Until now, the image of the Amazons that prevailed in classical antiquity has been predominantly interpreted within the framework of gender discourse. However, Amazons have been paradigmatic in all literary and pictorial genres and through all epochs of antiquity as representatives of various contrast in myth and history, including the familiar and alien, self and other, as well as settled and nomadic. As such, they are a part of very generalized alternative worlds in which constructions of the self and images of the other are co-mingled

This textbook provides a comprehensive scholarly introduction to Classical Chinese and its texts. Classical Chinese is the language of Confucius and Mencius and their contemporaries, who wrote the seminal texts of Chinese philosophy more than 2,000 years ago. Although it was used as a living language for only a relatively short time, it was the foundation of Chinese education throughout the Imperial age, and formed the basis of a literary tradition that continues to the present day. This book offers students all the necessary tools to read, understand, and analyse Classical Chinese texts, including: step-by-step clearly illustrated descriptions of syntactic features; core vocabulary lists; introductions to relevant historical and cultural topics; selected readings from classical literature with original commentaries and in-depth explanations; introductions to dictionaries and other reference works on the study of ancient China; and a guide to philological methods used in the critical analysis of Classical Chinese texts. The extensive glossary provides phonological reconstructions, word classes, English translations, and citations to illustrate usage, while the up-to-date bibliography serves as a valuable starting point for further research.

Many scholars today believe that early Greek literature, as represented by the great poems of Homer and Hesiod, was to some extent inspired by texts from the neighbouring civilizations of the ancient Near East, especially Mesopotamia. It is true that, in the case of religious poetry, early Greek poets sang about their gods in ways that resemble those of Sumerian or Akkadian hymns from Mesopotamia, but does this mean that the latter influenced the former, and if so, how? This volume is the first to attempt an answer to these questions by undertaking a detailed study of the ancient texts in their original languages, from Sumerian poetry in the 20th century BC to Greek sources from the times of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Aeschylus. The Gods Rich in Praise presents the core groups of sources from the ancient Near East, describing the main features of style and content of Sumerian and Akkadian religious poetry, and showing how certain compositions were translated and adapted beyond Mesopotamia. It proceeds by comparing selected elements of form and content: hymnic openings, negative predication, the birth of Aphrodite in the Theogony of Hesiod, and the origins and development of a phrase in Hittite prayers and the Iliad of Homer. The volume concludes that, in terms of form and style, early Greek religious poetry was probably not indebted to ancient Near Eastern models, but also argues that such influence may nevertheless be perceived in certain closely defined instances, particularly where supplementary evidence from other ancient sources is available, and where the extant sources permit a reconstruction of the process of translation and adaptation.

This Norton Critical Edition includes: Oliver Taplin's new translation of the fifth-century B.C.E. Greek tragedy-a trilogy of revenge and murder within the royal family of Argos-with explanatory annotations by the editors, ancient backgrounds and responses from Homer, Stesichorus, Pindar, Euripides and Sophocles, fourteen wide-ranging critical essays on the Oresteia, from G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche to Oliver Taplin and Peter Wilson, a Glossary of Technical Terms and Proper Names and a Selected Bibliography.

Appian (Appianus) is among our principal sources for the history of the Roman Republic, particularly in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and sometimes our only source, as for the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. Born circa AD 95, Appian was an Alexandrian official at ease in the highest political and literary circles who later became a Roman citizen and advocate. He died during the reign of Antoninus Pius (emperor 138-161). Appian's theme is the process by which the Roman Empire achieved its contemporary prosperity, and his unique method is to trace in individual books the story of each nation's wars with Rome up through her own civil wars. Although this triumph of "harmony and monarchy" was achieved through characteristic Roman virtues, Appian is unusually objective about Rome's shortcomings along the way. Of the work's original 24 books, only the Preface and Books 6-9 and 11-17 are preserved complete or nearly so: those on the Spanish, Hannibalic, African, Illyrian, Syrian, and Mithridatic wars, and five books on the civil wars. This edition of Appian replaces the original Loeb edition by Horace White and provides additional fragments, along with his letter to Fronto.

This volume provides a complete translation of, and historical and historiographical commentary on, the lives of the ten Attic orators written by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda. Assessing these works as important historical sources for the individual lives and careers of the orators whose works have survived, this systematic study explores how these literary biographies were constructed, the information they provide, and their veracity. In-depth commentary notes offer contextual information, explain references and examine individual rhetorical phrases, and a glossary of technical terms provides a quick reference guide to the more obscure oratorical and political terms. The volume also includes a detailed introduction which discusses the evolution of Greek oratory and rhetoric; the so-called Canon of the Ten Orators; the authorship, dates, and sources of the biographies provided by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda; and a brief consideration of orators whose speeches were either falsely attributed to Demosthenes or may be referenced in the ancient lives.

'The Argonauts were terrified at the sight. But Jason planting his feet apart stood to receive them, as a reef in the sea confronts the tossing billows in a gale.' The tragic, epic love affair that allowed Jason to get the Golden Fleece. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BCE). Apollonius of Rhodes's The Voyage of Argo is also available in Penguin Classics.

'I blush to say what happened next.' A satirical portrait of a drunken, orgiastic Roman banquet, hosted by the grossly ostentatious Trimalchio. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Titus Petronius Arbiter (1st century BCE-c.66 CE). Petronius's The Satyricon is also available in Penguin Classics.

Lysistrata is the most notorious of Aristophanes' comedies. First staged in 411 BCE, its action famously revolves around a sex strike launched by the women of Greece in an attempt to force their husbands to end the war. With its risque humour, vibrant battle of the sexes, and themes of war and peace, Lysistrata remains as daring and thought-provoking today as it would have been for its original audience in Classical Athens. Aristophanes: Lysistrata is a lively and engaging introduction to this play aimed at students and scholars of classical drama alike. It sets Lysistrata in its social and historical context, looking at key themes such as politics, religion and its provocative portrayal of women, as well as the play's language, humour and personalities, including the formidable and trailblazing Lysistrata herself. Lysistrata has often been translated, adapted and performed in the modern era and this book also traces the ways in which it has been re-imagined and re-presented to new audiences. As this reception history reveals, Lysistrata's appeal in the modern world lies not only in its racy subject matter, but also in its potential to be recast as a feminist, pacifist or otherwise subversive play that openly challenges the political and social status quo.

This volume provides a complete translation of, and historical and historiographical commentary on, the lives of the ten Attic orators written by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda. Assessing these works as important historical sources for the individual lives and careers of the orators whose works have survived, this systematic study explores how these literary biographies were constructed, the information they provide, and their veracity. In-depth commentary notes offer contextual information, explain references and examine individual rhetorical phrases, and a glossary of technical terms provides a quick reference guide to the more obscure oratorical and political terms. The volume also includes a detailed introduction which discusses the evolution of Greek oratory and rhetoric; the so-called Canon of the Ten Orators; the authorship, dates, and sources of the biographies provided by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda; and a brief consideration of orators whose speeches were either falsely attributed to Demosthenes or may be referenced in the ancient lives.

Aristotle on the Sources of the Ethical Life challenges the common belief that Aristotle's ethics is founded on an appeal to human nature, an appeal that is thought to be intended to provide both substantive ethical advice and justification for the demands of ethics. Sylvia Berryman argues that this is not Aristotle's intent, while resisting the view that Aristotle was blind to questions of the source or justification of his ethical views. She interprets Aristotle's views as a 'middle way' between the metaphysical grounding offered by Platonists, and the scepticism or subjectivist alternatives articulated by others. The commitments implicit in the nature of action figure prominently in this account: Aristotle reinterprets Socrates' famous paradox that no-one does evil willingly, taking it to mean that a commitment to pursuing the good is implicit in the very nature of action.

In this volume, Lightfoot offers a detailed study of an ancient Greek geographical poem by Dionysius, a scholar-poet who flourished in Alexandria during the reign of Hadrian, which describes the world as it was then known. In antiquity, it was widely read and extremely influential, both in the schoolroom and among later poets. Translated into Latin, the subject of commentaries, and popular in Byzantium, it offers insights into multiple traditions of ancient geography, both literary and more scientific, and displays interesting affiliations to the earlier school of Alexandrian poets. The introductory essays discuss the poem's place in the literary context of ancient geography, focusing on its language, style, and metre, whereby Dionysius shows himself a particularly painstaking heir of the Hellenistic poets, and illustrates how intricately he interlaces sources and models to produce a mosaic of geographical learning. Particular emphasis is given to Dionysius' place in the ancient tradition of didactic poetry, and to his artful manipulations of ancient ethnographical convention to produce a vision of a bounteous, ordered, and harmonious world in the high days of the Roman Empire. The commentary, supported by a fresh edition and English translation, discusses Dionysius as a geographer but, above all, as a literary artist. This volume contributes to the revival of interest in, and appreciation of, imperial hexameter poetry, and brings to the fore a poem that deserves to be every bit as well-known as its Hellenistic counterpart, the Phaenomena of Aratus.

Simonides of Ceos, one of the nine lyric poets enshrined in what is conventionally thought of as the Hellenistic Lyric Canon, is a relatively mysterious figure despite his renown in the classical world. Few historical and biographical facts about him have survived, and only fragments of his non-epigrammatic poetry. This volume is intended to complement Orlando Poltera's full-scale text and commentary on Simonides' lyrics (Schwabe, 2008), offering an up-to-date edition and commentary covering, for the most part, those poems in elegiac distichs now called epigrams and elegies. In addition to these forms, Simonides wrote in a few other non-lyric metrical patterns involving dactyls and iambs: these are also included for the sake of completeness, since they are properly absent from Poltera's edition. As authenticity is in question for all but a very few of the epigrams ascribed to Simonides, the volume's scope extends to cover every poem ascribed to him in antiquity, including some poems that are surely not by him: these poems have never before been treated in such detail and the large body of scholarship generated by the corpus as a whole is taken into account here for the first time. Each poem and fragment is accompanied by a new English translation, where applicable, and detailed exegetic line-by-line commentary; a comprehensive general Introduction sets Simonides and his works into their historical context and provides a thorough examination of the textual transmission of the elegies and epigrams.

'Muse, tell me of a man: a man of much resource, who was made to wander far and long, after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy. Many were the men whose lands he saw and came to know their thinking: many too the miseries at sea which he suffered in his heart, as he sought to win his own life and the safe return of his companions.' Recounting the epic journey home of Odysseus from the Trojan War, "The Odyssey" - alongside its sister poem "The Iliad" - stands as the well-spring of Western Civilisation and culture, an inspiration to poets, writers and thinkers for thousands of years since. This authoritative prose translation by Martin Hammond brings Homer's great poem of homecoming to life as Odysseus battles through such familiar dangers as the cave of the Cyclops, the call of the Sirens and his hostile reception back in his native land of Ithaca.

Plutarch's Lives have been popular reading from antiquity to the present day, combining engaging biographical detail with a strong underlying moral purpose. The Lives of Demosthenes and Cicero are an unusual pair in that they are about unmilitary men who, while superb technically as orators, were both in the end political failures, crushed by the military power which dominated their world. In these two Lives, Plutarch is not so much interested in Demosthenes' and Cicero's rhetorical technique as in their ability to persuade an audience to vote for the right course of action, even if that action was prima facie unpopular. In Plutarch's own time, when the empire of the Caesars had been established for over a century, liberty was of necessity limited, but still an issue, for both Greeks and Romans. His home, Chaeroneia, was a provincial town in Greece, but he travelled regularly to Italy where he met Romans from the elite that ruled the empire. He wrote both for his fellow imperial subjects who still sought to enjoy what freedom they could obtain from the ruling power, and for the Romans who exercised that power but were always subject to the ultimate authority of the emperor. Along with the translations and commentaries, Lintott provides a detailed introduction which discusses the background and context of these two Lives, essential information about the author and the periods in which these two orators lived, and the philosophy which underlies Plutarch's presentation of the two personalities.

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.

Aristophanes's satirical masterpieces, immensely popular with the Athenian public, were frequently crude, even obscene. His plays revealed to his contemporaries, and now teach us today, that when those in power act obscenely, patriotic obscenity is a fitting response. Until now English translations have failed to capture Aristophanes's poetic genius. Aaron Poochigian, the first poet-classicist to tackle these plays in a generation, offers "effortlessly readable and genuinely theatrical" (Simon Armitage) versions of four of Aristophanes's most entertaining, provocative and lyrically ingenious comedies, finally giving twenty-first-century readers a sense of the subversive pleasure audiences felt when these works were first performed on the Athenian stage.

This volume offers up-to-date translations of all 21 epistles of Ovid's Heroides. Each letter is accompanied by a preface explaining the mythological background, an essay offering critical remarks on the poem, and discussion of the heroine and her treatment elsewhere in Classical literature. Where relevant, reception in later literature, film, music and art, and feminist aspects of the myth are also covered. The book also contains an introduction covering Ovid's life and works, the Augustan background, the originality of the Heroides, dating, authenticity and reception. A useful glossary of characters mentioned in the Heroides concludes the book. This is a vital new resource for anyone studying the poetry of Ovid, Classical mythology or women in the ancient world.