Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-224) and index
Introduction : myths as words in action -- Hesiod's myth of the birth of the cosmos -- The Aretē standard as a source of mythmaking -- The ideology of sacrifice in mythmaking -- Patriarchal mythmaking on marriage -- Myths and citizenship -- Theseus and the Parthenon as mythic propaganda -- Funeral orations in mythmaking Athens
This book analyzes the relationships between Athenian myths and the institutions that informed them. In particular, it examines how myths encode thoughts on ritual, the code of the warrior, marriage, and politics. Combining traditional historical and literary criticism with the approaches of anthropologists, feminist critics, and cultural historians, the authors study specific examples of the epic and tragedy, as well as funeral orations and the Parthenon marbles, to illuminate the ways mythic media exploited the beliefs, concepts, and practices of fifth-century Athens, simultaneously exemplif
