000			02299nam a22002777a 4500
999			_c154790 _d154790
003			ZW-GwMSU
005			20200916142824.0
008			200902b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780195380781 (hbk)
040			_cMSU _beng _erda
041			_aeng
050	0	0	_aBF1778 EID
100	1		_aEidinow, Esther _d1970- _eAuthor
245	1	0	_aLuck, fate, and fortune _cEsther Eidinow.
260			_aOxford ; _bOxford University Press, _c2011.
300			_a213 pages _c22 cm.
490	1		_aAncients and moderns series
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThe cultural impulse to try to anticipate the future, and make sense of apparently random events, is irrepressible. Perhaps the most famous of all sites of prediction is the Oracle of Delphi. How the world of antiquity, and particularly the ancient Greeks, tried to foretell the outcome of the present, serves as Esther Eidinow's starting-point for an appraisal of that legacy of forecasting in our own era. Delphi is still invoked when business people discuss future strategy and risk; these is even a strategic planning technique called the "Delphi Method." But the Delphic Oracle is only the best known example of a physical landscape covered by oracular sanctuaries; while across classical literary genres, there are myriad tales - such as that of doomed Oedipus - which wrestle with the cruel vicissitudes of fate and fortune. Exploring notions of destiny related by writers like Homer, Herodotus, and Sophocles, Esther Eidinow discusses ancient augurial theories and methods, including sacrifice, cleromancy (dicing), and astromancy (telling of the stars). She then turns to ideas about moral luck and later Roman use of prophecy for maintenance of the pax deorum. Drawing on modern texts as diverse as the Terminator films and Solitaire's tarot reading in Live and Let Die, the author shows how the the recurring questions "what if?" and "why me?" are a fundamental part of what it means to be human, whether in the ancient past or the present day.
650		0	_aFortune _zGreece _xHistory
650		0	_aFate and fatalism _xHistory
650		0	_aFortune in literature
650		0	_aFate and fatalism in literature.
650		0	_aGreek literature _xHistory and criticism
942			_2lcc _cB