Theocritus (early third century BCE), born in Syracuse and also active on Cos and at Alexandria, was the inventor of the bucolic genre. Like his contemporary Callimachus, Theocritus was a learned poet who followed the aesthetic, developed a generation earlier by Philitas of Cos (LCL 508), of refashioning traditional literary forms in original ways through tightly organized and highly polished work on a small scale (thus the traditional generic title Idylls: "little forms"). Although Theocritus composed in a variety of genres or generic combinations, including encomium, epigram, hymn, mime, and epyllion, he is best known for the poems set in the countryside, mostly dialogues or song-contests, that combine lyric tone with epic meter and the Doric dialect of his native Sicily to create an idealized and evocatively described pastoral landscape, whose lovelorn inhabitants, presided over by the Nymphs, Pan, and Priapus, use song as a natural mode of expression. The bucolic/pastoral genre was developed by the second and third members of the Greek bucolic canon, Moschus (fl. mid second century BCE, also from Syracuse) and Bion (fl. some fifty years later, from Phlossa near Smyrna), and remained vital through Greco-Roman antiquity and into the modern era. This edition of Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion, together with the so-called "pattern poems" included in the bucolic tradition, replaces the earlier Loeb Classical Library edition by J. M. Edmonds (1912), using the critical texts of Gow (1952) and Gallavotti (1993) as a base and providing a fresh translation with ample annotation.

This book is an anthology of Greek poetry written during the third to first centuries BC, the Hellenistic period. It is intended to make available to undergraduates and graduate students a selection of texts which are for the most part not easily accessible elsewhere. The volume contains a wide and representative range of poetry including hymns, didactic verse, pastoral poetry, epigrams and epic. An introduction provides cultural and historical background, and a full commentary elucidates problems of language and reference in the texts. In this second edition, many notes have been rewritten and the bibliography has been updated. The selection has also been augmented with three hundred more lines of Greek text (Theocritus poems 5 and 15), and is now more than 2000 lines in length.

Lucian of Samosata is one of the most brilliant and wide-ranging writers from antiquity, and yet few commentaries are available for those who wish to read Lucian in Greek. This edition presents a selection of rhetorical and satirical works in the original Greek illustrating his range, wit and literary sophistication. Texts include both more and less well-known texts such as The Dream, The Fly, Timon, A Literary Prometheus, Sigma versus Tau and Dialogues of the Sea-Gods. The Introduction discusses his place in the Second Sophistic and his relationship to Cynic philosophy, and each section of commentary is preceded by a literary appraisal. The commentary is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Lucian of Samosata is one of the most brilliant and wide-ranging writers from antiquity, and yet few commentaries are available for those who wish to read Lucian in Greek. This edition presents a selection of rhetorical and satirical works in the original Greek illustrating his range, wit and literary sophistication. Texts include both more and less well-known texts such as The Dream, The Fly, Timon, A Literary Prometheus, Sigma versus Tau and Dialogues of the Sea-Gods. The Introduction discusses his place in the Second Sophistic and his relationship to Cynic philosophy, and each section of commentary is preceded by a literary appraisal. The commentary is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Callimachus was one of the most important and influential writers in the ancient world. He was the outstanding poet of the Hellenistic period, and had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Greek and Roman literature. The hymns are intricate, allusive and difficult poetry, and need elucidation for the modern reader. Dr Hopkinson has established a new text of Callimachus' Sixth Hymn, The Hymn to Demeter, which is printed here with a facing English translation. In his thorough analysis of the poem it is the editor's aim to show how Callimachus adapts and borrows from Homer and other early poetry to form a new type of poetic diction. The introduction has full discussions of the poem's ritual setting, of its extraordinary inset narrative, and of Callimachus' treatment of dialect and metre. The extensive commentary elucidates difficulties in the text and treats critical, linguistic and stylistic points with reference to the Latin and later Greek hexameter writers. This is the first full edition of and commentary on the work in English. It will be welcomed by Greek scholars and those interested in Greek and Roman poetry.

This volume presents the Latin text, with an Introduction and full commentary, of Book XIII of the Roman poet Ovid's long work Metamorphoses. It discusses in detail Ovid's treatment of his sources and sets out the ways in which he adapted earlier literature as material for his novel enterprise. Guidance is offered on points of language and style, and the Introduction treats in general terms the themes of metamorphosis and the structure of the poem as a whole.

Callimachus was one of the most important and influential writers in the ancient world. He was the outstanding poet of the Hellenistic period, and had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Greek and Roman literature. The hymns are intricate, allusive and difficult poetry, and need elucidation for the modern reader. Dr Hopkinson has established a new text of Callimachus' Sixth Hymn, The Hymn to Demeter, which is printed here with a facing English translation. In his thorough analysis of the poem it is the editor's aim to show how Callimachus adapts and borrows from Homer and other early poetry to form a new type of poetic diction. The introduction has full discussions of the poem's ritual setting, of its extraordinary inset narrative, and of Callimachus' treatment of dialect and metre. The extensive commentary elucidates difficulties in the text and treats critical, linguistic and stylistic points with reference to the Latin and later Greek hexameter writers. This is the first full edition of and commentary on the work in English. It will be welcomed by Greek scholars and those interested in Greek and Roman poetry.

This book contains a selection of pagan Greek poetic texts ranging in date from the first to the sixth century A.D. It makes easily accessible for the first time work by poets hitherto neglected in Classical syllabuses. Genres represented include epic, epyllion, didactic, epigram, lyric and the verse fable. There is a brief general introduction, and in addition each section of detailed commentary is prefaced by a discussion of literary aspects of the poems and of their wider contexts.