[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The last years have witnessed an increased interest in the treatment of emotions, broadly intended, in ancient literature and beyond. In the past five years, several contributions, in the form of edited volumes, monographs or single papers, on emotions in classical, biblical and Byzantine literature have appeared.[1] This volume fills a gap in the scholarship by bringing together different disciplines and putting them into dialogue: it offers the first thorough overview of the treatment of emotions in antiquity and beyond, covering a time span ranging from Homer (8th century BCE) to Grotius (16th century CE).
The volume stems from the wish to mark Irene de Jong’s retirement from her professorship. De Jong’s pioneering studies on narratology and Ancient Greek literature contributed to the development and enhancement of our knowledge of classical literature as a whole.
In the introduction, the editors state that the book takes as a point of departure “the emotional involvement of the narrator of Homer’s Iliad”, but the goal is to provide further insights into the subject of emotions not only in ancient epic, but in the ancient world and beyond. They certainly succeed in doing so. The volume is divided into eight parts and covers a time span from archaic epic to late antiquity and beyond. Given the length of the volume, I would like to discuss here only those contributions that re-assess previous findings; others add new data, and still others lay the ground for further studies.
Part 1: Archaic Epic. Five contributions are on Homer’s Iliad, three on the Odyssey, and one on Hesiod. The first one, by Ahuvia Kahane, offers a useful re-assessment of earlier narratological tools applied to understanding the expression of emotions, and of anger in particular, in Homeric texts. Rutger Allan, building on De Jong’s studies on metaleptic apostrophe, offers new insights on this feature of epic poetry, pointing out that metaleptic apostrophe can also be understood as an element contributing to the rhetorical effect of immersion, which helps readers feel as if they were actively part of the narrative. Robert Kirstein discusses the interplay of emotions and politeness in the Odyssey, focusing in particular on the function of politeness phenomena in relation to the representation of emotions in a narrative.
Part 2: Archaic Epic and Beyond. Françoise Létoublon, adopting Borges’ framework of the text as a labyrinth, extends it to the epic genre, successfully aiming to show that the labyrinth is an effective symbol of self-reflexivity, and reflexivity, as he states, is generally linked to those aesthetic emotions which play a key yet hidden role in literature. Willie Van Peer’s contribution, which concludes the section, focuses on the reception of Greek heritage in our days, and in particular on an attitude that is rarely found among societies: ‘perspectivation’, which can be used as a tool in pursuing emotional knowledge. In fact, it was the ability of adopting viewpoints other than one’s own that enable Ancient Greek Literature to show and reveal to us the wide spectrum of their emotions.
Part 3: Early Lyric, Tragedy and Biblical poetry. The first contribution by André Lardinois discusses fragments 1 and 31 of Sappho, and the relationship between author and performance, bringing some new insights to Sappho scholarship, such as not taking too seriously or autobiographically the sentiments claimed in her poems as well as distinguishing between the performer of a poem and its author; and the last one, by Ilse Müllner, discusses how in the Bible the emotionality of characters is rarely expressed. Gerry Wakker’s chapter analyses instances of ‘direct expressions’ of emotions in Ancient Greek Drama, a field that has hitherto been unexplored. The author does so by drawing on the methods of narratology, linguistics, and discursive psychology, a distinctive and thorough approach which makes his contribution pertinent to a wide range of scholarly disciplines.
Part 4: Greek Prose of the Classical Period. Antonis Tsakmakis adopts a narratological approach to demonstrate that emotions in the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia serve as a means to convey the moral, ethical and historical means of the narration. Luuk Huitink offers a first tentative study of the episode of Cyrus’ tears in Xenophon Cyropedia, analysing the author’s narration as well as the reasons that led him to write what has been defined as ‘an awkward narrative’. The last three contributions focus on emotions in Greek Philosophy. Margalit Finkelberg and Michael Lloyd both address emotions in Plato, with the first exploring the dialogues in general and the second discussing the Protagoras and Gorgias. Kathryn A. Morgan’s paper focuses on the expression of Socrates’ emotions in Plato and fills a gap in the scholarship on Platonic narratology. Taken together, the three papers offer significant new insights on Plato’s understanding and use of emotions in his literature.
Part 5: Hellenistic Literature. The two papers on Apollonios’ Argonautica are quite thought-provoking. The one by Silvio Bär looks closely at Heracles’ emotions, identifying 19 Heracles’ passages in the book, which the author argues are a mirror of the hero’s emotions, expressed through ‘narratorial or actorial characterization’. Bär brightly concludes that Heracles’ fate is intertwined with his anger, which can be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on the situation. It both destroys and saves him. Annette Harder’s contribution, on the other hand, focuses on the employment of intertextuality in presenting emotions, and asks whether, if employed, intertextuality adds further layers of meaning to the narrative. Another very interesting paper is the one by Jacqueline Klooster, on Theocritus and the Poetics of love, in which the author argues that love and the emotions it provokes and entails are a structural feature of Theocritus’ poetics: poetry can be inspiring but also therapeutic.
Part 6: Latin Literature. This section includes papers on Livy, Virgil, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus. Lidewij Van Gils and Caroline Kroon discuss the representation of emotions in Livy through an analysis of war scenes. Pieter van den Broek analyses the use of apostrophe as a rhetorical device to enhance the emotional force of narrative passages in Silius Italicus’ Punica 6. Mark Heerink ends the section with an interesting paper on the use of metalepsis in the Argonautica by Valerius Flaccus, offering a metapoietical interpretation of the anger scene in Argonautica 3.598–725: he suggests that while initially Telamon represents the alter-ego of the poet-narrator, however, later in the book, this role passes onto Meleager, a character highly disliked by Flaccus himself. This choice reflects the pessimistic world-view of the author, and the impossibility for its work to be another Aeneid, as he wished, given the different circumstances in which the two works were written.
Part 7: Greek Prose of the Imperial Period. Here Casper de De Jonge offers new insights on the concept of the sublime, which she sees as a vehicle facilitating communication between authors, characters and readers, connecting them all together. Gerard Boter discusses the emotion of anger in Epictetus, setting it against the background of apatheia, the control of one’s own emotions professed by the Stoics. The last contribution, by Kristoffel Demoen, focuses on how Achilles’ anger is described and represented in Philostratus’ Heroicus, and discusses the internal narratee’s reaction and the emotional impact of storytelling.
Part 8: Late Antiquity and Beyond. This section offers accounts of authors and texts which have received far less attention than the others dealt with in the volume. Piet Gerbrandy is concerned with Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae and in particular the emotions of Ceres, Proserpine’s mother; Koen De De Temmerman writes about the way which in which emotions are narrated and how they are used in Pseudo-Nilus’ Narrations. Also worth mentioning is Baukje van Der Berg’s paper (the only one related to Late Byzantine literature) on Eustathios of Thessalonica and his understanding of Homeric emotions.
The volume ends with an epilogue by Mieke Bal, Professor Emerita in Literary Theory at the University of Amsterdam and De Jong’s PhD supervisor, who walks us through De Jong’s formidable career. As an appendix, the editors include a list of De Jong’s publications.
The editors set themselves an ambitious undertaking: to provide further insights, in the form of an anthology, into the “vast and fascinating subject” of emotions. This volume does not only meet our expectations but goes well beyond them. Both editors and contributors have adopted a multifaceted approach, which makes it suitable both for experts and non-experts. The editors also offer a glossary of key terms, which makes easier for those who are not familiar with the disciplinary frameworks of individual papers to enjoy the reading. There are some contributions that are more technical in nature, others that are less so, and others that are more theoretical. The volume provides further insight into specific authors and texts, and covers not only literature, but also history, philosophy, and the history of art; the multidisciplinary approach makes it appealing to scholars from different disciplines. The papers in this book all contribute to the volume’s purpose: to honor De Jong’s career and enhance her studies. Although a lengthy read, more than 750 pages in total, the text runs smoothly; the wise chronological division adopted by the editors gently walks readers through centuries, without overwhelming them.
Authors and Titles
Introduction
Mathieu de Bakker, Baukje van den Berg, and Jacqueline Klooster, The Narratology of Emotions in Ancient Literature
Part I: Archaic Epic
Ahuvia Kahane, A Narratology of the Emotions: Method, Temporality, and Anger in Homer’s Iliad
Angus Bowie, Narrative and Emotion in the Iliad: Andromache and Helen
Evert van Emde Boas, Fear and Loathing at the Xanthus
Rutger Allan, Metaleptic Apostrophe in Homer: Emotion and Immersion
Marina Coray and Martha Krieter, In Mortal Danger: The Emotions of Two Fighters in the Iliad
Sebastiaan van der Mije, Poseidon’s Anger in the Odyssey
Robert Kirstein, Emotions and Politeness in Homer’s Odyssey
Bruno Carrie, Emotionally Reunited: Laertes and Odysseus in Odyssey
Hugo Koning, Love and Anger: Emotions in Hesiod
Part 2: Archaic Epic and Beyond
Françoise Létoublon, The Text as Labyrinth
P.J. Finglass, Narrating Pity in Greek Epic, Lyric, Tragedy, and Beyond
Albert Rijksbaron, Deixis in Teichoscopy as a Marker of Emotional Urgency
Christopher Pelling, Exercises in Anger Management: From Achilles to Arginusae
Geralda Jurriaans-Helle, Sunt lacrimae rerum: Emotions at the Deaths of Troilus, Priam, and Astyanax in Athenian Black-Figure Vase-Painting
Willie van Peer, What the Greeks Left Us: Perspectivation as a Tool in the Pursuit of (Emotional) Knowledge
Part 3: Early Lyric, Tragedy, and Biblical Poetry
André Lardinois, Passion versus Performance in Sappho Fragments 1 and 31
Anton Bierl, Prometheus Bound as ‘Epic’ Tragedy and Its Narratology of Emotion
Gerry Wakker, Self-Description of Emotions in Ancient Greek Drama: A First Exploration
Sofia Frade, Retelling the War of Troy: Tragedy, Emotions, and Catharsis
Ilse Müllner, Body and Speech as the Site of Emotions in Biblical Narrative
Part 4: Greek Prose of the Classical Period
Richard Rutherford, Herodotean Emotions: Some Aspects
Mathieu de Bakker, Herodotus, Historian of Emotions
Tim Rood, Emotions in Thucydides: Revisiting the Final Battle in Syracuse Harbour
Antonis Tsakmakis, The Dark Side of a Narrative: The Power of Emotions, Digressions, and Historical Causes in Hellenica Oxyrhynchia
Luuk Huitink, Cyrus’ Tears: An Essay in Affective Narratology and Socratic History
Margalit Finkelberg, The Joys and Sorrows of the Argument: Emotions and Emotional Involvement in Plato’s Narratives of Philosophical Reasoning
Michael Lloyd, The Arousal of Interest in Plato’s Protagoras and Gorgias 4
Kathryn A. Morgan, Socratic Emotions
Part 5: Hellenistic Literature
Silvio Bär, Heracles’ Emotions in Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica
Annette Harder, Away with ‘Angry Young Men’! Intertextuality as a Narratological Tool in the Quarrel Episodes in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius
Jacqueline Klooster, Theocritus and the Poetics of Love
Jan Willem van Henten, Characters, Emotions, and Enargeia in Second Maccabees
Part 6: Latin Literature
Lidewij van Gils and Caroline Kroon, Common Ground and the Presentation of Emotions: Fright and Horror in Livy’s Historiography
Stephen Harrison, Dramatic Narrative in Epic: Aeneas’ Eyewitness Account of the Fall of Troy in Virgil Aeneid 2
Suzanne Adema, Unhappy Dido, Queen of Carthage
Pieter van den Broek, Emotional Apostrophes in Silius Italicus’ Punica 6
Mark Heerink, Metalepsis on the Argo: Debating Hercules in Valerius Flaccus (Arg. 3.598–725)
Part 7: Greek Prose of the Imperial Period
Casper de Jonge, Emotion and the Sublime
Gerard Boter, The Role of Anger in Epictetus’ Philosophical Teaching
Tim Whitmarsh, Emotions and Narrativity in the Greek Romance
Kristoffel Demoen, Another Tale of Anger, Honour, and Love: Achilles in Philostratus’ Heroicus
Part 8: Late Antiquity and Beyond
Piet Gerbrandy, Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae: Grief, Guilt, and Rage of a Bereaved Mother
Koen De Temmerman, A Desire (Not) to Die for: Narrating Emotions in Pseudo-Nilus’ Narrations
Berenice Verhelst, From Myth to Image to Description: Emotions in the Ekphrasis Eikonos of Procopius of Gaza
Baukje van den Berg, How to Write and Enjoy a Tale of Disaster: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Emotion and Style
Edwin Rabbie, A Lawyer in Love: Hugo Grotius’ Erotopaegnia (1608)
Mieke Bal, Epilogue
Notes
[1] F. S. Spencer Mixed feelings and vexed passions: Exploring emotions in biblical literature (2017): Emotions and Gender in Byzantine Culture by S. Costantinou and M. Meyer (2019); Managing Emotion in Byzantium Passions, Affects and Imaginings edited by M. Mullet and S. Harvey (Routledge, 2023).