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Five - Myth Abstracted

From Narrative to Symbol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2023

Mont Allen
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
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Summary

This chapter analyzes a very different sense in which “demythologization” is sometimes used: referring not to the wholesale abandonment of mythological narratives but to their fragmentation and deformation as individual characters are ripped out of their narrative context in order to function as stand-alone symbols. Prior scholarship has consistently conflated the two phenomena. For critical leverage here I analyze the development of particular genres of sarcophagi, such as those showing frisky sea creatures, while also stepping outside the funerary domain to consider questions of narrative and allegory raised by sculpture in the round and ensembles of domestic wall paintings.

Type
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The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
Allegory and Visual Narrative in the Late Empire
, pp. 141 - 166
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Myth Abstracted
  • Mont Allen, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Book: The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
  • Online publication: 13 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039031.006
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  • Myth Abstracted
  • Mont Allen, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Book: The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
  • Online publication: 13 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039031.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Myth Abstracted
  • Mont Allen, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Book: The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
  • Online publication: 13 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039031.006
Available formats
×