Thank you for this interview. Quite amazing how mystery cults including Christianity and the novels of the time interchanged themes. I am interested in the Greek novel, because some have suggested that Plato's Atlantis story is kind of an early historical novel -- which I do not like as an idea, honestly speaking. The so-called "Platonic Myths" are motivated quite differently than the Greek novel, and there is a huge gap in time between Plato and the first real novels. -- But in dealing with Plato's Atlantis, I stumbled upon a completely different idea about the whereabouts of the Greek novel: Such a type of literature existed in Egypt! And Egyptian and Greek culture mixed more and more, and so the Greek novel could have come into being. This is, for example, Ian C. Rutherford's idea. I am pretty sure that Ian C. Rutherford would be an interesting guest on your channel. (And he even thinks that Plato's Atlantis story could be based on a misunderstood (?) early Egyptian kind of novel. There is really much transformation here!)
Thanks for your thoughts: yes, Plato is interesting in this regard. I was studying the Myth of Er in Republic Book X and was struck by the similarities to Lucian's True Story, for instance. You could have something there with the intersection of Greek and Egyptian ideas for the genesis of the novel. The comparison has been made many times in scholarship to the Egyptian precursors to the Greco-Roman novel.
Great stuff, don't be afraid to go for longer!! Much longer even
More to come!
Thank you for this interview. Quite amazing how mystery cults including Christianity and the novels of the time interchanged themes. I am interested in the Greek novel, because some have suggested that Plato's Atlantis story is kind of an early historical novel -- which I do not like as an idea, honestly speaking. The so-called "Platonic Myths" are motivated quite differently than the Greek novel, and there is a huge gap in time between Plato and the first real novels. -- But in dealing with Plato's Atlantis, I stumbled upon a completely different idea about the whereabouts of the Greek novel: Such a type of literature existed in Egypt! And Egyptian and Greek culture mixed more and more, and so the Greek novel could have come into being. This is, for example, Ian C. Rutherford's idea. I am pretty sure that Ian C. Rutherford would be an interesting guest on your channel. (And he even thinks that Plato's Atlantis story could be based on a misunderstood (?) early Egyptian kind of novel. There is really much transformation here!)
Thanks for your thoughts: yes, Plato is interesting in this regard. I was studying the Myth of Er in Republic Book X and was struck by the similarities to Lucian's True Story, for instance.
You could have something there with the intersection of Greek and Egyptian ideas for the genesis of the novel. The comparison has been made many times in scholarship to the Egyptian precursors to the Greco-Roman novel.