A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics

A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics responds to, and reflects on, the arts in the ancient world. The history of Western thinking about such matters goes back to the Greeks, when the arts, in one form or another, were a central feature of public life, evaluated and discussed long before Alexander Baumgarten published his Aesthetica in 1750 and established aesthetics as a distinct philosophical discipline. Greek speculations on the nature of artistic experience have profoundly shaped our culture, and this volume explores the many ways in which the arts were experienced and conceptualized in the ancient world. The contributors take a broad view in their discussions, moving away from analysis of the classical antecedents of 18th century aesthetics, to discuss ancient aesthetics as a subject in its own right. The first of its kind, the volume presents a synoptic view of the arts, which crosses traditional boundaries and explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media--oral, aural, visual, and literary. The essays present an integrated perspective on the major themes of ancient aesthetics that challenges traditional demarcations and raises questions about the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ways of thinking about the place of art in society.