002

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:19:20Z

Date Issued

en_US 2002

Abstract

en_US Laura Gibbs sums up the content of the book well in her review in The Journal of American Folklore (2007, pages 111-113): Niklas Holzberg's 'Ancient Fable: An Introduction' provides a concise and clear analysis of the Greek and Roman sources for Aesop's fables. The book surveys each of the major sources for the approximately six hundred Greek and Latin fables that have survived from antiquity. This includes fables as exempla in the different historical periods of Greek and Roman literature; the verse fable collections of the poets Phaedrus, Babrius, and Avianus; and the prose fable collections in Greek and Latin. Each of these brief sections (approximately ten pages or less) is followed by a page or so of bibliographical observations. Holzberg's aim is to provide a critical review of prior scholarship, and he does that evenhandedly. He also adds some newer thoughts of his own. Dare we infer again that the author of this novel [The Life of Aesop] also wrote the fable book that now survives in the form of the Collectio Augustana? (p. 91). Holzberg rejects the traditional view that the Life of Aesop is a botched work. He sees, I believe, more literary merit in both the Augustana Collection and Romulus than many critics have allowed. He offers excellent comments on each of the verse fabulists he treats. While he provides an evenhanded overview of a difficult realm, Holzberg tends to presume a great deal from his readers. He writes, alas, from a classicist's point of view. His good introduction would benefit, I believe, by investigation of the anthropological-cultural view of fables and their place in ancient life. And of course one wants to go further in the fascinating history of fables, but that would lie beyond his subject. This good book was my reading as earlier as I took a train from Toronto to British Columbia. Good stuff!

Identifier

en_US 0253341469 (cloth : alk. paper)

en_US 8398 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/83630

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Indiana University Press

en_US Bloomington, IN

Subject

en_US PA3032.H65 2002

en_US Secondary

Type

en_US Book, Whole