'Fitzgerald has solved virtually every problem that has plagued translators of Homer.' Atlantic Monthly The Iliad is the story of a few days' fighting in the tenth year of the legendary war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which broke out when Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, abducted the fabulously beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. After a quarrel between the Greek commander, Agamemnon, and the greatest of the Greek warriors, Achilles, the gods become more closely involved in the action. Their intervention leads to the tragic death of Hector, the Trojan leader, and to the final defeat of the Trojans. But the Iliad is much more than a series of battle scenes. It is a work of extraordinary pathos and profundity that concerns itself with issues as fundamental as the meaning of life and death. Even the heroic ethic itself - with its emphasis on pride, honour, prowess in battle, and submission to the inexorable will of the gods - is not left unquestioned. 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 book aims to provide a comprehensive, but succinct analysis of the tragedies and comedies written by Greek and Roman dramatists. The book is comprehensive in the ways it deals not just with Greek tragedy of the fifth century BCE, but also with Seneca's tragedies of the first century CE. The book also deals with two types of Greek comedy: the comedy of ideas in Aristophanes, and the later social comedy of Menander, this being appropriated in Rome by the comic dramatists Plautus and Terence. The tragedies and comedies of fifth century Athens do not endorse the official ideology of the city. They raise questions about the position of women, the never ending war with Sparta, the nature of religious belief. Crucial here is the depiction by Euripides and by Sophocles of powerful women characters, female intruders who disrupt the male world: Medea, Antigone, Electra, Lysistrata. Comic drama usually concludes on a positive note: with marriage, with plenty of food and drink.

A student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is one of the towering figures in Western thought. A brilliant thinker with wide-ranging interests, he wrote important works in physics, biology, poetry, politics, morality, metaphysics, and ethics. In the Nicomachean Ethics, which he is said to have dedicated to his son Nicomachus, Aristotle's guiding question is what is the best thing for a human being? His answer is happiness. "Happiness," he wrote, "is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world." But he means not something we feel, not an emotion, but rather an especially good kind of life . Happiness is made up of activities in which we use the best human capacities, both ones that contribute to our flourishing as members of a community, and ones that allow us to engage in god-like contemplation. Contemporary ethical writings on the role and importance of the moral virtues such as courage and justice have drawn inspiration from this work, which also contains important discussions on responsibility, practical reasoning, and on the role of friendship in creating the best life. This new edition combines David Ross's classic translation, lightly revised by Lesley Brown, with a new and invaluable introduction and explanatory notes. A glossary of key terms and comprehensive index, as well as a fully updated bibliography, add further value to this exceptional new edition. Features * This new edition of one of the founding texts of moral philosophy combines David Ross's classic translation, lightly revised by Lesley Brown, with a new and invaluable introduction and notes to aid readers in their understanding of Aristotle's intricate arguments. * Widely admired translation, sparingly revised to retain its qualities while paying special attention to key terms, enhancing understanding, eliminating unintentional ambiguity, and incorporating the latest scholarly thinking. * Invaluable introduction covers Aristotl

This fifth volume in the Litanic Verse series is centered upon the poetics of European litanic verse (genre structure, rhythm, rhetorical figures), as well as its philosophy and cosmology, with a particular focus on the space-time matrix within which the litanic world is depicted. The content of the book moves beyond an analysis of enumerations and parallelisms as it provides an insight into relevant cultural processes, including the history of religion and literary conventions from Antiquity to Early Modernity. This allows seemingly distant topics, such as comparative versification and European identity, to be related. Theoretical considerations are accompanied by examples mostly taken from Latin, English, French, German, Iberian, Italian, Scandinavian and Slavic poetry.

Hellenistic poet Theocritus showcased a wide variety of women and their relationships to men in his work. Representations of Women in Theocritus's Idylls: Authenticity of the Female Voice in the Erotic and Non-Erotic Portrayals is the first comprehensive analysis of these women. This book uses a unique and widely inclusive set of tools derived from gender studies, literary criticism, and Hellenistic history to extract the voices of females, as most are silent themselves and spoken for by others. This analysis questions the validity of the female voice and determines authenticity through a method derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis. Author Marilyn Likosky identifies a female erotic voice that according to criteria is not attributed to a woman but rather to the imagination of the male responding to perceived risks in engaging with a female at a time in which she received greater liberties. Theocritus explores a number of candidate strategies for males to lessen disruptions from erotic encounters. Likosky identifies an ambiguity in the presentation of voice, finding it likely an intentional means for Theocritus to engage his audience in troublesome issues. This book supports academic seminars in gender studies, Hellenistic poetry, and literary criticism.

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.

Not much can be known about the life of Maximianus, who has been called "the last of the Roman poets," beyond what can be inferred from his poetry. He was most likely a native of Tuscany, probably lived until the middle of the sixth century, and, at an advanced age, went as a diplomat to the emperor's court at Constantinople. A. M. Juster has translated the complete elegies of Maximianus faithfully but not literally, resulting in texts that work beautifully as poetry in English. Replicating the feel of the original Latin verse, he alternates iambic hexameter and pentameter in couplets and imitates Maximianus's pronounced internal rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. The first elegy is the longest and establishes the voice of the speaker: a querulous old man, full of the indignities of aging, which he contrasts with the vigor and prestige he enjoyed in his youth. The second elegy similarly focuses on the contrast between past happiness and present misery but, this time, for the specific experience of a long-term relationship. The third through fifth elegies depict episodes from the poet's amatory career at different stages of his life, from inexperienced youth to impotent old man. The last poem concludes with a desire for the release of death and, together with the first, form a coherent frame for the collection. This comprehensive volume includes an introduction by renowned classicist Michael Roberts, a translation of the elegies with the Latin text on facing pages, the first English translation of an additional six poems attributed to Maximianus, an appendix of Latin and Middle English imitative verse that illustrates Maximianus's long reception in the Middle Ages, several related texts, and the first commentary in English on the poems since 1900. The imminence of death and the sadness of growing old that form the principal themes of the elegies signal not only the end of pagan culture and its joy in living but also the turn from a classical to a medieval sensibility in Late Antiquity.

What happened after Mr. Darcy married Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice? Where did Heathcliff go when he disappeared in Wuthering Heights? What social ostracism would Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter have faced in 20th century America? Great novels often leave behind great questions-sequels seek to answer them. This critical analysis offers fresh insights into the sequels to seven literary classics, including Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the Bronte sisters' Jane Eyre, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

Tacitus' account of Nero's principate is an extraordinary piece of historical writing. His graphic narrative (including Annals XV) is one of the highlights of the greatest surviving historian of the Roman Empire. It describes how the imperial system survived Nero's flamboyant and hedonistic tenure as emperor, and includes many famous passages, from the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 to the city-wide party organised by Nero's praetorian prefect, Tigellinus, in Rome. This edition unlocks the difficulties and complexities of this challenging yet popular text for students and instructors alike. It elucidates the historical context of the work and the literary artistry of the author, as well as explaining grammatical difficulties of the Latin for students. It also includes a comprehensive introduction discussing historical, literary and stylistic issues.

These rhetorical texts by Apuleius, second-century Latin writer and author of the famous novel Metamorphoses or Golden Ass, have not been translated into English since 1909. They are some of the very few Latin speeches surviving from their century, and constitute important evidence for Latin and Roman North African social and intellectual culture in the second century AD, a period where there is increasing interest amongst classicists and ancient historians. They are the work of a talented writer who is being increasingly viewed as the major literary artist of his time in Latin.

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 book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ways: either as a treasure trove of Atticisms or as a genre defined by and repudiated for its aggressive humor. Worthy of further consideration, however, is the degree to which both approaches, and particularly the latter one that relegated Old Comedy to the fringes of the literary canon, led authors to engage with the ironic and self-reflexive humor of Aristophanes, Eupolis and Cratinus. Authors ranging from serious moralizers (Plutarch and Aelius Aristides) to comic writers in their own right (Lucian, Alciphron) to other figures not often associated with Old Comedy (Libanius) adopted aspects of the genre to negotiate power struggles, facilitate literary and sophistic rivalries, and as a model for autobiographical writing. To varying degrees, these writers wove recognizable features of the genre (e.g. the parabasis, its agonistic language, the stage biographies of the individual poets) into their writings. The image of Old Comedy that emerges from this time is that of a genre in transition. It was, on the one hand, with the exception of Aristophanes' extant plays, on the verge of being almost completely lost; on the other hand, its reputation and several of its most characteristic elements were being renegotiated and reinvented.

Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff's collaboration on this new translation combines the strengths that have recently distinguished both as translators of Greek tragedy: expert knowledge of the Greek and of the needs of the teaching classicist, intimate knowledge of theatre, and an excellent ear for the spoken word. Their Oedipus Tyrannus features foot-of-the-page notes, an Introduction, stage directions and a translation characterized by its clarity, accuracy, and power.

Livy (Titus Livius), the great Roman historian, was born at Patavium (Padua) in 64 or 59 BC where after years in Rome he died in AD 12 or 17. Livy's history, composed as the imperial autocracy of Augustus was replacing the republican system that had stood for over 500 years, presents in splendid style a vivid narrative of Rome's rise from the traditional foundation of the city in 753 or 751 BC to 9 BC and illustrates the collective and individual virtues necessary to achieve and maintain such greatness. Of its 142 books, conventionally divided into pentads and decads, we have 1-10 and 21-45 complete, and short summaries (periochae) of all the rest except 41 and 43-45; 11-20 are lost, and of the rest only fragments and the summaries remain. The third decad constitutes our fullest surviving account of the momentous Second Punic (or Hannibalic) War, and comprises two recognizable pentads: Books 21-25 narrate the run-up to conflict and Rome's struggles in its first phase, with Hannibal dominant; Books 26-30 relate Rome's revival and final victory, as the focus shifts to Scipio Africanus. This edition replaces the original Loeb edition by Frank Gardner Moore.

Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance and a leading figure in Florence during the Age of the Medici. His poetry, composed in a variety of meters, includes epigrams, elegies, and verse epistles, as well as translations of Hellenistic Greek poets. Among the first Latin poets of the Renaissance to be inspired by Homer and the poems of Greek Anthology, Poliziano's verse also reflects his deep study of Catullus, Martial, and Statius. It ranges from love songs to funeral odes, from prayers to hymns, from invectives directed against his rivals to panegyrics of his teachers, artists, fellow humanists, and his great patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, "il Magnifico." The present volume includes all of Poliziano's Greek and Latin poetry (with the exception of the Silvae, published in 2004 as ITRL 14), all translated into English for the first time.

Ausonius provides translations of the key works of Ausonius, an important later Latin poet whose poems detail the social and cultural life of Gaul and its environment. His often difficult and playful Latin is presented in English by the award winning poet Deborah Warren, enabling a new generation of students to use and understand the poems. With notes and commentary throughout, this volume will be important not only as an example of later Latin poetry but also as a window onto the Later Roman Empire and the beginnings of early Christian writing.

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.

Studies on the Text of Suetonius' De uita Caesarum is a companion volume to the critical edition of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars in the Oxford Classical Texts series, edited by Robert Kaster. It provides detailed insight into the research and textual analysis behind the edition. Part I presents the first comprehensive and accurate account of the medieval manuscript tradition (ninth to thirteenth centuries) on which the Oxford Classical Text is based, and Part II analyses hundreds of passages where a variety of textual problems are encountered, often offering new solutions. Four appendices provide additional support to the arguments of Part I, while a fifth lists all the places (just over 300) where the new text differs from the edition by Maximilian Ihm that has been the standard since 1907.

Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum - Ad principem ineruditum - An seni sit gerenda res publica - Praecepta gerendae rei publicae - De tribus rei publicae generibus - De vitando aere alieno.

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.

The historian Polybius (ca. 200 118 BCE) was born into a leading family of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese (Morea) 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 he became a trusted mediator between Greece and the Romans; 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 great work: accurate, thoughtful, largely impartial, based on research, and full of insight into customs, institutions, geography, the causes of events, and the character of peoples. 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.