This volume offers a wide selection of Theocritus "Idylls" and a number of the "Epigrams" assisgned to him in Greek Anthology. It includes most of the poems usually considered authentically Theocritean. Basing himself firmly on the definitive and extensive commentary of A.S.F. Gow, the author seeks to assist readers in coping with the difficulties they are likely to encounter on first aquaintance with the poet -- his dialect, his large (especially botanical and zoological) vocabulary, his typically Hellenistic wealth of allusion to earlier Greek literature, and the difficulties of interpreting what Dover refders to as his 'emotional temperature'. The aim of the Introduction and Commentary is to enable readers to read Theocritus for the first time; to help them understand what the Greek means not only in terms of translation from one language into another but also in terms of literary, mythological, ethical and sensory associations. This is 'sine qua non' for reading Theocritus.

Professor Dover's newest book is designed for those who are interested in the history of comedy as an art form but who are not necessarily familiar with the Greek language. The eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes are treated as representative of a genre. "Old Attic Comedy", which was artistically and intellectually homogeneous and gave expression to the spirit of Athenian society in the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C. Aristophanes is regarded primarily not as a reformer or propagandist but as a dramatist who sought, in competition with his rivals, to win the esteem both of the general public and of the cultivated and critical minority. He succeeded in this effort by making people laugh, and the book pays more attention than has generally been paid to the technical means, whether of language or of situation, on which Aristophanes' humor depends. Particular emphasis is laid on his indifference - positively assisted by the physical limitations of the Greek theatre and the conditions of the Athenian dramatic festivals - to the maintenance of continuous 'dramatic illusion' or to the provision of a dramatic event with the antecedents and consequences which might logically be expected. More importance is attached to Aristophanes' adoption of popular attitudes and beliefs, to his creation of uninhibited characters with which the spectators could identify themselves, and to his acceptance of the comic poet's traditional role as a mordant but jocular critic of morals, than to any identifiable and consistent elements in his political standpoint.

What was 'comic' about Aristophanes' comedies? For those approaching Aristophanes without a knowledge of Greek, Sir Kenneth Dover's companion to "Clouds" and Simon Tremmewan's to "Acharnians" and "Lysistrata" provide an insight into the characteristically Greek elements of comedy which can be lost when reading in translation. They also address the serious issues and criticisms which Aristophanes presents all the more effectively through comedy, and give interesting notes on the treatment which the translation gives to the original Greek.