thumbnail of book
 

The Craft of Zeus: Myths of Weaving and Fabric
by John Scheid and Jesper Svenbro
translated by Carol Volk
Harvard University Press, 1996
Cloth: 978-0-674-17549-5 | Paper: 978-0-674-00578-5
Library of Congress Classification PA3015.W48S3413 1996
Dewey Decimal Classification 880.9355

ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The fundamental gesture of weaving in The Craft of Zeus is the interlacing of warp and woof described by Plato in The Statesman--an interweaving signifying the union of opposites. From rituals symbolizing--even fabricating--the cohesion of society to those proposed by oracles as a means of propitiating fortune; from the erotic and marital significance of weaving and the woven robe to the use of weaving as a figure for language and the fabric of the text, this lively and lucid book defines the logic of one of the central concepts in Greek and Roman thought--a concept that has persisted, woof and warp crossing again and again, as the fabric of human history has unfolded.
Nearby on shelf for Classical literature: