Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones
I am a Doctoral researcher in Classics at the University of Reading, and hold a Masters in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Bristol. My research focuses on the conception of fishing and fishermen in Early Greece and, more specifically, in Homer, as well as the way these conceptions intersect with notions of power, identity and status.
My broader interests include ancient societies, their cosmologies, religions and “world views”, particularly those of Mediterranean peoples but increasingly with a broader comparative lens; travel and exploration; the natural world and the way it is conceived in literature and poetry; folklore, mythography and culture; the history of ideas more generally; and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Supervisors: Prof. Emma Aston (University of Reading) and Prof. Timothy Duff (University of Reading)
My broader interests include ancient societies, their cosmologies, religions and “world views”, particularly those of Mediterranean peoples but increasingly with a broader comparative lens; travel and exploration; the natural world and the way it is conceived in literature and poetry; folklore, mythography and culture; the history of ideas more generally; and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Supervisors: Prof. Emma Aston (University of Reading) and Prof. Timothy Duff (University of Reading)
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Papers by Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones
The abstract is as follows:
To the Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike, the Sea existed as a space at once physical and conceptual. On the one hand it could be seen, heard, smelt and touched; it could be harvested for sustenance and traversed by will or at whimsy. Yet more than this, conceptually, it played a vital role in cosmologically defining their worlds, delineating the boundary between an ordered centre and a chaotic beyond. In light of this cosmological perception, Greek, Phoenician and Assyrian experiences and responses to the Sea were dynamic processes wherein the dangers presented by it are both imaginatively perceived and experientially grounded – primordial sea-monsters and actual sea-storms fuse to create a foreboding space. Axiomatically, the Sea is conceptually a space either of bounty or a route towards bounty: the realities of trade, exploration and colonisation open up new vistas of possibility to which Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike responded, albeit it in different ways. Risk and rewards become inseparable in these perceptions of the Sea, resulting in the need to negotiate passage through what is a religiously charged space. Finally, with an exclusive focus on the Greeks of the period, the way in which this variously conceptualised Sea is utilised as a metaphor for poetic space and practice is examined, as well as its centrality to the formation and positioning of Greek identity.
Book Reviews by Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones
The abstract is as follows:
To the Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike, the Sea existed as a space at once physical and conceptual. On the one hand it could be seen, heard, smelt and touched; it could be harvested for sustenance and traversed by will or at whimsy. Yet more than this, conceptually, it played a vital role in cosmologically defining their worlds, delineating the boundary between an ordered centre and a chaotic beyond. In light of this cosmological perception, Greek, Phoenician and Assyrian experiences and responses to the Sea were dynamic processes wherein the dangers presented by it are both imaginatively perceived and experientially grounded – primordial sea-monsters and actual sea-storms fuse to create a foreboding space. Axiomatically, the Sea is conceptually a space either of bounty or a route towards bounty: the realities of trade, exploration and colonisation open up new vistas of possibility to which Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike responded, albeit it in different ways. Risk and rewards become inseparable in these perceptions of the Sea, resulting in the need to negotiate passage through what is a religiously charged space. Finally, with an exclusive focus on the Greeks of the period, the way in which this variously conceptualised Sea is utilised as a metaphor for poetic space and practice is examined, as well as its centrality to the formation and positioning of Greek identity.