Thauma Idesthai: The Phenomenology of Sight and Appearance in Archaic Greek

1ST EDITION. By Raymond Adolph Prier, published by Florida State University Press 1989. Publisher's statement: "In his provocative study of archaic language and contemporary critical fashion, Raymond Prier selects features of Greek language and style to illustrate serious errors underlying current critical theory. First, he demonstrates the idiosyncratic nature of aural-oral linguistics adn the resulting stylistic differences between the archaic and modern signification. He then differentiates the modern, hyletic, Aristotelian reduction of thought from the archaic phenomenology of Homer. After carefully examining the major lexical variations of archaic Greek's vocabulary of sight and appearance, Prier constructs a theory of archaic linguistics informed by the pecularities of archaic narrative. Prier's account of archaic language and style supports a telling inquiry into modern misreadings of Homeric texts, notably by Heidegger and Derrida, but with reference to Saussure, Foucault, Ricoeur, and Todorov...A foreword by Eugene Kaelin emphasizes the value of Thauma Idesthai for modern literary, philosophical, and critical discussion." Chapters on: The Vocabulary of Sight and Apperance in Homer; Archaic Semantics; Protonarrative Elements in Homer; Archaic Mythocentrism