In Hexametrical Genres from Homer to Theocritus, Christopher Faraone discusses a number of short hexametrical genres such as oracles, incantations and laments that do not easily fit the generic models provided by the extant poetry of Hesiod and Homer. In the process, he gives us new insight into their ritual performance, their early history, and how poets from Homer to Theocritus embedded or imitated these genres to enrich their own hexametrical poems-by playing with and sometimes overturning the generic expectations of their audiences or readers. Christopher Faraone combines literary and ritual studies to produce a rich and detailed picture of hexametrical genres performed publicly for gods, such as hymns or laments for Adonis, or other that were performed more privately, such as epithalamia, oracles, or incantations. This volume deals primarily with the recovery of lost or under-appreciated hexametrical genres, which are often left out of modern taxonomies of archaic hexametrical poetry, either because they survive only in fragments or because the earliest evidence for them dates to the classical period.

Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) was the greatest polymath of the Roman republic. During his lifetime he authored several hundred books, and though many of them dealt with linguistic topics, the De lingua Latina ('On the Latin language'), the first large-scale linguistic treatment of Latin, was by far his most significant work. Originally consisting of twenty-five volumes - one introductory, followed by six on etymology, six on morphology, and twelve on syntax - only books 5-10 treating etymology and morphology have come down to us in a more or less complete form, though a fair number of fragments of other volumes have been transmitted in other authors. The present volumes aim to provide a comprehensive treatment of this highly technical text in a new critical edition accompanied by a clear, accurate translation and full commentary. In Volume I, an introductory study outlines Varro's life and works, analysing his own linguistic usage and setting his insights about language in their historical and intellectual context. His etymology and morphology are contrasted with our own modern methods, yielding important and sometimes surprising insights into how an educated Roman looked at the history of his own language: although his etymology is, by current standards, pre-scientific, it is actually quite often in agreement with modern etymology, while his morphology also has much in common with a modern approach, focusing on the question of how regular language is and providing arguments against and in favour of regularity. Detailed discussions of these and other of Varro's linguistic ideas are brought to the fore in the exhaustive commentary in Volume II, which also sheds much needed light on the work's textual problems, cultural background, and distinctive Varronian style, and will be indispensible to scholars and students of both classics and linguistics.

Die Autorin untersucht die Predigten Johannes Taulers in Bezug auf konzeptionelle Mundlichkeit und unter Berucksichtigung der handschriftlichen UEberlieferungen seit dem 14. bis zu den Drucken aus dem fruhen 17. Jahrhundert. Ihre Ergebnisse zeigen, dass konzeptionelle Schriftlichkeit das Ergebnis prozesshaften Wandels ist. Dieser findet Ausdruck in dem zunehmenden Versuch, durch Sprachverwendung, Text- und Buchgestaltung das situative Defizit von Schrift auszugleichen. So kann die Autorin aufzeigen, dass der UEbergang zur Drucklegung im Verschriftlichungsprozess der Predigten Taulers als weiterer Schritt der Abloesung vom sprechenden Koerper reflektiert wurde, und dass der Prediger dabei umso starker auf verschiedenen Ebenen in den Text zuruckkehrt.

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.

Meineck and Woodruff's new annotated translations of Sophocles' Ajax , Women of Trachis , Electra , and Philoctetes combine the same standards of accuracy, concision, clarity, and powerful speech that have so often made their Theban Plays a source of epiphany in the classroom and of understanding in the theatre. Woodruff's Introduction offers a brisk and stimulating discussion of central themes in Sophoclean drama, the life of the playwright, staging issues, and each of the four featured plays.

This volume takes as its subject one of the most important Greek poems of the Hellenistic period: the Alexandra attributed to Lykophron, probably written in about 190 BC. At 1474 lines and with a riddling narrative and a preponderance of unusual vocabulary it is a notoriously challenging prospect for scholars, but it also sheds crucial light on Greek religion (in particular the role of women) and on foundation myths and myths of colonial identity. Most of the poem purports to be a prophecy by the Trojan princess, Kassandra, who foretells the conflicts between Europe and Asia from the Trojan Wars to the establishment of Roman ascendancy over the Greek world in the poet's own time. The central section narrates in the future tense the dispersal of returning Greek heroes throughout the Mediterranean zone, and their founding of new cities. This section culminates in the Italian wanderings and foundational activity of the Trojan refugee Aineias, Kassandra's own kinsman. Following Simon Hornblower's detailed full-length commentary on the Alexandra (OUP 2015; paperback 2017), this monograph asserts the poem's importance as not only a strongly political work, but also as a historical document of interest to cultural and religious historians and students of myths of identity. Divided into two Parts, the first explores Lykophron's geopolitical world, paying special attention to south Italy (perhaps the bilingual poet's own area of origin), Sicily, and Rhodes; it suggests that the recent hostile presence of Hannibal in south Italy surfaces as a frequent yet indirectly expressed concern of the poem. The thematic second Part investigates the Alexandra's relation to the Sibylline Oracles and to other apocalyptic literature of the period, and argues for its cultural and religious topicality. The Conclusion puts the case for the 190s BC as a turning-point in Roman history and contends that Lykophron demonstrates a veiled awareness of this, especially of certain peculiar features of Roman colonizing policy in that decade.

This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin A-Level (Group 4) prescription of Ovid's Heroides, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary for Heroides I lines 1-68, and Heroides VII lines 1-140, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed text to be read in English. Ovid's Heroides is a unique collection of poetry, in which famous mythological heroines write letters to the men who have abandoned them. They offer a new perspective on the otherwise male-centred mythological tradition. Heroides I (from Penelope) and VII (from Dido) respond to the most famous Classical epics, Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, by presenting a new, less positive, angle on the two famous epic heroes. Through his heroines' unique voices, Ovid plays with literary tradition, inviting us all to take a side: epic heroism or loyalty in love? Resources are available on the Companion Website.

Das bekannte Enniuswort, dass auf "den alten Sitten und Mannern die roemische Sache ruht", akzentuiert treffend die grosse Bedeutung, die der mos maiorum als Inbegriff von Wertvorstellungen, Leitbildern und Reglements, welche als verpflichtendes Erbe der Vorvater aufgefasst wurde, in der roemischen Gesellschaft besass. Neben Aufsatzen zu den verschiedenen literarischen Kommunikationsformen uber den mos maiorum wird auch die Reprasentation roemischer Wertvorstellungen in den archaologischen Zeugnissen berucksichtigt. Inhalt: I. Werte und literarische Kommunikation, A. Allgemeines, B. Zu Gattungen, Autoren und Werken, II. Werte und visuelle Kommunikation, III. Zu Begriff und Geschichte des mos maiorum.

Book seven, a oeOf a happy lifea (De uita beata), closes Lactaniusa (TM) (AD 250-325) a oeIntroduction to Christianitya (Diuinae institutiones). In it the church father, who was renowned as a Christian Cicero, describes the end of the world, the thousand year Kingdom of God and the Last Judgment, from a standpoint influenced by the Christian persecutions. This significant text, which offers insight into early Christiansa (TM) views of the end of the world, is presented together with an introduction, translation (the first since 1787) and an extensive commentary.

An authoritative commentary on the surviving fragments of Greek lyric poetry up to the death of Aristotle. No comparable work exists, partly because these fragments are usually small, textually corrupt and difficult to interpret. But they cast light on several aspects of Greek culture: for example, religion and prayer formulae (many of them take the form of hymns), the symposium (they include a collection of scolia), and the development of the so-called 'New School' of poetry and music. They also include fragments of poems by Telesilla and Praxilla, two of the rare band of female poets of antiquity other than Sappho, and Philoxenus' Deipnon, which puts into dactylo-epitrite metre the contents of an imaginary banquet, including long list of different types of food. Our knowledge of Euripides and Aristotle is expanded by the preservation of a quotation from a victory ode the former wrote for Alcibiades, and of an entire lyric eulogy for a dead friend composed by the latter. Also extended is our knowledge of that tantalising and in many ways baffling period of Greek literature between the death of Sophocles and the death of Aristotle. Nor should one forget the scurrilous verse of Timocreon, which extends our awareness of the capabilities of fifth century literary invective, and its capacity for parody and inversion of the topoi of praise poetry.

George Chapman's translations of Homer--immortalized by Keats's sonnet-- are the most famous in the English language. Swinburne praised their "romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur," their "freshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire." And the great critic George Saintsbury wrote, "For more than two centuries they were the resort of all who, unable to read Greek, wished to know what the Greek was. Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language."

This volume presents the original text of Chapman's translation of the Homeric hymns. The hymns, believed to have been written not by Homer himself but by followers who emulated his style, are poems written to the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon. The collection, originally titled by Chapman "The Crowne of all Homers Workes," also includes epigrams and poems attributed to Homer and known as "The Lesser Homerica," as well as his famous "The Battle of Frogs and Mice."

A New Work by Apuleius presents what may be the first lengthy Latin text from antiquity to be published in almost a century. Marshalling evidence from the text, intertextual relationships, stylistics, stemmatics, codicology, and philosophy, it lays out a compelling case for attributing this work - a summary of 14 of Plato's dialogues - to the second-century polymath Apuleius, author of the Apology, the Florida, the Metamorphoses, and the De Platone, an introduction to Plato for Latin readers. First discovered by Raymond Klibansky, the text is transmitted in one important, but neglected, manuscript of Apuleius' philosophical works. In this volume, Stover reveals that this new work is in fact the lost third book of the De Platone, and provides the key to understanding Apuleius' use and interpretation of Plato. The volume demonstrates that the new work is one of the only extant examples of scholastic ephemera from antiquity, allowing us to see how Apuleius shaped his notes from reading Plato into an independent treatise. Situated between the Latin and Greek worlds as a Latin summary of a Greek text, the new work offers a fascinating insight into the practice of translation in the Latin world, the scholarly methods of antiquity, the development of Middle Platonism, and sheds new light on an under-appreciated facet of a celebrated author.