Series
Mnemosyne, Supplements
Book
Volume 492 in this series
This is the first collection of essays approaching aspects of Greek antiquity and its reception through ‘necropolitics’. It discovers traces of necropolitics in the unburied and maltreated corpses of the Homeric epics; it follows the manifestations of necropower in Greek tragedy, historiography, and biography; and it delves into torture, capital punishment, and non-normative burials in the ancient Greek world. It contributes to the debate - much of which is only available in modern Greek - on recent archaeological evidence, notably the iron-bound individuals discovered in the Athenian suburb of Phaleron, and includes a captivating exploration of necropolitics in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Greek-tragedy-inspired cinema.
Book
Volume 489 in this series
Apollonius represents a crucial link in the epic tradition spanning Homer and Vergil, but arrestingly, his epic Argonautica rather begins and ends in the style of a Homeric Hymn. This book contends that Apollonius thus frames his poem as an innovative synthesis of both branches of his Homeric inheritance: an “epic hymn” that simultaneously commemorates its protagonists’ glorious deeds and venerates them in their religious capacity as divinized cult heroes. This study—the first-ever in-depth investigation of Apollonius’ profound engagement with the hymnic Homer—promises to reorient scholarly understandings of the Argonautica’s novel narrative strategies, its inclusive conception of heroism, and indeed, its very generic affiliations.
Book
Volume 488 in this series
In his Memos for the Next Millennium, the Italian writer Italo Calvino identified five literary qualities that should accompany writers and readers into the literature of the future: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity. Though never finished, the Memos continue to inspire readers and scholars. This volume turns three of Calvino’s poetic qualities – lightness, quickness, multiplicity – into powerful hermeneutic strategies for reading ancient and late antique texts, ranging widely from Homer’s Iliad to Claudian’s carmina minora. It is the first book to read ancient literature through the lens of Calvino’s Memos, thus fostering a new discussion of the interactions between modern and ancient texts as well as between methodologies.
Book
Open Access
Volume 484 in this series
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Die vorliegende Monographie entwirft eine literaturgeschichtliche Gesamtdarstellung des römischen Antiquarianismus vom 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis zum 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr. Ausgangspunkt ist die begrifflich-konzeptuelle Neuprofilierung des Phänomens. Dieses wird als ein epistemologisches Modell gegenwartsbezogener Vergangenheitsanalyse aufgefasst, die mit den Denkfiguren der Etymologie, Aitiologie und Genealogie operiert, um die hinter der erfahrbaren Lebenswelt liegenden Kausalitäten freizulegen. Anhand der überlieferten Fragmente und Testimonien wird die Entwicklung der heute verlorenen antiquarischen Fachliteratur Roms in ihren unterschiedlichen medialen Formaten, Darstellungsformen und Wirkungskontexten nachgezeichnet. This volume provides an account of Roman antiquarianism from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD, reconstructing its textual manifestations and analysing the mechanisms of transmission. It is based on a new conceptualisation of antiquarianism as an epistemological mode of understanding the present by uncovering its origins in the past. Etymology, aitiology and genealogy were the tools used to explore the causalities that underpin the perceptible world. Antiquarianism, represented by a wide range of texts and genres throughout antiquity, is traced as an autonomous branch of literature. Fragments and testimonies are used to identify a lost corpus of treatises, lexica and handbooks that formed the scholarly basis of Augustan poets, historiographers and imperial litterateurs.
Book
Volume 482 in this series
Heracles in Early Greek Epic examines the protean nature of the greatest Greek hero, Heracles in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry, as well as in fragmentary epics such as Creophylus’ Oichalias Halosis, Pisander’s Heracleia, and Panyassis’ Heracleia. Several contributors explore Heracles’ associations with heroes in Near-Eastern literature and reflections in early epic about his involvement in the first sack of Troy, the tale of Hesione and the ketos, the war against the Meropes on Cos, and the sack of Oechalia. Other contributors study his role in other Archaic and Classical epics such as those written by Creophylus, Pisander, and Panyassis.
Book
Volume 481 in this series
How did ancient Greeks and Romans regard work? It has long been assumed that elite thinkers disparaged physical work, and that working people rarely commented on their own labors. The papers in this volume challenge these notions by investigating philosophical, literary and working people’s own ideas about what it meant to work. From Plato’s terminology of labor to Roman prostitutes’ self-proclaimed pride in their work, these chapters find ancient people assigning value to multiple different kinds of work, and many different concepts of labor.
Book
Volume 480 in this series
This volume presents a new account, informed by recent scholarship on ancient narrative fiction, of a world that calls to mind the scenes of the Palestrina mosaic, with ships traversing the Nile delta, hippopotamus hunting, religious processions and festivities, and leizurely sightseeing. The commentary argues that the author was most probably an erudite Alexandrian with a polymathic interest in topics as diverse as the arrival of the phoenix in Heliopolis, contemporary art, medical theories of the function of blood in causing psychological imbalances in the young, herbal remedies for poisoning, and the colour of Nile water in glass.
Book
Volume 477 in this series
How Latin philosophical vocabulary developed through the translation of Greek sources, the varieties of translation practices Roman philosophers favoured, and how these practices evolved over time are the overarching themes of this monograph. A first of its kind, this comparative study analyzes the creation of philosophical vocabulary in Lucretius, Cicero, Apuleius, Calcidius, and Boethius. It highlights a Latin literary tradition in which the dominance of Greek philosophical expression was challenged and renovated over time through the individual translation choices of different Latin authors. Included are full glossaries of Latin and Greek philosophical terms with explanatory notes for the reader.
Book
Open Access
Volume 476 in this series
The ancient commentaries and scholia to Cicero’s speeches have hitherto received relatively little scholarly attention. This volume is dedicated to Asconius’ first-century commentary and the corpora of the scholia stemming from the 4th-7th centuries (Bobbio, ps.-Asconius, and Gronovius). It shows the specific interpretative challenges of these corpora and offers interpretative case studies. Furthermore, it contextualizes the corpora within the learning and learned environment of their time, by contrasting them with rhetorical teaching (via the transmission of Cicero on papyri and his presence in the Rhetores Latini minores) and other ancient commentaries (on Homer and Demosthenes).
Book
Volume 475 in this series
The cryptic figure of the cinaedus recurs in both the literature and daily life of the Roman world. His afterlife – the equally cryptic catamite – appears to be well and alive as late as Victorian England. But who was the cinaedus? Should we think of a real group of individuals, or is the term but a scare name to keep at bay any form of threating otherness? This book, the first coherent collection of essays on the topic, addresses the matter and fleshes out the complexity of a debate that concerns not only Roman cinaedi but the foundations of our theoretical approach to the study of ancient sexuality.
Book
Volume 474 in this series
Friendship (philia) is a complex and multi-faceted concept that is frequently attested in ancient Greek literature and thought. It is also an important social phenomenon and an institution that features in classical Greek social, cultural, and intellectual history. This collected volume seeks to complement the extensive modern scholarship on this topic by shedding light on complementary representations, nuances and tensions of friendship in a range of different sources, literary, epigraphic, and visual. It offers a broad overview of the contours of this important social phenomenon and helps the reader get a glimpse of its depth and richness.
Book
Volume 473 in this series
Josephus war ein Historiker mit jüdischer Identität und einem hellenistisch geprägten Bewusstein. Er schuf sein Werk auf klassischer Grundlage und bewegte sich damit bewusst zwischen Judentum und Hellenismus. Er versuchte, durch das jüdisch-hellenistische Labyrinth seinen eigenen Weg zu finden. Inwieweit hat Josephus seine eigene ethnische Identität als Jude respektiert? Inwieweit verdient ein Protegé des Kaisers die Kennzeichnung als kritischer Historiker? Der lange Schatten von Thukydides fällt schwer auf sein Werk, deshalb lassen sich viele stilistische und motivische Parallelen entdecken. Die Rezeption des Thukydides durch Josephus stellt eine wichtige Quelle für die Geschichte der Verbreitung des thukydideischen Werks im ersten Jahrhundert n. Chr. dar.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
Book
Volume 472 in this series
Apuleius’ Golden Ass and the Lucianic Loukios, or the Ass depend on and play with readers’ familiarity with the clear patterns of Greek and Roman stories of metamorphosis. The formulaic nature of these stories suggests that the appearance of a god at the end of the Golden Ass is unsurprising and that the end of the Loukios is more innovative. This context also sheds new light on the function of the Cupid and Psyche story, the meaning of these works’ titles, and the lost Metamorphoseis on which they are both based and of which the Golden Ass is a translation.
Book
Volume 470 in this series
Die nach dem Untergang Neros, dem Vierkaiserjahr und dem Aufstieg Vespasians entstandenen Argonautica des Valerius Flaccus weisen bedeutsame Unterschiede zu früheren Fassungen des Argonautenmythos auf. Die vorliegende Monographie untersucht, welche Bedeutungshorizonte die Vermischung von Eroberungsfahrt und Bürgerkrieg, die Zeichnung von Herrschern und Tyrannen und die beunruhigende Darstellung der Götter in diesem Epos im ursprünglichen Rezeptionskontext entfalten konnten. Die vorgeschlagenen Interpretationen erweisen die Argonautica als Gedicht, das eine positive Bewertung der Herrschaft Vespasians nahelegt, aber in ambivalenter Weise offenlässt, ob das flavische Rom eher einer unbegrenzten Friedenszeit oder einem weiteren Bürgerkrieg entgegensteuert.
Written in the aftermath of Nero’s downfall, the Year of the Four Emperors and the rise of Vespasian, Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica departs significantly from earlier treatments of the Argonautic myth. This monograph explores how the epic’s fusion of foreign conquest with civil war, its depiction of rulers and tyrants, and its disconcerting portrayal of the gods may have resonated with its contemporary audience. The proposed readings suggest that the poem reflects approval of Vespasian’s rule, yet ambiguously leaves open the question of whether the future of Flavian Rome will hold everlasting peace or another civil war.
Written in the aftermath of Nero’s downfall, the Year of the Four Emperors and the rise of Vespasian, Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica departs significantly from earlier treatments of the Argonautic myth. This monograph explores how the epic’s fusion of foreign conquest with civil war, its depiction of rulers and tyrants, and its disconcerting portrayal of the gods may have resonated with its contemporary audience. The proposed readings suggest that the poem reflects approval of Vespasian’s rule, yet ambiguously leaves open the question of whether the future of Flavian Rome will hold everlasting peace or another civil war.
Book
Open Access
Volume 469 in this series
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Ce livre propose une étude intertextuelle des descriptions d’aurores et de crépuscules dans la Thébaïde de Stace. Les images poétiques de l’Aurore aux doigts de rose ou du char solaire plongeant dans l’Océan cachent un travail minutieux sur la tradition littéraire antérieure. Les remarquables aurores et crépuscules de la Thébaïde illustrent parfaitement la façon dont les caractéristiques traditionnelles du motif peuvent être détournées pour transmettre un nouveau message. Chaque chapitre de cet ouvrage examine en détail un des aspects lié aux aurores et aux crépuscules : expressions formulaires, rôle structurant, fonction lumineuse et temporelle, potentiel métaphorique.
This book offers an intertextual study of dawn and dusk descriptions in Statius’ Thebaid. Poetic images such as rosy-fingered Dawn and the fiery chariot of the Sun sinking into the Ocean are the result of learned work on the previous literary tradition. The striking dawn and dusk descriptions in the Thebaid offer a perfect illustration of the way in which the traditional characteristics of the motif can be remodelled to produce new meaning. Each chapter in this monograph examines one of the aspects associated with dawns and dusks: formulaic diction, structuring role, relation to time and light, allegory.
Ce livre propose une étude intertextuelle des descriptions d’aurores et de crépuscules dans la Thébaïde de Stace. Les images poétiques de l’Aurore aux doigts de rose ou du char solaire plongeant dans l’Océan cachent un travail minutieux sur la tradition littéraire antérieure. Les remarquables aurores et crépuscules de la Thébaïde illustrent parfaitement la façon dont les caractéristiques traditionnelles du motif peuvent être détournées pour transmettre un nouveau message. Chaque chapitre de cet ouvrage examine en détail un des aspects lié aux aurores et aux crépuscules : expressions formulaires, rôle structurant, fonction lumineuse et temporelle, potentiel métaphorique.
This book offers an intertextual study of dawn and dusk descriptions in Statius’ Thebaid. Poetic images such as rosy-fingered Dawn and the fiery chariot of the Sun sinking into the Ocean are the result of learned work on the previous literary tradition. The striking dawn and dusk descriptions in the Thebaid offer a perfect illustration of the way in which the traditional characteristics of the motif can be remodelled to produce new meaning. Each chapter in this monograph examines one of the aspects associated with dawns and dusks: formulaic diction, structuring role, relation to time and light, allegory.
Book
Volume 467 in this series
How was the unique character of the island of Cyprus perceived in antiquity? This volume aims to engage with this question by examining references to Cyprus in ancient texts and by exploring authors connected to the island. The readers can thus find literary interpretations on a wide range of Greek and Latin texts focusing on Cyprus by world-leading Classical scholars, which will cast further light on the literary and cultural tradition of the island. The book promises to motivate further exploration of these topics and of the influence of a place in ancient literature and beyond.
Book
Volume 466 in this series
Ovid’s Fasti offers multifocal views of Augustan religion to convey ambivalences, inconsistencies and paradoxes in the imperial family’s religious agenda. Darja Šterbenc Erker explores Ovid's irreverent and ambiguous presentations of calendrical aeitiologies, deifications and imperial gods that humorously call to mind Arachne’s tapestry depicting faulty gods and that stand in sharp contrast to the poet’s more serious discussions of the values he cherishes, such as freedom and poetic immortality. Especially in the exilic revisions of the poem, Ovid emphasises the motif of bestowing divine honours upon mortals through poetry. For him, the stars in the heavens do not represent deified statesmen but immortal authors.
Book
Open Access
Volume 465 in this series
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Death, the ultimate change, is an unexpected Leitmotiv of Ovid’s career and reception. The eighteen contributions collected in this volume explore the theme of death and transfiguration in Ovid’s own career and his posthumous reception, revealing a unity in diversity that has not been appreciated in these terms before now.
Death, the ultimate change, is an unexpected Leitmotiv of Ovid’s career and reception. The eighteen contributions collected in this volume explore the theme of death and transfiguration in Ovid’s own career and his posthumous reception, revealing a unity in diversity that has not been appreciated in these terms before now.
Book
Open Access
Volume 464 in this series
The Silvae by Statius dethroned Virgil from the Studio in Naples, fostered the creation of a new genre, offered a model for court poetry, and seduced the most prestigious Humanists in the most vibrant centres of Renaissance Italy and the Netherlands. The collection preserves magnificent buildings otherwise lost; speaks of stones otherwise unknown; and memorializes people, rituals, and social relationships that would have passed into oblivion in silence. This volume offers a fresh look into approaches to the Silvae by editors and commentators, both at the time of the rediscovery of the poems and today.
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Volume 462 in this series
The fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid is the shortest of his epic, and yet it has had an inestimable influence. The tragedy of Dido is replete with allusions to the Medeas of Euripides, Apollonius, and Ennius, as well as to Catullus’ Ariadne and the historical Cleopatra of Virgil’s Augustan Age. The book has intratextual connections to the poet’s own fourth Georgic (as he revisits the topic of apian regeneration and the loss of Eurydice), even as it confronts the reality of Rome’s bloody history with Carthage. The present volume offers the first full-scale commentary on the book in over eighty years, together with a new critical text that reflects recent scholarship on significant difficulties.
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Volume 460 in this series
This first in-depth study of Valerius Flaccus’ animals reveals their role in his poetic programme and the manifold ways in which he establishes their subjectivity. In one encounter, a trapped bird becomes a tragic victim, while the trapper is dehumanized. Elsewhere there are touching portrayals of animal/human camaraderie and friendship. Furthermore, Valerius’ provocative consideration of the ‘monstrous’ challenges simplistic definitions of any being’s nature, or the nature of relationships across species. His challenge entails profound ethical implications for his Roman readership, which resonate with us as we assess our own relationship to animals and the natural world today.
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Volume 458 in this series
The aim of this volume is to study Silius’ poem as an important step in the development of the Roman historical epic tradition. The Punica is analyzed as transitional segment between the beginnings of Roman literature in the Republican age (Naevius and Ennius) and Claudian’s panegyrical epic in late antiquity, shedding light on its ‘inclusiveness’ and its peculiar, internal dialectic between antiquarian taste and problematic actualization. This is an innovative attempt to connect epic poems and authors belonging to different ages, to frame the development of the literary genre, according to its specific aims and interests throughout the centuries.
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Volume 455 in this series
What is the role of Hesiod’s poetry in the beginnings of Greek philosophy? This book explores the question by going beyond the traditional responses that stress either continuities or discontinuities between myth and philosophy. Instead, this volume attempts a reflexive or response-oriented approach, that highlights the active re-appropriation and renewal of Hesiodic thought by the Presocratic philosophers. Its fifteen contributions offer large scale comparisons, historiographical considerations, thematic and generic approaches, and detailed case studies.
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Volume 452 in this series
This monograph examines the literary representation of encounters between the living and the dead in Homer and the Roman epic poets of the early imperial period. The focus is on one particular situation: a witness to the afterlife (e.g. Odysseus or the Sibyl) who narrates encounters with the dead that he or she cannot (it would appear) actually have seen. This insufficiently studied and intriguing motif, namely seemingly impossible eye-witness testimony, can already be traced in Homer and then with variations in Vergil, the Culex poet, Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Statius.
Die vorliegende Monographie untersucht die literarische Gestaltung von Begegnungen zwischen Lebenden und Toten bei Homer und den römischen Epikern der frühen Kaiserzeit. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei eine besondere Situation: Ein Jenseitszeuge (z.B. Odysseus oder die Sibylle) berichtet von Begegnungen mit Toten, die er oder sie (scheinbar) nicht gesehen haben kann. Dieses unzureichend erforschte und faszinierende Motiv, nämlich die scheinbar unmögliche Autopsie, lässt sich bereits bei Homer und dann in Variationen bei Vergil, dem Culex-Dichter, Lucan, Silius Italicus und Statius nachweisen.
Die vorliegende Monographie untersucht die literarische Gestaltung von Begegnungen zwischen Lebenden und Toten bei Homer und den römischen Epikern der frühen Kaiserzeit. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei eine besondere Situation: Ein Jenseitszeuge (z.B. Odysseus oder die Sibylle) berichtet von Begegnungen mit Toten, die er oder sie (scheinbar) nicht gesehen haben kann. Dieses unzureichend erforschte und faszinierende Motiv, nämlich die scheinbar unmögliche Autopsie, lässt sich bereits bei Homer und dann in Variationen bei Vergil, dem Culex-Dichter, Lucan, Silius Italicus und Statius nachweisen.
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Volume 451 in this series
Emotions are at the core of much ancient literature, from Achilles’ heartfelt anger in Homer’s Iliad to the pangs of love of Virgil’s Dido. This volume applies a narratological approach to emotions in a wide range of texts and genres. It seeks to analyze ways in which emotions such as anger, fear, pity, joy, love and sadness are portrayed. Furthermore, using recent insights from affective narratology, it studies ways in which ancient narratives evoke emotions in their readers. The volume is dedicated to Irene de Jong for her groundbreaking research into the narratology of ancient literature.
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Volume 450 in this series
In ancient didactic poetry, poets frequently make use of imagery – similes, metaphors, acoustic images, models, exempla, fables, allegory, personifications, and other tropes – as a means to elucidate and convey their didactic message. In this volume, which arose from an international conference held at the University of Heidelberg in 2016, we investigate such phenomena and explore how they make the unseen visible, the unheard audible, and the unknown comprehensible. By exploring didactic poets from Hesiod to pseudo-Oppian and from Vergil and Lucretius to Grattius and Ovid, the authors in this collective volume show how imagery can clarify and illuminate, but also complicate and even undermine or obfuscate the overt didactic message. The presence of a real or implied addressee invites our engagement and ultimately our scrutiny of language and meaning.
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Volume 449 in this series
Scholars have long noted the strikingly visual aspects of Statius’ poetry. This book advances our understanding of how these visual aspects work through intertextual analysis. In the Thebaid, for instance, Statius repeatedly presents “visual narratives” in the form of linked descriptive (or ekphrastic) passages. These narratives are subject to multiple forms visual interpretation inflected by the intertextual background. Similarly, the Achilleid activates particularly Roman conceptions of masculinity through repeated evocations of Achilles’ blush. The Silvae offer a diversity of modes of viewing that evoke Roman conceptions of gender and class.
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Volume 448 in this series
Speech in Ancient Greek Literature is the fifth volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. There is hardly any Greek narrative text without speech, which need not surprise in the literature of a culture which loved theatre and also invented the art of rhetoric. This book offers a full discussion of the types of speech, the modes of speech and their effective alternation, and the functions of speech from Homer to Heliodorus, including the Gospels. For the first time speech-introductions and ‘speech in speech’ are discussed across all genres. All chapters also pay attention to moments when characters do not speak.
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Volume 444 in this series
The Odyssey is ‘ein Epos des Raums’. As the narrative unfolds, a number of speculative spaces are made vivid before the eyes of the audience: the locus amoenus surrounding Calypso’s cave, Alcinous’ palace, the landscape of Ithaca, and not least Odysseus’ megaron. The present study argues that the representation of space in the Odyssey plays a much more important role in the epic’s narrative dynamics than is hitherto recognized. By drawing on different approaches to Homeric poetry aiming at profound literary interpretation, this book offers close reading of selected passages from the Odyssey, focusing on the linguistic form as well as the narrative function of the epic’s representation of space.
Die Odyssee ist 'ein Epos des Raums'. Während sich die Erzählung entfaltet, werden der Hörerschaft einige spekulative Räumlichkeiten vor Augen geführt: der locus amoenus um Kalypsos Höhle herum, Alkinoos' Palast, die Ithakalandschaft und nicht zuletzt die Halle des Odysseus. Das vorliegende Buch vertritt die These, dass die Raumdarstellung in der Odyssee eine erheblich wichtigere Rolle spielt als bisher erkannt worden ist. Sich auf verschiedene Ansätze stützend, die auf eine tiefgreifende literarische Interpretation homerischer Dichtung abzielen, bietet dieses Buch eine genaue Lektüre ausgewählter Passagen aus der Odyssee, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der sprachlichen Form sowie der narrativen Funktion der Raumdarstellung des Epos liegt.
Die Odyssee ist 'ein Epos des Raums'. Während sich die Erzählung entfaltet, werden der Hörerschaft einige spekulative Räumlichkeiten vor Augen geführt: der locus amoenus um Kalypsos Höhle herum, Alkinoos' Palast, die Ithakalandschaft und nicht zuletzt die Halle des Odysseus. Das vorliegende Buch vertritt die These, dass die Raumdarstellung in der Odyssee eine erheblich wichtigere Rolle spielt als bisher erkannt worden ist. Sich auf verschiedene Ansätze stützend, die auf eine tiefgreifende literarische Interpretation homerischer Dichtung abzielen, bietet dieses Buch eine genaue Lektüre ausgewählter Passagen aus der Odyssee, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der sprachlichen Form sowie der narrativen Funktion der Raumdarstellung des Epos liegt.
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Volume 443 in this series
In Ilias Latina. Text, Interpretation, and Reception, the contributors approach this short poem, whose appeal and importance have not been sufficiently appreciated, from a multitude of scholarly perspectives. The challenging synthesis of the different issues shows that both a new edition and a modern literary interpretation of the poem are needed. Particularly focusing in various ways on the technique of vertere, the papers concern four main issues: the different elements of the narration, such as macro- and microstructure, single Bauformen and motifs, characters and scenes; the intertextual allusions to Homer and the texts of the Roman poetic tradition; the literary genre, the explicitly metaliterary passages and the implicit narrative and poetic choices; the medieval reception of the Ilias Latina.
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Volume 442 in this series
This edited volume, arising from the 2019 conference “Orality and Literacy: Repetition,” explores some of the many forms and uses of repetition, in poetry, philosophy, and inscriptions, from Homeric epic through the Latin novel and the Gospels to reception in the twentieth century. All human communication depends on repeating signs that are comprehensible to the speaker and the addressee. Yet “repetition” takes many specific forms, in different performance contexts, time periods, and literary genres. Repetition may operate within one utterance, or across several times, places, and artists. The relationship between two repeated utterances cannot always be determined with certainty. But repetition offers exciting ways to understand the communicative process in oral and literate contexts across the ancient world.
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Volume 441 in this series
Lycurgus, the king of the Thracian tribe of the Edonians, is the hero of the first attested Greek myth about the resistance against the god Dionysus. According to many scholars, Lycurgus was worshipped as a god among the Thracians, Phrygians, and Syrians. His myth might have been used as a hieros logos in the initiations into the ‘Bacchic’ and ‘Orphic’ mysteries in Greece and Rome. This book focuses on Aeschylus’ tragic tetralogy Lycurgeia and Naevius’ tragedy Lycurgus, the two most important texts that shaped the tradition of the Lycurgus myth, and offers a new and, at times, radically different interpretation of these fragmentary plays and related cultural texts.
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Volume 439 in this series
Choreonarratives, a collection of essays by classicists, dance scholars, and dance practitioners, explores the uses of dance as a narrative medium. Case studies from Greek and Roman antiquity illustrate how dance contributed to narrative repertoires in their multimodal manifestations, while discussions of modern and contemporary dance shed light on practices, discourses, and ancient legacies regarding the art of dancing stories.
Benefitting from the crossover of different disciplinary, historical, and artistic perspectives, the volume looks beyond current narratological trends and investigates the manifold ways in which dance can acquire meaning, disclose storyworlds ranging from myths to individual life-stories, elicit the narratees’ responses, and generate powerful narratives of its own. Together, the eclectic approaches of Choreonarratives rethink dance’s capacity to tell, enrich, and inspire stories.
Contributors are Sophie M. Bocksberger, Iris J. Bührle, Marie-Louise Crawley, Samuel N. Dorf, Karin Fenböck, Susan L. Foster, Laura Gianvittorio-Ungar, Sarah Olsen, Lucia Ruprecht, Karin Schlapbach, Danuta Shanzer, Christina Thurner, Yana Zarifi-Sistovari, Bernhard Zimmermann
Benefitting from the crossover of different disciplinary, historical, and artistic perspectives, the volume looks beyond current narratological trends and investigates the manifold ways in which dance can acquire meaning, disclose storyworlds ranging from myths to individual life-stories, elicit the narratees’ responses, and generate powerful narratives of its own. Together, the eclectic approaches of Choreonarratives rethink dance’s capacity to tell, enrich, and inspire stories.
Contributors are Sophie M. Bocksberger, Iris J. Bührle, Marie-Louise Crawley, Samuel N. Dorf, Karin Fenböck, Susan L. Foster, Laura Gianvittorio-Ungar, Sarah Olsen, Lucia Ruprecht, Karin Schlapbach, Danuta Shanzer, Christina Thurner, Yana Zarifi-Sistovari, Bernhard Zimmermann
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Open Access
Volume 339 in this series
This is the third volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek narrative. It deals with the narratological category of space: how is space, including objects which function as 'props', presented in Greek narrative texts and what are its functions (thematic, symbolic, psychologising, or characterising)?How are longer descriptions organised and integrated into the story? Long deemed a mere ancilla narrationis, especially in narratives which precede the age of the realist novel, space turns out to play an important and multifaceted role in Greek literature.
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Open Access
Volume 291 in this series
This is the second volume in a series of volumes which together will provide an entirely new history of ancient Greek (narrative) literature. Its organization is formal rather than biographical. It traces the history of central narrative devices, such as the narrator and his narratees,time, focalization, characterization, and space. It offers not only analyses of the handling of such a device by individual authors, but also a larger historical perspective on the manner in which it changes over time and is put to different uses by different authors in different genres. The present volume deals with time: changes in the order of events (analepsis versus prolepsis), the speed of narration (events may be recounted scenically or in the form of a summary), and frequency (events may be recounted once, repeatedly, or not at all).
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Volume 495 in this series
Myths can be defined as traditional stories that societies pass on from generation to generation, constantly reinventing and reshaping them through oral, written or visual representations. Rituals and cults, on the other hand, are the festive celebrations that punctuate social life, providing the occasion for the community to perform and reflect on mythic stories or mimetic plays about or by gods and heroes. How do then the recent advances in narratology, sociolinguistics, and anthropology lead us to reconsider the complex relationships between myth and ritual in ancient traditional societies, both literate and non-literate? The papers in this groundbreaking volume explore and compare these dynamic interactions across diverse cultures, including archaic and classical Greece, the ancient Near East, and imperial Rome.
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This volume offers a narratological commentary on Digenis Akritis, a Byzantine heroic poem that blends epic and romance. How does the narrator shape the story? What roles do characters, space, and time play in creating meaning? In a detailed introduction followed by a linear commentary, Markéta Kulhánková answers these questions through a close reading of the poem’s structure and techniques. She also examines how Digenis Akritis engages with earlier traditions through imitation and transtextuality, while presenting a unique frontier hero. Offering clear, accessible tools for understanding Byzantine narrative, the book is an essential resource for students and scholars alike. It invites readers to view Digenis Akritis as both a product of its time and a timeless tale.
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Open Access
Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature is the fourth volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. The book deals with the narratological concepts of character and characterization and explores the textual devices used for purposes of characterization by ancient Greek authors spanning a large historical period (from Homer to Heliodorus) and a variety of literary genres (epic, elegy, historiography, choral lyric, drama, oratory, philosophy, biography, and novel). The book’s aim is not only to describe these devices, but also to investigate their effects and the implications of their use for our interpretation of the texts.
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The Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes of Krzysztof Nawotka is a guide to a third century AD fictional biography of Alexander the Great, the anonymous Historia Alexandri Magni. It is a historical commentary which identifies all names and places in this piece of Greek literature approached as a source for the history of Alexander the Great, from kings, like Nectanebo II of Egypt and Darius III of Persia, to fictional characters. It discusses real and imaginary geography of the Alexander Romance. While dealing with all aspects of Ps.-Callisthenes relevant to Greek history and to Macedonia, its pays particular attention to aspects of ancient history and culture of Babylonia and Egypt and to the multi-layered foundation story of Alexandria.
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Plato is well known both for the harsh condemnations of images and image-making poets that appear in his dialogues and for the vivid and intense imagery that he himself uses in his matchless prose. Through their resemblance to true reality, images have the power to move their viewers to action and to change themselves, but because of their distance from true reality, that power always remains problematic. Two recurrent problems addressed here are how an image resembles what it represents and how to avoid mistaking that image for what it represents. Plato and the Power of Images comprises twelve chapters on the ways Plato has used images, and the ways we could, or should, understand their status as images.
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The Theatre of Justice contains 17 chapters that offer a holistic view of performance in Greek and Roman oratorical and political contexts. This holistic view consists of the examination of two areas of techniques. The first one relates to the delivery of speeches and texts: gesticulation, facial expressions and vocal communication. The second area includes a wide diversity of techniques that aim at forging a rapport between the speaker and the audience, such as emotions, language and style, vivid imagery and the depiction of characters.
In this way the volume develops a better understanding of the objectives of public speaking, the mechanisms of persuasion, and the extent to which performance determined the outcome of judicial and political contests.
In this way the volume develops a better understanding of the objectives of public speaking, the mechanisms of persuasion, and the extent to which performance determined the outcome of judicial and political contests.
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Authorship and Greek Song is a collection of papers dealing with various aspects of authorship in the song culture of Ancient Greece. In this cultural context the idea of the poet as author of his poems is complicated by the fact that poetry in archaic Greece circulated as songs performed for a variety of audiences, both local and “global” (Panhellenic). The volume’s chapters discuss questions about the importance of the singers/performers; the nature of the performance occasion; the status of the poet; the authority of the poet/author and/or that of the performer; and the issues of authenticity arising when poems are composed under a given poet’s name. The volume offers discussions of major authors such as Pindar, Sappho, and Theognis.
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In The Textual Tradition of Plato's Timaeus and Critias, Gijsbert Jonkers provides new insights into the extant ancient and medieval evidence for the text of both Platonic dialogues. The discussions are set in the broader context of examinations in recent decades of the textual traditions of other individual Platonic works. Particularly the vast collection of testimonia of the Timaeus, one of Plato's most read, interpreted and discussed dialogues of all times, will be of interest for students of ancient philosophy, science and philology.
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Voice and Voices in Antiquity draws together 18 studies of the changing concept of voice and voices in the oral traditions and subsequent literate genres of the ancient world. Ranging from the poet's voice to those of characters as well as historically embodied communities, and from the interface between the Greek and Near Eastern worlds to the western reaches of the Roman Empire, the scholars assembled here offer a methodologically rich and diverse series of approaches to locating the power of voice as both poetic construct and communal memory. The results not only enrich our understanding of the strategies of epic, lyric, and dramatic voices but also illuminate the rhetorical claims given voice by historians, orators, philosophers, and novelists in the ancient world.
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This book involves a new historiographical study of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia that defines its relationship with fifth- and fourth-century historical works as well as its role as a source of Diodorus’ Bibliotheke. The traditional and common approach taken by those who studied the HO is primarily historical: scholars have focused on particular, often isolated, topics such as the question of the authorship, the historical perspective of the HO against other Hellenica from the 4th century BC. This book is unconventional in that it offers a study of the HO and fifth- and fourth-century historical works supported by papyrological enquiries and literary strategies, such as intertextuality and narratology, which will undoubtedly contribute to the progress of research in ancient historiography.
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Family in Flavian Epic examines the treatment of family bonds in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid, and Silius Italicus’ Punica. The eleven contributions consider the representation of epic parents, children, siblings, and spouses, and their interaction with each other, demonstrating the Flavian poets’ engagement with their epic, and more generally literary, tradition. At the same time, Roman attitudes towards the family and Flavian concerns especially related to dynastic harmony and civil war also characterise both historical and mythological members of Flavian epic families.
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‘Where am I?’. Our physical orientation in place is one of the defining characteristics of our embodied existence. However, while there is no human life, culture, or action without a specific location functioning as its setting, people go much further than this bare fact in attributing meaning and value to their physical environment. 'Landscape’ denotes this symbolic conception and use of terrain. It is a creation of human culture.
In Valuing Landscape we explore different ways in which physical environments impacted on the cultural imagination of Greco-Roman Antiquity. In seventeen chapters with different disciplinary perspectives, we demonstrate the values attached to mountains, the underworld, sacred landscapes, and battlefields, and the evaluations of locale connected with migration, exile, and travel.
In Valuing Landscape we explore different ways in which physical environments impacted on the cultural imagination of Greco-Roman Antiquity. In seventeen chapters with different disciplinary perspectives, we demonstrate the values attached to mountains, the underworld, sacred landscapes, and battlefields, and the evaluations of locale connected with migration, exile, and travel.
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Open Access
Retraction Notice: Postscript (March, 2021): The Publisher notifies the readers that Chapter 2 of this volume (Dirk Obbink, “Ten Poems of Sappho: Provenance, Authenticity, and Text of the New Sappho Papyri”) has been retracted. For more information please view the statement by the editors in the Retraction Notice in the front matter of this volume and on page 9 of the Introduction. The reasons for this retraction include the serious doubts that have been raised in the years following the publication of this edited volume about the provenance of the newest Sappho papyri (P. Sapph. Obbink and P GC. inv.105).
In The Newest Sappho Anton Bierl and André Lardinois have edited 21 papers of world-renowned Sappho scholars dealing with the new papyrus fragments of Sappho that were published in 2014. This set of papyrus fragments, the greatest find of Sappho fragments since the beginning of the 20th century, provides significant new readings and additions to five previously known songs of Sappho (frs. 5, 9, 16, 17 and 18), as well as the remains of four previously unknown songs, including the new Brothers Song and the Kypris Song. The contributors discuss the content of these poems as well as the consequence they have for our understanding of Sappho’s life and work.
In The Newest Sappho Anton Bierl and André Lardinois have edited 21 papers of world-renowned Sappho scholars dealing with the new papyrus fragments of Sappho that were published in 2014. This set of papyrus fragments, the greatest find of Sappho fragments since the beginning of the 20th century, provides significant new readings and additions to five previously known songs of Sappho (frs. 5, 9, 16, 17 and 18), as well as the remains of four previously unknown songs, including the new Brothers Song and the Kypris Song. The contributors discuss the content of these poems as well as the consequence they have for our understanding of Sappho’s life and work.
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Open Access
The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the Visual addresses the various modes of interaction between ancient Greek lyric poetry and the visual arts as well as more general notions of visuality. It covers diverse poetic genres in a range of contexts radiating outwards from the original performance(s) to encompass their broader cultural settings, the later reception of the poems, and finally also their understanding in modern scholarship. By focusing on the relationship between the visual and the verbal as well as the sensory and the mental, this volume raises a wide range of questions concerning human perception and cultural practices. As this collection of essays shows, Greek lyric poetry played a decisive role in the shaping of both.
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Despite the many studies of Greek comedy and tragedy separately, scholarship has generally neglected the relation of the two. And yet the genres developed together, were performed together, and influenced each other to the extent of becoming polar opposites. In Aristophanes and His Tragic Muse, Stephanie Nelson considers this opposition through an analysis of how the genres developed, by looking at the tragic and comic elements in satyr drama, and by contrasting specific Aristophanes plays with tragedies on similar themes, such as the individual, the polis, and the gods. The study reveals that tragedy’s focus on necessity and a quest for meaning complements a neglected but critical element in Athenian comedy: its interest in freedom, and the ambivalence of its incompatible visions of reality.
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In Hosios: A Semantic Study of Greek Piety Saskia Peels elucidates the semantics of the Ancient Greek adjective hosios and its cognates. Traditionally rendered as ‘piety’, hosios was a key notion in Classical Greek religion and reflected a core value in Athenian democracy. Since antiquity, its meaning and usage have puzzled many. This study sets out to resolve various scholarly debates on the semantics of hosios by focusing on the idea of lexical competition. It illuminates the semantic relationship between hosios and its near-synonyms eusebês and dikaios, and the connection to the notion of the ‘sacred’. Using insights from modern linguistic theory, the book also aims to improve methods for research into the lexical semantics of a dead language.
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How is it possible that modern scholars have labelled Maximus of Tyre, a second-century CE performer of philosophical orations, as a sophist or a ‘half-philosopher’, while his own self-presentation is that of a genuine philosopher? If we take Maximus’ claim to philosophical authority seriously, his case can deepen our understanding of the dynamic nature of Imperial philosophy. Through a discursive analysis of twelve Imperial intellectuals alongside Maximus’ dialexeis, the author proposes an interpretative framework to assess the purpose behind the representation of philosophy, rhetoric, and sophistry in Maximus’ oeuvre. This is thus as yet the first book-length attempt at situating the historical communication process implicit in the surviving Maximean texts in the concurrent context of the Imperial intellectual world.
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Ancient Greek hymns traditionally include a narrative section describing episodes from the hymned deity’s life. These narratives developed in parallel with epic and other narrative genres, and their study provides a different perspective on ancient Greek narrative. Within the hymn genre, the place and function of the narrative section changed over time and with different kinds of hymn (literary or cultic; religious, philosophical or magical). Hymnic Narrative and the Narratology of Greek Hymns traces developments in narrative in the hymn genre from the Homeric Hymns via Hellenistic and Imperial hymns to those in the Orphic tradition and in magical papyri, analysing them in narratological terms in order to place them in the wider context of ancient Greek narrative literature.
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Virgil’s Aeneid 5 has long been among the more neglected sections of the poet’s epic of Augustan Rome. Book 5 opens the second movement of the poem, the middle section of the Aeneid that sees the Trojans poised between the old world of Phrygia and the new destiny in Italy. The present volume fills a significant gap in Virgilian studies by offering the first full-scale commentary in any language on this key book in the explication of the poet’s grand consideration of the meaning of Trojan versus Roman identity. A new critical text (based on first hand examination of the manuscripts) is accompanied by a prose translation and detailed commentary. The notes provide in depth analysis of literary, historical, and lexical matters; the introduction situates Book 5 both in the context of the epic and the larger tradition of heroic poetry.
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Emotion in Action: Thucydides and the Tragic Chorus offers a new approach to the tragic chorus by examining how certain choruses ‘act’ on their shared feelings. Eirene Visvardi redefines choral action, analyzes choruses that enact fear and pity, and juxtaposes them to the Athenian dêmos in Thucydides’ History. Considered together, these texts undermine the sharp divide between emotion and reason and address a preoccupation that emerges as central in Athenian life: how to channel the motivational power of collective emotion into judicious action and render it conducive to cohesion and collective prosperity. Through their performance of emotion, tragic choruses raise the question of which collective voices deserve a hearing in the institutions of the polis and suggest diverse ways to envision passionate judgment and action.
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In Figures de l’épouvante grecques de l’antiquité au présent, Maria Patera examines an unfamiliar aspect of the Greek pedagogy of fear, illustrated by narratives about four Greek terrifying figures: Lamia, Mormô, Gellô and Empousa. These female bogeys belong to the children's world. Each of those figures provokes fear in a particular way, according to its own characteristics (metamorphosis, hybridity, cannibalism, etc.). By means of a diachronic comparison of the ancient figures with their Byzantine and modern Greek namesakes, each of them is assigned a proper position within its specific historical, cultural, and religious context.
Dans Figures de l’épouvante grecques de l’antiquité au présent, Maria Patera examine un aspect mal connu de la pédagogie grecque, celui de la peur, illustré à travers des récits principalement destinés aux enfants à propos des épouvantails Lamia, Mormô, Gellô et Empousa. Ces quatre figures féminines appartiennent aux chambres enfantines et aux contes de bonnes femmes. Chacune d’entre elles matérialise un aspect de l’épouvante à travers ses façons d’agir et ses traits caractéristiques (métamorphose, hybridité, anthropophagie, etc.). Un examen diachronique permet de comparer les personnages anciens à leurs homonymes byzantins et néo-grecs et de déterminer leurs fonctions respectives dans chaque contexte historique, religieux et culturel donné.
Dans Figures de l’épouvante grecques de l’antiquité au présent, Maria Patera examine un aspect mal connu de la pédagogie grecque, celui de la peur, illustré à travers des récits principalement destinés aux enfants à propos des épouvantails Lamia, Mormô, Gellô et Empousa. Ces quatre figures féminines appartiennent aux chambres enfantines et aux contes de bonnes femmes. Chacune d’entre elles matérialise un aspect de l’épouvante à travers ses façons d’agir et ses traits caractéristiques (métamorphose, hybridité, anthropophagie, etc.). Un examen diachronique permet de comparer les personnages anciens à leurs homonymes byzantins et néo-grecs et de déterminer leurs fonctions respectives dans chaque contexte historique, religieux et culturel donné.
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In modern times the Theriaca of Nicander of Colophon (2nd century BCE) has not attracted many enthusiasts. Its complicated style, abstruse diction and technical subject matter – venomous bites and their remedies – have long put off classical scholars. In the wake of renewed interest in Hellenistic poetry, however, Nicander’s dark poetry deserves new appreciation.
In this book Floris Overduin provides a literary commentary on the Theriaca, focusing on Nicander’s artistic merits. Viewed against the background of Alexandrian aesthetics and the didactic epic tradition, Nicander deserves pride of place among his Hellenistic peers. This book, the first full commentary in English, may thus contribute to the reappraisal of Nicander’s Theriaca as a work of literature, not science.
In this book Floris Overduin provides a literary commentary on the Theriaca, focusing on Nicander’s artistic merits. Viewed against the background of Alexandrian aesthetics and the didactic epic tradition, Nicander deserves pride of place among his Hellenistic peers. This book, the first full commentary in English, may thus contribute to the reappraisal of Nicander’s Theriaca as a work of literature, not science.
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Late Antiquity is often assumed to have witnessed the demise of literature as a social force and its retreat into the school and the private reading room: whereas the sophists of the Second Sophistic were influential social players, their late antique counterparts are thought to have been overshadowed by bishops. Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD argues that this presumed difference should be attributed less to a fundamental change in the role of literature than to different scholarly methodologies with which Greek and Latin texts from the second and the fourth century are being studied. Focusing on performance, the literary construction of reality and self-presentation, this volume highlights how literature continued to play an important role in fourth-century elite society.
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In Legendary Rivals Jaclyn Neel argues for a new interpretation of the foundation myths of Rome. Instead of a negative portrayal of the city’s early history, these tales offer a didactic paradigm of the correct way to engage in competition.
Accounts from the triumviral period stress the dysfunctional nature of the city’s foundation to capture the memory of Rome’s civil wars. Republican evidence suggests a different emphasis. Through diachronic analyses of the tales of Romulus and Remus, Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and Camillus and Manlius Capitolinus, Neel shows that Romans of the Republic and early Principate would have seen these stories as examples of competition that pushed the bounds of propriety.
Accounts from the triumviral period stress the dysfunctional nature of the city’s foundation to capture the memory of Rome’s civil wars. Republican evidence suggests a different emphasis. Through diachronic analyses of the tales of Romulus and Remus, Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and Camillus and Manlius Capitolinus, Neel shows that Romans of the Republic and early Principate would have seen these stories as examples of competition that pushed the bounds of propriety.
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Pindar’s Sixth Olympian Ode is considered one of the poet’s most brilliant victory odes. This is the first full-scale commentary on it. Adorjáni presents Greek text with critical apparatus, translation and metrical analysis. Three introductory chapters treat matters of history (background, date, performance) and literary criticism. Then follows a verse-by-verse commentary rooted in the tradition of philological exegesis, concentrating on grammatical, stylistic and interpretive features. Until now the Sixth Olympian has been praised chiefly for its magnificent and lucid presentation of the myth of Iamos, a seer of Arcadian origin and ancestor of the prophetic clan of the Iamidae. This commentary illuminates both the overwhelming depth of thought and the cunningly wrought structure of this masterpiece, contributing to a better understanding of Pindar’s verbal artistry.
Pindars sechste olympische Ode ist einer der glänzendsten Siegesgesänge des Dichters. Hier wird der erste umfassende philologische Kommentar zum Gedicht vorgelegt. Adorjáni bietet einen griechischen Text mit kritischem Apparat, Übersetzung, metrischer Analyse und drei Einleitungskapiteln, die in die Probleme der Geschichtlichkeit (Hintergrund, Entstehungszeit, Aufführung) und der literarischen Interpretation hineinführen. Auf diesen Teil folgt ein von Vers zu Vers fortschreitender Kommentar, der gemäß den alten Traditionen der Texterklärung auf grammatische, stilistische und interpretatorische Fragen eingeht. Bisher wurde Olympie 6 zumeist als großartige und suggestive Erzählung des Mythos des Sehers Iamos, des Vorfahren der olympischen Iamiden, gewürdigt. Diesem Kommentar ist daran gelegen, die intrikate Gedankentiefe und vollkommenste Formkunst dieses Meisterwerks vor Augen zu führen.
Pindars sechste olympische Ode ist einer der glänzendsten Siegesgesänge des Dichters. Hier wird der erste umfassende philologische Kommentar zum Gedicht vorgelegt. Adorjáni bietet einen griechischen Text mit kritischem Apparat, Übersetzung, metrischer Analyse und drei Einleitungskapiteln, die in die Probleme der Geschichtlichkeit (Hintergrund, Entstehungszeit, Aufführung) und der literarischen Interpretation hineinführen. Auf diesen Teil folgt ein von Vers zu Vers fortschreitender Kommentar, der gemäß den alten Traditionen der Texterklärung auf grammatische, stilistische und interpretatorische Fragen eingeht. Bisher wurde Olympie 6 zumeist als großartige und suggestive Erzählung des Mythos des Sehers Iamos, des Vorfahren der olympischen Iamiden, gewürdigt. Diesem Kommentar ist daran gelegen, die intrikate Gedankentiefe und vollkommenste Formkunst dieses Meisterwerks vor Augen zu führen.
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Rédigé par Cicéron en 46 av. J.-C., le Brutus se présente comme une histoire de l’éloquence romaine depuis ses origines et ses sources grecques jusqu’à l’époque de sa rédaction, mais entend surtout répondre aux défis institutionnels et intellectuels qu’a fait naître la dictature de César. Le traité autorise ainsi des lectures très diverses, qui sont souvent restées isolées les unes des autres.
À travers une approche pluridisciplinaire rassemblant des contributeurs de spécialités diverses, cet ouvrage cherche à rendre compte de la réflexion cicéronienne dans toute sa richesse en examinant les enjeux historiographiques, prosopographiques, rhétoriques, philosophiques et politiques du traité. Il propose une réflexion synthétique et originale sur ce texte majeur, essentiel à la compréhension de la République tardive.
Cicero’s dialogue Brutus offers a history of Roman eloquence from its origins and Greek roots up to the time of the work's composition (46 BC) in the late Republic. It forms part of Cicero’s response to the political and intellectual changes brought about by Caesar’s dictatorship and has therefore attracted considerable scholarly attention from a number of fields. However, scholarly discourse has frequently remained isolated. This volume addresses the need to look at Cicero’s treatise from an interdisciplinary angle and assembles contributions from scholars of historiography, prosopography, rhetoric, philosophy and politics. It thus puts forward a coherent and genuine interpretation of Cicero’s Brutus that showcases the significance of this text for our understanding of the final years of the Roman Republic.
À travers une approche pluridisciplinaire rassemblant des contributeurs de spécialités diverses, cet ouvrage cherche à rendre compte de la réflexion cicéronienne dans toute sa richesse en examinant les enjeux historiographiques, prosopographiques, rhétoriques, philosophiques et politiques du traité. Il propose une réflexion synthétique et originale sur ce texte majeur, essentiel à la compréhension de la République tardive.
Cicero’s dialogue Brutus offers a history of Roman eloquence from its origins and Greek roots up to the time of the work's composition (46 BC) in the late Republic. It forms part of Cicero’s response to the political and intellectual changes brought about by Caesar’s dictatorship and has therefore attracted considerable scholarly attention from a number of fields. However, scholarly discourse has frequently remained isolated. This volume addresses the need to look at Cicero’s treatise from an interdisciplinary angle and assembles contributions from scholars of historiography, prosopography, rhetoric, philosophy and politics. It thus puts forward a coherent and genuine interpretation of Cicero’s Brutus that showcases the significance of this text for our understanding of the final years of the Roman Republic.
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The essays in Between Orality and Literacy address how oral and literature practices intersect as messages, texts, practices, and traditions move and change, because issues of orality and literacy are especially complex and significant when information is transmitted over wide expanses of time and space or adapted in new contexts. Their topics range from Homer and Hesiod to the New Testament and Gaius’ Institutes, from epic poetry and drama to vase painting, historiography, mythography, and the philosophical letter. Repeatedly they return to certain issues. Writing and orality are not mutually exclusive, and their interaction is not always in a single direction. Authors, whether they use writing or not, try to control the responses of a listening audience. A variable tradition can be fixed, not just by writing as a technology, but by such different processes as the establishment of a Panhellenic version of an Attic myth and a Hellenistic city’s creation of a single celebratory history.
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The ‘classical tradition’ is no invention of modernity. Already in ancient Greece and Rome, the privileging of the ancient played a role in social and cultural discourses of every period. A collaboration between scholars in diverse areas of classical studies, this volume addresses literary and material evidence for ancient notions of valuing (or disvaluing) the deep past from approximately the fifth century BCE until the second century CE. It examines how specific communities used notions of antiquity to define themselves or others, which models from the past proved most desirable, what literary or exegetic modes they employed, and how temporal systems for ascribing value intersected with the organization of space, the production of narrative, or the application of aesthetic criteria.
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Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past breaks new ground by investigating the close interaction between Flavian poetry and Greek literary tradition and by evaluating the meaning of this affiliation in the socio-political and cultural context of the late first century CE. Authors examined include Martial, Silius Italicus, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. Their interaction with Greek literature is not just thematic or geographical: the Greek literary past is conceived as the poetic influence of a variety of authors, periods, and genres, such as Homer, the Cyclic tradition, Greek lyric poetry, Greek tragedy, Hellenistic poetry and aesthetics, and Greek historiography.
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In A Commentary on Selected Speeches of Isaios, Brenda Griffith-Williams offers a fresh insight, accessible to non-Greek readers, into four disputed inheritance cases from the Athenian courts in the 4th century B.C. The only comprehensive English language commentary on Isaios (Wyse, 1904) reflects a negative view of the Athenian legal system as one in which the judges, who had no legal training, could be easily outwitted by an unscrupulous speechwriter with no regard for the truth. By addressing the complex interplay of factual, legal, and rhetorical issues in the selected speeches, Brenda Griffith-Williams identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each speaker's case and presents a more balanced assessment of Isaios's work.
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There is a long tradition in classical scholarship of reducing the Hellenistic period to the spreading of Greek language and culture far beyond the borders of the Mediterranean. More than anything else this perception has hindered an appreciation of the manifold consequences triggered by the creation of new spaces of connectivity linking different cultures and societies in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. In adopting a new approach this volume explores the effects of the continuous adaptations of ideas and practices to new contexts of meaning on the social imaginaries of the parties participating in these intercultural encounters. The essays show that the seemingly static end-products of the interaction between Greek and non-Greek groups, such as texts, images, and objects, were embedded in long-term discourses, and thus subject to continuously shifting processes.
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The literary letter was one of the most versatile and popular forms of writing in Greek antiquity, yet one of the least widely studied today. The use of the letter within narrative or as narrative medium is something which the Ancient Greek literary tradition established as central to the western world (especially through the letters of Plato, Hippocrates and the Christian epistolographers). This volume presents detailed literary readings of a wide range of Greek literary letter collections. By comparison of the various narrative strategies taken within Greek epistolary texts across a range of genres, cultural backgrounds, and time periods, the volume takes a significant step towards the appreciation of Greek epistolary collections as a unique literary phenomenon.
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In four separate studies, Andreas Heil shows that Seneca, in his tragedies Thyestes, Hercules furens, Troas (Troades) and Medea, handles dramatic time less experimentally than has been assumed before. In all of these plays, taking into consideration the accompanying action on the stage and the characters' respective points of view, a gradually developing plot can be reconstructed. Thus, the survey considerably deepens our understanding of Seneca's dramatic technique.
In vier Einzelstudien zeigt Andreas Heil, daß Seneca mit der dramatischen Zeit in seinen Tragödien Thyestes, Hercules furens, Troas (Troades) und Medea weniger experimentell verfährt, als bislang angenommen wurde. In allen untersuchten Stücken läßt sich – berücksichtigt man die begleitende Bühnenhandlung und die jeweilige Figurenperspektive – eine sukzessive sich entwickelnde Handlung rekonstruieren. Die Untersuchung leistet somit einen wichtigen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis der dramatischen Technik Senecas.
In vier Einzelstudien zeigt Andreas Heil, daß Seneca mit der dramatischen Zeit in seinen Tragödien Thyestes, Hercules furens, Troas (Troades) und Medea weniger experimentell verfährt, als bislang angenommen wurde. In allen untersuchten Stücken läßt sich – berücksichtigt man die begleitende Bühnenhandlung und die jeweilige Figurenperspektive – eine sukzessive sich entwickelnde Handlung rekonstruieren. Die Untersuchung leistet somit einen wichtigen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis der dramatischen Technik Senecas.
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Winner of the 2015 Jozef IJsewijn Prize for best first book on a Neo-Latin topic
Early modern commentaries on Statius’ Thebaid have been little studied; even that by Barth (1664-5), which holds a conspicuous place among them, has only been taken into account now and then, and often in a rather superficial way. The present book, which makes use of unpublished archival material, offers a comprehensive overview of these works (contexts, contents, interconnections). It is particularly interested in 16th-17th commentators and strives to give Barth’s achievement the attention it deserves. By closely looking at the various ways in which the commentaries respond to Statius’ poem, but also at the various kinds of discourse they present, it casts a new light on the reception of the Thebaid and on the early modern practice of commentary-writing.
Les anciens commentaires imprimés de la Thébaïde de Stace ont été peu étudiés ; même celui de Barth (1664-5), qui occupe parmi eux une place éminente, n’a été pris en compte que de manière ponctuelle et souvent superficielle. Le présent ouvrage, étayé par des documents d’archives inédits, offre un examen général de ces travaux (contextes, contenus, filiations). Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux commentateurs des 16e-17e s. et s’efforce d’accorder à Barth l’attention qu’il mérite. En se penchant sur les différentes façons dont les exégèses répondent au poème de Stace, mais aussi sur les différents types de discours qu’elles présentent, il apporte un éclairage nouveau sur la réception de la Thébaïde et sur la pratique du commentaire au début de l’époque moderne.
Early modern commentaries on Statius’ Thebaid have been little studied; even that by Barth (1664-5), which holds a conspicuous place among them, has only been taken into account now and then, and often in a rather superficial way. The present book, which makes use of unpublished archival material, offers a comprehensive overview of these works (contexts, contents, interconnections). It is particularly interested in 16th-17th commentators and strives to give Barth’s achievement the attention it deserves. By closely looking at the various ways in which the commentaries respond to Statius’ poem, but also at the various kinds of discourse they present, it casts a new light on the reception of the Thebaid and on the early modern practice of commentary-writing.
Les anciens commentaires imprimés de la Thébaïde de Stace ont été peu étudiés ; même celui de Barth (1664-5), qui occupe parmi eux une place éminente, n’a été pris en compte que de manière ponctuelle et souvent superficielle. Le présent ouvrage, étayé par des documents d’archives inédits, offre un examen général de ces travaux (contextes, contenus, filiations). Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux commentateurs des 16e-17e s. et s’efforce d’accorder à Barth l’attention qu’il mérite. En se penchant sur les différentes façons dont les exégèses répondent au poème de Stace, mais aussi sur les différents types de discours qu’elles présentent, il apporte un éclairage nouveau sur la réception de la Thébaïde et sur la pratique du commentaire au début de l’époque moderne.
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In recent years, classicists have begun aggressively to explore the impact of performance on the ways in which Greek and Roman plays are constructed and appreciated, both in their original performance context and in reperformances down to the present day. While never losing sight of the playscripts, it is necessary to adopt a more inclusive point of view, one integrating insights from archaeology, art, history, performance theory, theatre semiotics, theatrical praxis, and modern performance reception. This volume contributes to the restoration of a much-needed balance between performance and text: it is devoted to exploring how performance-related considerations (including stage business, masks, costumes, props, performance space, and stage-sets) help us attain an enhanced appreciation of ancient theatre.
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In 'Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman Periods Andrzej Wypustek provides a study of various forms of poetic heroization that became increasingly widespread in Greek funerary epigram.
The deceased were presented as eternally young heroes, oblivious of old age and death, as stars shining with an eternal brightness in heavens or in Ether, or as the ones chosen by the gods, abducted by them to their home in the heavens or married to them in the other world (following the examples of Ganymede, Adonis, Hylas and Persephone). The author demonstrates that, for all their diversity, the common feature of these verse inscriptions was the praise of beauty of the dead.
The deceased were presented as eternally young heroes, oblivious of old age and death, as stars shining with an eternal brightness in heavens or in Ether, or as the ones chosen by the gods, abducted by them to their home in the heavens or married to them in the other world (following the examples of Ganymede, Adonis, Hylas and Persephone). The author demonstrates that, for all their diversity, the common feature of these verse inscriptions was the praise of beauty of the dead.
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How do people respond to and evaluate their sensory experiences of the natural and man-made world? What does it mean to speak of the ‘value’ of aesthetic phenomena? And in evaluating human arts and artifacts, what are the criteria for success or failure?
The sixth in a series exploring ‘ancient values’, this book investigates from a variety of perspectives aesthetic value in classical antiquity. The essays explore not only the evaluative concepts and terms applied to the arts, but also the social and cultural ideologies of aesthetic value itself. Seventeen chapters range from the ‘life without the Muses’ to ‘the Sublime’, and from philosophical views to middle-brow and popular aesthetics.
Aesthetic value in classical antiquity should be of interest to classicists, cultural and art historians, and philosophers.
The sixth in a series exploring ‘ancient values’, this book investigates from a variety of perspectives aesthetic value in classical antiquity. The essays explore not only the evaluative concepts and terms applied to the arts, but also the social and cultural ideologies of aesthetic value itself. Seventeen chapters range from the ‘life without the Muses’ to ‘the Sublime’, and from philosophical views to middle-brow and popular aesthetics.
Aesthetic value in classical antiquity should be of interest to classicists, cultural and art historians, and philosophers.
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This study of the Eclogues focuses on Vergil’s exploration of issues relating to the subject of human happiness (eudaimonia)–ideas that were the subject of robust debate in contemporary philosophical schools, including the community of émigré Epicurean teachers and their Roman pupils located in the vicinity of Naples (“Parthenope”). The latent “interplay of ideas” implicit in the songs of the various poet-herdsmen centers on differing attitudes to acute misfortune and loss, particularly in the spheres of land dispossession and frustrated erotic desire. In the bucolic dystopia that Vergil constructs for his audience, the singers resort to different means of coping with the vagaries of fortune (tyche). This relatively neglected ethical dimension of the poems in the Bucolic collection receives a systematic treatment that provides a useful complement to the primarily aesthetic and socio-political approaches that have predominated in previous scholarship.
"This book is insightful and engaging; amatores of Vergil's Eclogues (scholars, students, or enthusiasts) will find the work accessible and profitable." Kristi Eastin, California State University, Fresno
"This book is insightful and engaging; amatores of Vergil's Eclogues (scholars, students, or enthusiasts) will find the work accessible and profitable." Kristi Eastin, California State University, Fresno
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Allusions to the epic poets Virgil and Lucan in the writing of the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 55 – c. 120 C.E.) have long been noted. This monograph argues that Tacitus fashions himself as a rivaling literary successor to these poets; and that the emulative allusions to Virgil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Bellum Civile in Books 1–3 of his inaugural historiographical work, the Histories, complement and build upon each other, and contribute significantly to the picture of repetitive, escalating civil war in the work. The argument is founded on the close reading of a series of related passages in the Histories, and it also broadens to consider certain narrative techniques and strategies that Tacitus shares with writers of epic.
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Anonymous characters appear in almost every extant Greek Tragedy, yet they have long been overlooked in critical scholarship. This book argues that the creation and use of anonymous figures is an important tool in the transformation of traditional mythological heroes into unique dramatic characters. Through close reading of the passages in which nameless characters appear, this study demonstrates the significant impact of their speech, actions, and identity on the characterization of the particular named heroes to whom they are attached. Exploring the boundaries between anonymity and naming in mythico-historical drama, the book draws attention to an important but neglected aspect of the genre, suggesting a new perspective from which to read, perform, and appreciate Greek Tragedy.
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Quintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica (3rd century C.E.), the 14 book Greek epic on the Trojan War, is a text which has traditionally been overlooked in the main canon of Classical authors, and in fact until only recently has been largely ignored as a literary work. This book, the first monograph in English on the poem since 1904, examines the Posthomerica’s close relationship with the Homeric epics, with a focus on the originality and Late Antique interpretative bias of Quintus in his readings and emulation of Homer. The study deals specifically with three separate aspects of poetics, and their Homeric intertextuality: ecphrasis, gnomai, and similes, and their role within the poem’s narrative strategies, themes, and aims.
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Aelius Aristides' Sacred Tales offer a unique opportunity to examine how an educated man of the Second Century CE came to terms with illness. The experiences portrayed in the Tales disclose an understanding of illness in both religious and medical terms. Aristides was a devout worshipper of Asclepius while at the same time being a patient of some of the most distinguished physicians of his day. This monograph offers a textual analysis of the Sacred Tales in the context of the so-called Second Sophistic; medicine and the medical use of dream interpretation; and religion, with particular emphasis on the cult of Asclepius and the visual means used to convey religious content.
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This important new editio maior of Aristotle's Poetics, based on all the primary sources, is a major contribution to scholarship. The introductory chapters provide important new insights about the transmission of the text to the present day and especially the significance of the Syro-Arabic tradition. The Greek text is accompanied by a detailed critical apparatus as well as Notes to the Text; in addition there is a Graeco-Arabic critical apparatus and commentary. An Index of Greek Words, Indices, and a Bibliography complement the work. This publication will be an indispensable tool for all Aristotelian scholars, historians of Greek literature and criticism, and specialists of the transmission and reception of classical works.
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This volume seeks to show how the philosophy of Plato relates to the literary form of his discourse. Myth is one aspect of this relation whose importance for the study of Plato is only now beginning to be recognized. Reflection on this topic is essential not only for understanding Plato’s conception of philosophy and its methods, but also for understanding more broadly the relation between philosophy and literature. The twenty chapters of this volume, contributed by scholars of diverse backgrounds and approaches, elucidate the various uses and statuses of Platonic myths in the first place by reflecting on myth per se and in the second place by focusing on a specific myth in the Platonic corpus.
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The ninth meeting in the international Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World series - in the fiftieth year since the publication in 1960 of Albert Lord's The Singer of Tales - took as its theme 'Composition and Performance'. This volume contains a selection of those papers, several of which illustrate methodologically innovative approaches to the act of composition, the nature of performance, and vocalization in text. Under consideration are Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Isocrates, the orators of the Second Sophistic, and Proclus. Cross-cultural studies include, amongst others, South Slavic epic and a text from the Sanskrit archive.
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To date the positive value of Horace’s iambic criticism has been underestimated, and overall Horace has been tamed too much. By examining the relationship of the iambic tradition with ritual, this book studies how Horace’s Epodes are more than partisan (consolidating Octavian’s victory by projecting hostilities onto powerless others) but meta-partisan (forming fractured entities into a diversified unity). As Horace moves through his iambics to lyrics (Epodes to Odes), he stages acts of aggression and retaliation along with attempts at resistance and reconciliation so that this shifting back and forth creates a correspondence between perspectives. Unity develops from diversity, polyeideia. This is the point at which Horace socializes literary criticism (Ars Poetica): societas becomes the telos of his poetics.
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Stesichoros’s Geryoneis is without doubt one of the gems of the 6th century. This monograph offers the first full-length commentary (in English) to cover all aspects of the Geryoneis. Included in this monograph is a much-needed revised and up-to-date text together with a full apparatus. As well as concentrating on the poet’s usage of metre and language, a particular emphasis has been given to Stesichoros’s debt to epic poetry. Innovative too is the proposal that the Geryoneis was closely connected with the cult worship Geryon received in the 6th century. This book has an especial appeal to both those already familiar with lyric and epic poetry, but also, it is hoped, those new to Stesichoros.
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A prevalent view in the current scholarship on ancient religions holds that state religion was primarily performed and transmitted in oral forms, whereas writing came to be associated with secret, private and marginal cults, especially in the Greek world. In Roman times, religions would have become more and more bookish, starting with the Sibylline books and the Annales Maximi of the Roman priests and culminating in the canonical gospels of the Christians. It is the aim of this volume to modify this view or, at least, to challenge it. Surveying the variety of ways in which different types of texts and oral discourse were involved in ancient Greek and Roman religions, the contributions to this volume show that oral and written forms were in use for both Greek and Roman state and private religions.
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Pliny's Naturalis Historia – a brilliant and sophisticated encyclopaedia of the scientific, artistic, philosophical, botanical and zoological riches of the ancient world – has had a long career in the footnotes of historical studies. This is a phenomenon born of the sense that the work was there to consult, or to ‘use’, as a resource to aid investigation of specific technical issues or passages, of Quellenforschung, or of delimited topic areas. The contributors to the present volume both represent and join a new generation of critics who have begun to try to ‘read’ this monumental text, and – by examining the dominant motifs which give shape and order to the work – to construct frameworks within which we may understand and interpret Pliny’s overarching agenda.
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The traditional Diodoran scholarship has been challenged in the last decades by a revisionist approach, which concentrates on Diodorus Siculus’ contribution rather than on his lost sources. Building on that approach, this book focuses on the Bibliotheke’s first pentad, which has usually been neglected as a subject of research, and explores the author’s depictions of journeys made by gods and culture-heroes. A thorough investigation of his historiographical methods and his representation of mythical figures demonstrates that the mythological narrative is not only an essential part of his universal history, but also an important supplement to our knowledge of Hellenistic civilization, especially its mentality and historical geography.
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Plato’s discussions of poetry and the poets stand at the cradle of Western literary criticism. Plato is, paradoxically, both the philosopher who cites, or alludes to, works of poetry more than any other, and the one who is at the same time the harshest critic of poetry. The nineteen essays presented here aim to offer various avenues to this paradox, and to illuminate the ways poetry and the poets are discussed by Plato throughout his writing career, from the Apology and the Ion to the Laws. As well as throwing new light on old topics, such as mimesis and poetic inspiration, the volume introduces fresh approaches to Plato’s philosophy of poetry and literature.
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Hellenistic Poetry has enjoyed a notable re-appreciation in recent years and received ample scholarly discussion, especially focusing on its reception and innovation of Greek poetic tradition. This book wishes to add to our picture of how Hellenistic poetry works by looking at it from a slightly different angle. Concentrating on the interaction between contemporary poets, it attempts to view the dynamics of imitation and reception in the light of poetical self-positioning. In the courtly Alexandrian surroundings, choosing a poetic model and affiliation determines one's position in the cultural field. This book sets out to chart, not only the well-known complexities of handling the poetic past, but especially their relation to the poetic interaction of the Hellenistic, in particular Alexandrian poets.
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This first in-depth account of Euripides and the visual arts demonstrates how the tragedian used language to visual effect, whether through allusion or actual references to objects, motifs built around real or imaginary objects, or the use of technical terminology. The evidence presented in this study corroborates the concern for realism and the genre detail for which Euripides is parodied in Aristophanes' Frogs and presents him as a man of his time, like Socrates, fully versed in the ways and means of the visual arts as well as the verbal. In revealing the extent of the visual inclination of Euripides' language, this study reflects upon the larger dialogue between text and image, image and text.
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Hesiod: The Other Poet is a study dealing with the role of Hesiod in the imagination and the collective memory of the ancient Greeks. Its main hypothesis is that Hesiod's image was to a large degree formed by the picture of Homer: Hesiod is decidedly different when presented as allied with, opposed to or simply without Homer. Following this approach, Hesiod is investigated as a moral and philosophical authority, a locus informed with values and qualities, a concept in literary-critical discourse, and more generally as a cultural and panhellenic icon constructed and reconstructed by later Greek authors who employed and so re-created him in their own texts.
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Technopaignia is the first comprehensive collection and scholarly analysis of a corpus of literary phenomena whose particularity consists in the artistic play with formal features (acrostics, anagrams, palindromes etc.). The study both discusses each phenomenon separately as a part of the history of ancient literature and touches upon more fundamental questions about the conception of language, the interaction of literary production and reception, the relation of literary and non-literary forms of writing, the nature of art etc. It thus combines a literary approach with issues from other fields of classical studies. Furthermore, most technopaignia have enjoyed a long tradition of imitation and revival, hence this book provides a basis for reception studies and the study of modern literatures.
Die griechischen Technopaignia, eine Gruppe von literarischen Formspielen (Akrosticha, Anagrammen, Palindromen, Isopsepha, Figurengedichten u.ä.), werden hier erstmals systematisch zusammengestellt und besprochen. Neben der Untersuchung der einzelnen Phänomene und ihrer Bedeutung für die Literaturgeschichte wirft die Studie auch grundsätzlichere Fragen zur Konzeption von literarischem Spiel, den Grenzen und Möglichkeiten von Sprache, der Wechselwirkung von literarischer Produktion und Rezeption, dem Verhältnis von Literatur und Subliteratur oder dem Wesen von Kunst auf und verbindet damit den literarhistorischen mit einem kulturwissenschaftlichen Ansatz. Die antiken Technopaignia sind außerdem Vorläufer einer literarischen Tradition, die bis in die heutige Zeit lebendig bleibt. Ihre Untersuchung bietet dadurch einen Ausgangspunkt für das Studium ihrer Rezeption und für komparatistische Fragestellungen.
Die griechischen Technopaignia, eine Gruppe von literarischen Formspielen (Akrosticha, Anagrammen, Palindromen, Isopsepha, Figurengedichten u.ä.), werden hier erstmals systematisch zusammengestellt und besprochen. Neben der Untersuchung der einzelnen Phänomene und ihrer Bedeutung für die Literaturgeschichte wirft die Studie auch grundsätzlichere Fragen zur Konzeption von literarischem Spiel, den Grenzen und Möglichkeiten von Sprache, der Wechselwirkung von literarischer Produktion und Rezeption, dem Verhältnis von Literatur und Subliteratur oder dem Wesen von Kunst auf und verbindet damit den literarhistorischen mit einem kulturwissenschaftlichen Ansatz. Die antiken Technopaignia sind außerdem Vorläufer einer literarischen Tradition, die bis in die heutige Zeit lebendig bleibt. Ihre Untersuchung bietet dadurch einen Ausgangspunkt für das Studium ihrer Rezeption und für komparatistische Fragestellungen.
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Open Access
This book examines the formation and development of the biographical traditions about early Greek poets, focusing on the traditions of Hesiod, Stesichorus, Archilochus, Hipponax, Terpander and Sappho. The study provides a detailed overview of the traditions and chronographical material about these poets and seeks to clarify who were the creators of the particular traditions; what were the sources; when the traditions were formed; and to what extent they are shaped by formulaic themes and story-patterns.
It challenges several mainstream assumptions on the subject, for example, that the traditions were formed mainly in the Post-Classical period; that the only significant source for the legends is the works of the particular poet; and that the poets were perceived as “new heroes.”
It challenges several mainstream assumptions on the subject, for example, that the traditions were formed mainly in the Post-Classical period; that the only significant source for the legends is the works of the particular poet; and that the poets were perceived as “new heroes.”
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How does a discourse of ‘valuing others’ help to make a group a group? The fifth in a series exploring ‘ancient values’, this book investigates what value terms and evaluative concepts were used in Greece and Rome to articulate the idea that people ‘belong together’, as a family, a group, a polis, a community, or just as fellow human beings.
Human communities thrive on prosocial behavior. In eighteen chapters, ranging from Greek tragedy to the Roman gladiators and from house architecture to the concept of friendship, this book demonstrates how such behavior is anchored and promoted by culturally specific expressions of evaluative discourse.
Valuing others in classical antiquity should be of interest to linguists, literary scholars, historians, and philosophers alike.
Human communities thrive on prosocial behavior. In eighteen chapters, ranging from Greek tragedy to the Roman gladiators and from house architecture to the concept of friendship, this book demonstrates how such behavior is anchored and promoted by culturally specific expressions of evaluative discourse.
Valuing others in classical antiquity should be of interest to linguists, literary scholars, historians, and philosophers alike.
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This book, a sequel to Clio and the Poets (Brill 2002), takes as its point of departure Quintilian's statement that 'historiography is very close to the poets': it examines not only how verse interfaces with historical texts but also how first-century AD Roman historians engage with issues and patterns of thought central to contemporary poetry and with specific poetic texts. Included are substantive discussions of a wide range of authors, notably Lucan, Seneca, Statius, Pliny, Juvenal, Silius Italicus, and Tacitus.
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By applying aspects of cognitive psychology to a study of three key tragic props, this book examines the importance of visual imagery in ancient Greek tragedy. The shield, the urn and the mask are props which serve as controls for investigating the connection between visual imagery and the spectators' intellectual experience of tragic drama. As vehicles for conceptual change the props point to a function of imagery in problem solving. Connections between the visual and the cognitive in tragedy, particularly through image shape and its potential for various meanings, add a new perspective to scholarship on the role of the visual in ancient performance. These connections also add weight to the importance of imagery in contemporary problem solving and creative thought.
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In this collection of essays Roman historical and biographical texts are studied from a literary point of view. The main interest of the author, Daniël den Hengst, professor emeritus of Latin at the University of Amsterdam, concerns the development of Roman historiography, the ways in which Roman historians present their work and the intertextual relations between these works and other literary genres. Special attention is given to the Historia Augusta and Ammianus Marcellinus, but also authors from the classical period, such as Cicero, Livy and Suetonius and their ideas about historiography are discussed. The articles demonstrate that a detailed interpretation of these texts in the original language is indispensable to understanding the aims and methods of ancient historians and biographers.
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The transmission of the Seneca tragedies first became an object of critical discussion by the Italian humanists and has continued to occupy scholars to the present day. Besides a brief account of the critical work of Jodocus Badius (Ascensiana 1514) and of Girolamo Avanzi (Aldina 1517) the repertory lists systematically the conjectures recorded since M.A. Delrio (Second ed., 1619) down to the year 2007 and arranges them in the context of the critical discussion of the text. Conceived in the first instance as a work of reference for future editors, commentators and critical readers of the tragedies, the repertory is also a mirror of the critical acumen as well as the vagaries in the long tradition of Latin textual criticism.
Die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Überlieferung der Seneca-Tragödien beginnt im humanistischen Italien und wird seither intensiv betrieben; entsprechend zahlreich sind die Eingriffe und Vorschläge, welche zum besseren Verständnis des überlieferten Textes vorgetragen worden sind. Neben einem Einblick in die kritische Arbeit von Jodocus Badius (Ascensiana 1514) und von Girolamo Avanzi (Aldina 1517) verzeichnet das Repertorium systematisch die seit M.A. Delrio (2. Ausg. 1619) bis zum Jahre 2007 erfassten Konjekturen und ordnet sie unter jeweiliger Angabe des Fundortes in die textkritische Diskussion ein. Das Repertorium ist in erster Linie als Nachschlagewerk für künftige Herausgeber und Kommentatoren der Seneca-Tragödien gedacht. Als Spiegel von Scharfsinn und Irrungen in der Konjekturalkritik leistet es zudem einen Beitrag zur traditionsreichen Geschichte der lateinischen Philologie.
Die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Überlieferung der Seneca-Tragödien beginnt im humanistischen Italien und wird seither intensiv betrieben; entsprechend zahlreich sind die Eingriffe und Vorschläge, welche zum besseren Verständnis des überlieferten Textes vorgetragen worden sind. Neben einem Einblick in die kritische Arbeit von Jodocus Badius (Ascensiana 1514) und von Girolamo Avanzi (Aldina 1517) verzeichnet das Repertorium systematisch die seit M.A. Delrio (2. Ausg. 1619) bis zum Jahre 2007 erfassten Konjekturen und ordnet sie unter jeweiliger Angabe des Fundortes in die textkritische Diskussion ein. Das Repertorium ist in erster Linie als Nachschlagewerk für künftige Herausgeber und Kommentatoren der Seneca-Tragödien gedacht. Als Spiegel von Scharfsinn und Irrungen in der Konjekturalkritik leistet es zudem einen Beitrag zur traditionsreichen Geschichte der lateinischen Philologie.
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Law played a key role in the workings of Roman culture, and legal discourse was important even in non-legal Latin literature. A proper understanding of that literature requires an investigation of the ways legal language is used. Nevertheless, legal elements have so far been widely neglected by scholars of Latin literature, in particular Augustan poetry. After an examination of legal language as a technical discourse and its role in Latin prose, the present book is devoted to a detailed analysis of legal language and imagery in the work of the Augustan poets. It will, therefore, allow for a better appreciation of these poems as well as of their significance for Augustan culture in the broad sense.
In der römischen Kultur ist das Recht von zentraler Bedeutung, und Rechtsdiskurse spielen auch in der außerjuristischen Literatur eine prominente Rolle. Für das Verständnis der lateinischen Literatur ist die Betrachtung ihres Umgangs mit der Rechtssprache daher unerlässlich. Dennoch haben die rechtlichen Elemente in diesen Texten bislang kaum Beachtung gefunden. Dies gilt insbesondere für die augusteische Dichtung. Das vorliegende Buch geht zunächst der Frage nach, inwieweit die Rechtssprache von den Römern selbst als Fachsprache wahrgenommen wurde, und betrachtet ihre Verwendung im gemeinsprachlichen Kontext römischer Prosaschriften. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Analyse von Sprache und Bildwelt des Rechts in den Werken der augusteischen Dichter. Die Arbeit trägt damit zu einem besseren Verständnis dieser Gedichte und ihrer Bedeutung im Rahmen der augusteischen Kultur bei.
In der römischen Kultur ist das Recht von zentraler Bedeutung, und Rechtsdiskurse spielen auch in der außerjuristischen Literatur eine prominente Rolle. Für das Verständnis der lateinischen Literatur ist die Betrachtung ihres Umgangs mit der Rechtssprache daher unerlässlich. Dennoch haben die rechtlichen Elemente in diesen Texten bislang kaum Beachtung gefunden. Dies gilt insbesondere für die augusteische Dichtung. Das vorliegende Buch geht zunächst der Frage nach, inwieweit die Rechtssprache von den Römern selbst als Fachsprache wahrgenommen wurde, und betrachtet ihre Verwendung im gemeinsprachlichen Kontext römischer Prosaschriften. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Analyse von Sprache und Bildwelt des Rechts in den Werken der augusteischen Dichter. Die Arbeit trägt damit zu einem besseren Verständnis dieser Gedichte und ihrer Bedeutung im Rahmen der augusteischen Kultur bei.
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This volume is arguably one of the most important studies of Euripides to appear in the last decade. Not only does it offer incisive examinations of many of Euripides' extant plays and their influence, it also includes seminal examinations of a number of Euripides’ fragmentary plays. This approach represents a novel and exciting development in Euripidean studies, since it is only very recently that the fragmentary plays have begun to appear in reliable and readily accessible editions. The book’s thirty-two contributors constitute an international "who’s who" of Euripidean studies and Athenian drama, and their contributions will certainly feature in the forefront of scholarly discourse on Euripides and Greek drama for years to come.
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This volume consists of an introduction, the text of book 4 of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, commentary, bibliography and index. However, it is not a standard philological commentary. Although it contains textual criticism (but only where meaning and appreciation are substantially affected) and explanation of sense and references (a vital basis for critical analysis), above all there is literary appreciation of Valerius' fourth book, which should help to bring about a revaluation of this largely neglected and sadly underestimated author. The book alerts readers to important aspects of Valerius' highly intellectual poetry, such as wit, humor, elegance, point, subtlety, narrative skill, and creative engagement with forerunners, especially Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgil.
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For over 2500 years many of the most learned scholars of the Greek language have concerned themselves with the topic of etymology. The most productive source of difficult, even inexplicable, words was Homer’s 28,000 verses of epic poetry. Steve Reece proposes an approach to elucidating the meanings of some of these difficult words that finds its inspiration primarily in Milman Parry’s oral-formulaic theory. He proposes that during the long period of oral transmission acoustic uncertainties, especially regarding word boundaries, were continually occurring: a bard uttered one collocation of words, but his audience thought it heard another. The consequent resegmentation of words and phrases is the probable cause of some of the etymologically inexplicable words in our Homeric texts.
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This collection of essays offers a comprehensive examination of texts that traditionally have been excluded from the main corpus of the ancient Greek novel and confined to the margins of the genre, such as the Life of Aesop, the Life of Alexander the Great, and the Acts of the Christian Martyrs. Through comparison and contrast, intertextual analysis and close examination, the boundaries of the dichotomy between the “fringe” vs. the “canonical” or “erotic” novel are explored, and so the generic identity of the texts in each group is more clearly outlined. The collective outcome brings the “fringe” from the periphery of scholarly research to the centre of critical attention, and provides methodological tools for the exploration of other “fringe” texts.
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In response to being exiled to the Black Sea by the Roman emperor Augustus in 8 AD, Ovid began to compose the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto and to create for himself a place of intellectual refuge. From there he was able to reflect out loud on how and why his own art had been legally banned and left for dead on the margins of the empire. As the last of the Augustan poets, Ovid was in a unique position to take stock of his own standing and of the place of poetry itself in a culture deeply restructured during the lengthy rule of Rome's first emperor. This study considers exile in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto as a place of genuine suffering and a metaphor for poetry's marginalization from the imperial city. It analyzes, in particular, Ovid's representation of himself and the emperor Augustus against the background of Roman religion, law, and poetry.
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Flavius Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana (Vita Apollonii), written in the first half of the third century CE, is a key text in the cultural, literary and religious history of the Second Sophistic and of Late Antiquity. Its generic and formal diversity, its shifting cultural and historical background, as well as its protean hero, call for a multifaceted and interdisciplinary reading. Theios Sophistès is the first collection of interpretative essays on the Vita Apollonii. Leading scholars in the field and younger critics make for a combination of methodological continuity and innovation. The book is divided into two sections, one focusing on literary and philological discussions and relating the Vita to other ancient texts and genres, and one dealing with religious and philosophical aspects. The wide range of approaches and perspectives does justice to the high level of literary, historical and philosophical-religious sophistication of this text.
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This monograph presents an original portrait of the second-century miscellanist Aulus Gellius, based on a detailed reading of Attic Nights against its contemporary background. Highlighting Gellius’ use of humour and irony in his portrayals of controversial celebrities such as Favorinus and Herodes Atticus, the book provides a necessary corrective to interpretations of Gellius as an uncritical philhellene or an apolitical bookworm. Distinguishing Gellius’ various literary personae (the youthful sectator, the independent researcher, the mature writer and adviser), the book uncovers the many-layered sophistication of Gellius’ self-presentation. Noting previously unrecognised allusions to literary works and contemporary events, it offers a fresh perspective on Gellius as a satirical writer, whose Roman cultural programme reflects the ambiguities and complexities of Antonine intellectual life.
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The fourth in a series that explores cultural and ethical values in Classical Antiquity, this volume examines the negative foils, the anti-values, against which positive value notions are conceptualized and calibrated in Classical Antiquity.
Eighteen chapters address this theme from different perspectives –historical, literary, legal and philosophical. What makes someone into a prototypically ‘bad’ citizen? Or an abomination of a scholar? What is the relationship between ugliness and value? How do icons of sexual perversion, monstruous emperors and detestable habits function in philosophical and rhetorical prose?
The book illuminates the many rhetorical manifestations of the concept of ‘badness’ in classical antiquity in a variety of domains.
Eighteen chapters address this theme from different perspectives –historical, literary, legal and philosophical. What makes someone into a prototypically ‘bad’ citizen? Or an abomination of a scholar? What is the relationship between ugliness and value? How do icons of sexual perversion, monstruous emperors and detestable habits function in philosophical and rhetorical prose?
The book illuminates the many rhetorical manifestations of the concept of ‘badness’ in classical antiquity in a variety of domains.
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The Roman poet P. Papinius Statius (ca. 45-96) is the author of two epics (the Thebaid and the unfinished Achilleid) and a large corpus of occasional verse (Silvae). This poetry, long seen as derivative or decadent, is increasingly appreciated for the daring and originality of its responses both to the Greek and Latin literary tradition and to the contemporary Roman world. This volume offers the papers delivered at a symposium on Statius (Amsterdam 2005) by leading scholars in the field from Europe and North America. These papers demonstrate the fascination of Statius' poetry on account of the poet's vast knowledge of Greek and Latin tragedy, his rapid narrative, psychological acumen, brilliant eulogies, and pessimistic views on gods and men. The focus of the collection is on literary technique in the Thebaid, on socio-historical aspects of the Silvae, and on the reception of Statius in European literature and scholarship.
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This is Nicholas Horsfall's fourth commentary on a book of the Aeneid and in scale and approach follows closely the earlier volumes.It is aimed at the scholarly public and is not intended as a replacement for Austin's admirable school and undergraduate commentary of 1964. But so splendid an ancient text requires fresh scholarly instruments and this commentary discusses fully the acutely controversial Helen-episode (spurious), matters of linguistic and textual interpretation,, metre, prosody, grammar, lexicon and idiom, as well as Virgil's sources and the literary tradition in which he writes. Full attention is given to matters military and historiographical. New critical approaches and recent developments have been taken into account, with more attention to their spirit than to their language. A text, with translation, and three indices are included.
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The Greek rhetorician Dionysius of Halicarnassus was active in Augustan Rome. For a long time, modern scholars have regarded him as a rather mediocre critic, whose works were only interesting because of the references to earlier scholars and the citations of literary fragments. By interpreting Dionysius’ views within the context of his rhetorical programme, this book shows that Dionysius was in fact an intelligent scholar, who combined theories and methods from various language disciplines and used them for his own practical purposes. His rhetorical writings not only inform us about the linguistic knowledge of intellectuals at the end of the first century BC, but also demonstrate the close connections between philology, technical grammar, philosophy, music studies and rhetoric.
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The prominent role of women in Greek drama has always fascinated readers. This book proposes that women in Euripides’ plays communicate in ways constructed by the tragic genre itself as ‘female.’ Yet these women’s words are surprisingly not uniformly dangerous or excessively emotional, as has traditionally been thought. Rather, Euripides’ women resort to ‘female’ ways of talking in order to enable others to understand them and their unique point-of-view. Aspects of women’s speech—song, silence and secret-keeping as female verbal genres, and the challenges of speaking out of place—contribute to Euripides’ portrayal of women as different from men. Originating in a culture where putting women under scrutiny was part of daily life, Euripides’ tragedies dramatise women’s constant struggle to control language.
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Alleged incompatibility of Epicurus’ philosophy with rhetoric has led modern scholars to isolate rhetorical procedures in Lucretius’ De rerum natura and regard them as non-Epicurean, accessory features. This study of Lucretius’ rhetorical procedures is based on a wider understanding of the term rhetoric, not limited to the genre of oratory. In a fresh discussion of the questions of provenance and the role of the most important formal procedures of exposition in De rerum natura the author argues that instead of injecting rhetorical strategies from non-Epicurean sources, Lucretius in fact intensified rhetorical elements already present in the work of Epicurus. These elements are used for the purpose of explanation, and function as cognitive and mnemonic aids for the reader.
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Dance of Words argues for a fundamental difference in the modes of expression of actor and chorus. The chorus views the action from the perspective of dancers and singers, while the actors' understanding is shaped by the responsibility they have to make things happen. While this responsibility fashions the actors' considerations of cause and effect, linear movement through time and space, and a sense of history, the chorus' sensibilities arise out of the rhythms of its song and movements. Its mode of expression is a particular way of communicating and elaborating on man's place in the larger order, and its view of the action is bounded by the way that song and dance mirror that order.
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The volume represents the seventh in the series on Orality and Literacy in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds. It comprises a collection of essays on the significance and working of memory in ancient texts and visual documentation, from contexts both oral (or oral-derived) and literate. The authors discuss a variety of interpretations of ‘memory’ in Homeric epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, historical inscriptions, oratory, and philosophy, as well as in the replication of ancient artworks, and in Greek vase inscriptions. They present therefore a wide-ranging analysis of memory as a fundamental faculty underlying the production and reception of texts and material documentation in a society that gradually moved from an essentially oral to an essentially literate culture.
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En dehors d’analyses de type sociologique, les déclamations latines n’ont généralement que peu retenu l’attention des spécialistes de l’Antiquité. Pourtant, ces discours fictifs constituaient le couronnement de l’éducation rhétorique et un élément central de l’activité littéraire. De ce fait, ils appartiennent de plein droit au domaine de la littérature antique. Ce livre veut mieux faire connaître les déclamations latines et leur fonction dans le système éducatif romain. Il s’attache à mettre en lumière leur littérarité, en analysant les techniques narratives mises en œuvres et en soulignant leurs liens avec la poésie et le roman. L’ouvrage se penche également sur la question des rapports que ces textes entretiennent avec la réalité et sur celle de la pertinence de leur utilisation comme sources historiques. Il en ressort une réévaluation des déclamations, susceptible de susciter un nouvel intérêt pour ce genre littéraire majeur de l'Antiquité.
The Latin declamations have, except for sociological analysis, drawn but little attention from specialists of Antiquity. However, these fictional discourses represented the highlight of the rhetorical education and were a central element in literary activity. This book strives to draw the Latin declamations and their role in the Roman educational system from the shadows. It will bring to light their literary nature and underline their ties with poetry and the novel. It also investigates the relation between these texts and reality and the pertinence of their use as historical sources. The result is a revaluation of the declamations, liable to provoke a new interest in this major literary genre of Antiquity.
The Latin declamations have, except for sociological analysis, drawn but little attention from specialists of Antiquity. However, these fictional discourses represented the highlight of the rhetorical education and were a central element in literary activity. This book strives to draw the Latin declamations and their role in the Roman educational system from the shadows. It will bring to light their literary nature and underline their ties with poetry and the novel. It also investigates the relation between these texts and reality and the pertinence of their use as historical sources. The result is a revaluation of the declamations, liable to provoke a new interest in this major literary genre of Antiquity.
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This book investigates the cosmological context of Pindar’s victory odes, and how it influences his presentation of praise. The study first focuses on gnomai as a reflection of cosmology, using these sayings to establish the views the poems reveal on matters such as the divine, the human condition and man in society. This overview is complemented by detailed literary analyses demonstrating how cosmology functions in individual odes. They show that Pindar shapes the poet persona to emphasize different aspects of the traditional world view or represent varying viewpoints so that he can praise each victor according to his particular circumstances. By focusing on cosmology the book highlights a neglected dimension of Pindar’s odes and challenges some traditional views on this poet.
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In Books 26–31 Ammianus Marcellinus deals with the period of the emperors Valentinian and Valens. The representatives of the new dynasty differ greatly from their predecessor Julian, both personally and in their style of government. The Empire is divided between the two rulers, and suffers increasingly from barbarian invasions. Faced with these changes, Ammianus adapts his historical method. His treatment of the events becomes less detailed and more critical. The years following on the death of Julian are painted in dark colours, as the disaster at Hadrianople casts its shadow before. The papers in this volume, on History and Historiography, Literary Composition and Crisis of Empire, were presented during the conference "Ammianus after Julian" held in 2005.
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This book attempts to view Medea in a positive light: looking not just at her failed relationships, but also at her successful ones and commenting on her intellect rather than just her clever manipulations of men. It tries to see her (or her author, who brings Medea home to Athens), as something of a political hero. The work considers the multiple facets of Medea, as the ideal wife, as a loving mother, as a woman among women, and how Medea becomes the author of her own story. The author asks what Medea is in the last scene: a demon or one of us; how she relates to the city-state; why this heroic drama is presented through the voices of two slaves.
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This book examines Ancient Egyptian and Greek proverbs, as they are found in wisdom collections, circulating in Egypt and Greece of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Its examination compares the proverbs’ grammar, structure, style, theme and usage within the collections. This multi-leveled comparison results in the indentification of a great number of similarities and differences that are interpreted in cultural terms, that is, through their association with the cultural context of production and usage of the proverbs. Hence this study offers an original insight into the literary production in Ancient Egypt and Greece, comparing the manner Egyptian and Greek authors conveyed timeless wisdom and reconsidering the status of cultural contact between these two ancient Mediterranean civilizations.
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Sixteen international contributors investigate the life, works and reception of Ion of Chios (490/80-420s BC), the prolific Greek writer famed in antiquity for his polyeideia. His extraordinary range of writings in prose and poetry across multiple genres include tragedy, elegy, history, biography, mythography and philosophy. Ion is important to any study of Classical Greece because of the literary innovations which he pioneered. He is significant to the history of Athens and Chios as a contemporary of and commentator on Aeschylus, Cimon, Sophocles, Pericles, Themistocles and Socrates. This book is the first to examine how this fascinating but neglected man interacted with his peers and conceptualized himself and his world during one of the most exciting periods of ancient history.
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The work concerns 15 epigraphic and/or verse inscriptions, handed down from the writers of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. These inscriptions were probably commissioned from Simonides of Keos. The commentaries on the individual verse inscriptions form the centre of the investigation. Each commentary is introduced by a text for the sake of orientation concerning the epigram in question, by a brief apparatus criticus, and by a review of the relevant secondary literature. The historic, literary, and, when possible, architectural contexts are taken into consideration in the interpretations.
The first part of the book includes studies on the archaic and classical epigram in the public space, on the sources and transmissions of the oldest Simonidean verse inscriptions, and on the status quaestionis regarding the authenticity of the claims of authorship. The concluding observations deal with epigrammatic competitions and with the historical reception of the verse inscriptions in the public space.
Die Arbeit widmet sich 15 epigraphisch und/oder bei Autoren des 5. und 4. Jhs. v. Chr. überlieferten Versinschriften, die vermutlich bei Simonides von Keos in Auftrag gegeben wurden. Den Kern der Untersuchung bilden die Kommentare zu einzelnen Versinschriften. Ein zur Orientierung gedachter Text des jeweiligen Epigramms, ein knapper kritischer Apparat und ein Überblick über die Sekundärliteratur leiten die einzelnen Kommentare ein. In der Deutung werden die historischen, literarischen und, wenn möglich, architektonischen Kontexte berücksichtigt.
Der erste Teil des Buches umfasst Studien zum archaischen und klassischen Epigramm im öffentlichen Raum, zu den Quellen und zur Überlieferung der ältesten simonideischen Versinschriften und zum status quaestionis bezüglich der Zuschreibungen. Der abschließende Ausblick gilt epigrammatischen Wettbewerben und der historischen Rezeption der Versinschriften im öffentlichen Raum.
The first part of the book includes studies on the archaic and classical epigram in the public space, on the sources and transmissions of the oldest Simonidean verse inscriptions, and on the status quaestionis regarding the authenticity of the claims of authorship. The concluding observations deal with epigrammatic competitions and with the historical reception of the verse inscriptions in the public space.
Die Arbeit widmet sich 15 epigraphisch und/oder bei Autoren des 5. und 4. Jhs. v. Chr. überlieferten Versinschriften, die vermutlich bei Simonides von Keos in Auftrag gegeben wurden. Den Kern der Untersuchung bilden die Kommentare zu einzelnen Versinschriften. Ein zur Orientierung gedachter Text des jeweiligen Epigramms, ein knapper kritischer Apparat und ein Überblick über die Sekundärliteratur leiten die einzelnen Kommentare ein. In der Deutung werden die historischen, literarischen und, wenn möglich, architektonischen Kontexte berücksichtigt.
Der erste Teil des Buches umfasst Studien zum archaischen und klassischen Epigramm im öffentlichen Raum, zu den Quellen und zur Überlieferung der ältesten simonideischen Versinschriften und zum status quaestionis bezüglich der Zuschreibungen. Der abschließende Ausblick gilt epigrammatischen Wettbewerben und der historischen Rezeption der Versinschriften im öffentlichen Raum.
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This study investigates the reception of contemporary religion in Hellenistic poetry and analyses the treatment of the cult of Artemis—taken as paradigmatic—in Theocritus’ second Idyll and Callimachus’ Hymns.
Both Theocritus and Callimachus display a lively interest in contemporary religion in all its facets and each dwells upon an aspect of the cult of Artemis absent in earlier poetry: Theocritus depicts her as a goddess of magic, and Callimachus as a city-goddess. These are precisely the features of her cult that gained prominence in the Hellenistic period.
The monograph aims to advance scholarly understanding of the integration and transformation of religious motifs in Hellenistic literature.
Die vorliegende Monographie untersucht die Rezeption der zeitgenössischen Religion in der hellenistischen Dichtung, und zwar am Beispiel
des Artemiskultes, wie er sich im zweiten Idyll des Theokrit und in den Hymnen des Kallimachos abbildet.
Die Analyse zeigt, daß beide Dichter nicht nur
großes Interesse an der zeitgenössischen Religion in allen ihren Facetten haben, sondern darüber hinaus jeweils Aspekte des Artemiskultes
akzentuieren, die in der hellenistischen Zeit
besonders markant sind: Theokrit zeichnet Artemis als eine Göttin der Magie, wogegen Kallimachos Artemis’ Zuständigkeitsbereich ausdifferenziert, wobei er neben der Natur und Jagd vor allem die Stadtgöttin in den Vordergrund stellt. Neben der poetischen Inszenierung der religiösen Phänomene liegt der besondere Schwerpunkt auf der literarischen Umsetzung und neuen Kontextualisierung im Gedichtcorpus.
Both Theocritus and Callimachus display a lively interest in contemporary religion in all its facets and each dwells upon an aspect of the cult of Artemis absent in earlier poetry: Theocritus depicts her as a goddess of magic, and Callimachus as a city-goddess. These are precisely the features of her cult that gained prominence in the Hellenistic period.
The monograph aims to advance scholarly understanding of the integration and transformation of religious motifs in Hellenistic literature.
Die vorliegende Monographie untersucht die Rezeption der zeitgenössischen Religion in der hellenistischen Dichtung, und zwar am Beispiel
des Artemiskultes, wie er sich im zweiten Idyll des Theokrit und in den Hymnen des Kallimachos abbildet.
Die Analyse zeigt, daß beide Dichter nicht nur
großes Interesse an der zeitgenössischen Religion in allen ihren Facetten haben, sondern darüber hinaus jeweils Aspekte des Artemiskultes
akzentuieren, die in der hellenistischen Zeit
besonders markant sind: Theokrit zeichnet Artemis als eine Göttin der Magie, wogegen Kallimachos Artemis’ Zuständigkeitsbereich ausdifferenziert, wobei er neben der Natur und Jagd vor allem die Stadtgöttin in den Vordergrund stellt. Neben der poetischen Inszenierung der religiösen Phänomene liegt der besondere Schwerpunkt auf der literarischen Umsetzung und neuen Kontextualisierung im Gedichtcorpus.
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Exile and displacement are central topics in classical literature. Previous research has been mostly biographical and has focused on the three most prominent exiles: Cicero, Ovid, and Seneca. By shifting focus to a discourse of exile and displacement in early Greek poetry, Greek historiography, Cynicism, consolatory literature, Latin epic, Greek literature of the empire, and Medieval Latin literature, the present volume questions the notion of a distinct, psychologically conditioned ‘genre’ or ‘mode’ of exile literature. It shows how ancient and medieval authors perceive and present their exile according to pre-existent literary paradigms, style themselves or others as ‘typical’ exiles, and employ ‘exile’ as a powerful trope to express estrangement, elicit readerly sympathy, and question political power structures.
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The story of Apollonius King of Tyre has rightly been called the most popular romance of the Middle Ages. From Iceland to Greece, from Spain to Russia, versions of this novel are recorded. It is the variation among the Latin versions and the numerous vernacular adaptations that make this story especially interesting. Shakespeare used and adapted it in his Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Its plot continues to fascinate us. Incest, deception, pirates, famine, sex and shipwreck form its tasty ingredients. Its links with the Greek novel, which today stands in the centre of scholarly interest, are striking.
In this commentary the author even attempts to show that the novel originated in Greece, or more precisely Asia Minor, possibly inTarsus. The two recensions (RA and RB) are compared line by line, generally given preference to RA.
All these aspects make the present book attractive to scholars of many different disciplines.
In this commentary the author even attempts to show that the novel originated in Greece, or more precisely Asia Minor, possibly inTarsus. The two recensions (RA and RB) are compared line by line, generally given preference to RA.
All these aspects make the present book attractive to scholars of many different disciplines.
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This volume represents the sixth in the series on Orality and Literacy in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds. The present work comprises a collection of essays that explore the tensions and controversies that arise as a society moves from an oral to literate culture. Part 1 deals with both Homeric and other forms of epic; part 2 explores different ways in which texts and writing were manipulated for political ends. Part 3 and 4 deals with the controversies surrounding the adoption of writing as the accepted mode of communication; whereas some segments of society began to privilege writing over oral communication, others continued to maintain that the latter was superior. Part 4 looks at the oral elements of Athenian Law.
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The reign of the Flavian emperors (69-96) saw the production of a large and varied body of Latin poetry: the epics of Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus and Statius, the Silvae of the same Statius, and the Epigrams of Martial. This poetry, long seen as derivative or decadent, is now increasingly appreciated for the daring originality of its responses both to the Latin literary tradition and to the contemporary Roman world. In the summer of 2003, the first-ever international conference on Flavian poetry, was held at Groningen, The Netherlands, bringing together leading scholars in the field from Europe, North America and Australasia. This volume offers a selection of the papers delivered on that occasion.
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This volume investigates the transmission and ancient reception of ancient Greek texts with musical notation. It provides a reconstruction of the dynamics of reception orienting the re-use and re-shaping of musical and poetic tradition in the entertainment culture of the post-classical Greek world. The study makes full use of literary, papyrological and epigraphic evidence, and in particular includes a detailed philological analysis of surviving musical papyri and of their relationship to the editorial activity of Alexandrian scholarship. The study helps to relocate musical documents in the world of their production and reception.
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This volume offers an extensive overview of the various ways in which Sophocles’ use of the Greek language is currently being studied. Greatly admired in antiquity, Sophocles’ style only became a serious subject of investigation with Campbell’s Introductory essay On the language of Sophocles (1879).
Fourteen chapters, divided into three sections (diction, syntax, pragmatics), discuss the linguistic register and use of gnomai in Ajax’ deception speech, Homeric intertextuality, the style of the Sophoclean satyr-plays in relation to tragedy and comedy, the relation between the repetition of words and focalization, the language of blindness, the image of ‘fire’, the use of deictic pronouns, the semantics of the middle-passive and of counterfactuals, the historic present and the constitution of the text, the suggestive power of descriptions, speech-acts, and strategies of politeness.
Fourteen chapters, divided into three sections (diction, syntax, pragmatics), discuss the linguistic register and use of gnomai in Ajax’ deception speech, Homeric intertextuality, the style of the Sophoclean satyr-plays in relation to tragedy and comedy, the relation between the repetition of words and focalization, the language of blindness, the image of ‘fire’, the use of deictic pronouns, the semantics of the middle-passive and of counterfactuals, the historic present and the constitution of the text, the suggestive power of descriptions, speech-acts, and strategies of politeness.
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The 2-volume handbook is dedicated to one of the most significant processes in the history of ancient Greece - colonisation. Greeks set up colonies and other settlements in new environments, establishing themselves in lands stretching from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to North Africa in the south and the Black Sea in the north east. In this colonial world Greek and local structures met, influenced and enriched each other. The handbook brings together historians and archaeologists, all world experts, to present the latest ideas and evidence. The principal aim is to present and update the general picture of this phenomenon, showing its importance in the history of the whole ancient world, including the Near East. The work is dedicated to Prof. A.J. Graham.
This first volume gives a lengthy introduction to the problem, including methodological and theoretical issues. The chapters cover Mycenaean expansion, Phoenician and Phocaean colonisation, Greeks in the western Mediterranean, Syria, Egypt and southern Anatolia, etc. The volume is richly illustrated.
This first volume gives a lengthy introduction to the problem, including methodological and theoretical issues. The chapters cover Mycenaean expansion, Phoenician and Phocaean colonisation, Greeks in the western Mediterranean, Syria, Egypt and southern Anatolia, etc. The volume is richly illustrated.
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This volume offers a range of innovative approaches to Solon of Athens, legendary law-giver, statesman, and poet of the early sixth century B.C. In the first part, Solon’s poetry is reconsidered against the background of oral poetics and other early Greek poetry. The connection between Solon’s alleged roles as poet and as politician is fundamentally questioned. Part two offers a reassessment of Solon’s laws based on a revision of the textual tradition and recent views on early Greek lawgiving. In part three, fresh scrutiny of the archeological and written evidence of archaic Greece results in new perspectives on the agricultural crisis and Solon’s role in the social and political developments of sixth-century Athens.
Originally published in hardcover
Originally published in hardcover
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The third in a series that explores cultural and ethical values in Classical antiquity, this volume examines the dichotomy between 'city' and 'country' in ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Fourteen papers address a variety of topics on this theme, and include a variety of methodological approaches—archaeological, iconographic, literary and philosophical. The book demonstrates that, despite a common rhetoric of polarity in antiquity that tended to construct city and countryside as very distinct, oppositional categories, there was far less consistency (and far more nuance) about the ideologies felt to inhere in each.
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This book considers the relationship between the Fasti, Ovid's long poem on the Roman calendar, and the calendar itself, conceived of as consisting both in the rites and commemorations it organizes and in its graphic representation. The Fasti treats the calendar, recently revised by Caesar and Augustus, as its most important cultural model and as a quasi-literary 'intertext': the poem simultaneously reshapes and is itself shaped by the calendar. The study includes chapters on Book 4 and the rites of April, on the addition of Julio-Claudian holidays to the calendar, and on the final two books of the poem as shaped by the renaming of the months Quintilis and Sextilis for Julius Caesar and Augustus.
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This volume is the first comprehensive commentary on the fourth book of Martial's epigrams. The introduction discusses its date of publication, major themes (Domitian, literature, death), the arrangement and form of the epigrams, and some issues concerning the transmission of the text. Of special note is the author’s study of the structure of the book. The commentary, preceded by the Latin critical text and an English translation, aims to provide readers with as much pertinent information as possible to enable them to fully comprehend the epigrams. Attention is paid to style and literary tradition, as well as to realia. Both each individual epigram and the book as a whole are studied as finely accomplished works of art.
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This is the first detailed commentary on Aeneid 3, being some three times the size of that by R.D.Williams(1962), and aimed at the scholarly public. It treats fully the thorny problem of book 3's place in the growth of the poem, matters of linguistic and textual interpretation, metre, prosody, grammar, lexicon and idiom, as well as Virgil's sources and the literary tradition in which he writes. Full attention is given to matters geographical and nautical. New critical approaches and recent developments in Virgilian studies have been taken into account, with more attention to their spirit than to their language. A text, with translation, and three indices are included.
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This volume offers a historical and factual commentary on Herodotus book 6. The introductory discussions include one on the background to the Ionian revolt and the role of Histiaeus. The commentary aims to assess the reality behind Herodotus' text: the revolt and its aftermath; the various aspects of Spartan affairs in the middle of the book; Datis' invasion of Eretria and Attica; and Miltiades' expedition the following year. Material that cannot conveniently be dealt with in the commentary itself, and a number of related topics that merit consideration, are considered in a series of appendices. These include discussions of Cleomenes' madness in relation to his activities in Arcadia, and the Argive reaction to his victory at Sepeia.
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This volume deals with Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (480 B.C.), particularly as a naval operation. It examines the traditions preserved by Aischylos, Herodotos, and others against the background of the revolutionary naval developments in the period preceding Xerxes’ decision to attack. Among the subjects discussed are: the naval pressure on Persian foreign policy; the strength in numbers of the Persian navy in 480; its deployment in the waters of Salamis related to the physical features of the battlefield and the position of the Greeks; Themistokles’ legendary message as a key to the Persian plan of attack; the quality of the opposing ships and their tactical capabilities; the battle of Salamis itself and its outcome. The book includes maps and a photograph of the area discussed.
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This book analyses the mythical and legendary narratives in Ovid's Fasti as narrative and concentrates on the neglected literary aspects of these stories. It combines traditional tools of literary criticism with more modern techniques (taken especially from narratology and intertextuality).
From a narratological viewpoint it covers important features such as aperture, closure, characterization, internal narrators, description, space, time and cinematic technique. On the intertextual level it examines the narratives' complex relationship with Virgil, Livy and Ovid's own earlier works.
Recent criticism on the Fasti has addressed various elements (religious, historical, political, astronomical etc.), but detailed narrative study has been wanting. This book fills that gap, to provide a more informed and balanced appreciation of this multifaceted poem aimed at classicists and literary critics in general (for whom all the Latin is translated).
From a narratological viewpoint it covers important features such as aperture, closure, characterization, internal narrators, description, space, time and cinematic technique. On the intertextual level it examines the narratives' complex relationship with Virgil, Livy and Ovid's own earlier works.
Recent criticism on the Fasti has addressed various elements (religious, historical, political, astronomical etc.), but detailed narrative study has been wanting. This book fills that gap, to provide a more informed and balanced appreciation of this multifaceted poem aimed at classicists and literary critics in general (for whom all the Latin is translated).
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This volume makes clear that even within the short period of their floruit archaic Greek trimeters underwent profound changes. The shift in thematography, use of person, and vocabulary reveals that iambic verse is a complex, definable genre with all the dynamism that implies and with a traceable development.
The various chapters examine the subject matter, morphology, and diction of the trimeters both within the genre in a diachronic fashion and in relation to elegy. The metrical inscriptions and later iambic poetry are also considered, as the author ponders the rise of tragedy and the disappearance of serious iambus.
This work is of interest not only to scholars of archaic lyric poetry but also of tragedy and sympotic practices.
The various chapters examine the subject matter, morphology, and diction of the trimeters both within the genre in a diachronic fashion and in relation to elegy. The metrical inscriptions and later iambic poetry are also considered, as the author ponders the rise of tragedy and the disappearance of serious iambus.
This work is of interest not only to scholars of archaic lyric poetry but also of tragedy and sympotic practices.
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This volume is intended to accompany the new Oxford edition of Plato's Republic, published in 2003. It is based on a series of ten articles in Mnemosyne, dating from 1988 to 2003. It contains discussions of textual problems of various kinds. Much attention is paid to Plato's use of particles, to the moods and tenses of the verb, and to pragmatics and style. Moreover, the transmission of the text receives ample attention. The book is highly recommended for users of the new edition of the Republic, for those interested in the transmission of the Platonic corpus and in Platonic Greek and for students of linguistics in general.
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This work provides a full commentary on the first book of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, an epic which has received increased attention in the last few decades, as may be seen from two recent editions (1997 and 2003). Its first aim is to clarify the text, which is sometimes rather difficult and, in places, still not established with certainty. Apart from this philological aspect, the literary merits of the poem have also been taken into account.
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The story of Apollonius King of Tyre has rightly been called the most popular romance of the Middle Ages. From Iceland to Greece, from Spain to Russia, versions of this novel are recorded. It is the variation among the Latin versions and the numerous vernacular adaptations that make this story especially interesting. Shakespeare used and adapted it in his Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Its plot continues to fascinate us. Incest, deception, pirates, famine, sex and shipwreck form its tasty ingredients. Its links with the Greek novel, which today stands in the centre of scholarly interest, are striking.
In this book the author attempts to show that the novel originated in Greece, or more precisely Asia Minor, possibly in Tarsus. A graffito from Pergamum and a coin struck in Tarsus at the time of Caracalla’s visit (215 AD) support his conviction.
All these aspects make the present book attractive to scholars of many different disciplines.
In this book the author attempts to show that the novel originated in Greece, or more precisely Asia Minor, possibly in Tarsus. A graffito from Pergamum and a coin struck in Tarsus at the time of Caracalla’s visit (215 AD) support his conviction.
All these aspects make the present book attractive to scholars of many different disciplines.
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Open Access
This is the first in a series of volumes which together will provide an entirely new history of ancient Greek (narrative) literature. Its organization is formal rather than biographical. It traces the history of central narrative devices, such as the narrator and his narratees, time, focalization, characterization, description, speech, and plot. It offers not only analyses of the handling of such a device by individual authors, but also a larger historical perspective on the manner in which it changes over time and is put to different uses by different authors in different genres. The first volume lays the foundation for all volumes to come, discussing the definition and boundaries of narrative, and the roles of its producer, the narrator, and recipient, the narratees.
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The Greek colonies of the Western Mediterranean were central to the evolution of many aspects of Greek culture and in many cases developed an identity which was significantly different from that of mainland Greece and the Aegean. This volume seeks to explore aspects of the cultural identity of these colonies and how it evolved. It covers the colonial foundations in Italy, Sicily, Southern France, Spain and North Africa, and ranges from the 8th century BC to the early Roman empire. Topics covered include the ethnic identity of the earliest colonial foundations, the evolution of Greek states in the West, the Greeks' perceptions of their own identity and ways of representing it, and the role of the indigenous populations in the evolution of Western Greek culture.
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While of paramount importance to Ancient Greek society, sophrosyne, the value of self-restraint, constitutes a notoriously complex concept, and provides the speaker of Ancient Greek with a subtle instrument for verbal persuasion.
This study provides a new description of the semantics of sophrosyne in Archaic and Classical Greek, based on a model from the field of cognitive linguistics. Besides, the volume shows how such a semantic description can contribute to the analysis and study of our sources: it investigates how speakers in our texts (ab)use the term to achieve their ends, covering most of the main texts, and culminating in a chapter on the dialogues of Plato.
This study provides a new description of the semantics of sophrosyne in Archaic and Classical Greek, based on a model from the field of cognitive linguistics. Besides, the volume shows how such a semantic description can contribute to the analysis and study of our sources: it investigates how speakers in our texts (ab)use the term to achieve their ends, covering most of the main texts, and culminating in a chapter on the dialogues of Plato.
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This volume presents the second half of the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society (2002). The selected papers are divided by theme in sections concentrating on statesmen and statesmanship in Plutarch's Greek and Roman Lives. The volume bears witness to the ongoing, wide-ranging interest in Plutarch's biographies.
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About 280 AD C. Iulius Romanus wrote a large work on Latin grammar. Parts of this work were later incorporated in the Ars grammatica of Flavius Sosipater Charisius. Romanus' Introduction to his list of adverbs is unique because of his approach of the subject. With the help of many rhetorical means he weaves together an intricate argument, which is completely different from the usual treatments of the adverb. This unique character was never noticed previously.
The first chapters of this book deal with Charisius and Romanus in general and the Introduction in particular. A new edition with translation and commentary follows, completed by a discussion of the annotations of Cauchius made about 1540 from a manuscript now lost.
The first chapters of this book deal with Charisius and Romanus in general and the Introduction in particular. A new edition with translation and commentary follows, completed by a discussion of the annotations of Cauchius made about 1540 from a manuscript now lost.
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This volume is a companion to the author's new Loeb edition of Seneca's tragedies (vol. 1, 2002; vol. 2, 2004). It offers reasons for his editorial choices, and explains his interpretations of the text as reflected in his translation. Hercules Oetanus and Octavia, now generally regarded as imitations of Senecan drama, are both included.
The volume is intended to be read alongside Otto Zwierlein's Kritische Kommentar, published in 1986. In the intervening years there has been much new work pertaining to Seneca's text, including full-scale editions with commentary on individual plays, such as Keulen's Troades, Töchterle's Oedipus and Ferri's Octavia. Annaeana Tragica seeks to supplement and advance Zwierlein's work in the light of this new material.
An appendix reviews the scholarly controversy concerning the anapaestic odes of these plays, and offers fresh evidence relevant to the issue.
The volume is intended to be read alongside Otto Zwierlein's Kritische Kommentar, published in 1986. In the intervening years there has been much new work pertaining to Seneca's text, including full-scale editions with commentary on individual plays, such as Keulen's Troades, Töchterle's Oedipus and Ferri's Octavia. Annaeana Tragica seeks to supplement and advance Zwierlein's work in the light of this new material.
An appendix reviews the scholarly controversy concerning the anapaestic odes of these plays, and offers fresh evidence relevant to the issue.
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This commentary provides a detailed analysis of the first book of Ovid's Fasti, a complex poem which takes as its central framework the Roman calendar in the late Augustan/early Tiberian period and purports to deal with its religious festivals and their origins. Book 1 covers the month of January, and has proven to be particularly challenging to readers in light of the apparent revision/reworking of the text undertaken by the poet whilst in exile. This commentary - the most extensive yet on any single book of the poem - locates the text of Book 1 firmly in its literary, historical and socio-political contexts and seeks both to incorporate and build on the recent scholarship on the poem. In light of the special nature of Book 1, the commentary is prefaced by two introductory sections, the second of which tackles head-on the problems (and dynamics) of post-exilic reworking of the text.
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This volume offers analysis of the narratological structure of the Theogony with the purpose of elucidating a major, unifying theme in this poem: the relationship between the divine and mortal realms. The techniques of narratology are herein employed to support the argument that Hesiod portrays the cosmos as sharply divided between gods and men. The Theogony should therefore be read as a didactic poem explaining primarily the position of man vis-à-vis the gods. The first half of this book discusses relevant scholarship and introduces the theme of relationship of gods to men in the Theogony. The second half of the book discusses how Hesiod employs Character-Text, Attributive Discourse, Embedded Focalization, Anachrony, and Commentary to achieve his didactic purposes.
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This volume is concerned with aspects of orality and literacy in the ancient world. It arises from the tremendous contemporary interest among scholars in questions of how literacy and orality co-exist and interact in the ancient world. The contents of the book are refereed papers originally presented at the fifth biennial 'Orality and Literacy in ancient Greece' held at The University of Melbourne in 2002. Papers are offered by scholars from Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia which deal with a range of periods and genres in antiquity, from Homer through to Roman literature. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the ancient world.
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The most important medium of Seneca's Lebenskunst is language. We first change the meaning of words through philosophical reflection; then we can change ourselves through language. Each chapter in this book takes linguistic or stylistic observations in texts as starting point (e.g. metaphors from the domains of health, finance, and sea-faring). Topics are man's self-definition in time and place and his relation to property, learning, and tradition. Single words and rhetorical patterns guide us in constructing an inner world and to find our own identity. Texts in Latin and in translation document Seneca's importance for modern, Christian Europe.
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This volume presents the first half of the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society (2002). The selected papers are divided by theme in sections concentrating on political, philosophical, and literary aspects of Plutarch's presentation of statesmen and their activities, and on the aftermath of this Plutarchan heritage. The volume bears witness to the ongoing, wide-ranging interest in the work of Plutarch.
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This study describes the usage of subclauses and participial clauses in Xenophon’s Hellenica and Anabasis, with additional examples from other texts, using a text grammar-oriented approach, which can map more factors underlying the distribution of these clauses, and offers a more satisfactory explanation of a larger number of instances than is possible using the traditional sentence-level approach.
The discourse-analytic description of the different clause types focuses on how relations are coded by means of subordinating conjunctions, the differences in form and function as discourse boundary markers between preposed, sentence-initially placed subclauses and participles, and the differences between clause types with respect to the information flow in on-going discourse.
The discussion of many examples from the work of Xenophon makes this book interesting for both linguists and classical philologists.
The discourse-analytic description of the different clause types focuses on how relations are coded by means of subordinating conjunctions, the differences in form and function as discourse boundary markers between preposed, sentence-initially placed subclauses and participles, and the differences between clause types with respect to the information flow in on-going discourse.
The discussion of many examples from the work of Xenophon makes this book interesting for both linguists and classical philologists.
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This book contains a collection of essays on the notion of “Free Speech” in classical antiquity. The essays examine such concepts as “freedom of speech,” “self-expression,” and “censorship,” in ancient Greek and Roman culture from historical, philosophical, and literary perspectives. Among the many questions addressed are: what was the precise lexicographical valence of the ancient terms we routinely translate as "Freedom of Speech," e.g., Parrhesia in Greece, Licentia in Rome? What relationship do such terms have with concepts such as isêgoria, dêmokratia and eleutheria; or libertas, res publica and imperium? What does ancient theorizing about free speech tell us about contemporary relationships between power and speech? What are the philosophical foundations and ideological underpinnings of free speech in specific historical contexts?
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The present volume on Lucan’s poetical technique focusses on the main artistic principles of the Pharsalia, studying both the underlying history of the Civil War and its poetical reworking by the author. A chapter on Lucan's historical source (Livy) is followed by a chapter on Lucan's poetical technique and the general outline of his work. The material basis for these chapters is provided by a detailed analysis of every single book of the Pharsalia, which takes the form of a "historical-poetical" commentary. The study closes with a chapter on the narrator and the author.
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This book explores Callimachus' allusive practice in his Aetia prologue and Hymns 4, 5, and 6, and in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The study includes an overview of modern approaches to poetic allusion, a close (re-)examination of the lexical allusions in the Aetia's and Metamorphoses' prologues, extensive examinations of allusive techniques within selections of these works, the poets' use of "signposting" and "authorization" techniques, and the relationship between allusion and genre.
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This book deals with political propoganda in classical antiquity, exploring the contexts, strategies, and parameters of a fascinating phenomenon that has often been approached with anachronistic models (such as the centrally organized 'propaganda machines' of the 20th-century totalitarian regimes) or completely ignored. It offers case studies on the archaic period, classical Athens, the Hellenistic kingdoms, the Augustan age and the late Roman empire, and emphasizes concepts such as interaction, integration, and horizontal orientation.
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This volume examines the use of a central concept in the self-definition of any Greek speaking male: Andreia, the notion of courage and manliness. The nature and use of value terms quickly leads the researcher to core issues of cultural identity: through a combination of lexical or semantic and conceptual studies the discourse of manliness and its role in the construction of social order is studied, in a variety of authors, genres, and communicative situations.
This book is of interest to students of the classical world, the history of values, gender studies, and cultural historians.
This book is of interest to students of the classical world, the history of values, gender studies, and cultural historians.
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Euripidea Tertia is a companion volume to the Loeb Classical Library edition of Euripides. It discusses places in the text primarily of the late plays where the editor's choice of variants or adoption of conjectures required some explanation and also places where the translation needed explaining. The plays covered are Iphigenia Taurica, Ion, Helen, Phoenissae, Orestes, Bacchae, Iphigenia Aulidensis, and Rhesus, with addenda on earlier plays. Reviewers of the earlier volumes Euripidea and Euripidea Altera have commented on the cogency and sensitivity of his textual arguments. Serious students of Euripides, tragedy, textual criticism, and Greek metre will all want to read this book.
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This is the first comprehensive commentary on Aeneid 11. The commentary treats fully matters of linguistic and textual interpretation, metre and prosody, grammar, lexicon and idiom, of Roman behaviour, social and ritual, as well as Virgil’s sources and the literary tradition. New critical approaches and developments in Virgilian studies have been taken into account with economy and fairness. The Latin text is presented with a facing English translation. The commentary is followed by an appendix on Penthesilea and the Epic Cycle and a second appendix which discusses the weaknesses of Aeneid 11. The book concludes with English and Latin indices.
In approach and learning, this commentary continues Nicholas Horsfall’s impressive work as a commentator and will advance our understanding of the Aeneid and the poet Virgil.
In approach and learning, this commentary continues Nicholas Horsfall’s impressive work as a commentator and will advance our understanding of the Aeneid and the poet Virgil.
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This book examines the meaning of justice or dike in the political poems of Solon from a new interpretative perspective. The first two chapters argue that neither standard historical nor literary treatments have provided an adequate foundation for understanding Solon’s dike. The main defect lies in an inability to connect Solon’s concrete political work with his poetic perceptions. The book’s central proposal is that the polis idea, from new classical archaeology, provides an objective standard for an interpretation of Solon’s dike, which remedies this defect. The third chapter sets forth the polis idea, which becomes the measure for an examination, in the final two chapters, of Solon’s view of dike. The book thus exhibits an interdisciplinary approach to Archaic poetry.
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This comprehensive study of Cicero's style discusses differences of literary genres (Ch.1), nuances of style within individual works (Ch.2), and chronological development (Ch.3), followed by an account of fixed elements typical of Cicero's diction (Ch.4). Finally, selected interpretative studies demonstrate the relationship of style and context in the orations, with special regard to literary form and political or moral content (Ch.5). The book concludes with an Epilogue on the De oratore and the culture of speech. Contrary to inveterate prejudices, Cicero does not confine himself to a single (so-called ‘Ciceronian’) style, but consciously and ably employs the full register of styles. The author points out in what respects a study of his style might be rewarding even today.
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This third volume of the History of the Graeco-Latin Fable offers a complete inventory and documentation of the Classical fable tradition in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The original Spanish edition (1987) has been considerably enlarged with numerous supplementary references and less than 350 new fables.
The present edition uniquely refers to fables in more than 20 different languages, not only in Greek and Latin, but also in other Oriental and Western languages such as Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Armenian, Circassian, Slavonian, Albanian, Spanish, Italian, English, French, German, and Dutch, thus paving the way for studies of comparative literature.
The book is conveniently concluded with elaborate indexes of fable characters, passages included, and numeration systems of other contributions in the field.
The original Spanish edition (1987) has been considerably enlarged with numerous supplementary references and less than 350 new fables.
The present edition uniquely refers to fables in more than 20 different languages, not only in Greek and Latin, but also in other Oriental and Western languages such as Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Armenian, Circassian, Slavonian, Albanian, Spanish, Italian, English, French, German, and Dutch, thus paving the way for studies of comparative literature.
The book is conveniently concluded with elaborate indexes of fable characters, passages included, and numeration systems of other contributions in the field.
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The work of Stesichoros, an ancient Greek poet of the early sixth century B.C., is transmitted in fragments only. This volume contains a new edition of some of the most interesting Stesichoros-papyri from the Oxyrhynchus collection. The papyri are analysed under various aspects: survey of relevant secondary literature, introduction about identification and contents of each papyrus (including archaeological evidence), papyrological description, metrics; the edition is complete with a Latin critical apparatus, translation and detailed commentary. A brief general introduction illustrates notorious problems concerning the author, the genre etc. A bibliography and indices are provided at the end of the volume. The book will be welcomed by classicists and papyrologists alike.
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This book is a study of the Ion of Euripides. Produced in a period of intense political crisis at Athens in 412 BC, this play went to the heart of Athenian self-perception but also highlighted the violent divine grace of Apollo, the intense emotional suffering of Kreousa, and Ion's insistent search for truth despite divine concealment. Informed by recent scholarship on Athenian ethnicity, this study shows how autochthony (claim to being earthborn) and Ionianism (Ionian character of Athens) are conceptually related with Apollo, father of Ion and god of the Delphic oracle where the play is set. Through careful analysis of the political, psychological, religious and poetic aspects of the play and use of modern critical theory, the Ion emerges as a polyphonic work expressing different and converging truths.
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This volume comprises the revised versions of selected papers read at the International Conference on the Ancient Novel (Groningen, July 2000). The papers cover a wide range of scholarly issues that were prominent in the programme of the conference, and feature the most recent approaches to research on the ancient novel.
The essays combine judicious use of literary theory with traditional scholarship, and examine the ancient novels and related texts, such as Oriental tales and Christian narrative, both in their larger, literary, cultural and social context, and as sources of inspiration for Byzantine and modern fiction. This book is important not only for classicists and literary historians, but also for a general public of those interested in narrative fiction.
The essays combine judicious use of literary theory with traditional scholarship, and examine the ancient novels and related texts, such as Oriental tales and Christian narrative, both in their larger, literary, cultural and social context, and as sources of inspiration for Byzantine and modern fiction. This book is important not only for classicists and literary historians, but also for a general public of those interested in narrative fiction.
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A study of the phenomenon of literary patronage, both non-imperial and imperial, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96 A.D.). This work centres on the Epigrams of Martial and the Silvae of Statius.
The book deals not only with the relationships between poets and patrons, but also with the audiences and the functions of patron-oriented poetry. It includes discussions of such topics as "patronage" versus "friendship", the poetic "I", the role of poetry at symposia and festivals, dedication and publication, the influence of rhetoric on poetry, and the poetic representation of imperial power.
The book should prove of interest not only to specialists in Roman poetry, but also to ancient historians and to students of literary patronage in other cultures. All Latin and Greek is translated.
The book deals not only with the relationships between poets and patrons, but also with the audiences and the functions of patron-oriented poetry. It includes discussions of such topics as "patronage" versus "friendship", the poetic "I", the role of poetry at symposia and festivals, dedication and publication, the influence of rhetoric on poetry, and the poetic representation of imperial power.
The book should prove of interest not only to specialists in Roman poetry, but also to ancient historians and to students of literary patronage in other cultures. All Latin and Greek is translated.
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This volume contains the collected articles of the Groningen Professor of Ancient Greek, Stefan Radt, and a survey of his publications. These articles, which show great philological acumen, are of considerable importance for the study of ancient Greek literature and linguistics.
This collection of distuingished papers will prove a valuable and useful acquisition for libraries and students of ancient Greek.
This collection of distuingished papers will prove a valuable and useful acquisition for libraries and students of ancient Greek.
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This volume deals with aspects of orality and oral traditions in ancient Greece, and is a selection of refereed papers from the fourth biennial Orality and Literacy in Ancient Greece conference, held at the University of Missouri Columbia in 2000.
The book is divided into three parts: literature, rhetoric and society, and philosophy. The papers focus on genres such as epic poetry, drama, poetry and art, public oratory, legislative procedure, and Simplicius’ philosophy. All papers present new approaches to their topics or ask new and provocative questions.
The book is divided into three parts: literature, rhetoric and society, and philosophy. The papers focus on genres such as epic poetry, drama, poetry and art, public oratory, legislative procedure, and Simplicius’ philosophy. All papers present new approaches to their topics or ask new and provocative questions.
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The Augustan age was one in which writers were constantly reworking the Roman past, and which was marked by a profound engagement of poets with the historians and historical techniques which were the main vehicle for the transmission of the image of the past to their day.
In this book seventeen leading scholars from Europe and America examine the fascinating interaction between such apparently diverse genres: how the Augustan poets drew on — or reacted against — the historians’ presentation of the world, and how, conversely, historians picked up and transformed poetic themes for their own ends. With essays on poems
from Horace’s Odes to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, on authors from Virgil to Valerius Maximus, it forms the most important topic so central to such a particulary relevant period of literary history.
In this book seventeen leading scholars from Europe and America examine the fascinating interaction between such apparently diverse genres: how the Augustan poets drew on — or reacted against — the historians’ presentation of the world, and how, conversely, historians picked up and transformed poetic themes for their own ends. With essays on poems
from Horace’s Odes to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, on authors from Virgil to Valerius Maximus, it forms the most important topic so central to such a particulary relevant period of literary history.
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This is the first detailed study of the collision of the two greatest powers of the Hellenistic world. The Roman Republic, victorious over Carthage and Macedon, met the Seleukid kingdom, which had crushed Ptolemaic Egypt. The preliminary diplomatic sparring was complicated by Rome's attempts to control Greece, and by the military activities of Antiocohos the Great, and ended in war.
Despite well-meaning attempts on both sides to avoid and solve disputes, areas of disagreement could not be removed. Each great power was hounded by the ambitions of its subsidiary clients. When the Aitolian League deliberately challenged Rome, and Rome seemed not to respond, Antiochos moved into Greece to take Rome's place.
The Roman reaction produced the war, and a complex campaign by land and sea resulted in another Roman victory.
Despite well-meaning attempts on both sides to avoid and solve disputes, areas of disagreement could not be removed. Each great power was hounded by the ambitions of its subsidiary clients. When the Aitolian League deliberately challenged Rome, and Rome seemed not to respond, Antiochos moved into Greece to take Rome's place.
The Roman reaction produced the war, and a complex campaign by land and sea resulted in another Roman victory.
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This collection explores the issues raised by the writing and reading of commentaries on classical Greek and Latin texts. Written primarily by practising commentators, the papers examine philosophical, narratological, and historiographical commentaries; ancient, Byzantine, and Renaissance commentary practice and theory, with special emphasis on Galen, Tzetzes, and La Cerda; the relationship between the author of the primary text, the commentary writer, and the reader; special problems posed by fragmentary and spurious texts; the role and scope of citation, selectivity, lemmatization, and revision; the practical future of commentary-writing and publication; and the way computers are changing the shape of the classical commentary. With a genesis in discussion panels mounted in the UK in 1996 and the US in 1997, the volume continues recent international dialogue on the genre and future of commentaries.
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This volume is the first comprehensive commentary on the seventh book of Martial's epigrams. The introduction discusses the date of publication of Martial’s books, the themes of the epigrams of book seven as well as the transmission of the text. The autor pays special attention to the adulation of Domitian in book seven, the satirization of lawyers, legacy-hunters, parasites and dinner-guests, and hetero- and homosexuality. The commentary, preceded by a revised edition of Shackleton Bailey’s Teubner edition (1990), focuses on literary, linguistic and metrical matters. Thematic relationships with other books of Martial and other Greek and Latin literature are highlighted. Attention is also paid to the use of recurrent motifs, obscene language, puns, double meanings and proper names.
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This Festschrift includes a range of essays, mirroring the diverse abilities of the honoree, A. J. Graham, in ancient Greek and Roman constitutional history, military history, and colonization. The articles feature discussions of individual problems in politics, epigraphy, historiography, numismatics, and archaeology, including topics such as the Battle of Actium, the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, the Spartan constitution, democracy in Camarina, Persian coinage, mercenary soldiers, the origins of both Greek and Roman historical writing, cult practice at Berezan, the Athenian Long Walls, the Peloponnesian War, and various aspects of Greek colonization and Roman provincial policy.
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This volume is an edition of the poetical and grammatical fragments of Philitas of Cos, the early-Hellenistic scholar and poet who served as an exemplary model for the great Alexandrian poets. His output includes frivolous Hermes and Demeter which both had fundamental impact on later metapoetic imagery, and the Ataktoi Glossai, a glossary interpreting mainly Homeric idiom in pre-Aristarchean fashion.
The body of the book consists of an Introduction discussing life, literary affiliations and metre; an edition of testimonies and fragments along with a commentary elucidating matters of language and influence on the scholar-poets, Propertius and Longus. The study of Philitas is brought up to date with new testimonies and new neglected sources for the fragments. Recent papyrological findings, verse inscriptions, lexicographic sources and inscriptions from Cos are taken into consideration. Passages dubiously ascribed to Philitas are discussed. The book closes with three Appendices and comprehensive Indexes.
The body of the book consists of an Introduction discussing life, literary affiliations and metre; an edition of testimonies and fragments along with a commentary elucidating matters of language and influence on the scholar-poets, Propertius and Longus. The study of Philitas is brought up to date with new testimonies and new neglected sources for the fragments. Recent papyrological findings, verse inscriptions, lexicographic sources and inscriptions from Cos are taken into consideration. Passages dubiously ascribed to Philitas are discussed. The book closes with three Appendices and comprehensive Indexes.
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This volume is a collection of essays, written by authorities in the field, on many aspects of ancient rhetoric. These essays deal both with the theory of rhetoric and the practice of oratory and are quite diverse both in tone and audience envisioned. Some of them deal with very basic questions such as how good an orator should appear to be; others deal with very technical matters such as theoretical considerations of issue theory or "figured speeches". Some are focussed on the actual practice of oratory in speeches such as those of Cicero and Caesar; others deal with manifestations of oratory in historical works such as the Histories of Herodotus or reflections on the nature of oratory in works like the Dialogus of Tacitus. One considers parallel developments in rhetorical and artistic treatments of the legend of Busiris.
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The volume provides a full literary and textual commentary on three of the verse epistles (Heroides) by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC. – AD. 17): the letter of Canace to her brother-lover Macareus; of Laodamia to the war-hero Protesilaus; and of Hypermestra to Lynceus, the cousin whose life she recently spared. These three poems, together with the letters of Medea (recently the subject of a commentary in the same series) and Sappho, formed the last of Ovid’s three books of heroine letters.
The introduction discusses Ovid’s innovative use both of his sources and of the epistolary form. A text with selective apparatus is provided for each of the three poems, and the detailed commentary is fully indexed.
The introduction discusses Ovid’s innovative use both of his sources and of the epistolary form. A text with selective apparatus is provided for each of the three poems, and the detailed commentary is fully indexed.
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This volume takes a new look at one of the greatest works of Hellenistic mathematics, Apollonius of Perga's Conica. It provides a long overdue alternative to H.G. Zeuthen's Die Lehre von den Kegelschnitten im Altertum.
The central part of the volume contains a historically sensitive analysis and interpretation of the entire Conica, both from the standpoint of its individual books and of the text as a whole. Particular attention is given to Books V-VII, which have had scant treatment until now. Two chapters in the volume concern histioriographic issues connected with the Conica in paricular and Greek mathematics in general.
Although the volume is intended primarily for historians of ancient mathematics, its approach is fresh and engaging enough to be of interest also to historians, philosophers, linguists, and open-minded mathematicians.
The central part of the volume contains a historically sensitive analysis and interpretation of the entire Conica, both from the standpoint of its individual books and of the text as a whole. Particular attention is given to Books V-VII, which have had scant treatment until now. Two chapters in the volume concern histioriographic issues connected with the Conica in paricular and Greek mathematics in general.
Although the volume is intended primarily for historians of ancient mathematics, its approach is fresh and engaging enough to be of interest also to historians, philosophers, linguists, and open-minded mathematicians.
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This volume examines orality and literacy in the ancient Greek and Roman world through a range of perspectives and in various genres. Four essays on the Homeric epics present recent research into performative aspects of language, cognitive theory and oral composition, a re-evaluation of Parry's oral-formulaic theory, and a new perspective on the poem's transmission. These are complemented by studies of the oral nature of Greek proverbial expressions, and of poetic authority within a fluid oral tradition. Two essays consider the significance of the written word in a predominantly oral culture, in relation to star calendars and to Panathenaic inscriptions.
Finally, two chapters consider the ongoing influence of oral tradition in the ancient novel and in Roman declamation.
These essays illustrate the importance of considering ancient texts in the context of fluctuating oral and literate influences.
Finally, two chapters consider the ongoing influence of oral tradition in the ancient novel and in Roman declamation.
These essays illustrate the importance of considering ancient texts in the context of fluctuating oral and literate influences.
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Nonnus once vied with Homer for popularity; today his Dionysiaca languishes in obscurity. The Challenge of Epic offers a literary critical rehabilitation of Nonnus' fifth-century AD poem. It argues that modern neglect stems from a failure to appreciate the central position of allusion in late-antique poetry.
Attention first focuses on intertextual allusion. It is argued that the poet draws on a plethora of allusions to the cycle of Greek mythology in order to imbue his specific narrative with a universal significance. Focus then shifts to metapoetic allusion: the way in which Nonnus alludes self-consciously to the process of writing, and develops parallels between himself and his subject, Dionysus.
Through an appreciation of Nonnus' alllusive strategies, the modern reader can again engage with the mind-bending challenge of the Dionysiaca.
Attention first focuses on intertextual allusion. It is argued that the poet draws on a plethora of allusions to the cycle of Greek mythology in order to imbue his specific narrative with a universal significance. Focus then shifts to metapoetic allusion: the way in which Nonnus alludes self-consciously to the process of writing, and develops parallels between himself and his subject, Dionysus.
Through an appreciation of Nonnus' alllusive strategies, the modern reader can again engage with the mind-bending challenge of the Dionysiaca.
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The myth of the Calydonian boar-hunt belongs to the great mythical cycles of the ancient world. P. Grossardt now offers the first complete presentation of all literary sources of the Calydonian hunt, as well as of other adventures of its central hero Meleagros.
The sources have been arranged by genre and their literary context has been taken well into account. The author gives special attention to the development of different versions of the legend. Individual poets, Grossardt observes, used the myth of the Calydonian boar-hunt as a functional element in a larger context or in conscious contrast to older texts.
In reconstructing the prehistory of the legend and its religious background, the author shows that the Calydonian boar-hunt myth originally had the function of an aition for the cult of Artemis Laphria and that it was taken up by the epic tradition long before Homer.
The sources have been arranged by genre and their literary context has been taken well into account. The author gives special attention to the development of different versions of the legend. Individual poets, Grossardt observes, used the myth of the Calydonian boar-hunt as a functional element in a larger context or in conscious contrast to older texts.
In reconstructing the prehistory of the legend and its religious background, the author shows that the Calydonian boar-hunt myth originally had the function of an aition for the cult of Artemis Laphria and that it was taken up by the epic tradition long before Homer.
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This volume examines the influence of literacy on the development of different genres of mourning in ancient Greece.
The oral tradition of lament in the Homeric poems forms the point of departure for close readings of epigraphic material and written texts commemorating the dead in the archaic and classical periods, including grave epigrams, threnoi, tragedy, and Athenian epitaphioi. These texts reveal the non-linear development of Greek literacy and offer insight into the ongoing influence of lament in diverse poetic genres and the evolving uses of death and mourning in different media.
In particular, the discussion focuses on the role of writing in commemorating soldiers and the evolution of the written memorial into a historical and civic medium of communication.
The oral tradition of lament in the Homeric poems forms the point of departure for close readings of epigraphic material and written texts commemorating the dead in the archaic and classical periods, including grave epigrams, threnoi, tragedy, and Athenian epitaphioi. These texts reveal the non-linear development of Greek literacy and offer insight into the ongoing influence of lament in diverse poetic genres and the evolving uses of death and mourning in different media.
In particular, the discussion focuses on the role of writing in commemorating soldiers and the evolution of the written memorial into a historical and civic medium of communication.
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This volume contains the first scholarly commentary on the puzzling work Busiris – part mythological jeu d’esprit, part rhetorical treatise and part self-promoting polemic – by the Greek educator and rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BC).
The commentary reveals Isocrates’ strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral ‘sophistic’ education and the abstruse studies of Plato’s Academy. Introductory chapters situate Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato’s Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the ‘alien wisdom’ of Egypt.
As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born.
The commentary reveals Isocrates’ strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral ‘sophistic’ education and the abstruse studies of Plato’s Academy. Introductory chapters situate Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato’s Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the ‘alien wisdom’ of Egypt.
As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born.
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A.J. Keulen’s new commentary on Seneca’s Troades is the fruit of a lifetime devotion to this play. This extensive philological commentary on the Troades is a most welcome contribution to the study of Seneca’s plays. Meaning, history and usage of Seneca’s vocabulary are thoroughly discussed. The author provides ample comparison with Senecan prose and rival poets. In addition, the commentary addresses composition and word order, and discusses textual, metrical and grammatical difficulties. A full bibliography and three indices complete this valuable book.
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Ethics in Aesop’s Fables: the Augustana Collection offers an original and innovative analysis of the Greek fable in the framework of Greek ethical thinking. The book starts with a brief account of the history and genre of the Greek fable. It then focuses on the Augustana collection of prose fables and analyses its ethical content in the larger context of Greek thought. A detailed comparison of Greek ethical thinking with the language of the fables shows the persistence of certain types of ethical reasoning and of certain key ethical norms. The author argues that although the fable was not 'philosophy', it was indeed 'philosophical' because it communicated normative messages about human behaviour, which reflected widespread views in Greek ethical thought. This book is of special interest to both students and scholars of Greek fable and of Greek philosophy.
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The main problem facing critics of Sophokles' Elektra has always been understanding the presentation of the vengeance and the nature of justice it represents. This volume addresses the ethical issues of this play through an analysis of the language and argumentation which the characters use to explain and justify their behaviour.
The focus is on the examination of the themes of aidôs and dolos, and the way in which each contributes to our overall understanding of the vengeance as an act which, for all its justice, remains shameful. By exploring the union between these two contradictory elements, this study exposes the ethical complexity of Sophokles' treatment of the vengeance theme.
Dolos & Dikê contains a useful critique of recent interpretative approaches to the play, a full bibliography, and a complete index of passages cited.
The focus is on the examination of the themes of aidôs and dolos, and the way in which each contributes to our overall understanding of the vengeance as an act which, for all its justice, remains shameful. By exploring the union between these two contradictory elements, this study exposes the ethical complexity of Sophokles' treatment of the vengeance theme.
Dolos & Dikê contains a useful critique of recent interpretative approaches to the play, a full bibliography, and a complete index of passages cited.
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In this study of the world of ancient Greek mariners, the relationship between the natural environment and the techniques and technology of seafaring is focused upon.
An initial description of the geology, oceanography and meteorology of Greece and the Mediterranean, is followed by discussion of the resulting sailing conditions, such as physical hazards, sea conditions, winds and availability of shelter, and environmental factors in sailing routes, sailing directions, and navigational techniques. Appendices discuss winter and night sailing, ship design, weather prediction, and related areas of socio-maritime life, such as settlement, religion, and warfare.
Wide-ranging sources and illustrations are used to demonstrate both how the environment shaped many of the problems and constraints of seafaring, and also that Greek mariners' understanding of the environment was instrumental in their development of a highly successful seafaring tradition.
An initial description of the geology, oceanography and meteorology of Greece and the Mediterranean, is followed by discussion of the resulting sailing conditions, such as physical hazards, sea conditions, winds and availability of shelter, and environmental factors in sailing routes, sailing directions, and navigational techniques. Appendices discuss winter and night sailing, ship design, weather prediction, and related areas of socio-maritime life, such as settlement, religion, and warfare.
Wide-ranging sources and illustrations are used to demonstrate both how the environment shaped many of the problems and constraints of seafaring, and also that Greek mariners' understanding of the environment was instrumental in their development of a highly successful seafaring tradition.
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For the first time together in one volume all the papers on Greek colonization published by A. J. Graham over the last forty years. Some of these appeared in publications difficult of access. They will all now be widely available, and thus complement the author's Colony and Mother City in Ancient Greece and his two chapters on the subject in Cambridge Ancient History III.3, second edition. In addition the volume contains one new paper, not previously published, entitled 'Thasian Controversies' .
The published papers are reproduced unchanged, except for the correction of misprints, and the original page-numbering is indicated. All the original figures and illustrations are included. There is a comprehensive, analytical, index.
The published papers are reproduced unchanged, except for the correction of misprints, and the original page-numbering is indicated. All the original figures and illustrations are included. There is a comprehensive, analytical, index.
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This study investigates the reception of Ovid's heroines in Metamorphoses commentaries written between 1100 and 1618. The Ovidian heroine offers a telling window onto medieval and early modern clerical constructions of gender and selfhood.
In the context of classical representations of the feminine, the book examines Ovid's engagement of the heroine to explore problems of intentionality. The second part of the study presents commentaries by such clerics as William of Orléans, the "Vulgate" commentator, Thomas Walsingham, and Raphael Regius, illustrating the reception of the Ovidian heroine in medieval France and England as well as in Renaissance Italy and Germany.
The works analyzed here show that clerical readings of the feminine in Ovid reflect greater heterogeneity than is commonly alleged. Both moralizing summaries and Latin editions used as schooltexts are discussed.
In the context of classical representations of the feminine, the book examines Ovid's engagement of the heroine to explore problems of intentionality. The second part of the study presents commentaries by such clerics as William of Orléans, the "Vulgate" commentator, Thomas Walsingham, and Raphael Regius, illustrating the reception of the Ovidian heroine in medieval France and England as well as in Renaissance Italy and Germany.
The works analyzed here show that clerical readings of the feminine in Ovid reflect greater heterogeneity than is commonly alleged. Both moralizing summaries and Latin editions used as schooltexts are discussed.
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This book interprets all seven Sophoclean tragedies (5th century B.C.) as a whole, focussing on the aspect of individuals being guilty of not reaching proper conclusions about their own selves and their situation, although they possess the means and ability to do so.
Chapter I offers exact definitions of the concepts employed in analyzing the tragedies. Chapters II-VIII each contain a detailed interpretation of one of Sophocles’ seven tragedies. Chapter IX ('Tableau’) presents the dramatic works within the context of Greek history of thought and politics of their time, while Chapter X sheds some light on how Sophoclean concepts were continued in the comedies of Menander.
This study should not only prove helpful to scholars in the field of literary studies, but also to historians, philosophers and all those interested in history of thought and cultural history, since it examines in a fundamental way the thought of one of the most important poets of ancient Europe.
Chapter I offers exact definitions of the concepts employed in analyzing the tragedies. Chapters II-VIII each contain a detailed interpretation of one of Sophocles’ seven tragedies. Chapter IX ('Tableau’) presents the dramatic works within the context of Greek history of thought and politics of their time, while Chapter X sheds some light on how Sophoclean concepts were continued in the comedies of Menander.
This study should not only prove helpful to scholars in the field of literary studies, but also to historians, philosophers and all those interested in history of thought and cultural history, since it examines in a fundamental way the thought of one of the most important poets of ancient Europe.
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This volume on Apollonius of Rhodes, whose Argonautica is the sole full-length epic to survive from the Hellenistic period, comprises articles by fourteen leading scholars from Europe and America.
Their contributions cover a wide range of issues from the history of the text and the problems of the poet's biography through questions of style, literary technique and intertextual relations to the epic's literary and cultural reception.
The aim is to give an up-to-date outline of the scholarly discussion in these areas and to provide a survey of recent and current trends in Apollonian studies which will be useful to students of Hellenistic poetry in general as well as to scholars with a specialised interest in Apollonius.
Their contributions cover a wide range of issues from the history of the text and the problems of the poet's biography through questions of style, literary technique and intertextual relations to the epic's literary and cultural reception.
The aim is to give an up-to-date outline of the scholarly discussion in these areas and to provide a survey of recent and current trends in Apollonian studies which will be useful to students of Hellenistic poetry in general as well as to scholars with a specialised interest in Apollonius.
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From the end of the Roman Republic to the death of the last Julio-Claudian emperor, portraits of women - on coins, public monuments, and private luxury objects - became an increasingly familiar sight throughout the empire. These women usually represented the distinguished bloodlines of the head of the state, or his hopes for succession, but in every case, their images were freighted with political significance. These objects also communicated social messages about the appropriate roles, behavior, and self-presentation of women.
This volume traces the emergence and development of the public female portrait, from Octavia, the first Roman woman to be represented in propria persona on coinage, to the formidable and ambitious Agrippina the Younger, whose assassination demonstrated to later women the limits of official power they could demand.
This volume traces the emergence and development of the public female portrait, from Octavia, the first Roman woman to be represented in propria persona on coinage, to the formidable and ambitious Agrippina the Younger, whose assassination demonstrated to later women the limits of official power they could demand.
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This commentary was begun in 1967, but most of the period from 1971 to 1996 was spent on work that was in some sense an essential preliminary to a detailed study of Aeneid 7. The work will serve as a guide to recent (and future) work on Virgilian language, grammar, syntax and style. Recent approaches to the text have been, where possible, taken into account, with sympathy but without jargon. Virgil's sources, in verse and prose, have been studied with special care and the commentary presents a coherent approach to Virgil's view of Italian religion, antiquities and topography. Unusually full indexing is intended to further the book's use as a guide to many aspects of Augustan poetic idiom.
There is a text independent of recent editions and a precise, prose translation.
There is a text independent of recent editions and a precise, prose translation.
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This is the second of three volumes covering the long history of the fable from Sumer to the present day. Historical evidence reaching as far back as Antiquity, supports the study of more than 500 works considered to be fables.
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Although Josephus' debt to the traditions of Greco-Roman historiography is widely recognized, the classical elements in his Bellum Judaicum are still often dismissed as just formal ornatus. This study reconsiders Josephus' intellectual affiliation to his predecessors in the genre and argues that the work's classical complexion, and in particular its distinctive color Thucydideus, are integral to the intellectual and ideological design of BJ. Deployed typically at crucial points where Josephus deals with the motives of the Jewish insurgents, the classical elements directly subserve the work's apologetic and polemical tendencies, subtly predisposing the reader to a particular interpretation by applying the rationalist and psychological categories of 'scientific' Greek historiography. In this sense the classical form of BJ is interpreted in light of the historian's partisan political agenda.
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Ptolemy's comprehensive treatises on astronomy and geography were influential for nearly two millennia. Equally influential was his treatise on harmonics, the ancient science which combined and brought to completion the study of philosophy and science. This volume offers a comprehensive English translation and commentary of Ptolemy's Harmonics.
The treatise begins with Ptolemy's study of pitches and intervals, for which he extracts both an idealized musical scale and a new acoustical tool. After discussing modulation, he expands his horizons by applying musical intervals to the human soul and celestial bodies, ultimately describing a cosmic harmony.
The English translation faithfully reproduces Ptolemy's style and includes all the charts surviving in the manuscript tradition. The commentary offers a full exegesis of the text, loci paralleli, and citations of modern scholarly sources.
The treatise begins with Ptolemy's study of pitches and intervals, for which he extracts both an idealized musical scale and a new acoustical tool. After discussing modulation, he expands his horizons by applying musical intervals to the human soul and celestial bodies, ultimately describing a cosmic harmony.
The English translation faithfully reproduces Ptolemy's style and includes all the charts surviving in the manuscript tradition. The commentary offers a full exegesis of the text, loci paralleli, and citations of modern scholarly sources.
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The Posthomerica of Quintus of Smyrna is the only surviving Greek epic that gives a full narrative of the Trojan War between the Iliad and the Odyssey. Book V covers the contest between Ajax and Odysseus over the armour of Achilles, leading to Ajax' madness, suicide and funeral.
The book gives balanced treatment to matters of text, language, literary qualities and sources. An introduction discusses the poem's main features. The commentary is punctuated by introductions to sections. There are indexes of subjects, ancient and mediaeval literature and Greek words.
The work's major areas of interest are: influence of the Homeric epics, Quintus' use of later sources, the Trojan War in Greek and Latin literature, and Greek cultural history under the Roman Empire. This is the first full-length commentary on the book.
The book gives balanced treatment to matters of text, language, literary qualities and sources. An introduction discusses the poem's main features. The commentary is punctuated by introductions to sections. There are indexes of subjects, ancient and mediaeval literature and Greek words.
The work's major areas of interest are: influence of the Homeric epics, Quintus' use of later sources, the Trojan War in Greek and Latin literature, and Greek cultural history under the Roman Empire. This is the first full-length commentary on the book.
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In spite of an increased interest over the last ten years in the 1st century AD Roman poet Valerius Flaccus, involving the production of several commentaries, part of his work Argonautica was still lacking a modern commentary. This book gives a full philological and literary commentary of the turbulent book VI of the Argonautica. The Silver Latin author's peculiar phraseology and choice of words is highlighted. Where possible the poem is interpreted in the context of the other Silver Latin epic poets.
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This aim of this work is to provide part of the basis for the study of a widely misunderstood people of Ancient Greece, the Aitolians. It is the people of any society who are its constituents, and only when we know who they were and what they did can that society be properly investigated.
By accumulating a list of all known Aitolians, their origins, parentage, their place in the society, and any other details discoverable, it is possible to reconstitute Aitolian families, and to study various sections and aspects of their society.
The prosopography and the studies based on it form part of the essential background for the author's history of The League of the Aitolians (published by Brill earlier in 1999), and they also form a contribution to the study of the society which was Ancient Greece.
By accumulating a list of all known Aitolians, their origins, parentage, their place in the society, and any other details discoverable, it is possible to reconstitute Aitolian families, and to study various sections and aspects of their society.
The prosopography and the studies based on it form part of the essential background for the author's history of The League of the Aitolians (published by Brill earlier in 1999), and they also form a contribution to the study of the society which was Ancient Greece.
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This volume deals with the religions of the Roman soldiers in Britain and the religious interactions of soldiers and civilians. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the discussion shows the complexities of Roman, Eastern, and Celtic rites, how each system influenced the ritual and liturgy of the others, and how each system was altered over time.
The first part presents discursive chapters on topics such as the cult of the emperor, Mithraism in Britain, the cults of Celtic warriors and healers, the Romanization of Civilian religions, and Christianity; the second part consists of an annotated catalogue of the epigraphical sources.
Of significance is the broad range of materials synthesized to show the extent to which native religions influenced and were influenced by imported Roman and Eastern cults.
The first part presents discursive chapters on topics such as the cult of the emperor, Mithraism in Britain, the cults of Celtic warriors and healers, the Romanization of Civilian religions, and Christianity; the second part consists of an annotated catalogue of the epigraphical sources.
Of significance is the broad range of materials synthesized to show the extent to which native religions influenced and were influenced by imported Roman and Eastern cults.
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The author's approach to Roman epic is interpretative; the reader is invited to study a choice of typical texts, from the beginnings to the end of Antiquity. Famous poets are given the attention they deserve, but also some minor authors are discovered as precious 'missing links' between the ages. Special heed is paid to intertextual relationships between different epochs, cultures, literary genres, linguistic and literary patterns. The book is meant for students and teachers of classical and modern literatures, but also for all those interested in the history of literary genres and cultural ideas.
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A study of three epinicia of Pindar, which have in common that they celebrate victories of Aeginetan athletes and that they respond to the contemporary political situation in Aegina and to circumstances of the victory.
The primary objective of this book is to provide an interpretation of each of the three odes as meaningful, coherent works of the literary art. For each ode, it provides a commentary in which problems of text and interpretation are discussed in detail, a structural and metrical analysis, and an interpretative essay, in which the observations of detail are brought together in order to provide an answer to the question as to how the ode at hand could have functioned as a coherent, meaningful epinicion.
The introduction addresses questions of method and provides a description of Pindar's style.
The primary objective of this book is to provide an interpretation of each of the three odes as meaningful, coherent works of the literary art. For each ode, it provides a commentary in which problems of text and interpretation are discussed in detail, a structural and metrical analysis, and an interpretative essay, in which the observations of detail are brought together in order to provide an answer to the question as to how the ode at hand could have functioned as a coherent, meaningful epinicion.
The introduction addresses questions of method and provides a description of Pindar's style.
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The Aitolians have had a bad press, regarded as pirates and brigands, and their state as a pirate state built on terrorist tactics. This book treats them as what they really were, a normal Hellenistic state. They constructed an original and successful polity which provided peace and prosperity for its inhabitants, and played a major part in Greek history for a century and a half.
The approach is chronological, beginning with the origin and formation of the league and its early expansion, and then dealing with its long duel with Macedon, and concluding with its destruction by Rome.
This is the first full account of the history of the league which approaches it as an independent state rather than as the enemy of other states and peoples. It complements the standard histories of the other Hellenistic states.
The approach is chronological, beginning with the origin and formation of the league and its early expansion, and then dealing with its long duel with Macedon, and concluding with its destruction by Rome.
This is the first full account of the history of the league which approaches it as an independent state rather than as the enemy of other states and peoples. It complements the standard histories of the other Hellenistic states.
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This volume explores the intersection between historiography and related genres in antiquity. Papers cover the geographical range from China through the near east to the classical period in the Mediterranean. Topics addressed include the place in ancient Chinese historiography of philosophical argument; the nature and kind of historical text in the Hittite, Babylonian, Persian and biblical periods, including (for the first time) a full transliteration and translation of the Old Hittite story of Anum-hirbi and Zalpa, and a new interpretation of the Darius inscription at Behistun; and the relation of rhetorical stratagems and theory to Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Contributors also consider the relationship between texts, including the war narratives of Herodotus and Thucydides, and the propriety of different schemes of generic classification.
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This is the first commentary on the letters of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 90-95 - c. 167). It aims at an extensive grammatical, stylistic and historical interpretation of the letters and the ancient testimonies on Fronto. The author demonstrates where Fronto stands in Latin literature; hence the numerous quotations of parallel, similar and dissentient passages from Fronto and other writers. The letters are written in a pure, simple style, with a great deal of colloquialisms and many a post-classical turn of phrase. The many archaisms show how Fronto as a philologist had a comprehensive knowledge of pre-Cicero Latin.
This commentary, based on the Teubner-edition by the author (Leipzig 1988), offers a thorough explanation of Fronto's style and language, e.g. of his archaisms and colloquialisms, identification of the persons mentioned, and the chronology of the letters. Seven elaborate indices complete this book.
This commentary, based on the Teubner-edition by the author (Leipzig 1988), offers a thorough explanation of Fronto's style and language, e.g. of his archaisms and colloquialisms, identification of the persons mentioned, and the chronology of the letters. Seven elaborate indices complete this book.
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This is most comprehensive study of Seneca's Hercules Furens to date and indeed of any Roman tragedy. Apart from illustrating the poetic language, the literary conventions and the dramatic technique of the play, the book highlights the figure of the Roman Hercules in relation to its Greek model, the Euripidean Herakles.
The comprehensive introduction on myth, modern interpretations and textual transmission of the play is followed by a discussion of the newly discovered collation of the codex Etruscus by J.F. Gronovius.
The detailed commentary is provided with a new critical edition and a new German translation. The work includes a full bibliography, an analytical index and a complete index of passages cited.
Special attention is given to literary motifs and topoi as well as to Seneca's poetic language in its pivotal position between the Augustan poets and Neronian-Flavian epic.
The comprehensive introduction on myth, modern interpretations and textual transmission of the play is followed by a discussion of the newly discovered collation of the codex Etruscus by J.F. Gronovius.
The detailed commentary is provided with a new critical edition and a new German translation. The work includes a full bibliography, an analytical index and a complete index of passages cited.
Special attention is given to literary motifs and topoi as well as to Seneca's poetic language in its pivotal position between the Augustan poets and Neronian-Flavian epic.
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This volume is a sustained exercise in the genre of secondary literature which aims at explaining a literary work as much as possible in and through the author's own words.
A crucial passage in direct speech by different speakers from the History of Herodotus, the earliest long Greek prose text, has been made the object of a systematic effort to distill and analyse the linguistic characteristics relevant to its interpretation, by confronting it with the rest of the work as well as with earlier and contemporary writings.
This is done with the primary aim of placing the interpretation of a major author on the firmest ground available, the author's ipsissimi verba. The result, made accessible by full indexes, will prove helpful to readers of any part of Herodotus' History.
A crucial passage in direct speech by different speakers from the History of Herodotus, the earliest long Greek prose text, has been made the object of a systematic effort to distill and analyse the linguistic characteristics relevant to its interpretation, by confronting it with the rest of the work as well as with earlier and contemporary writings.
This is done with the primary aim of placing the interpretation of a major author on the firmest ground available, the author's ipsissimi verba. The result, made accessible by full indexes, will prove helpful to readers of any part of Herodotus' History.
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This volume deals with the concept of 'West' and 'East', as held by the ancient Greeks. Cultural exchange in Archaic and Classical Greece through the establishment of Hellenic colonies around the ancient world was an important development, and always a two-way process. To achieve a proper understanding of it requires study from every angle. All 24 papers in this volume combine different types of evidence, discussing them from every perspective: they are examined not only from the point of view of the Greeks but from that of the locals. The book gives new data, as well as re-examining existing evidence and reinterpreting old theories. The book is richly illustrated.
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This study of the Athenian strategia is concerned with identifying the locus of military authority in the Athenian polis.
Consideration of the role played by generals in the deliberative and final stages of military expeditions and of the relationship between strategoi and their subordinates, colleagues, and the Athenian demos itself suggests that Athens' generals did not exercise significant authority over their city's military operations. Rather, the demos controlled its generals both by means of its direct involvement in decision-making related to campaigns and by establishing in Athens a climate of fear which was very often sufficient to dissuade generals from acting in opposition to the Athenians' will.
This volume is important reading for anyone who is interested in ancient military history or the question of sovereignty in Athens.
Consideration of the role played by generals in the deliberative and final stages of military expeditions and of the relationship between strategoi and their subordinates, colleagues, and the Athenian demos itself suggests that Athens' generals did not exercise significant authority over their city's military operations. Rather, the demos controlled its generals both by means of its direct involvement in decision-making related to campaigns and by establishing in Athens a climate of fear which was very often sufficient to dissuade generals from acting in opposition to the Athenians' will.
This volume is important reading for anyone who is interested in ancient military history or the question of sovereignty in Athens.
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This book addresses the problems surrounding Cicero's Academici Libri, including why the work exists in two different editions, why and when the work became fragmentary, and how it managed to survive. It achieves this by tracing the history and influence of the work from Antiquity to the present day.
The main part of the book studies the manuscript tradition of the work. All extant manuscripts are fully described and their textual relationships are established. Historical information is assessed in order to show the part which manuscripts played in intellectual life, conclusions are reached on the archetype of the work and a full stemma of the tradition is built.
The book contains a wealth of bibliographical information and will serve as a base for further study in the transmission of Cicero's works.
The main part of the book studies the manuscript tradition of the work. All extant manuscripts are fully described and their textual relationships are established. Historical information is assessed in order to show the part which manuscripts played in intellectual life, conclusions are reached on the archetype of the work and a full stemma of the tradition is built.
The book contains a wealth of bibliographical information and will serve as a base for further study in the transmission of Cicero's works.
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This volume deals with the history of Lycia in the Achaemenid period, the time of its most famous monuments, discussing all the evidence that can be used in the reconstruction. It is the first book-length treatment in English of Lycia that focuses on historical matters.
The first four synchronic chapters deal with general aspects of the Lycian political set-up. The remaining nine chapters take the reader through a detailed examination of the history of the period.
Because of the Lycians strategically important location between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, this work is important for understanding the wider interaction of the Achaemenid Persian empire and the Greek world.
The first four synchronic chapters deal with general aspects of the Lycian political set-up. The remaining nine chapters take the reader through a detailed examination of the history of the period.
Because of the Lycians strategically important location between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, this work is important for understanding the wider interaction of the Achaemenid Persian empire and the Greek world.
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The 13 essays presented here shed new light on the role of panegyric in the western and eastern Roman Empire in the late antique world.
Introductory chapters give an overview of panegyrical theory and practice, followed by studies of major writers of the early empire and the anonymous Panegyrici latini.
The core of the volume deals with prose and verse panegyric under the Christian Roman Empire (4th-7th century): key themes addressed are social and political context, the 'hidden agenda', and the impact of Christianity on the pagan tradition of the panegyric, including the portrayal of patriarchs and holy men.
Introductory chapters give an overview of panegyrical theory and practice, followed by studies of major writers of the early empire and the anonymous Panegyrici latini.
The core of the volume deals with prose and verse panegyric under the Christian Roman Empire (4th-7th century): key themes addressed are social and political context, the 'hidden agenda', and the impact of Christianity on the pagan tradition of the panegyric, including the portrayal of patriarchs and holy men.
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This volume contains fourteen papers on Greek literature, historiography and philosophy. Its titles seeks to bring out the author's intention to explore the consequences of the paradox that goes with interpreting messages that were never meant to be heard by us, but are nevertheless widely believed to be significant to our understanding of our own historical situation: only by conscientiously measuring the distance that separates us from the Greeks may we hope to avoid the risk of conforming them to current standards and beliefs, and of throwing away in the process both the possibility to understand them and the relevance such an understanding may have to our own ideas and prejudices. Two papers on the history of classical scholarship discuss various ways in which classicists have handled this paradox.
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This is the first substantial commentary on Lucian's Verae Historiae ("True Histories"), a fantastic journey narrative considered the earliest surviving example of Science Fiction in the Western tradition.
The Introduction situates the work in the context of Lucian's oeuvre, especially his preoccupation with distinguishing truth from fiction and exposing the lies of philosophers. In their commentary, the editors trace the sources and the meaning of the numerous intertextual allusions and parodies of philosophers, poets, historians and paradoxographers.
The Verae Historiae emerges from this scrutiny as a remarkably complex text with some very "modern" concerns: it problematizes the act of reading, allegorical interpretation, authorial reliability, and the validity of cultural norms and literary genres.
The Introduction situates the work in the context of Lucian's oeuvre, especially his preoccupation with distinguishing truth from fiction and exposing the lies of philosophers. In their commentary, the editors trace the sources and the meaning of the numerous intertextual allusions and parodies of philosophers, poets, historians and paradoxographers.
The Verae Historiae emerges from this scrutiny as a remarkably complex text with some very "modern" concerns: it problematizes the act of reading, allegorical interpretation, authorial reliability, and the validity of cultural norms and literary genres.
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This volume contains a collection of 11 studies on the philosophical and scientific background of Lucretius' De rerum natura. The studies 1-7 form a running commentary on the history of ideas in Drn. 5.780-1160 (Lucretius' famous description of the History of Human Mankind); 8-10 discuss some topics from book 4 (sleep, dreams, optical illusions) in relationship to other philosophical doctrines and ancient medical thought; the last study (11) treats the use of analogy by Lucretius.
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An edition of a newly discovered Byzantine treatise of Pindaric metre, this work first discusses its date, place of origin and places it into the context of metrical studies in Byzantine philology.
It then examines its relevance for the ms. transmission of Pindar thereby providing new insights into numerous problems of the textual tradition of this author. Moreover the Pindaric text of the Paleologan era is examined in a systematic fashion with a view to the methods and achievements of individual Byzantine scholars.
A concluding chapter discusses the characteristics and the achievements of Byzantine philology in the history of classical scholarship. An appendix provides new descriptions of many Pindaric mss.
It then examines its relevance for the ms. transmission of Pindar thereby providing new insights into numerous problems of the textual tradition of this author. Moreover the Pindaric text of the Paleologan era is examined in a systematic fashion with a view to the methods and achievements of individual Byzantine scholars.
A concluding chapter discusses the characteristics and the achievements of Byzantine philology in the history of classical scholarship. An appendix provides new descriptions of many Pindaric mss.
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The bibliography of Aristotle's Poetics by Cooper and Gudeman, most welcome in 1928, has now become antiquated, even for the period it covers. The present one registers all editions, translations, commentaries and studies bearing on the Poetics or the major concepts that have been associated with it, correctly or incorrectly, from 1481 up till 1996. Moreover, a survey is given of the medieval translations and commentaries written in the Orient and in Europe.
Special attention has been given to the reviews. The oldest one registered dates from 1697. The second book of the Poetics being lost, publications related to the Tractatus Coislinianus, which partly rests on Poetics II, have been included.
There are seven indices. Especially those on passages and subjects should prove to be useful instruments. In the author's text Greek nouns and adjectives have been transliterated.
Special attention has been given to the reviews. The oldest one registered dates from 1697. The second book of the Poetics being lost, publications related to the Tractatus Coislinianus, which partly rests on Poetics II, have been included.
There are seven indices. Especially those on passages and subjects should prove to be useful instruments. In the author's text Greek nouns and adjectives have been transliterated.
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This volume contains a critical edition of Ovid's epistle of Medea to Jason, together with the fragments of his lost tragedy Medea, including testimonia. Introduction and commentary deal with matters of language, realia, textual, authenticity, and literary criticism.
An examination of the arguments recently put forward against the authenticity of the 12th letter yielded that it cannot be denied Ovidian authorship. Numerous parallels illustrate in particular Ovid's handling of his literary antecedents, notably Euripides and Apollonios. Intensive discussions are also given to questions of genre, epistolary form, influence of elegy and rhetoric, the letter's structure and its position in the collection.
The appendix offers a convenient critical summary of the research on Ovid's Medea, together with an extensive commentary on the two fragments.
An examination of the arguments recently put forward against the authenticity of the 12th letter yielded that it cannot be denied Ovidian authorship. Numerous parallels illustrate in particular Ovid's handling of his literary antecedents, notably Euripides and Apollonios. Intensive discussions are also given to questions of genre, epistolary form, influence of elegy and rhetoric, the letter's structure and its position in the collection.
The appendix offers a convenient critical summary of the research on Ovid's Medea, together with an extensive commentary on the two fragments.
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Looking at its subject from the standpoint of modern discourse analysis, this study deals with problems of style and grammar in Greek and Latin texts. Its aim is to shed light on the interaction between the mechanism of the Greek and Latin languages as interactive tools and the structure of the texts that have come down to us.
The interpretive orientation offered differs from most literary studies in its taking linguistic observations as point of departure, and its considering grammar as a positive factor in the interpretive process. It differs from most linguistic studies in the field in demonstrating the importance of linguistic methodology for classical philology in general.
The book contains studies of various authors, genres, and text types, preceded by an introductory essay on the role of grammar in philology.
The interpretive orientation offered differs from most literary studies in its taking linguistic observations as point of departure, and its considering grammar as a positive factor in the interpretive process. It differs from most linguistic studies in the field in demonstrating the importance of linguistic methodology for classical philology in general.
The book contains studies of various authors, genres, and text types, preceded by an introductory essay on the role of grammar in philology.
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This volume discusses Greek subliterary papyri containing mythical catalogues, stories of the Mythographus Homericus, and summaries of Iliad, Odyssey, tragedies, comedies, and poems of Callimachus.
The first part of the book explores the following questions: what kind of knowledge is transmitted in the papyri and how is this done? How is the knowledge related to that found in other literature? What do we know about the function and readership of these papyri? Although comparable questions have been asked before regarding some papyri, this study attempts to present a more precise and comprehensive picture based on a systematic examination of all the relevant papyri.
The second part contains all the papyrus texts discussed in the first part, thereby offering a convenient aid to the reader and a useful instrument for future research.
The first part of the book explores the following questions: what kind of knowledge is transmitted in the papyri and how is this done? How is the knowledge related to that found in other literature? What do we know about the function and readership of these papyri? Although comparable questions have been asked before regarding some papyri, this study attempts to present a more precise and comprehensive picture based on a systematic examination of all the relevant papyri.
The second part contains all the papyrus texts discussed in the first part, thereby offering a convenient aid to the reader and a useful instrument for future research.
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A revised Greek Text (the first in a century) and English translation (the first in any modern language) of the Art of Political Speech by a writer known as the Anonymous Seguerianus (ca. A.D. 200) and the Art of Rhetoric of Apsines of Gadara (ca. A.D. 230), with introduction, notes, and indices.
These works provide evidence of how rhetoric was taught in Greek in the early centuries of the Roman Empire and show the continued development of an Aristotelian tradition before acceptance of the reorganization of the subject by Hermogenes.
They complement each other in that the Anonymous was especially interested in debates about rhetorical theory, while Apsines' primary interest was in analysis of speeches of Demosthenes and other orators and in teaching declamation.
These works provide evidence of how rhetoric was taught in Greek in the early centuries of the Roman Empire and show the continued development of an Aristotelian tradition before acceptance of the reorganization of the subject by Hermogenes.
They complement each other in that the Anonymous was especially interested in debates about rhetorical theory, while Apsines' primary interest was in analysis of speeches of Demosthenes and other orators and in teaching declamation.
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The first three chapters of this book elucidate the scholastic goals of both classical cultures during the Roman Imperial period. Apuleius' works share the stage in these chapters with representatives of the second-century Greek cultural paradigm. They define patterns of discourse and fit selected examples of analogous Apuleian strategies into the broader cultural framework.
Subsequent chapters focus closely on the complete Apuleian corpus under the general headings of Apuleius in the roles of orator, philosopher and novelist.
Two of Apuleius' philosophical works and his novel the Golden Ass provide an unparalleled opportunity to analyze the methods of translation and adaptation employed by the major Latin writer of the second half of the second century.
Subsequent chapters focus closely on the complete Apuleian corpus under the general headings of Apuleius in the roles of orator, philosopher and novelist.
Two of Apuleius' philosophical works and his novel the Golden Ass provide an unparalleled opportunity to analyze the methods of translation and adaptation employed by the major Latin writer of the second half of the second century.
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The first study to focus on the numerous ancient Greek fables occurring outside (and predating) the extant fable collections.
Divided into three parts, its core is an intertextual analysis of the functions of fables and their allusions. Here the author covers many different authors and a variety of genres in Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greek Literature, ranging from lyric to historiography, from Aristotle to Hesiod and from Agamemnon to Zopyrus.
This analysis is based on a study of both modern and ancient fable theory - the latter having hitherto never been studied in toto, and incorporating the Graeco-Roman terminology of the genre.
The book's third part is a collection of all texts (and contexts) studied, which greatly facilitates cross-referencing.
Divided into three parts, its core is an intertextual analysis of the functions of fables and their allusions. Here the author covers many different authors and a variety of genres in Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greek Literature, ranging from lyric to historiography, from Aristotle to Hesiod and from Agamemnon to Zopyrus.
This analysis is based on a study of both modern and ancient fable theory - the latter having hitherto never been studied in toto, and incorporating the Graeco-Roman terminology of the genre.
The book's third part is a collection of all texts (and contexts) studied, which greatly facilitates cross-referencing.
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The studies in this collection deal with a variety of subjects. Their focus is the Roman Empire in the East, the Roman army, Judaea in the Roman period, and Jewish history. Inscriptions are published in them and literary sources discussed.
First, Judaea in the period before the arrival of the Romans as well as under Roman rule forms the centre of attention. Here, articles on specific documents are presented and historical problems discussed ranging from the Seleucid period to the Later Roman Empire.
The second part of the book contains studies of the wider area and the third part is concerned with the Roman army, its organisation and aims in the Frontier areas.
Many of these papers are hard to find and it is particularly valuable to have all of them together and logically arranged in one volume. Moreover extensive discussions of recent publications and newly published material have been added here.
First, Judaea in the period before the arrival of the Romans as well as under Roman rule forms the centre of attention. Here, articles on specific documents are presented and historical problems discussed ranging from the Seleucid period to the Later Roman Empire.
The second part of the book contains studies of the wider area and the third part is concerned with the Roman army, its organisation and aims in the Frontier areas.
Many of these papers are hard to find and it is particularly valuable to have all of them together and logically arranged in one volume. Moreover extensive discussions of recent publications and newly published material have been added here.
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This comprehensive study deals with the major critical problems of one of the most difficult authors of Latin literature. It examines in a systematic fashion the two major factors which have been assumed to be responsible for the state of the transmitted text of Propertius: dislocation and interpolation. It also covers a large number of notorious cases of verbal corruption and discusses problems of the manuscript tradition on the basis of the most recent research. Beyond questions of textual criticism and history in the narrow sense the book provides also important exegetical remarks on many Propertian passages and deals in a separate chapter with problems of book and poem structure.
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This is the first complete commentary for ninety years on the surviving poems of Bacchylides. Part I, covering the Victory Odes, was published in 1982. Part II, with the Dithyrambs and the fragments of Bacchylides' other books, now completes the work.
Like the first part, this volume contains an introduction, the Greek text with facing German prose translation, the commentary, and the indices to Parts I and II.
Bacchylides, a contemporary of Pindar, was one of the nine "classical" lyric poets whose songs were collected, edited and studied by the scholars of Alexandria. The commentary, in addition to providing linguistic and factual information, aims to highlight the poet's qualities of style and composition which have so far been generally underrated.
Like the first part, this volume contains an introduction, the Greek text with facing German prose translation, the commentary, and the indices to Parts I and II.
Bacchylides, a contemporary of Pindar, was one of the nine "classical" lyric poets whose songs were collected, edited and studied by the scholars of Alexandria. The commentary, in addition to providing linguistic and factual information, aims to highlight the poet's qualities of style and composition which have so far been generally underrated.
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This volume explores the literary representation of male sexual dysfunction and discusses the natural and supernatural elements of an ancient folk medical system based on conceptual associations between male sexuality and specific plants, animals and minerals.
The work incorporates material from both literary and scientific sources to draw parallels between ancient and modern paradigms of healing. The literary depiction of attempts to remedy impotence demonstrates how an accessibility to cures contributes to the sexual and social reintegration of the sufferer. The Satyrica of Petronius echoes this process by means of the text itself and so effects similar ends.
The book provides new insights into literature and the ancient belief systems underlying it with its original and integrative approach to disciplines such as philology, botany, mineralogy, zoology and medicine.
The work incorporates material from both literary and scientific sources to draw parallels between ancient and modern paradigms of healing. The literary depiction of attempts to remedy impotence demonstrates how an accessibility to cures contributes to the sexual and social reintegration of the sufferer. The Satyrica of Petronius echoes this process by means of the text itself and so effects similar ends.
The book provides new insights into literature and the ancient belief systems underlying it with its original and integrative approach to disciplines such as philology, botany, mineralogy, zoology and medicine.
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This volume is the first English-language survey of Homeric studies to appear for more than a generation, and the first such work to attempt to cover all fields comprehensively. Thirty leading scholars from Europe and America provide short, authoritative overviews of the state of knowledge and current controversies in the many specialist divisions in Homeric studies. The chapters pay equal attention to literary, mythological, linguistic, historical, and archaeological topics, ranging from such long-established problems as the "Homeric Question" to newer issues like the relevance of narratology and computer-assisted quantification. The collection, the third publication in Brill's handbook series, The Classical Tradition, will be valuable at every level of study - from the general student of literature to the Homeric specialist seeking a general understanding of the latest developments across the whole range of Homeric scholarship.
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The book contains a commentary on Book V of the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, paying attention to linguistic, philological and literary aspects. Line by line the words and phrases chosen, sources used and literary models are treated.
The last commentary on all eight books of the Argonautica appeared a century ago (Langen 1896), so there is ample room to apply new views in Latin linguistics and concepts of literature. A small number of textual variants is supported.
The last commentary on all eight books of the Argonautica appeared a century ago (Langen 1896), so there is ample room to apply new views in Latin linguistics and concepts of literature. A small number of textual variants is supported.
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The first part of this volume offers an analysis of the use and distribution of the perfect in the classical period of ancient Greek, based on the complete relevant material in Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides (tragic poetry), Aristophanes (comic poetry), Thucydides, Xenophon's Anabasis (historical prose), Lysias (rhetorical prose) and Xenophon's Opuscula (various prose types). The material is made accessible by several indices. In the second part insights gained in the field of discourse analysis are applied to the description of the contrast between aorist and present verb forms. The author has endeavoured to provide an explicit account of the actual functioning of these verb forms in their contexts. Special care has been given to reducing technical jargon in the interest of those who feel themselves classicists rather than professional linguists.
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This volume is an in-depth study of the short poetic cycle of Lygdamus, one of the authors included in Book III of the Corpus Tibullianum. The Introduction analyzes the controversial quaestio Lygdamea (identity and dating of the poet), the relationship between Lygdamus and his beloved, Neaera, the incorporation of his poems into the Corpus Tibullianum, and the manuscript tradition. This is followed by a rigorous critical edition (taking fully into account the earliest editions and conjectures). Finally, there is a detailed and exhaustive line-by-line and word-by-word commentary on each poem, paying particular attention to elegiac terms and motifs. This is the first comprehensive study of the work of Lygdamus, considered as a poet with his own literary identity.
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This study analyzes the anonymous Tractatus de Mulieribus, a brief, virtually unknown Greek work, telling of fourteen outstanding women, Greek and barbarian, notable for their intelligence, initiative and courage.
The first part of the book is a comprehensive introduction to the treatise and includes - in addition to the original text and an English translation - an examination of both the content and form of De Mulieribus, particularly as a catalogue of women. The times, methods, and purposes of the anonymous author are also investigated. Commentary-essays on the individual women then follow. A wide variety of sources are utilized in order to sketch the fullest possible portrait of each of these lively women.
This book, the very first study of De Mulieribus, is a useful introduction to a remarkable treatise.
The first part of the book is a comprehensive introduction to the treatise and includes - in addition to the original text and an English translation - an examination of both the content and form of De Mulieribus, particularly as a catalogue of women. The times, methods, and purposes of the anonymous author are also investigated. Commentary-essays on the individual women then follow. A wide variety of sources are utilized in order to sketch the fullest possible portrait of each of these lively women.
This book, the very first study of De Mulieribus, is a useful introduction to a remarkable treatise.
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This volume, which continues the textual discussions section of the author's Euripidea (Brill, 1994), discusses those passages in Euripides'Heraclidae, Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, Supplices, Electra, Heracles, and Troades - the plays of the author's Loeb Euripides, volumes Two and Three - where text or translation was in need of explanation or justification. A large number of new conjectures are proposed and some forgotten conjectures argued for.
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This is a reprint of an edition first published in 1983. It includes a list of corrections which have come to light since then. The edition includes a Praefatio which sheds light on the relationship between the major manuscripts; there is also a full apparatus which reports the significant readings from fresh collations of the major manuscripts, and established a text based on a full account, with discussion where necessary, of all important suggestions published before 1980 or suggested privately to the editor. It also includes an appendix which lists all variant readings known to the editor but which are unlikely to be helpful in establishing a text. The edition will be the starting point for any serious work on the epic.
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Theatrum Arbitri is a literary study dealing with the possible influence of Roman comic drama (comedies of Plautus and Terence, theatre of the Greek and Roman mimes, and fabula Atellana) on the surviving fragments of Petronius' Satyrica.
The theatrical assessment of this novel is carried out at the levels of plot-construction, characterization, language, and reading of the text as if it were the narrative equivalent of a farcical staged piece with the theatrical structure of a play produced before an audience. The analysis follows the order of each of the scenes in the novel.
The reader will also find a brief general commentary on the less discussed scenes of the Satyrica, and a comprehensive account of the theatre of the mimes and its main features.
The theatrical assessment of this novel is carried out at the levels of plot-construction, characterization, language, and reading of the text as if it were the narrative equivalent of a farcical staged piece with the theatrical structure of a play produced before an audience. The analysis follows the order of each of the scenes in the novel.
The reader will also find a brief general commentary on the less discussed scenes of the Satyrica, and a comprehensive account of the theatre of the mimes and its main features.
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The scraps of hard evidence are carefully sifted from the putative so as to uncover the probable extent and nature of interpolation in Thucydides. This gives a coarse but firm “typology,” which may be of some use in the study of other MS traditions, and clarifies hard passages many of which are discussed in depth, so that the book's Index Locorum can be a tool for students of this author.
Separate chapters examine evidence given by MS disagreement, by a long inscription, by papyri, by scholiasts, by Valla's translation and more. A chapter analyzes the types of mechanical “interpolation” another, the hypothesis of Hellenistic “editing.” Constant close attention is paid to the stemma codicum (discussed also in an appendix) and to the smallest idiosyncrasies of Thucydides' style.
Separate chapters examine evidence given by MS disagreement, by a long inscription, by papyri, by scholiasts, by Valla's translation and more. A chapter analyzes the types of mechanical “interpolation” another, the hypothesis of Hellenistic “editing.” Constant close attention is paid to the stemma codicum (discussed also in an appendix) and to the smallest idiosyncrasies of Thucydides' style.
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This volume is an edition of the fragments of the Greek epic and elegiac poet, Antimachus of Colophon (ca. 400 B.C.), an important figure linking the literatures of Archaic and Classical Greece with that of the Hellenistic Age.
The introduction examines the poet's life and work, discussing both his poetry and his activity as a Homeric scholar. It concludes with an assessment of his reception by Hellenistic and later writers.
The body of the book is a critical edition of the 200-plus fragments of Antimachus' work. Each fragment is supplied with a commentary elucidating both text and context, with particular emphasis on Antimachus' use of his predecessors, especially Homer, and on his own influence upon the Hellenistic scholar-poets.
The introduction examines the poet's life and work, discussing both his poetry and his activity as a Homeric scholar. It concludes with an assessment of his reception by Hellenistic and later writers.
The body of the book is a critical edition of the 200-plus fragments of Antimachus' work. Each fragment is supplied with a commentary elucidating both text and context, with particular emphasis on Antimachus' use of his predecessors, especially Homer, and on his own influence upon the Hellenistic scholar-poets.
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Blood and Iron is an exploration of the role of gossip, rumor and storytelling in the society depicted in the Odyssey and in the real world in which the poem was performed. It includes extensive analysis of Homeric narrative technique, with particular attention to the way the singer creates tension in a largely traditional tale.
Individual chapters treat discrete, generally very traditional literary and historical problems, including the significance of the term kleos, the presentation of Telemachos, the internal chronology of the poem, the nature of Homeric kingship, and the role of violence in the ancient Greek family.
The book will be of importance for anyone interested in the literary content or storytelling technique of Homeric epic, as well for historians of the late Dark Ages.
Individual chapters treat discrete, generally very traditional literary and historical problems, including the significance of the term kleos, the presentation of Telemachos, the internal chronology of the poem, the nature of Homeric kingship, and the role of violence in the ancient Greek family.
The book will be of importance for anyone interested in the literary content or storytelling technique of Homeric epic, as well for historians of the late Dark Ages.
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The Gorgon's Severed Head looks at three plays of Euripides, one early, one middle and one late in his career. Innovations in genre, in the use of the traditional stories, in the representation of women and of gender issues are present at every period. In all three plays characters are depicted creating themselves and each other. Chapter One on Alcestis looks at the artistry of the two main characters and is especially concerned with finding a role for Admetus, the play's most serious problem. The second chapter treats the physical displacement of the myth in Euripides' version of the Electra-Orestes story. A last section approaches the layers of time and space in Phoenissae.
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The creation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia was one of the most famous and far-reaching achievements of Alexander the Great. Yet the process was shaped as much by the political traditions of the natives as by the cultural traditions of the newcomers. This book examines this key historical clash from both sides, and shows that the birth of Hellenistic Bactria was a traumatic one eliciting more bitterness than 'brotherhood'.
The book is composed of four major parts: Part I provides an introduction to both Bactrian and Alexander studies; Part II surveys the land and peoples of Central Asia prior to Alexander's 'conquest'; Part III covers the Graeco-Macedonian invasion and the effects of colonization; Part IV treats the aftermath, from the death of Alexander to the accession of Seleucus.
The book is composed of four major parts: Part I provides an introduction to both Bactrian and Alexander studies; Part II surveys the land and peoples of Central Asia prior to Alexander's 'conquest'; Part III covers the Graeco-Macedonian invasion and the effects of colonization; Part IV treats the aftermath, from the death of Alexander to the accession of Seleucus.
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This work surveys all available evidence on Athenian settlements and settlers of the fourth century B.C., calling several conventional interpretations about them into question, through a rigorous preference for evidence over speculation.
Three chapters trace a chronology of events relating to the settlements, examine their personnel collectively, statistically, and individually, and discuss evidence for their political, economic, and religious institutions. Long appendixes establish improved texts of numerous inscriptions relevant to the topic and provide several kinds of data on more than 1000 definite, probable, or possible settlers.
Three chapters trace a chronology of events relating to the settlements, examine their personnel collectively, statistically, and individually, and discuss evidence for their political, economic, and religious institutions. Long appendixes establish improved texts of numerous inscriptions relevant to the topic and provide several kinds of data on more than 1000 definite, probable, or possible settlers.
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This book presents a completely new and up-to-date archaeological and historical study of the Black Sea city-state of Olbia. More comprehensive than any other yet produced, it ranges through the millennium of its existence from the Archaic to the Roman period and includes the full range of material remains found in the city and its region. Themes treated include building and architecture, agriculture, the economy of the city (the food economy, crafts, trade and coins), art and religion. The illustrations are copious, well-chosen, and present much material which will be new to Western readers. Also there are many useful maps and reconstructions of buildings.
This presentation of the results of the research of scholars from the former Soviet Union into a Greek Pontic city has long been awaited and will form a reliable basis for the next generation of research into the theme.
This presentation of the results of the research of scholars from the former Soviet Union into a Greek Pontic city has long been awaited and will form a reliable basis for the next generation of research into the theme.
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This volume deals with orality and literacy in ancient Greece and what consideration of these areas yields for that society, its literature, traditions and practices. Individual chapters focus on art, comedy, historiography, oratory, religion, rhetoric, philosophy, poetry, tragedy, and on orality in contemporary cultures (Greek and South African), which have a bearing on the ancient world.
By considering such factors as oral elements in various genres and practices and how these have shaped the texts we have today, as well as the extent of literacy and the impact of literacy on oral traditions and on singers/writers, the book presents another insight into ancient Greek society and its people.
By considering such factors as oral elements in various genres and practices and how these have shaped the texts we have today, as well as the extent of literacy and the impact of literacy on oral traditions and on singers/writers, the book presents another insight into ancient Greek society and its people.
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The first in-depth study of the field in more than 20 years analyzes the role of various metals in the context of Greek economic life, politics, culture and art, traces the movement of metal from ore to finished objects, including works of art, and shows the relations between the regions where metals were extracted and the centres of metalworking, the structure of the workshops and the connections between them and the role of the workshops in economic life at different stages in Greek history. In doing so it adopts a multidisciplinary approach, defining the role of metals in the history of Greek society using the widest possible variety of sources: the excavated remains of workshops and hoards, archaeometallurgical finds; the results of studies of ancient mines and analyses of ancient metal objects; bronze plastics and jewelry, coins etc.
The chronological span of the study is the 8th-1st centuries B.C., i.e. from the beginning of the main period of Greek colonization till the end of the Hellenistic era. The geographical scope of the work is the Greek oikumene. New to most scholars will be Treister's knowledge of objects and technologies in the eastern Greek and Roman world of the Northern Black Sea and Colchis.
While this book does not pretend to be a definitive survey of the history of mining and metallurgy in the Greek world, it is a particularly useful interim report.
The chronological span of the study is the 8th-1st centuries B.C., i.e. from the beginning of the main period of Greek colonization till the end of the Hellenistic era. The geographical scope of the work is the Greek oikumene. New to most scholars will be Treister's knowledge of objects and technologies in the eastern Greek and Roman world of the Northern Black Sea and Colchis.
While this book does not pretend to be a definitive survey of the history of mining and metallurgy in the Greek world, it is a particularly useful interim report.
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The Renewal of Epic considers various modes of allusion to Homer in the Argonautica of Apollonius, dealing not only with similarities in phraseology but also with thematic and structural resemblances.
After an introduction, two chapters discuss Apollonian techniques in treating repeated Homeric scenes: sacrifice, shipwreck, boxing and battle. The central section of the work considers the multiple links between the adventures of the Argonauts and Odysseus' wanderings. A final chapter explores Apollonius' innovative treatment of the divine, both generally and in particular scenes.
The work shows convincingly that the Argonautica reproduces many of the patterns which have been found in the Iliad and Odyssey. It demonstrates the presence of allusion at every level in the poem, linking it to its predecesors and acting as an essential interpretative aid to the reader.
After an introduction, two chapters discuss Apollonian techniques in treating repeated Homeric scenes: sacrifice, shipwreck, boxing and battle. The central section of the work considers the multiple links between the adventures of the Argonauts and Odysseus' wanderings. A final chapter explores Apollonius' innovative treatment of the divine, both generally and in particular scenes.
The work shows convincingly that the Argonautica reproduces many of the patterns which have been found in the Iliad and Odyssey. It demonstrates the presence of allusion at every level in the poem, linking it to its predecesors and acting as an essential interpretative aid to the reader.
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Psychological and Ethical Ideas studies what Greek poets and philosophers of the Archaic Age of Greece say about certain psychological and ethical ideas. These ideas include “psychological activity”, “soul”, “excellence”, and “justice”. These ideas were chosen to show how early Greek individuals think, act, and relate to other people and to their universe.
The book first discusses the nature of the literature of the Archaic Age. It then treats in detail what early Greeks say about the four ideas, presenting numerous quotations (all in translation). The book concludes with an overview of the ideas discussed.
The book introduces the reader to important ideas of the Archaic Age, showing what both poets and philosophers thought. These ideas are central to this period and were to have an important role in the literature and philosophy of later Greek authors, especially in the drama of the fifth century and the philosophy of the fourth century.
The book first discusses the nature of the literature of the Archaic Age. It then treats in detail what early Greeks say about the four ideas, presenting numerous quotations (all in translation). The book concludes with an overview of the ideas discussed.
The book introduces the reader to important ideas of the Archaic Age, showing what both poets and philosophers thought. These ideas are central to this period and were to have an important role in the literature and philosophy of later Greek authors, especially in the drama of the fifth century and the philosophy of the fourth century.
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Groaning Tears examines suicide in Greek tragedy in light of the fifth-century ethical climate. No full-scale work has previously been devoted to this pervasive topic. The particular focus of identifying suicide as a response to the expectations of popular ethics and social demands makes it useful for scholars and students of drama, ethics and sociology.
Chapter one establishes the ethical background of audiences in the fifth century while chapters two through five examine suicide in the context of whole plays based on motivational distinctions: to avoid disgrace and preserve an honorable reputation; to avoid further suffering; to end grief; and to sacrifice oneself for a greater good. The final chapter considers a drama of lighter tone that presents suicide in all of its ethical and theatrical aspects.
Chapter one establishes the ethical background of audiences in the fifth century while chapters two through five examine suicide in the context of whole plays based on motivational distinctions: to avoid disgrace and preserve an honorable reputation; to avoid further suffering; to end grief; and to sacrifice oneself for a greater good. The final chapter considers a drama of lighter tone that presents suicide in all of its ethical and theatrical aspects.
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This volume deals with the architectural history of the theatre in Roman Palestine and Provincia Arabia, a region which comprised a Jewish, Nabataean, and Hellenized population but lacked any tradition of classical theatre. The earliest examples, erected by Herod, were actually a foreign imposition upon the landscape of Judaea, while the theatres built in the Nabataean kingdom provided no more than an architectural setting for activities which were often unrelated to theatre in the accepted sense. When the Hellenized cities in the region began building their theatres, classical plays were already disappearing from the stage throughout the Roman world, their place taken by lighter, less select forms of public entertainment.
The author then offers a comprehensive architectural analysis of each of the thirty theatres so far uncovered in the area. Richly illustrated, it provides a vivid reconstruction of a world which, though long gone, continues to fascinate.
The author then offers a comprehensive architectural analysis of each of the thirty theatres so far uncovered in the area. Richly illustrated, it provides a vivid reconstruction of a world which, though long gone, continues to fascinate.
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The epic poem the Thebaid by P. Papinius Statius, written about AD 80 to 92, deals with the fraternal strife between Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices for the mastery of Thebes. Book VII describes the forced march of the Seven and their arrival at Thebes, Jocasta's vain attempt at mediation and Amphiaraus' spectacular katabasis.
This book is the first which deals with Thebaid VII since Barth (1664) and Amar & Lemaire (1825-30). Apart from being a commentary in the philological sense, it examines in close detail the poet's mannered style and analyses the text as a system of intertextual references. In addition to Homer and Vergil, specific passages from Euripides, Lucan, Seneca and especially Valerius Flaccus were exploited by Statius to create his challenging imitation. The identification of these sources offers the key to interpret and evaluate the poet's artistic intentions.
The Introduction discusses Statius' technique of multiple imitation. The information brought together has been made easily accessible by full indexes and an appendix listing the passages imitated by Statius.
This book is the first which deals with Thebaid VII since Barth (1664) and Amar & Lemaire (1825-30). Apart from being a commentary in the philological sense, it examines in close detail the poet's mannered style and analyses the text as a system of intertextual references. In addition to Homer and Vergil, specific passages from Euripides, Lucan, Seneca and especially Valerius Flaccus were exploited by Statius to create his challenging imitation. The identification of these sources offers the key to interpret and evaluate the poet's artistic intentions.
The Introduction discusses Statius' technique of multiple imitation. The information brought together has been made easily accessible by full indexes and an appendix listing the passages imitated by Statius.
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Ancient Stepmothers is the first full-length study of the stepmother in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Several perspectives are covered: literary, historical and sociological, the last-mentioned making use of comparative material from modern studies of stepfamilies.
The portrayal of the stepmother in myth and literature is thoroughly explored. The historical background in Athens and Rome is examined with a view to determining the relationship between fiction and real life.
The book makes an important contribution to the study of both literary history and family relationships: in particular, it sheds light on attitudes to women, the portrayal of the stepmother being an outstanding illustration of misogynistic prejudice. It will also interest sociologists wishing to place studies of the contemporary stepfamily in a wider historical context: for this reason, all Greek and Latin is translated into English.
The portrayal of the stepmother in myth and literature is thoroughly explored. The historical background in Athens and Rome is examined with a view to determining the relationship between fiction and real life.
The book makes an important contribution to the study of both literary history and family relationships: in particular, it sheds light on attitudes to women, the portrayal of the stepmother being an outstanding illustration of misogynistic prejudice. It will also interest sociologists wishing to place studies of the contemporary stepfamily in a wider historical context: for this reason, all Greek and Latin is translated into English.
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This collection of essays treats the fundamental issue of the correlation of archaeology and texts in recreating the ancient Mediterranean world. Contributions from Classical and Near Eastern archaeologists and historians address specific points of correlation, and their potential for future productive research in the Mediterranean.
After an introduction to the issue of texts and archaeology, the essays treat concepts such as: site as text, artifactual contingency of meaning, correlating survey with documents, contextual independence of evidence, textual bases for archaeological approaches, and correlating faunal evidence with texts.
This book will be of important use to archaeologists and historians of the Mediterranean, and scholars of archaeological research in historical archaeology in general.
After an introduction to the issue of texts and archaeology, the essays treat concepts such as: site as text, artifactual contingency of meaning, correlating survey with documents, contextual independence of evidence, textual bases for archaeological approaches, and correlating faunal evidence with texts.
This book will be of important use to archaeologists and historians of the Mediterranean, and scholars of archaeological research in historical archaeology in general.
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This is the first commentary to be written in English on Seneca's Phoenissae, an intriguing work on account of its unusual structure and state of incompletion.
The substantial introduction deals, inter alia, with the question of the unity and purpose of the work; the absence of an ending and of choral lyrics; the philosophical, rhetorical, and political content; Seneca's treatment of the Theban legend. The commentary is primarily a literary analysis of the text, but textual, linguistic, metrical, and grammatical difficulties are also elucidated.
With the resurgence of interest in Senecan drama in the last two decadese, this book is a valuable addition to English commentaries that appeared on most of the plays.
The substantial introduction deals, inter alia, with the question of the unity and purpose of the work; the absence of an ending and of choral lyrics; the philosophical, rhetorical, and political content; Seneca's treatment of the Theban legend. The commentary is primarily a literary analysis of the text, but textual, linguistic, metrical, and grammatical difficulties are also elucidated.
With the resurgence of interest in Senecan drama in the last two decadese, this book is a valuable addition to English commentaries that appeared on most of the plays.
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This work challenges recent critical assessments that emphasize the allegedly subversive elements in Euripides' play. The Orestes is found to present a curious mélange of early and late Euripidean features, resulting in a drama where the tragic potential of Orestes' predicament becomes lost amid the moral, political and situational chaos that dominates the late Euripidean stage. Throughout, emphasis is placed on reading the Orestes in light of Greek stage conventions and the poet's own practice. Of particular interest are: an original examination, in light of Greek rhetorical practice, of Orestes' agon with Tyndareus; an analysis of the Phrygian's monody as a cunning hybrid of Timothean nome and traditional messenger speech; and a re-evaluation of the play's troubling deus ex machina.
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The Argonautica was said to have been the source of a quarrel between Apollonius, who wrote what looks like an epic poem, and Callimachus, who denounced the writing of epic poetry. Although the quarrel did not take place in the real world, its issue controls the poem. The heroes are determined to take part in a Homeric epic, which the Callimachean narrator refuses to write.
Drawing on the methods of modern literary theorists but eschewing the jargon, DeForest shows how Apollonius uses the literary dispute in Alexandria to give a three-dimensional quality to his poem. The amusing conflict between heroes and narrator turns serious when the levels of narrative split apart and Medea steps into the gap as a free-standing figure, the forerunner of powerful women in fiction.
Drawing on the methods of modern literary theorists but eschewing the jargon, DeForest shows how Apollonius uses the literary dispute in Alexandria to give a three-dimensional quality to his poem. The amusing conflict between heroes and narrator turns serious when the levels of narrative split apart and Medea steps into the gap as a free-standing figure, the forerunner of powerful women in fiction.
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This is a commentary on the third book of Apollonius' Argonautica, one of the most influential and admired products of the Hellenistic era. The author sets out to deal comprehensively with all important aspects of the work; in particular, proper attention is paid for the first time to the poet's constant manipulation of the two Homeric epics; many thorny problems of text and interpretation are examined afresh; and a wealth of hitherto unadduced illustrative material drawn from Greek and Roman poetry of various genres and periods is used to shed light on a number of issues.
The volume closes with a series of detailed digestive indexes dealing with diction, models and imitations, language and style, metre, transmission, mythology, religion, geography, ethnography and aetiology.
The volume closes with a series of detailed digestive indexes dealing with diction, models and imitations, language and style, metre, transmission, mythology, religion, geography, ethnography and aetiology.
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It is largely thanks to Zvi Yavetz that the Roman plebs has become “Salonfähig”. In numerous important studies Yavetz has focused his — and our — attention on the problem of the relationship between the ruler and the masses of the ruled. Thus, it seemed natural to choose various aspects of this relationship as the topic of a volume in his honour. The articles here contributed by thirteen eminent friends and colleagues deal with historical and theoretical questions of the relationship between “the one” and “the many”, covering a period from the second century B.C., through the times of the Late Republic and the Principate, to Late Antiquity and, finally, to an intriguing view at modern totalitarianism as perceived from an Enlightenment perspective.
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The excerpts from the Declamations of Calpurnius Flaccus (2nd century A.D.) are one of our major sources of knowledge concerning controversiae, model court speeches on fictitious themes. These formed the focus of Roman higher education and therefore had an enormous effect on Latin literary style and content from the late Republic on. They also contain important indirect evidence for contemporary social history. This book provides a general introduction to the work, a new Latin text, plus the first English translation and only full modern commentary. The latter discusses the legal background and origins of the cases, points at issue, textual problems, and matters of Latin style. The volume will therefore be of interest to students of classical rhetoric, education, history, and philology.
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There have been many recent studies on the Apology. This book differs from them in that it attempts a synthesis of philosophical and literary approaches. A great deal of attention is paid to the philosophical and religious views that are present—often implicitly—in the text; they are much closer to the philosophy of Plato's main works than is usually assumed. But the Apology is also analysed as a rhetorical text: its close relationship with fourth-century rhetorical theory and practice is highlighted.
The analyses of the various parts of the speech are followed by a detailed line-by-line commentary.
The work was started by E. de Strycker, S.J.; after his death, it was revised and completed by S.R. Slings.
The analyses of the various parts of the speech are followed by a detailed line-by-line commentary.
The work was started by E. de Strycker, S.J.; after his death, it was revised and completed by S.R. Slings.
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The author uses an extensive study of the five Greek novels preserved by tradition since Roman times (Chariton, Chaireas and Callirhoe, Longus, Daphnis and Chloe, Xenophon of Ephesus, Ephesiaca, Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, Heliodorus, Ethiopica) to show how the novel form, from its origins, has been based upon the repetition of commonplaces, τόποι, which allows an interplay with the reader.
The commonest of these commonplaces, love-Eros, provides the plot of the five novels, in an order which is itself topical: meeting and love at first sight, wounds of love and lovesickness, lovers separated, lovers put to the test by the sea and by pirates, lovers reunited. The heroes of Greek novels, always young, good-looking and well-born (even if their identities are left unclear), allow for easy reader identification.
From Xenophon of Ephesus (the most primitive form of the novel) to the Ethiopica (a true work of art), the Greek novel had already explored all the main narrative possibilities of the genre.
The commonest of these commonplaces, love-Eros, provides the plot of the five novels, in an order which is itself topical: meeting and love at first sight, wounds of love and lovesickness, lovers separated, lovers put to the test by the sea and by pirates, lovers reunited. The heroes of Greek novels, always young, good-looking and well-born (even if their identities are left unclear), allow for easy reader identification.
From Xenophon of Ephesus (the most primitive form of the novel) to the Ethiopica (a true work of art), the Greek novel had already explored all the main narrative possibilities of the genre.
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This volume evaluates a single element of tragic art, namely the way in which narrative descriptions of place participate in the poetry of tragedy. They join together structures of the theater to create a context for tragic performance, and ultimately reflect upon tragedy's connection to earlier narrative forms and to the traditional tales that regularly supply tragic plots.
The first part of this book examines the introductory function of spatial descriptions and the peculiar resources offered to the playwright by cult settings. In the second part, the spatial oppositions, that are inherent structuring devices in traditional tales, are taken up in chapters treating the motif of exile in extant tragedy.
The first part of this book examines the introductory function of spatial descriptions and the peculiar resources offered to the playwright by cult settings. In the second part, the spatial oppositions, that are inherent structuring devices in traditional tales, are taken up in chapters treating the motif of exile in extant tragedy.
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Leonardo Bruni Aretino (c. 1370-1444) was one of the most gifted and prolific translators of Greek authors in the early Italian Renaissance and a bestseller whose works often circulated in more than a hundred manuscripts. Moreover, Homer ranks as the most admired Greek poet in the Renaissance.
The 'Orationes Homeri', i.e. Bruni's translation of three speeches from the embassy scene, are of focal interest in the studies of Renaissance literature in its many aspects: survival of ancient authors and their influence on Renaissance literature and literary theory, translation theory and practice, knowledge of Greek poetic language.
This first critical edition with an introduction and a systematic commentary presents the 'Orationes Homeri' in comparison with other works of Bruni and translations of Homer by other humanists. It includes the part of the Lorenzo Valla version corresponding to the 'Orationes Homeri' and the Castilian version of the 'Orationes Homeri', which is the first vernacular translation of Homer.
The 'Orationes Homeri', i.e. Bruni's translation of three speeches from the embassy scene, are of focal interest in the studies of Renaissance literature in its many aspects: survival of ancient authors and their influence on Renaissance literature and literary theory, translation theory and practice, knowledge of Greek poetic language.
This first critical edition with an introduction and a systematic commentary presents the 'Orationes Homeri' in comparison with other works of Bruni and translations of Homer by other humanists. It includes the part of the Lorenzo Valla version corresponding to the 'Orationes Homeri' and the Castilian version of the 'Orationes Homeri', which is the first vernacular translation of Homer.
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For more than a century, critics of the Aeneid have assumed that all or most of its episodes must propound something about Aeneas and his mission to found the Roman people, and through them about Rome and Augustus; whether that is their positive aspects, or their brutality and destructiveness, or the contrast between the public "voice" of their achievements and the private "voice" of the suffering they cause. This book argues that this assumption is wrong; the Aeneid's main purpose was to present a series of emotionally moving episodes, especially pathetic ones.
This book shows that the Aeneid makes more sense when regarded primarily as a series of emotion-arousing episodes than as expressing a pro-Aeneas, anti-Aeneas or two voices message. That is how it was regarded into the nineteenth century and that is what the ancient Greeks and Romans assumed was the main purpose of literature.
This book shows that the Aeneid makes more sense when regarded primarily as a series of emotion-arousing episodes than as expressing a pro-Aeneas, anti-Aeneas or two voices message. That is how it was regarded into the nineteenth century and that is what the ancient Greeks and Romans assumed was the main purpose of literature.
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Euripidea contains material to supplement Volume One of the author's Loeb Euripides. It consists of two parts, Testimonia Vitae et Artis Selecta and Textual Discussions.
The Testimonia, ancient notices about the life of Euripides and his career as a tragic poet, are printed together for the first time, together with a facing English translation. The Loeb Introduction examines this material critically. Equipped with this body of evidence, students of Greek tragedy and of ancient biography will be able to assess for themselves the reliability of the biographical tradition, in which, the author argues, too much confidence has been placed by interpreters of the plays.
The Textual Discussions explain places in the plays of Volume One, Cyclops, Alcestis and Medea, where the text adopted by the editor calls for comment.
The Testimonia, ancient notices about the life of Euripides and his career as a tragic poet, are printed together for the first time, together with a facing English translation. The Loeb Introduction examines this material critically. Equipped with this body of evidence, students of Greek tragedy and of ancient biography will be able to assess for themselves the reliability of the biographical tradition, in which, the author argues, too much confidence has been placed by interpreters of the plays.
The Textual Discussions explain places in the plays of Volume One, Cyclops, Alcestis and Medea, where the text adopted by the editor calls for comment.
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This book has been written from the conviction that general statements about the philosophical position taken by Theophrastus in this small but extremely difficult treatise, can only be made on the basis of a detailed interpretation of each and every sentence of the text. This resulted in a full commentary, which evades no philological or philosophical question that should be asked in order to elicit from the text a maximum of information. The outcome is a cautious but nonetheless explicit and determinate characterization and evaluation of Theophrastean metaphysics as a biologist's metaphysics, which deserves the attention of philosophers in its own right.
The author has paid special attention to questions of Peripatetic idiom and terminology, thus increasing the value of this book to students of Peripatetic thought in general. The information brought together has been made easily accessible by full indexes.
The author has paid special attention to questions of Peripatetic idiom and terminology, thus increasing the value of this book to students of Peripatetic thought in general. The information brought together has been made easily accessible by full indexes.
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In the first part C.M.J. Sicking - by using two speeches by Lysias - discusses the articulation of the text by devices marking the beginning of sentences. A separate index offers some considerations bearing on the value and use of (1) five so-called 'interactive' particles and (2) some particles found in interrogative sentences.
In the second part J.M. van Ophuijsen deals with ουν, ྄ρα, δῄ and τοίνυν, all of them traditionally regarded as 'inferential' particles. The discussion focuses on, but is not restricted to, Plato's Phaedo. There is an 'excursus' on ྄ρα in Herodotus.
Both authors have adopted a deliberately eclectic approach, taking advantage of what modern linguistic research has to offer without at the same time neglecting what many generations of scholars from Hoogeveen to Denniston have contributed to our understanding of ancient Greek.
In the second part J.M. van Ophuijsen deals with ουν, ྄ρα, δῄ and τοίνυν, all of them traditionally regarded as 'inferential' particles. The discussion focuses on, but is not restricted to, Plato's Phaedo. There is an 'excursus' on ྄ρα in Herodotus.
Both authors have adopted a deliberately eclectic approach, taking advantage of what modern linguistic research has to offer without at the same time neglecting what many generations of scholars from Hoogeveen to Denniston have contributed to our understanding of ancient Greek.
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In recent decades the study of literature in Europe and the Americas has been profoundly influenced by modern critical theory in its various forms, whether Structuralism or Deconstructionism, Hermeneutics, Reader-Response Theory or Rezeptionsästhetik, Semiotics or Narratology, Marxist, feminist, neo-historical, psychoanalytical or other perspectives. Whilst the value and validity of such approaches to literature is still a matter of some dispute, not least among classical scholars, they have had a substantial impact on the study both of classical literatures and of the mentalité of Greece and Rome.
In an attempt to clarify issues in the debate, the eleven contributors to this volume were asked to produce a representative collection of essays to illustrate the applicability of some of the new approaches to Greek and Latin authors or literary forms and problems.
The scope of the volume was deliberately limited to literary investigation, broadly construed, of Greek and Roman authors. Broader areas of the history and culture of the ancient world impinge in the essays, but are not their central focus.
The volume also contains a separate bibliography, offering for the first time a complete bibliography of classical studies which incorporate modern critical theory.
In an attempt to clarify issues in the debate, the eleven contributors to this volume were asked to produce a representative collection of essays to illustrate the applicability of some of the new approaches to Greek and Latin authors or literary forms and problems.
The scope of the volume was deliberately limited to literary investigation, broadly construed, of Greek and Roman authors. Broader areas of the history and culture of the ancient world impinge in the essays, but are not their central focus.
The volume also contains a separate bibliography, offering for the first time a complete bibliography of classical studies which incorporate modern critical theory.
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This book examines the use that Livy made of religious topics, and shows how this fits in with other aspects of his narrative.
The author shows how 'Livy's views of religion' depend less on personal belief than on the refinement of his narrative technique. He looks at the history decade by decade, and demonstrates that there are radical differences between different sections: in some Livy uses large-scale religious themes, but in others he deliberately avoids them. By a systematic analysis of Livy's narrative patterns and comparison with other ancient versions, it is proved that this is not simply due to subject-matter, but reflects a development in Livy's handling of his material. This profound difference between decades throws doubt on much of the standard picture of Livy: it also points to a need to revise notions of 'Augustan religious ideology'.
The author shows how 'Livy's views of religion' depend less on personal belief than on the refinement of his narrative technique. He looks at the history decade by decade, and demonstrates that there are radical differences between different sections: in some Livy uses large-scale religious themes, but in others he deliberately avoids them. By a systematic analysis of Livy's narrative patterns and comparison with other ancient versions, it is proved that this is not simply due to subject-matter, but reflects a development in Livy's handling of his material. This profound difference between decades throws doubt on much of the standard picture of Livy: it also points to a need to revise notions of 'Augustan religious ideology'.
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Homeric Morality is an attempt to answer two questions: whether or not the Homeric gods are concerned with 'justice' in human society, and what mechanism controls the social behaviour of Homeric man. It shows that the gods distribute good and bad fortune to men not in response to their moral behaviour, bus as required by fate; men, however, believe that the gods are concerned with human morality, and subsequently their behaviour is restrained by their faith in the moral gods as well as by many other forces, social and emotional.
This volume, taken as a whole, serves as a sustained critique of two influential works in the field, The Justice of Zeus by H. Lloyd- Jones and Merit and Responsibility by A.W.H. Adkins.
This volume, taken as a whole, serves as a sustained critique of two influential works in the field, The Justice of Zeus by H. Lloyd- Jones and Merit and Responsibility by A.W.H. Adkins.
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The aim of this work is to recover classical Roman assumptions about women on the basis of the surviving linguistic data. The author provides a control to her study of the connotations of the major Latin words for women in the form of a corresponding examination of how Roman authors use the various words for men. The resulting analysis throws light not only on Roman gender vocabulary but also on Roman cultural perceptions of class, moral worth and nationality. Furthermore, the author's detailed discussions of strictly linguistic evidence enable her to offer several original and persuasive insights about the traditional Latin literary representation of women.
Understanding the connotative range of gender terms such as homo, vir, femina, mulier also reveals the value judgments made by ancient authors on male and female behaviour and can even be applied as a tool of historical analysis.
Understanding the connotative range of gender terms such as homo, vir, femina, mulier also reveals the value judgments made by ancient authors on male and female behaviour and can even be applied as a tool of historical analysis.
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This book presents a new theory about the developments in shipping and naval organization that culminated in the invention - around 530 BC in the eastern Mediterranean - of the trireme, and the subsequent adoption of this first specialized warship of antiquity by all the naval powers of the time.
New interpretations are proposed of Greek and Assyrian iconographic data and of hitherto ignored evidence in Herodotos and Thukydides, the non-military factors determining developments are emphasized. Thukydides' fundamental essay on the genesis of Greek sea-powers is studied in depth, the rarity of these sea-powers stressed, and the peculiar background of the naval power of Phokaia and the Samian tyrant Polykrates exposed. The problem of the trireme's place of origin, the factors determining its invention, probably in Saïte Egypt, and its immediate adoption by the Persian king Kambyses are discussed. The first naval operations of the Persians are surveyed, reasons and circumstances of the trireme's introduction into the navies of the Greek city-states analysed with special attention for Themistokles' navy bill.
The book offers ancient historians and classical philologists a radically new approach to archaic maritime and naval history. It will also be useful to (nautical) archaeologists.
New interpretations are proposed of Greek and Assyrian iconographic data and of hitherto ignored evidence in Herodotos and Thukydides, the non-military factors determining developments are emphasized. Thukydides' fundamental essay on the genesis of Greek sea-powers is studied in depth, the rarity of these sea-powers stressed, and the peculiar background of the naval power of Phokaia and the Samian tyrant Polykrates exposed. The problem of the trireme's place of origin, the factors determining its invention, probably in Saïte Egypt, and its immediate adoption by the Persian king Kambyses are discussed. The first naval operations of the Persians are surveyed, reasons and circumstances of the trireme's introduction into the navies of the Greek city-states analysed with special attention for Themistokles' navy bill.
The book offers ancient historians and classical philologists a radically new approach to archaic maritime and naval history. It will also be useful to (nautical) archaeologists.
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Realistic representation of the speech of the lower classes in ancient literature is largely confined to the comic genres, and Petronius' realism in this area is more thorough-going than that of any other ancient author. A vast scholarly literature has grown up around the question of how faithfully the speeches of Petronius' freedmen reflect characteristics of actual popular speech; this literature is reviewed and evaluated. A survey of the phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic peculiarities in these speeches is then undertaken, in which they are compared with other 'vulgar' Latin sources such as the Pompeian inscriptions; Petronius is in fact one of our most important early sources for the study of popular Latin. The way in which Petronius used specific varieties of non-standard Latin to characterize different freedmen speakers is explored: Petronius has subtly modulated his freedmen's speeches to reflect differing emotional states and the different attitudes of the speakers toward their social position.
The present study is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject undertaken in over forty years in any language and the only one in English.
The present study is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject undertaken in over forty years in any language and the only one in English.
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The theme of the book is the Hellenistic epistolary novel which describes a fictional meeting between Democritus and Hippocrates. The author traces the later history of this story as part of the legend of the laughing philosopher on the one hand and of the history of melancholy on the other and demonstrates the interdependence of all three traditions in text editions, translations, paraphrases, commentaries, verse and painting from ancient times through to the Renaissance. He shows how the Stoic-Cynical tradition of 'Philosophus ridens' and the medical concept of 'Typus melancholicus sanguinicus' come to amalgamate into the early modern Humanist literary and iconographical tradition of 'Democritus ridens melancholicus'. In so doing the author also shows the importance of this tradition to the subsequent interpretation of the epistolary novel and its influence on modern research into the Hippocratic corpus and melancholy.
The work links important themes in the fields of ancient philosophy, ancient medicine, art history and Renaissance studies and will offer thought-provoking material to many of those working in these areas.
The work links important themes in the fields of ancient philosophy, ancient medicine, art history and Renaissance studies and will offer thought-provoking material to many of those working in these areas.
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This book challenges the current view of the Homeric epics that they reflect only the institutions and ideas of the Dark Ages, during which they were composed, telling us nothing about the Mycenaean Age preceding it. Comparing evidence from the Near East with the Homeric corpus, Peter Karavites argues that the epics actually contain much that harks back to the Mycenaean Age, and that the two eras may not be completely discontinuous after all.
Most contemporary scholars maintain that the mighty Mycenaean period was almost completely separated from the Dark Ages and that virtually no evidence of the former remains, with the exception of the archeological finds and the meager testimony of the Linear B tablets. However, the Near Eastern evidence about treaties and other forms of promising suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey may indeed provide historical pictures of the Mycenaean times featured in their narratives.
Most contemporary scholars maintain that the mighty Mycenaean period was almost completely separated from the Dark Ages and that virtually no evidence of the former remains, with the exception of the archeological finds and the meager testimony of the Linear B tablets. However, the Near Eastern evidence about treaties and other forms of promising suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey may indeed provide historical pictures of the Mycenaean times featured in their narratives.
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Das Thema des Buches ist der Isiskult während der römischen Kaiserzeit, wie er in zahleichen Darstellungen der ägyptischen Göttin und solcher ihr angeglichener Frauen zum Ausdruck kommt. Während sich dadurch zum einen diese Frauen ganz allgemein als Dienerinnen der Isis zu erkennen geben, fällt zum anderen ein besonderes Licht auf die zur Angleichung ausgewählten Bilder der Göttin. Dabei handelt es sich, anders als bei den meisten bekannten Isistypen, um keine mythologisch erklärbaren Gottesbilder. Sie sind deshalb der Forschung ebenso rätselhaft geblieben wie die entsprechend angeglichenen und oftmals auch als Priesterinnen oder Mystinnen bezeichneten Frauen. Das Buch behandelt somit zwei Problemkreise, nämlich die Stellung jener Frauen im Kult sowie die damit verbundene Frage nach Sinn und Bedeutung der für die Angleichung verbindlichen Isisbilder.
Das vorwiegend plastische Material ist in einem Katalog mit volständigem Abbildungsteil zusammengestellt. Auf dieser Basis bietet das Buch eine ikonographische und ikonologische Untersuchung des Themas. Die ausschliesslich in statuarischen Kopien überlieferten Isisbilder werden in angemessener Weise auf Originale hin rezensiert; die vorranging sepulkralen Darstellungen der Isisdienerinnen werden sowohl in quellenkritischer als auch archäologischer Hinsicht interpretiert. Daneben kommen auch religionsgeschichtliche Probleme zum Tragen. Ein längerer Exkurs am Ende des Buches ist der Frage nach der sozialen Stellung der Isisdienerinnen gewidmet.
Das vorwiegend plastische Material ist in einem Katalog mit volständigem Abbildungsteil zusammengestellt. Auf dieser Basis bietet das Buch eine ikonographische und ikonologische Untersuchung des Themas. Die ausschliesslich in statuarischen Kopien überlieferten Isisbilder werden in angemessener Weise auf Originale hin rezensiert; die vorranging sepulkralen Darstellungen der Isisdienerinnen werden sowohl in quellenkritischer als auch archäologischer Hinsicht interpretiert. Daneben kommen auch religionsgeschichtliche Probleme zum Tragen. Ein längerer Exkurs am Ende des Buches ist der Frage nach der sozialen Stellung der Isisdienerinnen gewidmet.
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This book is a study of Georg Busolt (1850-1920), a noted German historian of classical Greece. The treatment is based on a collection of his own letters, mainly written to other scholars.
Over 100 letters from Busolt to others are collected and edited here. Each letter, in the original German, is presented with commentary and the whole is woven into a chronological narrative and survey of Busolt's career. There are four chapters (The Busolt Family; Königsberg; Kiel, Göttingen), the last three corresponding to the universities where he studied and taught.
Despite Busolt's eminence and the continued usefulness of his two great handbooks (Griechische Geschichte; Griechische Staatskunde), nothing has ever been written about him. Moreover, the narrative gives a picture of Prussian universities and academic issues during his period - a crucial one for the development of German education - and is thus a contribution to the history of scholarship.
Over 100 letters from Busolt to others are collected and edited here. Each letter, in the original German, is presented with commentary and the whole is woven into a chronological narrative and survey of Busolt's career. There are four chapters (The Busolt Family; Königsberg; Kiel, Göttingen), the last three corresponding to the universities where he studied and taught.
Despite Busolt's eminence and the continued usefulness of his two great handbooks (Griechische Geschichte; Griechische Staatskunde), nothing has ever been written about him. Moreover, the narrative gives a picture of Prussian universities and academic issues during his period - a crucial one for the development of German education - and is thus a contribution to the history of scholarship.
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This study shows that the Ecclesiazusae is an affirmation of the importance of persuasion in the fourth- century democracy. Praxagora, the attractive and articulate female protagonist, virtually personifies peitho, the realm of both political persuasion and erotic seduction. The ability of peitho to address both public and private motivations makes it the perfect instrument to resolve the tension in the fourth century between selfishness and civic participation. This is, after all, the central issue in the later episodes of the play.
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This book deals with the use of archaistic stylistic elements (i.e., those which revive or imitate features of Greek Archaic art) in free standing statuary dating from the second century B.C. to the third century A.C. The main objective of the study is to determine how the archaistic style was used, what prototypes were imitated, what subjects were represented, how the replicas of statue types were distributed, how these statues were displayed, and what prompted such stylistic anachronism.
The introductory chapter deals with general problems of archaism in ancient art and the specific questions pertaining to statuary in the round. The body of material, nearly three hundred pieces in all, is organized by type on the basis of pose and garment arrangement.
In a concluding chapter, evidence from the body of the study is collected and possible answers are suggested for the questions outlined above.
This study contributes to the currently widespread scholarly interest in stylistic revivals (especially classicism and archaism) which occurred not only in Roman times, but in earlier and later periods as well.
The introductory chapter deals with general problems of archaism in ancient art and the specific questions pertaining to statuary in the round. The body of material, nearly three hundred pieces in all, is organized by type on the basis of pose and garment arrangement.
In a concluding chapter, evidence from the body of the study is collected and possible answers are suggested for the questions outlined above.
This study contributes to the currently widespread scholarly interest in stylistic revivals (especially classicism and archaism) which occurred not only in Roman times, but in earlier and later periods as well.
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This volume contains word-for-word commentaries on Pindar's Olympian Odes 10 and 11, and on Nemean 11 and Isthmian 2. These are preceded by a large number of notes on Olympian 1, intended to form a supplement to D.E. Gerber's edition (1982).
The author has tried to explain peculiarities of grammar and nuances of meaning as fully as possible, but due attention is paid to figures of style
and problems of poetic structure. The interpretations proposed by the author - many of which are new - are accompanied by an adequate documentation, including a critical examination of other views. This documentation has been made more easily accessible by detailed indexes, one of subjects and one of Greek words.
The book forms a sequel to volume I, which contains commentaries on Olympians 3, 7, 12, 14. A third volume on Pythians 1, 8, 10 is intended to conclude the series.
The author has tried to explain peculiarities of grammar and nuances of meaning as fully as possible, but due attention is paid to figures of style
and problems of poetic structure. The interpretations proposed by the author - many of which are new - are accompanied by an adequate documentation, including a critical examination of other views. This documentation has been made more easily accessible by detailed indexes, one of subjects and one of Greek words.
The book forms a sequel to volume I, which contains commentaries on Olympians 3, 7, 12, 14. A third volume on Pythians 1, 8, 10 is intended to conclude the series.
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The work is limited to the question of knowledge in Euripides' Hippolytus and seeks to show that one of the major themes of the Hippolytus, as of the Oedipus, is knowledge.
In successive chapters these subjects are treated: (1) the witness theme, seeing and knowing, what the senses reveal; (2) fantasies of other worlds created by the characters and how these fantasies reavel the character's perceptions of the world; (3) how Euripides causes his characters to become aware of the shifting meanings of words and how it happens that one statement and its opposite can be predicated of the same individual or act; (4) the desire for and fear of knowledge and the choice of ignorance; (5) the use of generalization as a kind of ignorance; (6) the relation of the character's knowledge to that of the audience.
The work offers a new perception of the drama through a detailed examination of this important question that was so warmly debated among the early Sophists.
In successive chapters these subjects are treated: (1) the witness theme, seeing and knowing, what the senses reveal; (2) fantasies of other worlds created by the characters and how these fantasies reavel the character's perceptions of the world; (3) how Euripides causes his characters to become aware of the shifting meanings of words and how it happens that one statement and its opposite can be predicated of the same individual or act; (4) the desire for and fear of knowledge and the choice of ignorance; (5) the use of generalization as a kind of ignorance; (6) the relation of the character's knowledge to that of the audience.
The work offers a new perception of the drama through a detailed examination of this important question that was so warmly debated among the early Sophists.
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Hephaestion's Encheiridion is the most influential text in the history of metrical scholarship. It has been superseded for some genres of Greek verse but remains basic to the description of others. Its terminology continues to be applied to most of the verse written in Western literary traditions.
The present volume offers a translation of th eelliptic Greek text and of a parallel account of metre included in Aristides Quintilianus On Music, with a commentary, an introduction analyzing the approach of ancient metricians in term of their own practical aims, an index of all significant words in the Greek texts, and an English index.
The book is designed to be equally accessible to Greekless students of metre and to Greek scholars. It should enable them to take clear stand with regard to the ancient heritage in this field, and to define more unequivocally than has been possible any terms they choose to retain, thereby contributing towards greater coherence and consistency in discussion of poetic metre.
The present volume offers a translation of th eelliptic Greek text and of a parallel account of metre included in Aristides Quintilianus On Music, with a commentary, an introduction analyzing the approach of ancient metricians in term of their own practical aims, an index of all significant words in the Greek texts, and an English index.
The book is designed to be equally accessible to Greekless students of metre and to Greek scholars. It should enable them to take clear stand with regard to the ancient heritage in this field, and to define more unequivocally than has been possible any terms they choose to retain, thereby contributing towards greater coherence and consistency in discussion of poetic metre.
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This book deals with some (fragmentary) poems of Alcaeus, Archilochus, Hipponax and Stesichorus. The choice of the poems was determined by external factors: all of them are written on papyrus and were first published during the last few decades. After the first edition the fragments were discussed by many scholars, mainly in periodicals. The authors of this volume have assembled the results of this scholarly work and used it as a foundation for a carefully contituted text and an extensive overall commentary. In this way the poems will be more easily accessible than they were hitherto.
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This volume contains word-for-word commentaries on Pindar's Olympian Odes 3, 7, 12, 14. Emphasis is placed on the explanations of peculiarities of grammar and idiom, but due attention is paid to figures of style and problems of poetic structure. The interpretations proposed by the author - many of them which are new - are documented as fully, but at the same time as concisely, as possible. This documentation, which includes a critical examination of other views, has been made more easily accessible by detailed indexes.
The poems discussed do not have special similarities or interrelationships. On the other hand, they may be considered representative of the poet's art. From this point of view, the present selection may serve as an introduction to the study of Pindar's work.
Vol. II will contain commentaries on Olympians 1, 10, 11, Nemean 11, and Isthmian 2. A third volume on Pythians 1, 8, 10 is inteded to conclude the series.
The poems discussed do not have special similarities or interrelationships. On the other hand, they may be considered representative of the poet's art. From this point of view, the present selection may serve as an introduction to the study of Pindar's work.
Vol. II will contain commentaries on Olympians 1, 10, 11, Nemean 11, and Isthmian 2. A third volume on Pythians 1, 8, 10 is inteded to conclude the series.
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Xenophon is usually believed to have written his Hellenica as a general ''history of his own times'' in Greece, and is criticized for his disproportionately close attention to Spartan affairs and his apparent bias in favour of the Spartans. But his treatment of Sparta is much more coherent and purposive than has been noticed; and knowing the cirumstances of his life, we should consider that there were ample reasons of prudence (at least) for him to have written with much circumspection about Sparta and especially about Agesilaus and Agesilaus' friends.
This methodical interpretative study of Lysander in the Hellenica as well as of the Polity of the Lacedaemonians demonstrates that Xenophon wrote aobut this city - famous for the communal life of its citizens - with critical and philosophic intent.
As a case study in reading classical history, it might signal the need for a complete reevaluation of other historians as well.
This methodical interpretative study of Lysander in the Hellenica as well as of the Polity of the Lacedaemonians demonstrates that Xenophon wrote aobut this city - famous for the communal life of its citizens - with critical and philosophic intent.
As a case study in reading classical history, it might signal the need for a complete reevaluation of other historians as well.
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This book is about the clash of the Hellenistic world with the Romans, about a late Hellenistic king, a dominant figure of the first century B.C., who refused to accept his inclusion in the Roman sphere of control, and attempted to assert his political independence. A subsidiary theme is the espousal of hellenism by a non-Greek dynasty.
The work examines first the early history of Pontus, and then analyses carefully the events of Mithridates Eupator's reign for what they reveal of his foreign policy. Attention is focused on diplomacy, strategy, propaganda, support, rather than on military details.
There is no substantial study of Mithridates in English, and really only one in any language - Reinach's famous work of 1890. Since then, new inscriptions and coins have come to light, new methods and approaches devised. This book is intended as a contribution to the filling of a large scholarly gap.
The work examines first the early history of Pontus, and then analyses carefully the events of Mithridates Eupator's reign for what they reveal of his foreign policy. Attention is focused on diplomacy, strategy, propaganda, support, rather than on military details.
There is no substantial study of Mithridates in English, and really only one in any language - Reinach's famous work of 1890. Since then, new inscriptions and coins have come to light, new methods and approaches devised. This book is intended as a contribution to the filling of a large scholarly gap.
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Although editions of Nemesianus have been surprisingly numerous, very few have contributed appreciably to our understanding of this author, and most texts have been based on a very limited number of manuscripts. There has been no commentary of any length since that of Burman (1731) and there has never before been one in English covering the whole corpus. This book is an attempt to remedy those deficiencies. The text is the first to have been based on an examination of all the known manuscripts, and a detailed and accurate apparatus criticus is provided. The textual history of both poems is thoroughly discussed. The question of the authenticity of the Eclogues is examined and Nemesianus' authorship is held to be proved. The commentary is mainly concerned with textual and grammatical matters. There is also a bibliography.
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This detailed literary and rhetorical analysis of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo treats the poem as a unified work of art in which sophisticated poetic craftsmanship is put to the service of serious ethical thought.
By means of parallels from Homer, Hesiod, and other Homeric hymns, as well as from later epideictic poetry and prose, the author seeks to show that the poet of the Hymn follows a coherent ''program'' whose intention is to praise Apollo from his birth on humble Delos to his establishment in a position of glory at Delphi. At the same time, the ''Delian'' and ''Pythian'' portions of the hymn are linked by a complex network of ideas bearing on the ethos of Apollo and the nature of his Delphic oracle.
The study takes into account previous scholarship on the Hymn and provides appendices on ''The Question of Unity'' and ''The Cosmological Hierarchy and Apollo's Timai''.
By means of parallels from Homer, Hesiod, and other Homeric hymns, as well as from later epideictic poetry and prose, the author seeks to show that the poet of the Hymn follows a coherent ''program'' whose intention is to praise Apollo from his birth on humble Delos to his establishment in a position of glory at Delphi. At the same time, the ''Delian'' and ''Pythian'' portions of the hymn are linked by a complex network of ideas bearing on the ethos of Apollo and the nature of his Delphic oracle.
The study takes into account previous scholarship on the Hymn and provides appendices on ''The Question of Unity'' and ''The Cosmological Hierarchy and Apollo's Timai''.
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This is the first book-length critical study of the three Virgilian works to be published in English for twenty years. It examines in detail the thematic design and intent of the Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid, and documents the development of their political, moral and poetic pessimism. It presents the interrelationship of the three texts, their intertextuality, as integral to their meaning.
The book is in three main parts - 'Pastoral Meditation', 'Didactic Paradox', 'Epic Vision' - corresponding to the three Virgilian works. A brief introductory chapter is concerned with questions of method and the problem of Virgil misread. A chief focus of the book is Virgil's preoccupation with the relationship between poetry, art - art's values, perceptions, visions - and the political/historical world, and the changing nature of Virgil's attitude to the socio-moral responsibilities of Rome. The evolution of Vergil's presentation both of Roman imperium and of man's place in nature and history is carefully delineated.
With close scrutiny of the language, imagery, structures and design of the three texts and of their verbal and thematic interrelationship, the book offers a substantial reassessment of the major political, psychological and moral ideas of Virgil's poetic oeuvre. An intricate and persuasive picture emerges of Virgil's intellectual and poetic development and a radically new conception of Virgil's image of himself as poet. The provision of translations makes the book accessible to the Latinless reader.
The book is in three main parts - 'Pastoral Meditation', 'Didactic Paradox', 'Epic Vision' - corresponding to the three Virgilian works. A brief introductory chapter is concerned with questions of method and the problem of Virgil misread. A chief focus of the book is Virgil's preoccupation with the relationship between poetry, art - art's values, perceptions, visions - and the political/historical world, and the changing nature of Virgil's attitude to the socio-moral responsibilities of Rome. The evolution of Vergil's presentation both of Roman imperium and of man's place in nature and history is carefully delineated.
With close scrutiny of the language, imagery, structures and design of the three texts and of their verbal and thematic interrelationship, the book offers a substantial reassessment of the major political, psychological and moral ideas of Virgil's poetic oeuvre. An intricate and persuasive picture emerges of Virgil's intellectual and poetic development and a radically new conception of Virgil's image of himself as poet. The provision of translations makes the book accessible to the Latinless reader.
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This book analyzes the defense policy of Athens in the period after the Peloponnesian War. In order to counter new offensive strategies and to protect vital local sources of revenue, the Athenians instituted a system of territorial defense, based on massive frontier fortresses and a sophisticated signal network.
Individual chapters treat Athens' postwar economic situations, the development of Greek military science, the rise of a defensive mentality among the Athenian citizens, theorectical literature on defense, and Athens' military establishment. A major section is devoted to detailed descriptions of the land routes into Attica and of all ancient fortresses, towers, and military highways in the frontier zones. Concluding chapters demonstrate how the defense system worked in practic.
Individual chapters treat Athens' postwar economic situations, the development of Greek military science, the rise of a defensive mentality among the Athenian citizens, theorectical literature on defense, and Athens' military establishment. A major section is devoted to detailed descriptions of the land routes into Attica and of all ancient fortresses, towers, and military highways in the frontier zones. Concluding chapters demonstrate how the defense system worked in practic.
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This book contains an introduction to the text of and a commentary on the fragments of two plays by Euripides, the Kresphontes (ca. 424 B.C.) and the Archelaos (ca. 408/7 B.C.)
Fragments of both plays are preserved in quotations by other writers and in recently published papyri. The introduction discusses aspects of the background and of the contents of the plays, such as, for example, their first performances, the relation of the Kresphontes with the plays about Orestes, and Euripides' motives in writing the Archelaos (politics or flattery?). The commentary to each play deals with the interpretation of the fragments and testimonia, with textual problems and with typical elements of Euripides' style.
This is the first full-scale treatment of both plays and offers, thanks to modern papyrus finds, some new evidence on their composition and context. The text of the papyrus fragments is based on personal inspection of the papyri concerned, which has resulted in a number of new readings.
Fragments of both plays are preserved in quotations by other writers and in recently published papyri. The introduction discusses aspects of the background and of the contents of the plays, such as, for example, their first performances, the relation of the Kresphontes with the plays about Orestes, and Euripides' motives in writing the Archelaos (politics or flattery?). The commentary to each play deals with the interpretation of the fragments and testimonia, with textual problems and with typical elements of Euripides' style.
This is the first full-scale treatment of both plays and offers, thanks to modern papyrus finds, some new evidence on their composition and context. The text of the papyrus fragments is based on personal inspection of the papyri concerned, which has resulted in a number of new readings.
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In contrast with previous methodologies which seek ''key ideas'' or functional ''programs,'' this book argues that the unique complexity of Pindar's choral lyric can be better understood by analysis of each text's logical configuration as a network of interacting polarities and analogies.
Against the backdrop of pre-Socratic philosophy and later rhetorical radition, the book systematically examines the primary polar relations which are prominent in Pindar's work, illustrating their development and transformation through the course of individual odes. The author concludes that Pindar expands traditional ethical dichotomies into dynamic tensions which play on the semantic fluidity of Greek poetic language in its formative period.
This work attempts to apply ''structuralist'' hermeneutics in an appropriate way to the elucidation of an often difficult and obscure archaic poet. Accordingly, it should be of interest not only to the Pindaric specialist, but also to students of literary theory and the history of ideas in antiquity.
Against the backdrop of pre-Socratic philosophy and later rhetorical radition, the book systematically examines the primary polar relations which are prominent in Pindar's work, illustrating their development and transformation through the course of individual odes. The author concludes that Pindar expands traditional ethical dichotomies into dynamic tensions which play on the semantic fluidity of Greek poetic language in its formative period.
This work attempts to apply ''structuralist'' hermeneutics in an appropriate way to the elucidation of an often difficult and obscure archaic poet. Accordingly, it should be of interest not only to the Pindaric specialist, but also to students of literary theory and the history of ideas in antiquity.
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This is a word-for-word commentary on the first part (vv. 1-382) of Hesiod's Works and Days. Special attention has been paid to peculiarities of grammar and idiom, but also to figures of style and the poet's train of thought. All interpretations - many of them which are new - are documented as fully, but at the same time as concisely, as possible. This documentation, which will prove useful for the interpretation of many other texts, has been made more easily accesible by detailed indexes. Discussion of other views plays a considerable part in the commentary and will help the reader avoid a great number of minor and major misunderstandings.
The commentary has been confined to the first part of the poem because this seemed to be more in need of a thorough explanation than the rest. It is also the most interesting part in so far as it forms a kind of manual of social morality. The basis concepts of this doctrine are carefully defined in the commentary, and their historical implications are briefly indicated.
The commentary has been confined to the first part of the poem because this seemed to be more in need of a thorough explanation than the rest. It is also the most interesting part in so far as it forms a kind of manual of social morality. The basis concepts of this doctrine are carefully defined in the commentary, and their historical implications are briefly indicated.
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The crisis Rome experienced in the last decades of the Republic was intellectual as well as political, social and military. This crisis was marked by conflicts over values and a growing dichotomy between words and things, as a result of which the key words of the Roman tradition lost their anchor in the inherited, commonly-held percepetion of reality known as the mos maiorum. The crisis was therefore also one of the Latin language itself.
The monograph explores this thesis in discussions of the background and character of Roman intellectual history, the nature of the mos maiorum, the relationship of the Late Republic to the Mediterranean world, the roles of Julius Caesar, Catullus, Cicero, and Lucretius in the crisis, and its Augustan and later consequences. The major portion of the discussion is devoted to Lucretius, because the De Rerum Natura is the clearest example of the extent and nature of the crisis, from which it took its origin and gained its form and purpose.
A principal goal of the essay is to relate Lucretius to the structure of Roman literary and intellectual history. It finds the explanation for his work in the nature of that history and the characteristic Roman modes and categories of thought rather than in the general history fo Greek philosophy. It also offers a new explanation of the relationshiop of the authors of the Late Republic to each other. In so doing, it indicates the foundation for a new history of Roman literature and a new conception of the reality and importance of the intellectual history of Rome.
The monograph explores this thesis in discussions of the background and character of Roman intellectual history, the nature of the mos maiorum, the relationship of the Late Republic to the Mediterranean world, the roles of Julius Caesar, Catullus, Cicero, and Lucretius in the crisis, and its Augustan and later consequences. The major portion of the discussion is devoted to Lucretius, because the De Rerum Natura is the clearest example of the extent and nature of the crisis, from which it took its origin and gained its form and purpose.
A principal goal of the essay is to relate Lucretius to the structure of Roman literary and intellectual history. It finds the explanation for his work in the nature of that history and the characteristic Roman modes and categories of thought rather than in the general history fo Greek philosophy. It also offers a new explanation of the relationshiop of the authors of the Late Republic to each other. In so doing, it indicates the foundation for a new history of Roman literature and a new conception of the reality and importance of the intellectual history of Rome.
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The purpose of this book is to investigate what it was Euripides intended to convey to the theatre-going public of his day when he wrote his most exciting and most gruesome play, the Bacchae. The meanings which are to be attached to the action of a play are woven by an audience, both during and after the performance, into a single dramatic experience, labelled in this book as 'audience response'.
After some introductory chapters dealing with the history of the interpretation of the Bacchae and with the theory of audience response, the main part of the book is devoted to a detailed analysis of the action of the play (chapters 4 and 5), and to a study of Dionysus in his various apects in Athenian life and in his appearances in earlier literature and on the tragic stage. The discussion of the choruses concentrates on the choruses' repeated utterances about cleverness and wisdom, which form the core of the Dionysian propaganda of the play.
The most immediate results of this new interpretation of the Bacchae are that the widely-accepted view of Pentheus as a dark puritan, a man possessed by the Dionysian qualities of his divine opponent, proves to be untenable, and that that which in the past has been rightly called the overriding theme of the play - the god's epiphany - also contains the poet's most serious and ironical discussion of divinity and of man's treatment of it. The problems of the Greek text are given full discussion, mainly in the nots and appendices. In many cases new solutions are proposed; some new problems are however added.
After some introductory chapters dealing with the history of the interpretation of the Bacchae and with the theory of audience response, the main part of the book is devoted to a detailed analysis of the action of the play (chapters 4 and 5), and to a study of Dionysus in his various apects in Athenian life and in his appearances in earlier literature and on the tragic stage. The discussion of the choruses concentrates on the choruses' repeated utterances about cleverness and wisdom, which form the core of the Dionysian propaganda of the play.
The most immediate results of this new interpretation of the Bacchae are that the widely-accepted view of Pentheus as a dark puritan, a man possessed by the Dionysian qualities of his divine opponent, proves to be untenable, and that that which in the past has been rightly called the overriding theme of the play - the god's epiphany - also contains the poet's most serious and ironical discussion of divinity and of man's treatment of it. The problems of the Greek text are given full discussion, mainly in the nots and appendices. In many cases new solutions are proposed; some new problems are however added.
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The five books of the Silvae bring together the occasional verses which Statius wrote in addition to his two epics. In these short descriptive poems Statius elaborates features taken from various genres into an original whole, in which description and eulogy play important roles. The main themes of the poems of his second book are consolation after bereavement and the contrast between nature and culture.
The present work contains a general introduction, a text of Silvae II, a bibliography, and an index, together with a verse-by-verse commentary on the poems of this second book.
This is the first commentary on a book of the Silvae since Vollmer's commentary on the whole of the Silvae of 1898. Emphasis is here placed on interpretation and moreover chiefly on the literary and stylistic aspects of the poems, which, compared with the epic poetry of Statius and his contemporaries, have hitherto received relatively little attention.
The present work contains a general introduction, a text of Silvae II, a bibliography, and an index, together with a verse-by-verse commentary on the poems of this second book.
This is the first commentary on a book of the Silvae since Vollmer's commentary on the whole of the Silvae of 1898. Emphasis is here placed on interpretation and moreover chiefly on the literary and stylistic aspects of the poems, which, compared with the epic poetry of Statius and his contemporaries, have hitherto received relatively little attention.
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The purposes of this short monograph are to identify and analyze the problems of Athenian society with which the last two extant plays of Aristophanes - the Ekklesiazousai and the Ploutos - are concerned, as well as to examine the playright's views on the essence of these problems and on attempts to find satisfactory solutions to them.
The work contains an introduction and seven sections:
1. Historical Background; 2. Poverty: Symptoms, Ideas regarding Solutions and Criticisms of Ideas; 3. Poverty versus Riches; 4. The sources of the ''Communistic'' Ideas; 5. Misthos Ekklesiastikos ; 6. The Censure of Materialism; 7. Aristophanes and the ''Middle Road''.
The author has attempted here to set forth both the value of Aristophanes' last plays as historical sources and the significance of their social message.
The work contains an introduction and seven sections:
1. Historical Background; 2. Poverty: Symptoms, Ideas regarding Solutions and Criticisms of Ideas; 3. Poverty versus Riches; 4. The sources of the ''Communistic'' Ideas; 5. Misthos Ekklesiastikos ; 6. The Censure of Materialism; 7. Aristophanes and the ''Middle Road''.
The author has attempted here to set forth both the value of Aristophanes' last plays as historical sources and the significance of their social message.
