Classical Closure: Reading the End in Greek and Latin Literature

The study of closure has played a significant part in contemporary literary criticism and is implicated in many of its concerns, from psychological aspects of the search for an end in narrative to the order imposed upon a text by politics or culture. This collection is the first large- scale attempt to assess the implications of closure for the study of classical literature. Twelve new essays by an international group of scholars focus on endings in Greek and Latin literature and demonstrate the different sorts of questions these endings pose: What narrative strategies did Hellenistic novelists employ? What is the political subtext of Ovid's half-finished roman calendar? What cultural work is performed by the portrayal of a warrior's heroic end in the Iliad? Embracing a wide range of ancient authors and genres, the collection begins by closely examining critical approaches to closure, and ends with a comparative discussion of ancient and modern narrative. The extensive bibliography includes a survey of work in different fields that further illustrates the variety of approaches to closure. Each of the editors has contributed an essay to this volume. Additional contributors include Sheila Murnaghan, Ian Rutherford, Carolyn Dewald, Peta Fowler, Philip Hardie, W. R. Johnson, Alessandro Barchiesi, Massimo Fusillo, and Christopher Pelling.

Table of Contents:
Preface Ch. 2 Equal Honor and Future Glory: The Plan of Zeus in the Iliad Ch. 3 Odes and Ends: Closure in Greek Lyric Ch. 4 Wanton Kings, Pickled Heroes, and Gnomic Founding Fathers: Strategies of Meaning at the End of Herodotus's Histories Ch. 5 Ends and Means in Euripides' Heracles Ch. 6 Lucretian Conclusions Ch. 7 Closure in Latin Epic Ch. 8 Final Exit: Propertius 4.11 Ch. 9 Endgames: Ovid's Metamorphoses 15 and Fasti 6 Ch. 10 How Novels End: Some Patterns of Closure in Ancient Narrative Ch. 11 Is Death the End? Closure in Plutarch's Lives Ch. 12 Afterword: Ending and Aftermath, Ancient and Modern Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Deborah H. Roberts is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Haverford College. She is the author of Apollo and his Oracle in the Oresteia. Francis M. Dunn is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Tragedy's End: Closure and Innovation in Euripidean Drama. Don Fowler is Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Jesus College, Oxford. He has contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals and essay collections.

Review :
Classical Closure covers a gratifyingly large range of Greek and Latin literature from Homer to the novel. An elegant conclusion by one of the editors, Deborah Roberts, is followed by a helpful bibliography in which the history of closure may be traced. Times Literary Supplement