Greek Heroes in and out of Hades

Stamatia Dova is Associate Professor of Classics and Modern Greek Studies at Hellenic College in Brookline, MA, and Associate in Hellenic Literature and Language at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. Her research interests include Homeric epic, the concept of the hero in ancient Greek civilization, ancient and modern Greek language pedagogy, and reception studies.

Dova (Hellenic College and Center for Hellenic Studies) considers key aspects of the ancient Greek hero in relation to his mortality, primarily by reference to the type-scene of the katabasis. Her study centers on Odysseus, Heracles, and Achilles, across the genres of epic, lyric, tragedy, and Platonic dialogue, and takes as its starting point Odysseus's confrontations with Achilles and Heracles in the underworld in Odyssey 11. A series of brief, closely focused discussions sets these heroes in relation to Agamemnon, Meleager (in Bacchylides 5), and Alcestis (in Euripides's drama of the same name), and combine to articulate a cumulative argument that distinguishes between Odysseus's success in tampering with the limits of mortality (in the Odyssey), Heracles's attainment of an Olympian alternative to mortality (in Bacchylides), and Achilles's acceptance of his mortality (in the Iliad). Dova is at her most interesting in the final chapter, where she trains her attention, and philological methods honed in reading Homer, on Euripides's Alcestis and Plato's Symposium to discern a dialogue between genders and genres that sheds light on the epic heroes precisely through inversion of the heroic model. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• ForewordPrefacePart I: Odysseus and the Poetics of katábasisOdysseus among the ShadesWhat a Pity he is not a Hero!Agamemnon's katapontismósAn Epic Encore on the Problematik of kléosWho is µa???tat?? in the OdysseyOn Ruling over the Dead and Other ImpossibilitiesRethinking makarismós in and out of HadesAias and the End of kléosLiving Once and Dying Twice: Circe as an Agent of nóstosOn Death, Rebirth, and a Mother in HadesPart II: Hades (and Heroism) RevisitedA Terror to Behold: Heracles in the NékyiaHeracles Between Life and DeathVariations on a Duel Theme: Bacchylides 5 and Iliad 6On Wrath and the MotherOn Wrath and the GoddessHow to Praise a TyrantAn Example Gone AwryLooking for Death in the Right PlacesOn Foreknowledge of Death and its BlessingsOn cháris, apáte, and Other NecessitiesKeeping Achilles Alive: Tenes and the Liminality of TenedosPart III: Achilles, Alcestis, and the Poetics of non-katábasisOn Ruling over the Dead in Plato's RepublicAchilles i