Abstract
AbstractAfter initial discussion of literary representations of space, this chapter examines the construction of space in Idylls set in the bucolic world and in cities. Bucolic space is depicted in a selective and highly stylized way. Parts of Idylls 5, 1, and 7 are discussed in detail. Human culture never fully fits into the natural world, and questions of placelessness and the fluidity of identities speak to the condition of Greeks after Alexander’s conquests. Domestic space, interiors and exteriors, and the relations between buildings figure prominently in the urban Idylls, and these spatial relations encapsulate the main themes of the poems. In Idyll 15, the royal palace exerts a centripetal force on the population of Alexandria and on the flow of goods from the empire as a whole.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
Reference211 articles.
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