{"product_id":"a-zoobiography-of-the-ancient-sea-monster","title":"A Zoobiography of the Ancient Sea Monster","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExamining a vast corpus of literary references and artistic representations, this volume offers the first comprehensive study of the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eketos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e - \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ethe sea monster imagined by the ancient Greeks and Romans.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The chapters examine the three central traditions of thought that existed about this imaginary animal in Graeco-Roman culture. The first tradition concerns the \u003ci\u003eketos\u003c\/i\u003e as a divinely associated monster: a force aligned with marine gods (chiefly Poseidon) and one which was fought by Heracles and Perseus. The second tradition features the \u003ci\u003eketos\u003c\/i\u003e in more naturalised contexts, as depicted among ancient geographers and historians, as a type of monster roaming the distant waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The third tradition concerns the fusion of the \u003ci\u003eketos\u003c\/i\u003e with Leviathan and the other Old Testament sea monsters in the minds of early Christians. Accordingly, this classical sea monster became the image of the creature that swallowed Jonah, and, alternatively, a monster associated with the Devil and cosmological evil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e While other monsters of Graeco-Roman mythology, such as the Minotaur and Medusa, are household names in modern popular culture, the \u003ci\u003eketos\u003c\/i\u003e has effectively been lost in the modern imagination. Yet it was no small part of the Graeco-Roman imagination. This sea monster formed a key aspect as to how the sea-adjacent societies of ancient Greece and Rome perceived ancient marine environments. It was this fantastic sea beast that so haunted ancient mariners, and in turn, which contributed to ancient perceptions of the marine world as a profoundly alien and hostile environment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57256913371480,"sku":"9781350451872","price":97.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/a-zoobiography-of-the-ancient-sea-monster","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}