Poems of love and battle by Arabia's legendary warrior From the sixth-century highlands of Najd in the Arabian peninsula, on the eve of the advent of Islam, come the strident cries of a legendary warrior and poet. The black outcast son of an Arab father and an Ethiopian slave mother, 'Antarah ibn Shaddad struggled to win the recognition of his father and tribe. He defied social norms and, despite his outcast status, loyally defended his people. 'Antarah captured his tumultuous life in uncompromising poetry that combines flashes of tenderness with blood-curdling violence. His war songs are testaments to his life-long battle to win the recognition of his people and the hand of 'Ablah, the free-born woman he loved but who was denied him by her family. War Songs presents the poetry attributed to 'Antarah and includes a selection of poems taken from the later Epic of 'Antar, a popular story-cycle that continues to captivate and charm Arab audiences to this day with tales of its hero's titanic feats of strength and endurance. 'Antarah's voice resonates here, for the first time in vibrant, contemporary English, intoning its eternal truths: commitment to one's beliefs, loyalty to kith and kin, and fidelity in love. An English-only edition.

Sixty years ago, the University of Chicago Press undertook a momentous project: a new translation of the Greek tragedies that would be the ultimate resource for teachers, students, and readers. They succeeded. Under the expert management of eminent classicists David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, those translations combined accuracy, poetic immediacy, and clarity of presentation to render the surviving masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in an English so lively and compelling that they remain the standard translations. Today, Chicago is taking pains to ensure that our Greek tragedies remain the leading English-language versions throughout the twenty-first century. In this highly anticipated third edition, Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most have carefully updated the translations to bring them even closer to the ancient Greek while retaining the vibrancy for which our English versions are famous. This edition also includes brand-new translations of Euripides' "Medea", "The Children of Heracles", "Andromache", and "Iphigenia among the Taurians", fragments of lost plays by Aeschylus, and the surviving portion of Sophocles' satyr-drama "The Trackers". New introductions for each play offer essential information about its first production, plot, and reception in antiquity and beyond. In addition, each volume includes an introduction to the life and work of its tragedian, as well as notes addressing textual uncertainties and a glossary of names and places mentioned in the plays. In addition to the new content, the volumes have been reorganized both within and between volumes to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship on the order in which the plays were originally written. The result is a set of handsome paperbacks destined to introduce new generations of readers to these foundational works of Western drama, art, and life.

Die Welt der in den TragAdien des Aischylos so zahlreich und eindrA1/4cklich auftretenden UnheilsmAchte wie etwa Daimon, Alastor oder Erinys erfAhrt hier erstmals eine zusammenhAngende Darstellung. Zur philologischen Untersuchung dieser "dAmonischen" Gestalten vor dem Hintergrund der literarischen Tradtion gesellen sich eindringende Interpretationen der erhaltenen aischyleischen Dramen, insbesondere der Orestie. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die UnheilsmAchte und Rachegeister bei Aischylos fA1/4r die Konstruktion und Deutung der tragischen Handlung eine zentrale Funktion besitzen. Hinter der unverkennbaren dramaturgischen Wirkungsabsicht werden jedoch auch Elemente lebendiger griechischer ReligiositAt und Kultpraxis fassbar. So vermittelt die Studie auch religionswissenschaftlich und kulturhistorisch Interessierten fundierte Einblicke inThemen wie Blutschuld und Rache, Fluch und Totengeiser oder die fA1/4r das griechische Drama so grundlegende Verkettung von Schicksal und Schuld.

Traditionally ascribed to the early third-century BCE tragedian Lykophron, the Alexandra is a powerful Greek poem by an unknown author, probably written c. 190, when Rome had defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians and was poised to humble the Seleukid king Antiochos III. The poem is an ingeniously constructed masterpiece, a generic mix with elements of tragedy, epic, and history. Priam's beautiful daughter, the prophetic Kassandra, foresees her rape in Athena's temple by the hateful Greek warrior Ajax after Troy's fall, and warns of disastrous returns (nostoi) for all the Greek 'heroes'. But Troy will rise again as Rome, founded by Trojan refugees. Alexandra (another name for Kassandra), narrates these Mediterranean foundation myths, adopting a bitterly disillusioned female perspective, but culminating in prophecies of Roman rule over land and sea.

Scheduled to appear in 10 volumes, this scholarly edition of Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (1693-1728) makes available for the first time the oldest comprehensive commentary on the Bible composed in British North America. Combining encyclopaedic discussions of biblical scholarship with scientific speculations and pietistic concerns, Biblia represents one of the most significant untapped sources in American religious and intellectual history. Mather's commentary not only reflects the growing influence of Enlightenment thought (Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Newton) and the rise of the transatlantic evangelical awakening; it also marks the beginnings of historical criticism of the Bible as text in New England. Volume 1 (Genesis) of Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana is particularly valuable because Mather addresses some of the most hotly debated questions of his age: Are the six days of God's creation to be taken literally? Can the geological record of the earth's age be reconciled with biblical chronology? Were there men before Adam? How many animals fit into Noah's Ark? Was Noah's Flood a local or global event? Why are the religions of the ancient Canaanites, Egyptians, and Greeks so similar to the revealed religion of Moses? Did God dictate the Bible to his prophets, and how many (if any) of the books of the Pentateuch did Moses write? Such questions were as relevant during the early Enlightenment as, indeed, they are to many believers today. Edited, introduced, annotated, and indexed by Reiner Smolinski, Mather's commentary on Genesis is as rich in its critical texture as it is surprisingly modern in its answers to many central concerns of the Christian faith.

The historian Polybius (ca. 200 118 BCE) was born into a leading family of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese and served the Achaean League in arms and diplomacy for many years, favoring alliance with Rome. From 168 to 151 he was held hostage in Rome, where he became a friend of Lucius Aemilius Paulus and his two sons, especially Scipio Aemilianus, whose campaigns, including the destruction of Carthage, he later attended. Late in his life, as a trusted mediator between Greece and the Romans, he helped in the discussions that preceded the final war with Carthage, and after 146 was entrusted by the Romans with the details of administration in Greece.

Polybius overall theme is how and why the Romans spread their power as they did. The main part of his history covers the years 264 146 BCE, describing the rise of Rome, her destruction of Carthage, and her eventual domination of the Greek world. It is a vital achievement of the first importance despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five of its original forty books have reached us.

For this edition, W. R. Paton s excellent translation, first published in 1922, has been thoroughly revised, the Buttner-Wobst Greek text corrected, and explanatory notes and a new introduction added, all reflecting the latest scholarship.

Cuatrocientos anos despues de su publicacion, el Quijote cervantino sigue ejerciendo en el mundo entero una peculiar fascinacion que se refleja en las mas diversas expresiones artisticas. El presente volumen pretende contribuir a los estudios de recepcion de la obra de Miguel de Cervantes desde un enfoque multidisciplinar e internacional, analizando la presencia de su obra y, en especial, de Don Quijote de la Mancha, durante los siglos XX y XXI. Los trabajos aqui editados se refieren a la figura de Don Quijote como mito literario, recogiendo textos de autores de diferentes paises que estudian la impronta del autor manchego en ambitos y generos tan diversos como la literatura (novela de ficcion y novela historica, teatro, literatura infantil, novela grafica y comic), la musica (jazz, opera, cantata escenica, musica incidental), los medios audiovisuales (cine, television, publicidad), la filosofia y la historia, centrando el foco de atencion en la cultura occidental, pero sin olvidar la presencia de Cervantes en otras culturas, como la oriental o la arabe. A modo de anexo se publica, ademas, un texto inedito que hasta ahora era solo accesible en lengua arabe: el prologo a la traduccion a dicha lengua del Quijote, publicado aqui por vez primera en castellano.

The Politics is one of the most influential texts in the history of political thought, and it raises issues which still confront anyone who wants to think seriously about the ways in which human societies are organized and governed. The work of one of the world's greatest philosophers, it draws on Aristotle's own great knowledge of the political and constitutional affairs of the Greek cities. By examining the way societies are run - from households to city states - Aristotle establishes how successful constitutions can best be initiated and upheld. For this edition Sir Ernest Barker's fine translation, which has been widely used for nearly half a century, has been extensively revised to meet the needs of the modern reader. The accessible introduction and clear notes by R F Stalley examine the historical and philosophical background of the work and discuss its significance for modern political thought. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This is the first new critical edition of De beneficiis in almost 100 years, based on a fresh examination of the extant archetype (N) and on more extensive familiarity with the later medieval and humanist manuscripts than any previous edition. Each work in the edition is provided with a critical apparatus that is both informative and economical. The apparatus fontium et testium standing between the text and the critical apparatus on each page provides full references to the texts Seneca himself cites and extensive cross-references among the three works in the edition and between those works and Seneca's other prose writings, along with many parallel passages beyond the Senecan corpus. An appendix critica to De beneficiis contains much information on the text's documentary basis and critical history that future editors should find useful to have at hand even if it was not judged worthy of inclusion in this edition's critical apparatus.

The growing research interest in the ANibelungenliedA and problems of heroic literature in general has also led to heightened interest in AKudrunA. The verse epic is much influenced by the ANibelungenliedA and is cast in a stanza form derived from the ANibelungenA stanza. At the same time it presents a complementary view of the events in question. Here the decline of heroism is not the main theme of the plot but its replacement by the new, gentler spirit of courtly mores. In its central section the poem is a paean to the superiority of female constancy and capacity for uncomplaining suffering over the gory heroics of the declining era.

Cicero (106-43 BC) was the greatest orator of the ancient world. He dominated the Roman courts, usually appearing for the defense. His speeches are masterpieces of persuasion. They are compellingly written, emotionally powerful, and sometimes hilariously funny. This book presents five of his most famous defenses: of Roscius, falsely accused of murdering his father; of the consul-elect Murena, accused of electoral bribery; of the poet Archias, on a citizenship charge; of Caelius, ex-lover of Clodia Metelli, on charges of violence; and of Milo, for murdering Cicero's hated enemy Clodius. Cicero's clients were rarely innocent; but so seductive is his oratory that the reader cannot help taking his side. In these speeches we are plunged into some of the most exciting courtroom dramas of all time. These new translations preserve Cicero's literary artistry and emotional force, while achieving new standards of accuracy. Each speech has its own introduction, and a general introduction discusses Cicero's public career and the criminal courts. The substantial explanatory notes smoothly guide the reader through the speeches, allowing a clearer understanding of the text.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304-1374) worked over many years on his long historical text about the Lives of ancient Roman military heroes, De viris illustribus (On Famous Men). Left unfinished at his death, the text was completed by 1379 by Petrarch's colleague, Lombardo della Seta. Within a decade, De viris illustribus was translated into Italian; and in 1476 the Libro degli uomini famosi was printed in Poiano outside of Verona by the eccentric humanist and scribe, Felice Feliciano (1433-1479/1480). The edition includes a peculiar feature: preceding each of the Lives is a page on which is printed an interlace woodcut border within which, however, no image appears. The present book surveys the hand-illumination of twenty surviving copies of Felice's edition in order to investigate: the Renaissance fascination with the classical past; the artistic traditions of representing Uomini famosi; the technical problems of illustrating books with woodcuts; and the fortuna of the 1476 edition. Two copies contain sequences of heroes painted within the woodcut borders; these heroes provide evidence for reconstructing the appearance of the `lost' frescoes of famous men painted at the end of Petrarch's lifetime in the Carrara palace in Padua. The hand-illumination of other copies can be assigned to miniaturists working in Venice, Verona, Ferrara, Florence, Rome and elsewhere, suggesting Felice Feliciano's wide-reaching efforts to market the volume. The importance of studying copy-specific features in Renaissance printed books is further documented by the thirty-two colour plates and over ninety black-and-white figures.

Virgil's masterpiece and one of the greatest works in all of literature, now in a beautiful clothbound edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith Virgil's Aeneid, inspired by Homer and the inspiration for Dante and Milton, is an immortal poem that sits at the heart of Western life and culture. Virgil took as his hero Aeneas, legendary survivor of the fall of Troy and father of the Roman race. In telling a story of dispossession and defeat, love and war, he portrayed human life in all its nobility and suffering, in its physicality and its mystery.

A stunning set of Homer's epics, brilliantly translated by a leading ancient world scholar. Hailed by reviewers and readers alike, Peter Green's landmark translations of Homer's timeless epics are now available for the first time in this striking and sleekly designed collector-worthy set. With the verve and pathos of the original oral tradition, Green captures the beauty and complexity, the surging thunder and quiet lyricism, of the Iliad and the Odyssey for a new generation of readers. The translations are vivid and careful, accurate without being out of reach, while the detailed synopses and notes include perceptive observations about Homer's characters and themes. This widely acclaimed, must-have collection will be a treasured addition to every reader's bookshelf.