The aim of this book is to make Lucian's A True Story accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. Lucian's A True Story is a great text for intermediate readers. Its breathless narrative does not involve many complex sentences or constructions; there is some unusual vocabulary and a few departures from Attic Greek, but for the most part it is a straightforward narrative that is fun and interesting by one of antiquity's cleverest authors. In A True Story, Lucian parodies accounts of fanciful adventures and travel to incredible places by authors such as Ctesias and Iambulus. The story's combination of mockery and learning makes it an excellent example of the Greek literature of the imperial period.

The aim of this book is to make Hippocrates' On Airs, Waters and Places and the Hippocratic Oath accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. Hippocrates' On Airs, Waters and Places is a great text for intermediate readers. The simple sentence structure makes it easy to read, while its subject matter, the impact of climate on disease and character, is interesting for a number of reasons. The presentation falls roughly into two halves, the first detailing various environmental factors that contribute to specific diseases, the second more ethnographic in its account of the differences between Asians and Europeans as a function of their environment and customs.

The aim of this book is to make three of the Roman physician Galen's shorter works (On my Own Books, On the Order of my Own Books, and That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher) accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and grammatical commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. Although Galen can be a little difficult at times, his language gets easier and more predictable with practice, and these three works are a great introduction to this fascinating figure. They are not strictly speaking medical works, but reflections on his own work and thought that throw extraordinary light on the relationship of the medical profession in antiquity to wider currents of thought in the brilliant period of Greek literature known as the "second sophistic."

The aim of this book is to make Lucian's On the Syrian Goddess accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. On the Syrian Goddess is a great text for intermediate readers. The simple sentence structure and straightforward presentation make it easy and enjoyable to read, while its subject matter, the cult and sanctuary of Atargatis in Hierapolis, is interesting at many levels. The author recounts personal observations about the worship of this Near Eastern goddess, whose cult included numerous exotic practices, such as temple prostitution and self-castration. There is a version of the Near Eastern flood story as well as unusual versions of myths familiar from Greek mythology. In addition, the author has crafted a careful imitation of the Ionic prose of Herodotus, a dialect that existed only as a literary artifact at the time of the work's composition.

The aim of this book is to make Lucian's The Ass accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. The Ass is a great intermediate Greek text. The narrative is fast-paced and funny, and the language is fairly simple and easy to follow. Unlike its better-known Latin relative, Apuleius' Golden Ass, Lucian's The Ass is an unpretentious satirical text that tells a funny story in a casual and light-hearted manner. There is little moralizing or didacticism in the story, and unlike the hero of Apuleius's version of the story, there is no religious or philosophical illumination at the end. The final episode is a funny twist of events completely in tune with the tenor of the rest of the novel. There is a hilarious love-making episode with lots of double-entendre, and other episodes that portray the doings of various low-life characters who are rarely present in ancient literature at all. Thieves, religious charlatans, witches, millers, servants, soldiers and bakers all find a place in this strange story of chance and magic.