Agamemnon is the first of the three plays within the Oresteia trilogy and is considered to be one of Aeschylus' greatest works. This collection of 12 essays, written by prominent international academics, brings together a wide range of topics surrounding Agamemnon from its relationship with ancient myth and ritual to its modern reception. There is a diverse array of discussion on the salient themes of murder, choice and divine agency. Other essays also offer new approaches to understanding the notions of wealth and the natural world which imbue the play, as well as a study of the philosophical and moral questions of choice and revenge. Arguments are contextualized in terms of performance, history and society, discussing what the play meant to ancient audiences and how it is now received in the modern theatre. Intended for readers ranging from school students and undergraduates to teachers and those interested in drama (including practitioners), this volume includes a performer-friendly and accessible English translation by David Stuttard.

The rediscovery in the fifteenth century of Lucretius' De rerum natura was a challenge to received ideas. The poem offered a vision of the creation of the universe, the origins and goals of human life, and the formation of the state, all without reference to divine intervention. It has been hailed in Stephen Greenblatt's best-selling book, The Swerve, as the poem that invented modernity. But how modern did early modern readers want to become? This collection of essays offers a series of case studies which demonstrate the sophisticated ways in which some readers might relate the poem to received ideas, assimilating Lucretius to theories of natural law and even natural theology, while others were at once attracted to Lucretius' subversiveness and driven to dissociate themselves from him. The volume presents a wide geographical range, from Florence and Venice to France, England, and Germany, and extends chronologically from Lucretius' contemporary audience to the European Enlightenment. It covers both major authors such as Montaigne and neglected figures such as Italian neo-Latin poets, and is the first book in the field to pay close attention to Lucretius' impact on political thought, both in philosophy - from Machiavelli, through Hobbes, to Rousseau - and in the topical spin put on the De rerum natura by translators in revolutionary England. It combines careful attention to material contexts of book production and distribution with close readings of particular interpretations and translations, to present a rich and nuanced profile of the mark made by a remarkable poem.

Studies in the Age of Chaucer is the annual yearbook of the New Chaucer Society, publishing articles on the writing of Chaucer and his contemporaries, their antecedents and successors, and their intellectual and social contexts. More generally, articles explore the culture and writing of later medieval Britain (1200-1500). Each SAC volume also includes an annotated bibliography and reviews of Chaucer-related publications.

This volume provides a detailed, lemmatic, literary commentary on Demosthenes' speech Against Androtion. It is the first study of its kind since the nineteenth century, filling a significant gap in modern scholarship. The Greek text of the speech is accompanied by a facing English translation, making the work more accessible to a wide scholarly audience. It also includes an extensive introduction covering key historical, socio-political, and legal issues. The speech was delivered in a graphe paranomon (a public prosecution for introducing an illegal decree) which was brought against Androtion, a well-established Athenian public speaker and intellectual. Demosthenes composed Against Androtion for Diodoros, the supporting speaker in this trial and an active political figure in the mid-fourth century. In her commentary, Ifigeneia Giannadaki illuminates the legal, socio-political, and historical aspects of the speech, including views on male prostitution and the relationship between sex and politics, complex aspects of Athenian law and procedure, and Athenian politics in the aftermath of the Social War. Giannadaki balances the analysis of important historical and legal issues with a special emphasis on elucidating Demosthenes' rhetorical strategy and argumentation.

In ancient Greece and Rome, nighttime encompassed a distinctive array of cultural values that went far beyond the inversion of daytime. Night was a mythological figure, a locus of specialized knowledge, a socially significant semantic space in various literary genres, and a setting for unique experiences. These facets of night are explored here through fifteen case-studies, that range from Hesiod to imperial Roman painting and cultural history. The contributors took part in a conference on this theme at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, where they pursued a common goal: to consider how nighttime was employed in the ascription of specific values-in determining what values a thing or a person might have, or lack, in a nocturnal context.

This book presents a narratological analysis of the Kaiserchronik, or chronicle of the emperors, the first verse chronicle to have been written in any European vernacular language, which provides an account of the Roman and Holy Roman emperors from the foundation of Rome to the eve of the Second Crusade. Previous research has concentrated on the structure and sources of the work and emphasized its role as a Christian narrative of history, but this study shows that the Kaiserchronik does not simply illustrate a didactic religious message: it also provides an example of how story-telling techniques in the vernacular were developed and explored in twelfth-century Germany. Four aspects of narrative are described (time and space, motivation, perspective, and narrative strands), each of which is examined with reference to the story of a particular emperor (Constantine the Great, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, and Henry IV). Rather than imposing a single analytical framework on the Kaiserchronik, the book takes account of the fact that modern theory cannot always be applied directly to works from premodern periods: it draws critically on a variety of approaches, including those of Gerard Genette, Boris Uspensky, and Eberhard Lammert. Throughout the book, the narrative techniques described are contextualized by means of comparisons with other texts in both Middle High German and Latin, making clear the place of the Kaiserchronik as a literary narrative in the twelfth century.

Examining tales of notorious figures in Renaissance England, including the mercenary Thomas Stukeley, the Barbary corsair John Ward, and the wandering adventurers the Sherley brothers, Laurie Ellinghausen sheds new light on the construction of the early modern renegade and its depiction in English prose, poetry, and drama during a period of capitalist expansion. Unlike previous scholarship which has focused heavily on positioning rogue behaviour within the dialogue of race, gender, religion, and nationalism, Pirates, Traitors, and Apostates: Renegade Identities in Early Modern England shows how domestic issues of class and occupation exerted a major influence on representations of renegades, and heightened their appeal to the diverse audiences of early modern England. By looking at renegade tales from this perspective, Ellinghausen reveals a renegade, who, despite being stigmatized as an outsider, becomes a major profiteer during the period of early expansion, and ultimately a key figure in the creation of a national English identity.

This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigalois, and the ways it connects the Yiddish-speaking Jews and the German-speaking non-Jews of the Holy Roman Empire. The German Wigalois / Viduvilt adaptations grow from a multistage process: a German text adapted into Yiddish adapted into German, creating adaptations actively shaped by a minority culture within a majority culture. The Knight without Boundaries examines five key moments in the Wigalois / Viduvilt tradition that highlight transitions between narratological and meta-narratological patterns and audiences of different religious-cultural or lingual background.

This groundbreaking book attempts a fully contextualized reading of the poetry written by Pindar for Hieron of Syracuse in the 470s BC. It argues that the victory odes and other occasional songs composed by Pindar for the Sicilian tyrant were part of an extensive cultural program that included athletic competition, coinage, architecture, sanctuary dedication, city foundation, and much more. In the tumultuous years following the Persian invasion of Greece in 480, elite Greek leaders and their cities struggled to capitalize on the Greek victory and to define themselves as free peoples who triumphed over the threat of Persian monarchy. Pindar's victory odes are an important contribution to Hieron's goal of panhellenic pre-eminence, redescribing contemporary tyranny as an instantiation of golden-age kingship and consonant with best Greek tradition. In a delicate process of cultural legitimation, the poet's praise deploys athletic victories as a signs of more general preeminence. Three initial chapters set the stage by presenting the history and culture of Syracuse under the Deinomenid tyrants, exploring issues of performance and patronage, and juxtaposing Hieron to rival Greek leaders on the mainland. Subsequent chapters examine in turn all Pindar's preserved poetry for Hieron and members of his court, and contextualizes this poetry by comparing it to the songs written for Hieron by Pindar's poetic contemporary, Bacchylides. These odes develop a specifically "tyrannical " mythology in which a hero from the past enjoys unusual closeness with the gods, only to bring ruin on him or herself by failing to manage this closeness appropriately. Such negative exemplars counterbalance Hieron's good fortune and present the dangers against which he must (and does) protect himself by regal virtue. The readings that emerge are marked by exceptional integration of literary interpretation with the political/historical context.

Athenian comedy is firmly entrenched in the classical canon, but imperial authors debated, dissected and redirected comic texts, plots and language of Aristophanes, Menander, and their rivals in ways that reflect the non-Athenocentric, pan-Mediterranean performance culture of the imperial era. Although the reception of tragedy beyond its own contemporary era has been studied, the legacy of Athenian comedy in the Roman world is less well understood. This volume offers the first expansive treatment of the reception of Athenian comedy in the Roman Empire. These engaged and engaging studies examine the lasting impact of classical Athenian comic drama. Demonstrating a variety of methodologies and scholarly perspectives, sources discussed include papyri, mosaics, stage history, epigraphy and a broad range of literature such as dramatic works in Latin and Greek, including verse satire, essays, and epistolary fiction.

Alongside annals, chronicles were the main genre of historical writing in the Middle Ages. Their significance as sources for the study of medieval history and culture is today widely recognised by historians, by students of literature and linguistics, and by art historians. All chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose they were written, how they reconstruct the past, or what kind of literary influences are discernible in them. With illuminated chronicles, the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. The series The Medieval Chronicle, published in cooperation with the Medieval Chronicle Society (medievalchronicle.org), provides a representative survey of on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods, and cultural backgrounds.

Regarded as ancient Greece's greatest orator, Demosthenes lived through and helped shape one of the most eventful epochs in antiquity. His political career spanned three decades, during which time Greece fell victim to Macedonian control, first under Philip II and then Alexander the Great. Demosthenes' resolute and courageous defiance of Philip earned for him a reputation as one of history's outstanding patriots. He also enjoyed a brilliant and lucrative career as a speechwriter, and his rhetorical skills are still emulated today by students and politicians alike. Yet he was a sickly child with an embarrassing speech impediment, who was swindled out of much of his family's estate by unscrupulous guardians after the death of his father. His story is one of triumph over adversity. Modern studies of his life and career take one of two different approaches: he is either lauded as Greece's greatest patriot or condemned as an opportunist who misjudged situations and contributed directly to the end of Greek freedom. This new biography, the first ever written in English for a popular audience, aims to determine which of these two people he was: self-serving cynic or patriot - or even a combination of both. Its chronological arrangement brings Demosthenes vividly to life, discussing his troubled childhood and youth, the obstacles he faced in his public career, his fierce rivalries with other Athenian politicians, his successes and failures, and even his posthumous influence as a politician and orator. It offers new insights into Demosthenes' motives and how he shaped his policy to achieve political power, all set against the rich backdrop of late classical Greece and Macedonia.

A folkloric research project on Sefer ha-ma'asim.

Described as the Mona Lisa of literature and the world's first detective story, Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a major text from the ancient Greek world and an iconic work of world literature. Aristotle's favourite play, lauded by him as the exemplary Athenian tragedy, Oedipus the King has retained its power both on and off the stage. Before Freud's famous interpretation of the play - an appropriation, some might say - Hlderlin and Nietzsche recognised its unique qualities. Its literary worth is undiminished, philosophers revel in its probing into issues of freedom and necessity and Lacan has ensured its vital significance for post-Freudian psychoanalysis. This Reader's Guide begins with Oedipus as a figure from Greek mythology before focusing on fifth-century Athenian tragedy and the meaning of the drama as it develops scene by scene on the stage. The book covers the afterlife of the play in depth and provides a comprehensive guide to further reading for students.

In A Raven's Battle-cry Charlene M. Eska presents a critical edition and translation of the previously unpublished medieval Irish legal tract Anfuigell. Although the Old Irish text itself is fragmentary, the copious accompanying commentaries provide a wealth of legal, historical, and linguistic information not found elsewhere in the medieval Irish legal corpus. Anfuigell contains a wide range of topics relating to the role of the judge in deciding difficult cases, including kingship, raiding, poets, shipwreck, marriage, fosterage, divorce, and contracts relating to land and livestock.

Greek Heroes in and out of Hades is a study on heroism and mortality from Homer to Plato. In a collection of thirty enjoyable essays, Stamatia Dova combines intertextual research and thought-provoking analysis to shed new light on concepts of the hero in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Bacchylides 5, Plato's Symposium, and Euripides' Alcestis. Through systematic readings of a wide range of seemingly unrelated texts, the author offers a cohesive picture of heroic character in a variety of literary genres. Her characterization of Achilles, Odysseus, and Heracles is artfully supported by a comprehensive overview of the theme of descent to the underworld in Homer, Bacchylides, and Euripides. Aimed at the specialist as well as the general reader, Greek Heroes in and out of Hades brings innovative Classical scholarship and insightful literary criticism to a wide audience.

Lysias was the leading Athenian speech-writer of his generation (403-380 BC), whose speeches form a leading source for all aspects of the history of Athenian society during this period. The current volume focuses on speeches that are important particularly as political texts, during an unusually eventful post-imperial period which saw Athens coming to terms with the aftermath of its eventual defeat in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) plus two traumatic if temporary oligarchic coups (the Four Hundred in 411, and especially the Thirty in 404/3). The speeches are widely read today, not least because of their simplicity of linguistic style. This simplicity is often deceptive, however, and one of the aims of this commentary is to help the reader assess the rhetorical strategies of each of the speeches and the often highly tendentious manipulation of argument. This volume includes the text of speeches 12 to 16 (reproduced from Christopher Carey's 2007 Oxford Classical Texts edition, including the apparatus criticus), with a new facing English translation. Each speech receives an extensive introduction, covering general questions of interpretation and broad issues of rhetorical strategy, while in the lemmatic section of the commentary individual phrases are examined in detail, providing a close reading of the Greek text. To maximize accessibility, the Greek lemmata are accompanied by translations, and individual Greek terms are mostly transliterated. This is a continuation of the projected multi-volume commentary on the speeches and fragments begun with the publication of speeches 1 to 11 in 2007, which will be the first full commentary on Lysias in modern times.

The aim of this book is to devise a method for approaching the problem of presence in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. The problem of presence, as defined here, is the problem of the availability or accessibility to the reader of the fictional worlds disclosed by poetry. From Callimachus' Hymns to the Odes of Horace, poets of this era repeatedly challenge readers by beckoning them to explore fictive spaces which are at once familiar and otherworldly, realms of the imagination which are nevertheless firmly rooted in the lived reality of the poets and their contemporaries. We too, when we read these poems, may feel simultaneously a sense of being transported to a world apart and of being seized upon by the poem's address in the here and now of reading. The fiction of occasion is proposed as a new conceptual tool for understanding how these poems produce such problematic presences and what varieties of experience they make possible for their readers. The fiction of occasion is defined as a phenomenon whereby a poem is fictionally framed as part of a material event or 'occasion' with which the reader is invited to engage through the medium of the senses. The book explores this concept through close readings of key authors from the corpus of first-person poetry written in Greek and Latin between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, with a focus on Callimachus, Bion, Catullus, Propertius, and Horace. The ultimate purpose of these readings is to move towards developing a new vocabulary for conceptualising ancient poetry as an embodied experience.

In The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform, Ineke Cornet presents the first in-depth study of this sermon collection from the canonnesses of St. Agnes in Arnhem. Through a careful analysis of sources and parallels, this book demonstrates how the sermons creatively integrate both Rhineland and Brabantine mysticism into a unique commentary on the liturgical year. The sermons, which contribute to the Catholic Reform, systematically explore the mystical celebration of the liturgy which underpins every aspect of the collection's theology of inner ascent. Together with the Evangelical Pearl and the Temple of Our Soul, the sermons are part of a wider literary network that plays a significant part in the history of Dutch mysticism.

Numerous books have been written about Greek tragedy, but almost all of them are concerned with the 32 plays that still survive. This book, by contrast, concentrates on the plays that no longer exist. Hundreds of tragedies were performed in Athens and further afield during the classical period, and even though nearly all are lost, a certain amount is known about them through fragments and other types of evidence. Matthew Wright offers an authoritative two-volume critical introduction and guide to the lost tragedies. This first volume examines the remains of works by playwrights such as Phrynichus, Agathon, Neophron, Critias, Astydamas, Chaeremon, and many others who have been forgotten or neglected. (Volume 2 explores the lost works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.) What types of evidence exist for lost tragedies, and how might we approach this evidence? How did these plays become lost or incompletely preserved? How can we explain why all tragedians except Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides became neglected or relegated to the status of 'minor' poets? What changes and continuities can be detected in tragedy after the fifth century BC? Can the study of lost works and neglected authors change our views of Greek tragedy as a genre? This book answers such questions through a detailed study of the fragments in their historical and literary context. Including English versions of previously untranslated fragments as well as in-depth discussion of their significance, The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy makes these works accessible for the first time.