Oppian's "Halieutica": Charting a Didactic Epic

Kneebone, Emily

Abstract

Oppian's Halieutica is a dazzling five-book Greek didactic poem about the sea and its wily, chaotic inhabitants. This book offers the first sustained reading of the poem as a didactic epic that meditates on the place of human beings within the cosmos at large, and on the lessons we can learn from fish. Using a combination of close reading and wider interpretative lenses, this book examines the literary texture and cultural relevance of the Halieutica by analysing its sophisticated refraction of earlier literary-critical theories and hexameter traditions, its commentary on human-animal relations, and its contribution to imperial Greek literary, political, and cultural debates. The book demonstrates the importance and cultural centrality of this understudied Greek didactic epic; it is written for students and scholars of imperial Greek literature and culture (including the ancient novel), ancient heroic and didactic epics, and those interested in human-animal relations in the ancient world.

Citation

Kneebone, E. (2020). Oppian's "Halieutica": Charting a Didactic Epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108892728

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Acceptance Date: Oct 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2020
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781108744041
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108892728
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2747188
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/oppians-halieutica/570A23145EA31B950D8AE82B2E4E90CB
• Additional Information: Kneebone, E. (2020). Oppian’s Halieutica. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108892728