Koopman Niels. Ancient Greek Ekphrasis: Between Description and Narration: Five Linguistic and Narratological Case Studies

Brill, 2018. — 304 p. — (Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology, Volume 26).In Ancient Greek Ekphrasis: Between Description and Narration Niels Koopman offers a thorough linguistic and narratological analysis of five canonical ancient Greek ekphraseis from the archaic to the Hellenistic period: Achilles’ shield in Homer’s Iliad (18.478-608), Heracles’ shield in pseudo-Hesiod’s Shield (139-320), the goatherd’s cup in Theocritus’ first Idyll (27-60), Jason’s cloak in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica (1.721-68) and Europa’s basket in Moschus’ Europa (37-62). Ekphrasis, as the verbal representation of visual representation, is both text and image, which makes it a complex yet fascinating phenomenon. By investigating its descriptive and narrative properties, this study sheds light on the interplay between text and image at work in ekphrasis.