The Meddling Gods: Four Essays on Classical Themes.

141 p.: Ill. Der Schutzumschlag ist etwas berieben und der Buchrücken leicht ausgeblichen. Sonst aber ein sehr gutes und sauberes Exemplar/ The dust jacket is a little rubbed and the spine is slightly faded. Otherwise a very good and clean copy. - CONTENT: The Look of the Gorgon Death and Cocktails: The Alcestis Theme in Euripides and T. S. Eliot Homer and the Meddling Gods The Case of Sosia versus Sosia. Although their subject matter is varied, these four essays all are concerned with the interplay of the supernatural and the human, and in each case the focus is on what might be called the eternally human aspect of the problem rather than the historical or purely critical question. Moreover, the author’s approach reflects the particular outlook of a distinguished classicist who is equally well known for her work in the field of contemporary existentialism. “The Look of the Gorgon” seeks to establish what the Medusa Head signified to the ancient Greeks and what underlying facts of human experience gave rise to the Gorgon. It examines both the psychoanalytic and the existential interpretations of the Medusa complex and tests their truth as they apply to the work of writers who have used the Medusa symbol. “Death and Cocktails” demonstrates that the inspiration which T. S. Eliot found in Euripides’ Alcestis pervades the whole of The Cocktail Party and contributes to its poetic enrichment. Miss Barnes offers fresh interpretations for both plays. “Homer and the Meddling Gods” presents a comprehensive discussion of the function of the gods in the Homeric epics, both in literary terms and with respect to what it tells us of the poet’s understanding of human psychology and man’s relation to the world around him. In the concluding essay, “The Case of Sosia versus Sosia, ” the author turns to a comic scene in Plautus’s Amphitryon and contends that under the guise of almost slapstick comedy Plautus was exploring the question of self-identity with surprising philosophical sophistication. This is a book not only for the classicist, the philosopher, and the psychologist, but for everyone interested in the rich heritage which Greek religion and literature have provided for all succeeding generations. Professor in the departments of Classics and Integrated Studies at the University of Colorado, Hazel E. Barnes holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Wilson College. She was a visiting professor in the Philosophy Department at Yale University in 1974 and is currently (1974—75) Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. Miss Bames has translated, with introductions, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis (1953), Being and Nothingness (1956), and Search for a Method (1963). Among her recent books are An Existentialist Ethics (1967), The University as the New Church (1970), and Sartre (1973). ISBN 9780803208384