Reviews for Essays on Troilus and Criseyde, Vol. 3

The average rating for Essays on Troilus and Criseyde, Vol. 3 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-03-13 00:00:00 Garrett Graves The study of mimesis of ancient literature is quite interesting; in that, it appears as if it took until the 1700s before original ideas became treasured as opposed to mimicking the great works of the past. With that in mind, is it any wonder that even the writers of the New Testament got into the game? The present volume documents that is the very case. Four different episodes from the Book of Acts are analyzed to show that, indeed, even Luke (the presumed author of Acts) was imitating the greatest work of literature of his time: The Illiad of Homer. The four episodes analyzed are The Visions of Cornelius and Peter; Paul's Farewell at Miletus; the Selection of Matthias; and Peter's Escape from Prison. In all four instances, Dennis MacDonald shows that these scenes were the product of mimesis from scenes in the Illiad. The match is pretty convincing and I do believe that New Testament scholarship is going to benefit from seeking comparisons elsewhere. MacDonald lists six criteria when comparing literature to see if mimesis is an accurate conclusion: They are Accessibility (were the mimicked works available to the author?); Analogy (did other authors mimick the work in question?); Density (how many parallels exist between the texts?); Order (does the mimicked text fall in the same order in both works?); Distinctive Traits (anything unusual the author used the indicating he was mimicking the model?); and Interpretability (does the newest text try to revival the model?). In all four cases explored in the present volume, the case is made: The Visions of Cornelius and Peter are a mimick of Agamemnon's Lying Dream in the Illiad; Paul's Farewell at Miletus is a mimick of Hector's Farewell to Andromache in the Illiad; the Selection of Matthias is a mimick of the Selection of Ajax to fight Hector in the Illiad; and Peter's Escape from Prison is a mimick of Priam's Escape from Achilles. Dennis MacDonald has done a superb job here and I look forward to reading more of the works in this category. If only they were so damn expensive.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-08-08 00:00:00 Carl Falvey A book aimed at people interested in Anglo-Saxon literature and not someone like me who comes from an interest in medieval history - but even so I found it a quite rewarding read and I think you would like it even more if you are more familiar with the texts analysed here.