Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend - Brossura

Stoneman, Richard

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0300164017 ISBN 13: 9780300164015

Casa editrice: Yale Univ Pr, 2010

Riassunto

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther—across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations.

This engaging and handsomely illustrated book for the first time gathers together hundreds of the colorful Alexander legends that have been told and retold around the globe. Richard Stoneman, a foremost expert on the Alexander myths, introduces us first to the historical Alexander and then to the Alexander of legend, an unparalleled mythic icon who came to represent the heroic ideal in cultures from Egypt to Iceland, from Britain to Malaya.

Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fueled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world’s first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god. Stoneman traces Alexander’s influence in ancient literature and folklore and in later literatures of east and west. His book provides the definitive account of the legends of Alexander the Great—a powerful leader in life and an even more powerful figure in the history of literature and ideas.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'Alexander the Great enjoyed one of the most spectacularly glorious of human lives. His afterlife, as Richard Stoneman's masterly new survey amply documents, was every bit as spectacular and glory-bringing. Look on his fame, ye mighty, and despair! Or rather, read this literally marvellous book by one of the world's leading authorities on the multifarious Alexander-legend. Hero or villain: there is an Alexander here for every conceivable taste.' Paul Cartledge, Cambridge University. 'The volume is highly informative in its goal of tracing the evolution of thought about Alexander through the centuries.' Dawn L. Gilley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review. 'In this impressive volume the many varicoloured threads of the legend of Sultan Iskander are skilfully woven into a fascinating fabric. Stoneman has successfully faced an awesome challenge in marshalling a huge body of diverse and complex material into an ordered whole, subtly highlighting the factors which have given Alexander's legend such an enduring and widespread appeal and the ways in which it has been adapted to very different cultures.' Stephanie West, Oxford University --Paul Cartledge, Dawn L. Gilley, Stephanie West

L'autore:

Richard Stoneman is Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter and widely acknowledged as the foremost expert globally on the myths of Alexander.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Yale Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0300164017
• ISBN 13: 9780300164015
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 314