Patrick Hunt – författare

This ground-breaking study explores the structure and literary figures in the biblical Hebrew poetry of the Song of Songs. These figures include simile, metaphor, paronomasia, parallelism, sensory cluster, fertility language – flowers, spices, and plants as well as animals and images of wealth – and many other literary devices, delineated but not limited to how they also appear in classical literature as defined by Aristotle, Quintilian, and others. This biblical poetry is also compared to the Greek poetry of Sappho and Egyptian love poetry as well as to the Ramayana and the Kamasutra. The Song of Songs is discreetly yet firmly interpreted as erotic literature.

In Myths for All Time, author Patrick Hunt retells twelve of the most well-known Greek myths, framing select tales with archaeological examinations and explorations of Greece. As Hunt surveys the physical and moral landscapes of Greek antiquity, myths of old are given new life, from the magic of Midas’ golden touch to the dreaded opening of Pandora’s Box. Each story is thoughtfully presented and discussed, connecting readers to the awe-inspiring ancient myths of the past and the equally remarkable human realities of today. Readers of all ages will be dazzled and delighted by the vivid pictures of deities and enchanted beings these twelve stories will paint in their minds.

Mythology has inspired countless generations of humanity for millennia, from the parent culture of a myth to cultures fairly removed in time, space and language. Poets, artists, historians and philosophers have interpreted the stories in many ways, and Greek and Roman myths in particular are rich in paradox and narrative wisdom that artists have also visually illustrated, often depicting the crux or dramatic climax of a story in close detail. Biblical material also provides a wealth of material for similar reinterpretations for artists or writers. Whether in language with figures like similes and metaphors, or in visual imagery from sculptures, mosaics, wall-paintings and other ancient media, retelling of mythology in parallel versions often borrow from each other and influence each other. For example, a wide range of artists including Dürer, Cranach, Rembrandt, Dore, Klimt, Waterhouse or anonymous ancient vase painters, mosaicists and sculptors reinterpret seminal texts of poets and thinkers such as Homer, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, Dante or biblical material.Whether ancient or modern in its applications, Ekphrasis is an ancient Greek word that essentially has to do with literary versions inspiring visual artistic versions, or vice versa. Visual literacy can be as important as verbal literacy, and tracing these symbiotic influences and looking at their backgrounds are some of the primary foci of Myth and Art in Ekphrasis.

Patrick Hunt has been teaching in Humanities at Stanford University for the past 20 years. His Ph.D. is from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, University of London in 1991. He is a National Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America since 2009 and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1989. National Geographic Society has sponsored some of his archaeology fieldwork. He appears frequently on PBS, NOVA, National Geographic and History Channel broadcasts.Hunt has taught a postgraduate course on the history of wine at Stanford University and has lectured at wineries and related venues around the world, including for the Napa Valley Vintners Association at Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, Napa Valley. Among over 100 published articles, he has also elsewhere written articles on global wine history and mythology as well as written and published twelve prior books. He has traveled in wine journeys across five continents and annually spends time in viticultural regions in France and Italy as well as California. Having studied the cultivation and multiple purposes of wine and grapes and early agriculture since the Neolithic, he is also a Research Associate in Archaeoethnobotany at the Institute for EthnoMedicine.