The Fall of Cities in the Mediterranean

Commemoration in Literature, Folk-Song, and Liturgy

Mary R. Bachvarova, Dorota Dutsch, Ann Suter

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781107031968
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316484883
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

A body of theory has developed about the role and function of memory in creating and maintaining cultural identity. Yet there has been no consideration of the rich Mediterranean and Near Eastern traditions of laments for fallen cities in commemorating or resolving communal trauma. This volume offers new insights into the trope of the fallen city in folk-song and a variety of literary genres. These commemorations reveal memories modified by diverse agendas, and contains narrative structures and motifs that show the meaning of memory-making about fallen cities. Opening a new avenue of research into the Mediterranean genre of city lament, this book examines references to, or re-workings of, otherwise lost texts or ways of commemorating fallen cities in the extant texts, and with greater emphasis than usual on the point of view of the victors.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Map of the Mediterranean region
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 The city lament genre in the ancient Near East
• Chapter 3 The destroyed city in ancient ‘‘world history’’: from Agade to Troy
• Chapter 4 Mourning a city ‘‘empty of men’’: stereotypes of Anatolian communal lament in Aeschylus’ Persians
• Chapter 5 Seven Against Thebes, city laments, and Athenian history
• Chapter 6 Lament for fallen cities in early Roman drama: Naevius, Ennius, and Plautus
• Chapter 7 City lament in Augustan epic: antitypes of Rome from Troy to Alba Longa
• Chapter 8 The fall of Troy in Seneca’s Troades
• Chapter 9 How to lament an eternal city: the ambiguous fall of Rome
• Chapter 10 Messengers, angels, and laments for the fall of Constantinople
• Chapter 11 ‘‘A sudden longing’’: lamenting the lost city of Smyrna
• Index