Product Description

Exploring the hero's journey as a metaphor for spiritual evolution, this book offers a close, original reading of three seminal works of epic poetry: the Epic of Gilgamesh. Homer's Iliad, and Virgil's Aeneid. An excellent introduction to the central themes and historical development of the epic form. Somewhere I Have Never Travelled is also a compelling examination of the ways in which ancient literature can illuminate our modern lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #595216 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"I highly recommend [the book] as an engaging and insightful study, of interest both to classicists and students of literature in general....A fluid, readable commentary on the second self in ancient epic."--New England Classical Newsletter & Journal
"Clearly written and well organized; Van Nortwick reads texts closely and frequently draws parallels within and between these epics. His book will prove useful to undergraduates and to teachers beginning their work with these epics."--Choice
"A valuable study that will repay the time spent with it, both by readers interested in the hero's journey as the search for self-realization and by readers who delight in close, insightful, personal readings of three great epics."--Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature
"This books offers a language for analyses that many have been trying to articulate for years. The understanding which the author provides of Achilles' relationship with Hector and Patroclus is exemplary, and the section on the Aeneid is equally filled with lucid gems....This is a book that will make any reader think, and think hard, about relationships within the text, as well as relationships of a different sort across time. It provides good evidence of the usefulness of modern approaches applied to classical texts, as well as evidence of some of the inherent problems."--The Classical Outlook
"Valuable for every teacher of Vergil in colleges."--Religious Studies Review
"Somewhere I Have Never Travelled leaves its readers with the impression that Van Nortwick has himself travelled heroically....Not just for psychologists, but for classicists and lay persons as well."--Classical World