Cultivating the Muse

Efrossini Spentzou is Lecturer in Latin at Royal HollowayDon Fowler was Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Jesus College, Oxford

• Preface ; Abbreviations ; 1. Introduction: Secularizing the Muse ; 2. Plato's Muses: The Goddesses that Endure ; 3. The Envied Muse: Plato versus Homer ; 4. Reinscribing the Muse: Greek Drama and the Discourse of Inspired Creativity ; 5. Stealing Apollo's Lyre ; 6. Authority and Ontology of the Muses in Epic Reception ; 7. Masculinity under Threat: the Poetics and Politics of Inspiration in Latin Poetry ; 8. The Untouched Self: Sapphic and Catullan Muses in Horace, Odes 1. 22 ; 9. The Muse Unruly and Dead: Acanthis in Propertius 4 . 5 ; 10. An A-musing Tale: Gender, Genre, and Ovid ; 11. Muse and Power in the Poetry of Statius ; 12. Corny Copa, the Motel Muse ; References ; Index

... elegant, coherent, with interesting interactions ... These essays tell us not only a lot about muses, but a good deal about poetic creativity and identity, tradition and individuality. They cast unexpected light on familiar poems ... This is an unusual and thoroughly enjoyable volume.