Divining Disaster. Signs of Catastrophe in Ancient Greek Culture

Michiel van Veldhuizen (PhD ‘19, Brown University) is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research interests include ancient Greek literature, religion and ecocriticism. He has published on such topics as sacrifice, animals, oracles, and eclipse poetry.

• List of Figures and TablesAbbreviationsIntroduction: “Do You Bring a Sign of Some War, Or …?” (463 BCE)1 Terrors of the Sign2 Pindar’s Terrifying Eclipse3 Divining Disaster4 “What Is Disaster?”5 The Ecocritical Perspective6 Agency, Vulnerability, and Resilience7 Uncertainty8 An Ancient Greek Mentality9 A Comparative Perspective10 Structure and Organization of the BookPart 1 Divination and Semiotics: “Those Were the Signs” (494 BCE)Introduction to Part 11 Ancient Divination1 Chian Catastrophe2 Delian Disaster3 “The Theology of the Age”4 Defining Divination5 A Cognitive Turn6 Zeichenbeobachtung2 Classifying the Sign1 Peirce’s Triadic Sign2 A Divinatory Paradigm3 Basic Sign Classifications4 Natural vs. Technical Divination5 Interpreting the Sign6 “I Opened Their Eyes to the Signs”3 Naming the Sign1 Tzetzes’ Terminology2 Sēma and Sēmainō3 Teras: Signs and Monsters4 Teras: Thunder, Snakes, and Rainbows5 Teras: Monsters and Monstrous Babies6 From Teras to Tekmar: A Cognitive Perspective7 Tekmar: Plotting Paths8 Tekmar: “Conjecture the Invisible”9 Tekmērion: Toward a Secular Semiotics4 Abductive Reasoning1 “We Must Conquer the Truth by Guessing”2 The Divinatory Sign in Action: Chios Revisited3 The Divinatory Sign in Action: Delos Revisited4 The Divinatory Sign in Action: Monster at the Mysteries5 Codes, Conditionals, and Compendia6 Signs and Causes: Soft and Hard Astrology7 Divining Disaster with the Stars: From Hesiod to Berossus8 Divining Disaster with the Stars: Chaldeans and Egyptians9 Divining Disaster with the Stars: PtolemyPart 2 Disasters and Definitions: “Disasters in the Sun” (1601)Introduction to Part 25 Three Modes of Disaster: Plutarch, Shakespeare, Derrida1 A Neologism in Hamlet2 Disaster-as-Sign: Shakespeare’s Reception of Plutarch3 Disaster-as-Condition: Edmund the Bastard4 Disaster-as-Event and Derrida’s Événement5 Verticality, Apocalypse, and Le Ciel Désastré6 Translating Ancient Disaster1 Un Mot Chaldaique2 Theseus’ Advice3 Breaking the Stalk, Felling the Crops4 Accidental and Violent Fallings5 The Semantic Field of Disaster in Ancient Greek6 Military Disaster Lexicon: Sicily and Chaeronea7 Military Disaster Lexicon: Cannae8 Categories of Disaster7 Staging Disaster in Tragedy and History1 Remembering Disaster2 Thucydides’ Disaster List3 Divining Disaster on Stage: Darius4 Divining Disaster on Stage: Heracles5 Disasters in the Sun6 Polybius on Pity and FollyPart 3 Agency and Punishment: “How Can I Have Lunch?” (1799)Introduction to Part 38 The Sunken City of Helike1 Spectacle of Absence2 Divining the Helike Disaster: Scrofani3 Helike’s Ancient Testimony4 “The God Is Wont to Send Signs”5 Interpreting the Helike Disaster: Religion vs Science6 Divining the Helike Disaster: Aelian7 Hermeneutic Disaster Management9 Moral Agency and Punitive Disaster1 Agency Reconsidered2 From Angry Poseidon to Bessie’s Hurricane3 Punishment, or “A Blessing in Disguise”4 Acts of Nature, Acts of God5 Helike Revisited: Anger and Survival6 Helike Revisited: Signs and Meaning10 Poseidon’s Disaster Agency1 Signs, Symbols, Myth2 “God of Brute Force”3 Poseidon’s Mode of Action4 Breaking Open the Earth5 Leveling the Achaean Wall6 Covering with Mountains: Phaeacia and Polybotes7 Rooting the Phaeacian Ship8 Immobilizing Alcathoos9 Divining Disaster: Alcinous10 Divining Disaster: PolyphemusPart 4 Uncertainty and Suffering: “Hell, Upside Down” (1971)Introduction to Part 411 Imagining Disaster aboard The Poseidon1 From New York to Athens2 “We’ve Turned Over”: Imagining Disaster3 “Robinson Crusoe on a World-Wide Scale”4 The Banality of Disaster5 “There Were No Landmarks”12 The Disaster Geography of the Argonauts1 Finding the Way Out2 Rocks and Currents3 “In the Grip of Perfect Calm”4 Divining Disaster: Restoring Sights and Sounds5 Divining Disaster: Decoding the Sign6 The Black Emptiness of Katoulas7 The Sibyl Divines Disaster8 Vesuvius, Giants, and Cosmic Disaster13 Negative Cosmology: Titans, Typhoeus, and Tartarus1 Soundscapes of Divine and Human Strife2 Crashing Gaia and Cosmic Conflagration3 Typhoeus and Athena4 Typhoeus as Cosmic Teras5 The Disastered State of Tartarus14 Bound and Adrift: Prometheus, Io, and the Island of Delos1 Hesiod’s mega pēma: Erratic Winds2 Hesiod’s mega pēma: Coma and Exile3 God in Exile4 Prometheus Bound, Io Adrift5 “Tangled in Disaster’s Endless Net”6 The Floating Island7 The Polysemy of Delos8 The Mobility of Delos: akinēton teras9 Home to Octopuses and Seals10 Divining Disaster: An Island and an OraclePart 5 Vulnerability and Contagion: “A Protean Disease” (2020)Introduction to Part 515 The Plague as Semiotic Monster1 Dr. Fauci Goes to Marseille2 The Bees of Aristaeus3 The Disaster Triad4 Disaster in Hesiod’s Wicked City5 Sterility and Strife6 Divining Disasters with Monsters: The Sphinx and the Kētos7 Divining Disasters with Monsters: The Minotaur8 A Typology of the Monstrous16 Oracles and Plague in Historical Narrative1 Divining Loimos and Oracular Divination2 Herodotus: Loimos for the Chians3 Herodotus: Loimos for the Cretans and Persians4 David’s Dilemma: Plague, Famine, or War?5 Josephus’ Plague-as-Plague6 Divining Disaster: David and Epimenides7 Curing the Plague: From Abaris to Hippocrates8 Thucydides Divines DisasterConclusion: “A Strange Stillness” (1962)1 Andrà Tutto Bene2 Divining Disaster for the Modern Ecocritic3 The longue durée of Disaster DiscourseBibliographyIndex