In antiquity Archilochus of Paros was considered a poet rivalled only by Homer and Hesiod, yet he has been relatively neglected by modern scholarship. This is largely due to the fragmentary state of his surviving poetry, though our knowledge has expanded significantly since the middle of the twentieth century as new papyrological finds continue to augment the corpus and our understanding of the poet and his work evolves. This volume is the first ever complete commentary on Archilochus, filling a substantial gap in scholarship on archaic Greek poetry and playing an important and timely role in re-establishing him as a major author and in locating the recent discoveries in the broader context of his oeuvre. Presenting the fragmentary texts alongside brand new translations, the volume also contains a comprehensive introduction offering an accessible guide to Archilochus' work and context, and a detailed commentary providing textual, literary, and historical analysis of all of his surviving poetry and discussing broader questions of performance and genre in early Greek poetic culture. The scope and depth of the analysis not only highlights the diversity and sophistication of Archilochus' work, but also sheds new light on our understanding of Greek iambus and elegy, while his influence on later writers means that the commentary will be of significance to scholars and students of Hellenistic and Roman literature, and the later lyric tradition, as well as archaic and classical Greek literature.

Oxford Classical Texts, also known as Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, provide authoritative, clear, and reliable editions of ancient texts, with apparatus criticus on each page. In this revised critical edition of Caesar's account of his civil war against Pompey during 49-48 BC, Damon allows readers to get closer to the renowned author's original writings than ever before. Based on a new collation of the ancient manuscripts and on a stemma that permits the reconstruction of the archetype more frequently than has previously been possible, the text is suitable for classroom use in upper-level Latin classes, as well as for reading and research purposes. A comprehensive English preface is followed by a conspectus editionum, which lists the 300+ places where modern editions of the text differ from each other, while the Latin text is complemented by an expanded and up-to-date critical apparatus. Also included are an appendix critica which allows readers to gauge the character of the manuscript witnesses to the text, and an appendix orthographica which explains the orthographical principles underlying the printed text. This Oxford Classical Text is also accompanied by a companion volume, Studies on the Text of Caesar's Bellum civile, which presents the detailed philological arguments underpinning this revised edition.

This is an English translation of Sophocles' tragedy of Electra, and the vengeance that she and her brother Orestes take on their mother and step father for the murder of their father. This edition also includes an "afterlife" essay that discusses adaptations of the play, as well as touches on other ways Electra has had influence (Jung's identification of the Electra Complex, O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra"). Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture.

Dieses Lehrbuch versteht sich als eine fachubergreifende Literaturgeschichte und stellt in den mehr als acht Jahrhunderten, die es umspannt - von den biblischen Apokryphen bis zu Isidor von Sevilla, Johannes von Damaskus und den orientalischen christlichen Literaturen - alle Literaturgattungen samtlicher grossen Autoren der Periode vor, eingebettet in ihren literarischen, historischen, kirchlichen und theologischen Kontext. Es bietet dem Studierenden eine erste Einfuhrung in alle wichtigen Phanomene der fruhchristlichen Literatur sowie dem Fachgelehrten ein erstes Referenz- und Nachschlagewerk. Die zu jedem Autor und Werk nach Bibliographien, Texteditionen, UEbersetzungen, Hilfsmitteln und Studien gegliederten Spezialbibliographien sind grundlegend fur ein vertieftes Weiterstudium. Karten und Tafeln erganzen den didaktischen Aufbau des Buches.

Electra is a unique, complex, and fascinating Greek tragic heroine, who became a source of inspiration for countless playwrights, artists, musicians and filmmakers. The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra she famously supported her brother's quest to avenge their father's murder even at the cost of matricide. Her passion for justice and her desire for vengeance have echoed down the centuries to the modern era. Enshrined as the mourner of Greek tragedy par excellence Electra has enjoyed a long and rich reception history. Electra, ancient and modern, examines the treatment of Electra by all three ancient tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and their dialogue with the mythical tradition that preceded them. The focus then shifts forward in time to case studies of her reception in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Gradually Electra's dark desires re-emerge over the course of these three centuries until her passionate cries for vengeance are heard once again. Through its detailed analysis of Electra, this book also provides a helpful introduction to the study of Classical Reception, its ambitions and methods.

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

Like the constellations in the sky, words such as aphrodisiac, hubris, museum, galaxy and mentor each contain within them a story, if only you knew to look closely. This collection retells the myths behind common words and expressions in English, bringing to life the heroes, monsters and gods whose deeds and battles have left a hidden mark on our language. Compiling more than seventy-five myths, the stories in this book feature well-known figures such as Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Hercules, Achilles, the Amazons, Medusa and the Minotaur. The entries are supplemented with original illustration reproductions of scenes from ancient pottery, and include translations from Ancient Greek epics such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Argonautica and Theogony.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

'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.

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.

This critical edition of the Latin text of Vergil s Bucolica and Georgica is informed by recent research on the author s style as well as the oldest manuscript versions of his works."

POETAE COMICI GRAECIis now the standard and indispensable reference work for the whole of Greek Comedy, a genre which flourished in Antiquity for over a millenium, from the VI century B.C. to the V century A.D.: More than 250 poets are conveniently arranged in alphabetical sequence and all the surviving texts have been carefully edited with full testimonia, detailed critical apparatus, and brief but illuminating subsidia interpretationis. The commentaries are in Latin. This great enterprise has won universal acclaim, Vol. VI 2 Menander being singled out by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the "International Books of the Year 1998".

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.

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.