Books by Annette Giesecke
An encyclopedic A-to-Z guide, this beautifully illustrated volume offers hundreds of rich, fascin... more An encyclopedic A-to-Z guide, this beautifully illustrated volume offers hundreds of rich, fascinating definitions of 700 major and minor characters, creatures, and places of classical mythology.
Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Delaware, this brilliant reference offers clear explanations of every character and locale, and captures the essence of these timeless tales.
From the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, to the heroes of the Trojan War, to the nymphs, monsters, and other mythical creatures that populate these ancient stories, Giesecke recounts, with clarity and energy, the details of more than 700 characters and places. Each definition includes cross-references to related characters, locations, and myths, as well their equivalent in Roman mythology and cult.
In addition to being an important stand-alone work, Classical Mythology A-to-Z is also written, designed, and illustrated to serve as an essential companion to the bestselling illustrated 75th-anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, including 10 full-color plates and 2-color illustration throughout by artist Jim Tierney.
A Cultural History of Plants presents a global exploration of human-botanical interaction from pr... more A Cultural History of Plants presents a global exploration of human-botanical interaction from prehistory to today. It is the definitive overview of how we have cultivated, traded, classified, and altered plants and how, in turn, plants have influenced human culture, from food and religion to medicine and architecture.
General Editors: Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA & David Mabberley, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1
A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity (c. 10,000 BCE-500 CE)
Edited by Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 2
A Cultural History of Plants in the Post-Classical Era (500-1400)
Edited by Alain Touwaide, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, USA
VOLUME 3
A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era (1400-1650)
Edited by Andrew Dalby, independent scholar, UK and Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 4
A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1650-1800)
Edited by Jennifer Milam, University of Newcastle, Australia
VOLUME 5
A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century (1800-1920)
Edited by David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK
VOLUME 6
A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era (1920-today)
Edited by Stephen Forbes, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Australia
Each volume assesses the same key themes in its chapters, meaning readers can gain a broad overview of each period, or follow a theme throughout history
by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.
Chapters:
1. Plants as Staple Foods
2. Plants as Luxury Foods
3. Trade & Exploration
4. Plant Technology & Science
5. Plants & Medicine
6. Plants in Culture
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments
8. The Representation of Plants
The Good Gardener? Nature, Humanity, and the Garden illuminates both the foundations and after-ef... more The Good Gardener? Nature, Humanity, and the Garden illuminates both the foundations and after-effects of humanity's deep-rooted impulse to manipulate the natural environment and create garden spaces of diverse kinds. Gardens range from subsistence plots to sites of philosophical speculation, refuge, and self-expression. Gardens may serve as projections of personal or national identity. They may result from individual or collective enterprises. They may shape the fabric of the dwelling house or city. They may be real or imagined, literary constructs or visions of paradise rendered in paint. Some result from a delicate negotiation between creator and medium. Others, in turn, readily reveal the underlying paradox of every garden's creation: the garden, so often viewed as a kinder, gentler, 'second nature,' results from violence done to what was once wilderness. Designed as a companion volume to Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia, and the Garden, this richly illustrated collection of provocative essays is edited by Annette Giesecke, Professor of Classics at the University of Delaware, and Naomi Jacobs, Professor of English at the University of Maine. Contributors to this wide-ranging volume include photographer Margaret Morton, landscape ethicist Rick Darke, philosopher David Cooper, environmental journalist Emma Marris, and food historian William Rubel.
This engaging book focuses on the perennially fascinating topic of plants in Greek and Roman myth... more This engaging book focuses on the perennially fascinating topic of plants in Greek and Roman myth. The author, an authority on the gardens, art, and literature of the classical world, introduces the book’s main themes with a discussion of gods and heroes in ancient Greek and Roman gardens. The following chapters recount the everyday uses and broader cultural meaning of plants with particularly strong mythological associations. These include common garden plants such as narcissus and hyacinth; pomegranate and apple , which were potent symbols of fertility; and sources of precious incense including frankincense and myrrh. Following the sweeping botanical commentary are the myths themselves, told in the original voice of Ovid, classical antiquity’s most colorful mythographer.
The volume’s interdisciplinary approach will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from readers interested in archaeology, classical literature, and ancient history to garden enthusiasts. With an original translation of selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an extensive bibliography, a useful glossary of names and places, and a rich selection of images including exquisite botanical illustrations, this book is unparalleled in scope and realization.
Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia and the Garden is an eclectic, yet rigorous reflection on the relat... more Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia and the Garden is an eclectic, yet rigorous reflection on the relationship--historical, present and future--between humanity and the garden. Through the lens of Utopian Studies--the interdisciplinary field that encompasses fictions all the way through to actual political projects, and urban ideals; in a nutshell, addressing the human natural drive towards the ideal--Earth Perfect? brings together a selection of inspiring essays, each contributed by foremost writers from the fields of architecture, history of art, classics, cultural studies, farming, geography, horticulture, landscape architecture, law, literature, philosophy, urban planning and the natural sciences.
Through these joined voices, the garden emerges as a site of contestation and a repository for symbolic, spiritual, social, political and ecological meaning. Questions such as: "what is the role of the garden in defining humanity's ideal relationship with nature?" and "how should we garden in the face of catastrophic ecological decline?" are addressed through wideranging case studies, including ancient Roman Gardens in Pompeii, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, the Gardens of Versailles, organic farming in New England and Bohemia's secret gardens, as well as landscape in contemporary architecture.
Issues relating to the utopian garden are explored thematically rather than chronologically, and organised in six chapters: "Being in nature", "inscribing the garden", "green/house", "The garden politic", "economies of the garden" and "how then shall we garden?". each essay is both individual in scope and part of the wider discourse of the book as a whole, and each is lusciously illustrated, bringing to life the subject with diverse visual material ranging from photography to historical documents, maps and artworks.
Combining a wide range of visual and literary sources, The Epic City traces the evolution of Gree... more Combining a wide range of visual and literary sources, The Epic City traces the evolution of Greek and Roman attitudes towards the natural environment. The creation of gardens, nature appropriated for human use, is the means by which Greeks and Romans negotiated the relation of their towns to the surrounding countryside. In general, the Greeks from the time of Homer to the death of Alexander the Great approached nature as a violent, unpredictable force. Their ideal social order, constituted by the utopian polis ‘city-state’, depended on the exclusion or taming of nature. Urbanized Romans, meanwhile, came to experience an overwhelmingly nostalgic feeling towards nature in the face of protracted socio-political upheaval. As a result, they attempted to reintegrate nature into their lives in villas and gardens. Vividly expressed in the epic poems of Lucretius and Virgil, this sense of nostalgia also led to increasing concern about the negative impact of urbanism on the natural environment.
Of Titus Lucretius Carus we know almost nothing, but where his biographers are silent, his verses... more Of Titus Lucretius Carus we know almost nothing, but where his biographers are silent, his verses speak volumes. Lucretius has been studied first and foremost as a source of Epicurus’ doctrines and only secondarily as a poet. His poetry has been viewed as ponderous and archaic, yet to those who really listen, it is pervaded by Hellenistic nuances and epic grandeur in the manner of Homer. Vergil and Horace may not have known Lucretius personally, but they certainly knew his verses and new them intimately.
In Atoms, Ataraxy, and Allusion, Giesecke explores the debt of Vergil and Horace to Lucretius, specifically in poetry that was not of the didactic genre. The author argues that Lucretius’ utopian vision helped Vergil to shape the pastoral world of the Eclogues, and that, as Vergil’s open affiliation with Epicureanism wanted, his infatuation with Lucretius intensified. Lucretius’ presence is felt throughout the Aeneid in spite of its reliance on an un-Epicurean divine machinery and what appears to be a Stoic world view. Here imitation of the De Rerum Natura is employed to situate the reader/audience in a Roman poetic framework and to guide and inform the Aeneid’s interpretation. In the case of Horace, it is the philosophical thrust of the Satires, Epistles, and Odes that underlies allusion to Lucretius. It is the eclectic, undoctrinaire nature of Horatian poetry and its constant generic transgression that allowed for a seamless and effortless blending of verses of the De Rerum Natura within their close-knit fabric. Also included in this study is Lucretius’ contribution to the Roman Dichtersprache as evinced in the poetry of Catullus, with which imitation of the De Rerum Natura begins.
Papers by Annette Giesecke
Garden History Research Foundation blog, 2024
in A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity, Annette Giesecke and David Mabberley eds., 2022
This chapter focuses neither on humanity's practical, physical dependence on plants to sustain li... more This chapter focuses neither on humanity's practical, physical dependence on plants to sustain life nor on scientific inquiry founded on botanical observation, but rather on that inherent spiritual connection between humans and plants arising from a host of the latter's notable characteristics, among them their burgeoning and growth, their life cycle from seed germination to maturity and dormancy or death, their annually recurring flowers and fruit, their diverse appearances, and their possession of a mysterious agency and vitality though rooted to a single place. The cultural perspectives offered here are those of ancient Greece and Rome, which civilizations have yielded a wealth of archaeological and textual material. In Greek linguistic usage, the phylogenetic proximity of plants and humans is particularly clear; the Greek term "phuton," originally meaning "the thing that has grown, creature," narrowed over time in application so as to denote plants specifically. This, in turn, provided the basis for a broad spectrum of plant symbolism and botanical metaphors (cf. Pl., Tim. 77A-C; Eur., Med. 231). For example, one spoke of being in the prime or "bloom" of life (anthein), as is still the case today, and it was not without good reason that botanical excursus in the medical texts from the Hippocratic Corpus-in De genitura (On Generation), De natura pueri (On the Nature of the Child), De morbis (On Diseases) IV, probably dating to the last third of the fifth century BCE-exhibit a striking interest in analogies between plant and human physiology (Genit. 10:2; Nat. puer. 26ff.; Morb. 4.33-5). Similarly, the Greek philosopher and author Theophrastus (c. 370/371-288/286 BCE), who is credited with being the "father of botany," underscores the close relation between humans and plants by drawing numerous parallels between plants and humans in medical contexts (Hist. pl. 2.7.6; Caus. pl. 1.13.5ff., 4.16.3ff.; Plin., HN 17.37.218-19), and Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) evidences the greatest reverence for trees in his vast Natural History (12.1), noting that from earliest times they supplied "the most valuable benefits conferred by all of Nature upon humankind." Plants in Culture Botanical Symbolism in Daily Life and Literature ANNETTE GIESECKE AND MECHTHILD SIEDE CHAPTER SIXassistance when it was critically needed.
in A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity, Annette Giesecke and David Mabberley eds., Bloomsbury, 2022
A long, narrow reed boat, at the stern of which stands an Assyrian soldier conducting captives ac... more A long, narrow reed boat, at the stern of which stands an Assyrian soldier conducting captives across the water, c. 668-627 BCE, the reign of Ashurbanipal. Gypsum alabaster relief fragment from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. © Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1932. Courtesy of The Met Museum 88 4.2 Pleated dress, thought to be the earliest extant garment in the world, Egypt. Ancient Egyptian. First Dynasty, c. 3100-2890 BCE. © Werner Forman. Courtesy of Getty Images 90 4.3 Faience inlay/plaque depicting a two-story house façade with dormer, Middle Minoan IIIA period, c. 1800-c. 1750 BCE. From the so-called Knossos "Town Mosaic." © Heritage Images. Photo by Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images 95 4.4 Roman ship discovered at Arles, France, in 2011. The boat is 31 m long and was accompanied by 450 artifacts reflecting trade and commerce in the city of Arles during Roman times. © Patrick Aventurier. Courtesy of Getty Images 98 4.5 Painted wood statue of an official Ihy, c. 2200-2100 BCE. Egypt, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6-8. Memphite Region, Saqqara, Djoser Pyramid precinct, near, Ptolemaic tomb, cache of statues of Ihy, SAE Excavations. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. © Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1927. Courtesy of The Met Museum 100 4.6 Display recreation of iceman Ötzi with a bearskin hat, goatskin coat and leggings, and leather sandals filled with straw on October 1, 1997. He carried a flint knife in his belt, and is pictured with his bronze axe making a bow out of yew. Ötzi is the name given to the frozen mummy of a man from around 3300 BCE, found by two German tourists in 1991 in the Schnalstal Glacier in the Öztal Alps. © Patrick Landmann. Courtesy of Getty Images 107 5.1 Roman marble copy of the colossal statue of many-breasted Artemis (125-175 CE).
Choice Reviews Online, 2014
This engaging book focuses on the perennially fascinating topic of plants in Greek and Roman myth... more This engaging book focuses on the perennially fascinating topic of plants in Greek and Roman myth. The author, an authority on the gardens, art, and literature of the classical world, introduces the book’s main themes with a discussion of gods and heroes in ancient Greek and Roman gardens. The following chapters recount the everyday uses and broader cultural meaning of plants with particularly strong mythological associations. These include common garden plants such as narcissus and hyacinth; pomegranate and apple , which were potent symbols of fertility; and sources of precious incense including frankincense and myrrh. Following the sweeping botanical commentary are the myths themselves, told in the original voice of Ovid, classical antiquity’s most colorful mythographer. The volume’s interdisciplinary approach will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from readers interested in archaeology, classical literature, and ancient history to garden enthusiasts. With an original translation of selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an extensive bibliography, a useful glossary of names and places, and a rich selection of images including exquisite botanical illustrations, this book is unparalleled in scope and realization.
Garden History Research Foundation blog, 2022
The emphasis on poetic personae in Archaic lyric-poets announcing their own names and ostensibly ... more The emphasis on poetic personae in Archaic lyric-poets announcing their own names and ostensibly relating their own experiences-has enormous significance for audiences eager to conjure fully animated private and public spaces in the period. As much lyric is written in the first person and, as a result, is cast as a form of personal narrative, it seems to offer a degree of tangibility unavailable to audiences of epic, whose "authors," Homer and Hesiod, present themselves as mouthpieces of the gods, inspired bards but not composers. 1 In the case of epic there is necessarily no sense that the poets possess firsthand knowledge of the sagas that they recount; their subject matter, centered on gods and heroes, is remote both in time and place. By contrast, lyric poets tend to position themselves as experiential guides proffering glimpses into a fictive, albeit wholly human, and thus "relatable," world. Hereby these poets entice audiences to conjure their personae, to share their projected feelings and emotions, and, in the mind's eye, to see the places and spaces that, in their poems, they inhabit, long for, and imagine. Among lyric poets, the most intensely personal and affective is Sappho, the so-called Tenth Muse, whose erotic, gynocentric subject matter and use of language sets her work apart from that of her peers (for discussion of her work more broadly, see Lardinois (Chapter 18) in this volume). Among lyric poems, both Sappho's and her male contemporaries', her prayer to Aphrodite for divine epiphany is the most richly textured in terms of spatiality. Its mesmeric vividness strongly invites the audience to enter its tantalizing space: δεῦρύ μ' ἐκ Κρήτας ἐπ[ἱ τόνδ]ε ναῦον 1a ἄγνον, ὄππ[αι τοι] χάριεν μὲν ἄλσος μαλί[αν], βῶμοι δ' ἔ⟨ν⟩ι θυμιάμε-1 This is particularly true of Sappho, in whose case most interpretation of her work has been biographically focused since antiquity (Parker 1993: 336). I wish to thank Laura Swift, Tyson Sukava, and Donald Dunham at the outset for their insightful comments.
The Garden History Research Foundation, blog (requested topic) https://gardenhistoryresearchfoundation.com/2021/11/12/plant-collections-of-the-pharaohs-digging-into-the-origins-of-botanical-gardens/, 2021
The gardens of ancient Egypt, together with those of Mesopotamia, stand at the fore of garden his... more The gardens of ancient Egypt, together with those of Mesopotamia, stand at the fore of garden history as preserved by the archaeological and written record. However, it is Egypt that has provided the earliest known example of an expedition launched to collect non-native plant species for transplantation at a specific site on foreign soils. This notable and bold expedition was undertaken at the behest of Hatshepsut (reigned ca. 1479–1458 BCE), one of Egypt’s only two known female pharaohs. The plants she sought were myrrh (Commiphora) and, quite possibly, frankincense (Boswellia), which were to be planted in the grounds of her magnificent temple at Deir el-Bahri.
This is the first in a series of six volumes dedicated to the dependence of human life and civili... more This is the first in a series of six volumes dedicated to the dependence of human life and civilization on plants, from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Each volume examines plants as grounded in, and shaping, the cultural experiences of one of six historical periods (Antiquity, the Post-Classical Era, the Early Modern Era, the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the Nineteenth Century, and the Modern Era). In terms of temporal coverage, this volume is the most extensive, ranging from 10,000 BCE to 500 CE-broadly speaking, the period that witnessed transitions from hunter-gatherer subsistence to the practice of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and elsewhere, and culminated in the fall of the Roman Empire, the end of the Han Dynasty in China, the rise of Byzantium, the first flowering of Mayan civilization, and, not long after, the birth of Islam. Geographically, this volume aims to span the globe, but most chapters inevitably focus on the civilizations of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome (together with their empires), as these have yielded the greatest number and diversity of cultural artifacts-written documents, paintings, sculpture, architecture, pottery, jewelry, textiles, remains of planted gardens, and so forth-that inform our understanding of the human-plant relationship in antiquity. This density of artifacts was a reflex of the density of advanced civilizations that flourished in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean in this period. Importantly, it was the human relationship with plants that drove cultural evolution. In this context, it is worth reflecting on the derivation and meaning of the word "culture," which we now understand to signify what distinguishes one social group from another: particular customs, arts, beliefs, social institutions, and ways of life more generally. "Culture" and "cultivation" share an etymology: they derive from the Latin colo, colere ("to care for, honor, till, make grow"), which in turn is derived from the Indo-European root k w el-, meaning "to revolve," "circle," "turn over"-here one thinks of the tilling of the soil-and also "to inhabit" and "to dwell" (Finley 2015: 170). To dwell on earth, then, is to garden; embedded in these words is the notion that the success of our lives depends on our success in maintaining the planet and its produce. The domestication of plants, together with that of animals, allowed for a quantum leap in population growth and for the rise of permanent settlements and cities, as evidenced in Mesopotamia-part of the "Fertile Crescent" and the so-called "Cradle of Civilization"which has yielded some of the earliest evidence of the domestication of cereals. These
en, as the British forces were preparing their ferocious onslaught, Washington brushed aside his ... more en, as the British forces were preparing their ferocious onslaught, Washington brushed aside his generals and his military maps, sat in the icker of candlelight with his quill and wrote a long letter to his estate manager and cousin Lund Washington at Mount Vernon, his plantation in Virginia. As the city braced itself, Washington pondered the voluptuous blossom of the rhododendron, the sculptural flowers of mountain laurel and the perfect pink of crab apple. ese 'clever kind[s] of Trees (especially flowering ones),' he instructed, should be planted in two groves by either side of his house. 1
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Books by Annette Giesecke
Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Delaware, this brilliant reference offers clear explanations of every character and locale, and captures the essence of these timeless tales.
From the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, to the heroes of the Trojan War, to the nymphs, monsters, and other mythical creatures that populate these ancient stories, Giesecke recounts, with clarity and energy, the details of more than 700 characters and places. Each definition includes cross-references to related characters, locations, and myths, as well their equivalent in Roman mythology and cult.
In addition to being an important stand-alone work, Classical Mythology A-to-Z is also written, designed, and illustrated to serve as an essential companion to the bestselling illustrated 75th-anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, including 10 full-color plates and 2-color illustration throughout by artist Jim Tierney.
General Editors: Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA & David Mabberley, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1
A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity (c. 10,000 BCE-500 CE)
Edited by Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 2
A Cultural History of Plants in the Post-Classical Era (500-1400)
Edited by Alain Touwaide, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, USA
VOLUME 3
A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era (1400-1650)
Edited by Andrew Dalby, independent scholar, UK and Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 4
A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1650-1800)
Edited by Jennifer Milam, University of Newcastle, Australia
VOLUME 5
A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century (1800-1920)
Edited by David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK
VOLUME 6
A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era (1920-today)
Edited by Stephen Forbes, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Australia
Each volume assesses the same key themes in its chapters, meaning readers can gain a broad overview of each period, or follow a theme throughout history
by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.
Chapters:
1. Plants as Staple Foods
2. Plants as Luxury Foods
3. Trade & Exploration
4. Plant Technology & Science
5. Plants & Medicine
6. Plants in Culture
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments
8. The Representation of Plants
The volume’s interdisciplinary approach will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from readers interested in archaeology, classical literature, and ancient history to garden enthusiasts. With an original translation of selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an extensive bibliography, a useful glossary of names and places, and a rich selection of images including exquisite botanical illustrations, this book is unparalleled in scope and realization.
Through these joined voices, the garden emerges as a site of contestation and a repository for symbolic, spiritual, social, political and ecological meaning. Questions such as: "what is the role of the garden in defining humanity's ideal relationship with nature?" and "how should we garden in the face of catastrophic ecological decline?" are addressed through wideranging case studies, including ancient Roman Gardens in Pompeii, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, the Gardens of Versailles, organic farming in New England and Bohemia's secret gardens, as well as landscape in contemporary architecture.
Issues relating to the utopian garden are explored thematically rather than chronologically, and organised in six chapters: "Being in nature", "inscribing the garden", "green/house", "The garden politic", "economies of the garden" and "how then shall we garden?". each essay is both individual in scope and part of the wider discourse of the book as a whole, and each is lusciously illustrated, bringing to life the subject with diverse visual material ranging from photography to historical documents, maps and artworks.
In Atoms, Ataraxy, and Allusion, Giesecke explores the debt of Vergil and Horace to Lucretius, specifically in poetry that was not of the didactic genre. The author argues that Lucretius’ utopian vision helped Vergil to shape the pastoral world of the Eclogues, and that, as Vergil’s open affiliation with Epicureanism wanted, his infatuation with Lucretius intensified. Lucretius’ presence is felt throughout the Aeneid in spite of its reliance on an un-Epicurean divine machinery and what appears to be a Stoic world view. Here imitation of the De Rerum Natura is employed to situate the reader/audience in a Roman poetic framework and to guide and inform the Aeneid’s interpretation. In the case of Horace, it is the philosophical thrust of the Satires, Epistles, and Odes that underlies allusion to Lucretius. It is the eclectic, undoctrinaire nature of Horatian poetry and its constant generic transgression that allowed for a seamless and effortless blending of verses of the De Rerum Natura within their close-knit fabric. Also included in this study is Lucretius’ contribution to the Roman Dichtersprache as evinced in the poetry of Catullus, with which imitation of the De Rerum Natura begins.
Papers by Annette Giesecke
Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Delaware, this brilliant reference offers clear explanations of every character and locale, and captures the essence of these timeless tales.
From the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, to the heroes of the Trojan War, to the nymphs, monsters, and other mythical creatures that populate these ancient stories, Giesecke recounts, with clarity and energy, the details of more than 700 characters and places. Each definition includes cross-references to related characters, locations, and myths, as well their equivalent in Roman mythology and cult.
In addition to being an important stand-alone work, Classical Mythology A-to-Z is also written, designed, and illustrated to serve as an essential companion to the bestselling illustrated 75th-anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, including 10 full-color plates and 2-color illustration throughout by artist Jim Tierney.
General Editors: Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA & David Mabberley, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1
A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity (c. 10,000 BCE-500 CE)
Edited by Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 2
A Cultural History of Plants in the Post-Classical Era (500-1400)
Edited by Alain Touwaide, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, USA
VOLUME 3
A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era (1400-1650)
Edited by Andrew Dalby, independent scholar, UK and Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA
VOLUME 4
A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1650-1800)
Edited by Jennifer Milam, University of Newcastle, Australia
VOLUME 5
A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century (1800-1920)
Edited by David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK
VOLUME 6
A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era (1920-today)
Edited by Stephen Forbes, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Australia
Each volume assesses the same key themes in its chapters, meaning readers can gain a broad overview of each period, or follow a theme throughout history
by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.
Chapters:
1. Plants as Staple Foods
2. Plants as Luxury Foods
3. Trade & Exploration
4. Plant Technology & Science
5. Plants & Medicine
6. Plants in Culture
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments
8. The Representation of Plants
The volume’s interdisciplinary approach will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from readers interested in archaeology, classical literature, and ancient history to garden enthusiasts. With an original translation of selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an extensive bibliography, a useful glossary of names and places, and a rich selection of images including exquisite botanical illustrations, this book is unparalleled in scope and realization.
Through these joined voices, the garden emerges as a site of contestation and a repository for symbolic, spiritual, social, political and ecological meaning. Questions such as: "what is the role of the garden in defining humanity's ideal relationship with nature?" and "how should we garden in the face of catastrophic ecological decline?" are addressed through wideranging case studies, including ancient Roman Gardens in Pompeii, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, the Gardens of Versailles, organic farming in New England and Bohemia's secret gardens, as well as landscape in contemporary architecture.
Issues relating to the utopian garden are explored thematically rather than chronologically, and organised in six chapters: "Being in nature", "inscribing the garden", "green/house", "The garden politic", "economies of the garden" and "how then shall we garden?". each essay is both individual in scope and part of the wider discourse of the book as a whole, and each is lusciously illustrated, bringing to life the subject with diverse visual material ranging from photography to historical documents, maps and artworks.
In Atoms, Ataraxy, and Allusion, Giesecke explores the debt of Vergil and Horace to Lucretius, specifically in poetry that was not of the didactic genre. The author argues that Lucretius’ utopian vision helped Vergil to shape the pastoral world of the Eclogues, and that, as Vergil’s open affiliation with Epicureanism wanted, his infatuation with Lucretius intensified. Lucretius’ presence is felt throughout the Aeneid in spite of its reliance on an un-Epicurean divine machinery and what appears to be a Stoic world view. Here imitation of the De Rerum Natura is employed to situate the reader/audience in a Roman poetic framework and to guide and inform the Aeneid’s interpretation. In the case of Horace, it is the philosophical thrust of the Satires, Epistles, and Odes that underlies allusion to Lucretius. It is the eclectic, undoctrinaire nature of Horatian poetry and its constant generic transgression that allowed for a seamless and effortless blending of verses of the De Rerum Natura within their close-knit fabric. Also included in this study is Lucretius’ contribution to the Roman Dichtersprache as evinced in the poetry of Catullus, with which imitation of the De Rerum Natura begins.