I luoghi delle Muse

Since Hesiod and throughout the history of Greek literature, idyllic places have often furnished the setting to poetical investitures and, more in general, to self-reflective moments in which authors question, correct, refound and even create literary genres. This is above all true for poetic genres, since several poets challenge the Hesiodic episode of Mount Helicon in order to define their own creations and produce their own manifestos, but it also applies to prose genres, starting at least with Plato’s Phaedrus, whose setting in the locus amoenus of the Ilissos River resonates in the works of several later writers. Joining the recent debate on the representation of space in ancient literature, this volume offers seven essays on the specific connection between the description of places and the renewal/foundation of Greek literary genres.