On the relevance of classical Persian and classical Greek lore about b

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Classic Studies & Philology

On the relevance of classical Persian and classical Greek lore about birds

Neguin Yavari, Olga M. Davidson, Gregory Nagy

TRANSLATOR ANASTASIA KARASTATHI

How is the ever-watchful bird of ancient Greek mythology, the hoopoe, connected to the medieval Persian poetic tradition?
Three distinguished scholars trace the symbolic significance of this bird across time and cultures, focusing both on The Birds by Aristophanes and on the much later The Conference of the Birds by the Persian poet Attar of Nishapur — works in which the hoopoe plays a central role.

Isbn: 978-618-88206-6-1 Format: 15x24,27εκ. Pages: 96

Publisher's price: €15,90

E-shop price: €14,31

Gregory Nagy

Here I analyze the poetics of the ancient Greek poet Aristophanes and the medieval Persian poet ‘Aṭṭār by considering what is told by the Persian hoopoe in his inner story, which is about liberation from evil and grief. I hope to compare this inner story with what is told in the outer story about the Greek hoopoe—a story that is veiled but nevertheless well understood by Athenians of ancient times. That veiled outer story of the Greek comedy, like the unveiled inner story told by the hoopoe in the Persian poem, is about a truly sovereign liberation of the human spirit from the sadness of the tragic grief that is all too often caused by the evil that ever stalks our own shared human condition.