The Iliad in a Nutshell

Visualizing Epic on the Tabulae Iliacae

By: Michael Squire

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Paperback | 29 September 2016

At a Glance

Paperback
528 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19 x 26.9 x 4.2

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The Tabulae Iliacae (Iliac tablets) are a collection of 22 miniature marble reliefs from the early Roman Empire; all of them are inscribed in Greek, and most depict the panoramic vistas of Greek Epic. This book brings the tablets to life as never before, revealing the unassuming fragments as among the most sophisticated objects to survive from the ancient Mediterranean world. The Iliad in a Nutshell is not only the first monograph on this material in English (accompanied by a host of new photographs, diagrams, and reconstructions), it also examines the larger cultural and intellectual stakes--both in classical antiquity and beyond.

Where modern scholars have usually dismissed the Tabulae Iliacae as secondary "illustrations" and "tawdry gewgaws," Michael Squire advances a diametrically opposite thesis: that these epigrammatic tablets synthesize ancient ideas about visual-verbal interaction on the one-hand, and about the art and poetics of scale on the other. By reassessing the artistic and poetic aesthetics of the miniature, Squire's radical new appraisal shows how the tiny tablets encapsulate antiquity's grandest theories of originality, fiction, and replication. The book will be essential reading not just for classical philologists, art historians, and archaeologists, but for anyone interested in the intellectual history of western representation.

Industry Reviews

Squire has taken interpretation of the tablets to a new level . . . His account, comprehensive and theoretically sophisticated, has much in common with the visual and literary production of Hellenistic Alexandria: it is highly complex, deeply learned, and knowingly playful. * John R. Clarke, Journal of Roman Studies *
In its physical weight and explicit ambition, it still manages to intimate its subject matter in being simultaneously intense and delicate. * Karel Thein, Listy Filologicke *
Squire offers rich analyses of various aspects of the Tabulae. * Gail Trimble, The Anglo-Hellenic Review, No. 47 *
This is a remarkable and challenging book, full of learning and imagination ... Squire successfully challenges much of the received wisdom about the Tabulae Iliacae, provoking us to look at them anew even when we may not agree with his take on them. * Fred W. Jenkins, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
His eye for telling detail is acute; never before have these objects been given such elaborate treatment. It is helpful that Squire enjoys fun with words, as the tablets are complex entities and from time to time, when Squire is at his most scholarly, even serious-minded readers may find relief in his academic diversion. * Brian A. Sparkes, Classics for All *

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