by John Scheid and Jesper Svenbro
translated by Carol Volk
Harvard University Press, 1996
Cloth: 978-0-674-17549-5 | Paper: 978-0-674-00578-5
Library of Congress Classification PA3015.W48S3413 1996
Dewey Decimal Classification 880.9355

ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The fundamental gesture of weaving in The Craft of Zeus is the interlacing of warp and woof described by Plato in The Statesman—an interweaving signifying the union of opposites. From rituals symbolizing—even fabricating—the cohesion of society to those proposed by oracles as a means of propitiating fortune; from the erotic and marital significance of weaving and the woven robe to the use of weaving as a figure for language and the fabric of the text, this lively and lucid book defines the logic of one of the central concepts in Greek and Roman thought—a concept that has persisted, woof and warp crossing again and again, as the fabric of human history has unfolded.