Dora C. Pozzi

Gregory Nagy wrote in his forward to 'Myth and the Polis' that the meaning of Myth is most misleading in the stratified societies of 'Western Civilization'; that "in a small-scale society myth tends to be viewed as the encoding of that society's concept of truth; at the same time, from the viewpoint of Western Civilization, Myth has become the opposite of fact, the antithesis of Truth.... This book explores the ways in which a standard anthropological definition of myth must be modified in the context of the Greek Polis. The humanism of this modified definition is suggested by Aristotle's dictum that humans are 'by nature' organisms of the Polis.... Centering on myths that illuminate not only the similarities but also the difference between the Greek Polis and our own received notions of Western Civilization, this book highlights details that will be interesting, of and by themselves, to a wide range of readers."
Following the Introduction by John Wickersham and Dora Pozzi, there are nine chapters, each with a different topic:
1. Myth and Identity in the Archaic Polis
2. Orpheus: A Fugue on the Polis
3. Myth and the Periphery
4. Adonis: A Greek Eternal Child
5. Antigone: Kinship, Justice, and the Polis
6. The Ajax Myth...Old Values and New
7. The Polis in Crisis
8. Alexander...Myth, the Polis and Afterward
9.Greeks are Indeed like Others: Myth & Society in African Sunjata.

There is a glossary explaining the Greek terms in the Appendix. If you don't know what 'Polis' means, you will learn quickly in the Introduction.… (altro)