Literary studies: ancient, classical Books

Book SynopsisThe only English translation to include the complete work - a must-have for all students of early Norse literature.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsCONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Spelling, the Pronunciation of Ancient Names, and Map References Maps General Introduction: Hesiod and His Poems Introduction to the Theogony Theogony Introduction to the Works and Days Works and Days Introducton to The Shield of Herakles The Shield of Herakles Bibliography Glossary / Index ILLUSTRATIONS Maps 1. The Mediterranean 2. The Aegean Sea 3. Central Greece Figures 1. Drunken symposiast and lyre 2. Anatolian storm god 3. Zeus throwing lightning at Typhon 4. A Muse playing the lyre 5. The birth of Aphrodite 6. Amphitritê stands before Poseidon 7. The head of Medusa 8. The Chimaira 9. The punishment of Atlas and Prometheus 10. Hades and Persephone 11. Zeus fights Typhon 12. Dawn pursues the Trojan prince Tithonos 13. Egyptian relief of Maat 14. Pandora born from the Earth 15. The Cretan princess Ariadnê and Retribution 16. A naked plowman 17. A winged North Wind (Boreas) rapes Oreithyia 18. A satyr presents a tripod with handles to Dionysos 19. The theater and reconstructed columns of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi 20. The Lapith Kaineus being destroyed by a centaur 21. A centaur tries to carry off Hippodameia 22. The Gorgons pursue Perseus 23. Zeus parts Athena and Ares Genealogical Charts 1. The primordial gods 2. The children of Earth and Sky 3. The off spring of Earth and the blood of Sky and the birth of Aphroditê 4. The descendants of Night (Nyx) and Strife (Eris) 5. The descendants Earth and Sea 6. The descendants of Phorkys and Keto 7. Other descendants of Phorkys and Keto 8. The children of Okeanos and Tethys 9. The descendants of Th eia and Hyperion and Kreios and Eurybia 10. The children of Pallas and Styx 11. The descendants of Koios and Phoibê 12. The children of Kronos and Rhea 13. The descendants of Iapetos and Klymenê 14. The off spring of Zeus and his many wives 15. The descendants of Ares and Aphrodite 16. The descendants of Helios and Perseïs 17. Other children of Kadmos and Harmonia 18. The children of Dawn (Eos) 19. The descendants of Kalypso, Circe, and Aiëtes 20. The descendants of Perseus and Andromeda

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Book SynopsisSimon Armitage is rightly celebrated as one of the country''s most original and engaging poets; but he is also an adaptor and translator of some of our most important epics, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Death of King Arthur and Homer''s Odyssey. The latter, originally a commission for BBC Radio, rendered the classical tale with all the flare, wit and engagement that we have come to expect from this most distinctive of contemporary authors, and in so doing brought Odysseus''s return from the Trojan War memorably to life.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents the earliest South Indian inscriptions (ca. second century B.C.E. to sixth century A.D.), written in Tamil in local derivations of the Ashokan Brahmi script. The work includes texts, transliteration, translation, detailed commentary, inscriptional glossary, and indexes.

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Book SynopsisThe legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has been imitated, resisted, misunderstood, and reworked by every culture that followed. In this volume, some five hundred articles by a wide range of scholars investigate the afterlife of this rich heritage in the fields of literature, philosophy, art, architecture, history, politics, religion, and science.Trade ReviewOver a thousand pages in length, with some five hundred articles surveying the survival, transmission, and reception of the cultures of Greek and Roman antiquity, The Classical Tradition is a low-cost Wunderkammer, a vast cabinet of curiosities… The Classical Tradition should rightly evoke…gratitude. This is a book whose long, learned, and witty essay on Rome could stand alone as a surprisingly comprehensive guide to that city’s ancient relics, but that also has time for entries on Armenian Hellenism, Hunayn ibn-Ishaāq, and Gandhara; carpe diem, deus ex machina, and the translatio imperii; the Society of Dilettanti, the Grand Tour, and Fascism. It is possible to get pleasantly lost in these pages, as in the internal courtyards of Pompeii, and not emerge for hours. -- Stephen Greenblatt and Joseph Leo Koerner * New York Review of Books *A heady, hefty new single-volume reference… This is a browser’s paradise… While Greece and Rome are no longer the foundation of education, classical scholarship has never been richer. -- Steve Coates * New York Times Book Review *Entries of commendable clarity and range include those on Homer, on pastoral, on Catullus, and on the Argonauts. This is a valuable reference work, especially for those new to the classical world. -- Victoria Moul * Times Literary Supplement *The Classical Tradition is a guidebook of great erudition that is notably well written and unexpectedly compelling. It definitely is not another of those solemn introductions to ‘the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.’ Instead it is a lively compendium of the manifold ways in which the enduring creations of the classical tradition, and the Greek and Latin classics, have been imitated, adulated, denounced and misunderstood—or understood all too well—over the past two millennia… Each article brings some unexpected insight or little known fact into the discussion, to illuminating effect… The scholarship is impeccable, but there is a donnish drollery in many of the articles… [A] marvelous guide. -- Eric Ormsby * Wall Street Journal *Now here is a fabulous book—and a bargain to boot. Harvard has produced this gigantic volume, packed with color plates and essays by some of the greatest scholars alive, for the price of a couple of hardback thrillers. Better still, while The Classical Tradition may look like a work of reference, it’s actually one of the best bedside books you could ask for. I know because I’ve been browsing around in it with immense pleasure… Certainly anyone even mildly interested in the Western cultural heritage will find The Classical Tradition a necessary purchase… [It] shows us how deeply the stories, iconic figures and ideas of antiquity succor our imaginations and still suffuse the world we live in. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *[The Classical Tradition’s] catalogue of contributors is a who’s who of classical scholarship and includes some of the best known scholars writing for an educated non-specialist public, such as Ingrid Rowland, Simon Goldhill, Mary Beard and Glen Bowersock… [The editors] have sourced not so much anodyne entries on set-piece subjects—the staple of any encyclopedia—as stories brightly told that move through time to relate, for example, the achievements of the Roman poet Horace as they were seen in the ancient world, followed by an assessment of his immediate influence on Latin poetry, and his considerable impact on subsequent poets from Petrarch to Joseph Brodsky, with a slight pause over the case of Byron, who loathed Horace after their encounters in school… The publication of this Harvard guide not so much to the classical past as to the uses we have made of it—its various metamorphoses—is in itself a cultural event. Consider it one among many markers of a contemporary re-attachment to the classical past. -- Luke Slattery * Australian Literary Review *If, as some classicists say, our minds, bodies, government, law, medicine, arts, and fill-in-the-blank are unintelligible without an understanding of the Greco-Roman heritage, then do not waste another minute in ignorance and read this massive work, or at least selections of it, with urgency. A team of distinguished scholars—rivaling the number of warriors in the Battle of Thermopylae—dispenses knowledge and opinions on every imaginable topic under the Classical sun, connecting us to our ancient bloodline. -- Christopher Benson * First Things *Eclectic rather than exhaustive, the compendium is less an encyclopedia than a buffet, in alphabetical order, of topics and glosses. There is, fortunately, no ideological consistency or purpose. The harvesting academics bring home a bumper crop to remind and instruct the reader of how the Classics are still central to the civilized intelligence; food for thought and primers of the imagination. -- Frederic Raphael * Literary Review *Anthony Grafton’s entry on Historiography is as elegant and learned as everything he does. So elegant and learned, in fact, that I wanted to read each and every essay he had written in The Classical Tradition… Being lost in this book can be invigorating. -- Brendan Boyle * New Criterion *Make no mistake, The Classical Tradition is exceedingly delightful… An esoteric tool for the scholar on the face of it, The Classical Tradition turns out to be a guide for living here, now, in the 21st century as we find it. -- Morgan Meis * The Smart Set *A stunningly wonderful compilation… Massive in length and unimpeachable in scholarship, it nonetheless manages to be endlessly absorbing, and often quietly entertaining into the bargain… I’ve pored over this book like a madman ever since setting hands on it and I’ve devoured enough to be certain that it’s a masterpiece of concision, knowledge, judgment and dedication. It’s clearly going to be a companion for life, and all the better for being well-nigh inexhaustible. -- Bradley Winterton * Taipei Times *This absorbing and endlessly browsable compendium, edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis, explores the richness of our classical legacy through scores of essays, alphabetically arranged by subject, that illuminate our past, our present, and probably our future as well. * Barnes and Noble Review *This magnificent compendium explicates the outsized influence Greek and Roman society, literature and myth has had on the medieval and modern European ages that followed, and in turn on the imperial culture exported around the world. The Greek gods and their attributes—from wise Athena and fierce Ares to bibulous Dionysus—are key elements in a worldview we still look back on, at once alien and familiar. A wonder of research and writing that connects both casual browser and scholar to centuries of learning. * Barnes and Noble Review *Whether priced by the pound or the page, this hefty compendium is quite a bargain. Lead editor Grafton…is perhaps the perfect captain for an ambitious work that attempts to capture, as the preface indicates, the ‘reception of Graeco-Roman antiquity in all its dimensions in later cultures.’… More than 150 color images only add to the browsing pleasure. -- B. Juhl * Choice *

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Book SynopsisThe twelfth-century Byzantine scholar, poet, and teacher John Tzetzes composed the verse commentary Allegories of the Odyssey to explain Odysseus’s journey and the pagan gods and marvels he encountered. This edition presents the first translation of the Allegories of the Odyssey into any language alongside the Greek text.Trade ReviewOpen[s] windows into the cultural and aesthetic milieu of twelfth-century Byzantium. -- James H. Morey * Medieval Review *

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Book SynopsisIn letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero (106–43 BC) reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except perhaps his brother, and vividly depicts a momentous period in Roman history, marked by the rise of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic.

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Book SynopsisThe Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (eighth century BC) are the two oldest European epic poems. The latter tells of Odysseus’ journey home from the Trojan War and the temptations, delays, and dangers he faced at every turn.

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Book SynopsisIn letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero (106–43 BC) reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except perhaps his brother, and vividly depicts a momentous period in Roman history, marked by the rise of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic.

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Book SynopsisIn letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero (106–43 BC) reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except perhaps his brother, and vividly depicts a momentous period in Roman history, marked by the rise of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic.

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Book SynopsisThe Greek poetry of the seventh to the fifth century BC that we call elegy was composed primarily for banquets and convivial gatherings. Its subject matter consists of almost any topic, excluding only the scurrilous and obscene.Trade ReviewThese two additions to the Loeb Classical Library [Greek Iambic Poetry and Greek Elegiac Poetry] will be welcomed by readers at all levels. Archolicus, Hipponax, Solon, the Theognidea, and many others are now accessible as never before...The translations, into prose, are wonderfully clear and readable. All traces of translationese have been removed, or more likely were never there. While the revisions are plain, they are always instructive and can be elegant. It will repay students to read these versions not just as a crib, but to compare them carefully with the Greek. There are surprises and delights for the attentive...Gerber has a gift for finding English that shows how the Greek works...The notes are marvels of condensed information...Gerber throughout the notes writes in a clear, concise, and scrupulous style. In effect he had summarized for his readers a great deal of information about current interpretations and problems of dozens and dozens of fragments...Gerber has distilled an impressive amount of scholarship. That feat, together with the excellence of his translations, makes these volumes among the most distinguished of those recently issued. -- H.G. Edinger * Phoenix *Gerber's texts and general scholarship, including helpful notes, are fully up-to-date, his presentation is lucid...and his translations are neat and accurate, as well as faithful to, for example, the obscenity of iambos (the era of euphemistic Loebs is over). These volumes form a fine complement to Campbell's Greek Lyric set; they deserve to be widely used. -- Stephen Halliwell * Greece and Rome *

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Book SynopsisHeroic epic of the eighth to the fifth century BCE includes poems about Hercules and Theseus, as well as the Theban Cycle and the Trojan Cycle. Genealogical epic of that archaic era includes poems that create prehistories for Corinth and Samos. These works are an important source of mythological record.Trade ReviewA magnificent achievement...As one would expect of a scholar of West's distinction these are accurate, keenly alive to each nuance of the Greek...Scholars owe a considerable debt of gratitude to West for [this] new Loeb. -- Richard Whitaker * Scholia Reviews *

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Book SynopsisThe poetry of Horace (born 65 BC) is richly varied, its focus moving between public and private concerns, urban and rural settings, Stoic and Epicurean thought. His Odes cover a wide range of moods and topics. Love and political concerns are frequent themes of the Epodes.

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Book SynopsisIn his Life of Apollonius Philostratus (second to third century AD) chronicles the miracles of first-century AD teacher, religious reformer, and perceived rival to Jesus of Nazareth, Apollonius of Tyana.Trade ReviewJones has produced a superlative edition. Loebs are hard to get right. A good Loeb should (if we are honest) be easily usable as a clandestine crib for the (lazy, hurried, or linguistically challenged) reader who wants to translate the Greek with an eye on the English; at the same time, it should meet exacting standards of scholarship. Jones's is accessible and erudite. His discussion of how he has established his text is fuller and clearer than most, and allows the non-specialist to take some pleasure in the detective work involved in the process; in tracing, for example, Richard Bentley's marginalia preserved in his copy of a previous edition. The text is judicious and the translation stylishly capture's the sophist's rhetorical range. It is based on, but betters, Christopher Jones's abridged translation for Penguin Classics, published in 1970. It is a good read in its own right: no mean feat. Excellent introductory material and maps help chart Apollonius's imaginary journey. He may no longer be worshipped (except in the wackier corners of cyberspace), but nonetheless we can rightly say: Apollonius Lives! -- Helen Morales * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisAeschylus (ca. 525–456 BC) is the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world’s great art forms. Seven of his eighty or so plays survive complete, including the Oresteia trilogy and the Persians, the only extant Greek historical drama. Fragments of his lost plays also survive.Trade ReviewAlan Sommerstein’s three-volume Aeschylus…is in many respects the best critical edition of this playwright available in any format. Sommerstein’s authority as a linguist and expert in Aeschylean drama is second to none… Particularly welcome is the well-documented and clearly presented volume of Fragments—for of course the seven plays we happen to possess are by no means all that Aeschylus wrote, and not necessarily even the seven best: the trilogies dealing with Achilles at Troy, or with Pentheus and the Bacchants, for example, seem to have been especially daring and influential. The facing English translation is a trustworthy guide for all who want help in figuring out what Aeschylus (probably) wrote and meant. -- Mark Griffith * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisApollonius Rhodius's Argonautica, composed in the third century BC, is the Greek epic account of Jason’s quest for the golden fleece. It greatly influenced Roman authors such as Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus.

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Book SynopsisIn his history, Polybius (ca. 200–118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.Trade ReviewPolybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *These are the first two volumes of a revised text and translation of the Histories of Polybius. Polybius was the Greek historian who wrote of the rise of Rome to Mediterranean power, and who is usually ranked as one of the ancient world’s great historians. This edition is based on that of W. R. Paton (1922), which has long served scholars but has been in sore need of updating and correction. This new version comes thanks to Frank W. Walbank (1909–2008), the great Polybius scholar of the modern world, whose monumental three-volume A Historical Commentary on Polybius (1957–79) is the starting point for all modern studies of the historian and the era he chronicled. While writing his commentary, Walbank systematically corrected Paton’s edition in hundreds of places, and these changes have now been incorporated by Christian Habicht, himself one of the great historians of the Hellenistic age. Habicht has provided a new introduction, bibliography, and notes, and the result is a splendid, reliable, and up-to-date edition of Polybius that will be accessible to students and scholars alike. One looks forward eagerly to the remaining volumes that are to appear over the next year. -- J. M. Marincola * Choice *

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Book SynopsisIn his history, Polybius (ca. 200–118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.Trade ReviewPolybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *These are the first two volumes of a revised text and translation of the Histories of Polybius. Polybius was the Greek historian who wrote of the rise of Rome to Mediterranean power, and who is usually ranked as one of the ancient world’s great historians. This edition is based on that of W. R. Paton (1922), which has long served scholars but has been in sore need of updating and correction. This new version comes thanks to Frank W. Walbank (1909–2008), the great Polybius scholar of the modern world, whose monumental three-volume A Historical Commentary on Polybius (1957–79) is the starting point for all modern studies of the historian and the era he chronicled. While writing his commentary, Walbank systematically corrected Paton’s edition in hundreds of places, and these changes have now been incorporated by Christian Habicht, himself one of the great historians of the Hellenistic age. Habicht has provided a new introduction, bibliography, and notes, and the result is a splendid, reliable, and up-to-date edition of Polybius that will be accessible to students and scholars alike. One looks forward eagerly to the remaining volumes that are to appear over the next year. -- J. M. Marincola * Choice *

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Book SynopsisThe great Athenian philosopher Plato was born in 427 BC and lived to be eighty. Acknowledged masterpieces among his works are the Symposium, which explores love in its many aspects, from physical desire to pursuit of the beautiful and the good, and the Republic, which concerns righteousness and also treats education, gender, society, and slavery.

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Book SynopsisThe great Athenian philosopher Plato was born in 427 BC and lived to be eighty. Acknowledged masterpieces among his works are the Symposium, which explores love in its many aspects, from physical desire to pursuit of the beautiful and the good, and the Republic, which concerns righteousness and also treats education, gender, society, and slavery.

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Book SynopsisIn his history, Polybius (ca. 200–118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.Trade ReviewPolybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisPolybius’ theme is how and why the Romans spread their power as they did. The main part of his history covers the years 264–146 BC, describing the rise of Rome, the destruction of Carthage, and the eventual domination of the Greek world. It is a vital achievement despite the incomplete survival of all but the first five of forty books.Trade ReviewThe numerous explanatory notes of the revised edition offer the reader a good assistance in orienting themselves within the fragmentary tradition of Polybius’ books 16 to 27 by contextualizing the events mentioned historically, referring to recent research and clarifying special terms, persons, places, etc.… Fully recommended. -- Michael Kleu * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Polybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisIn his history, Polybius (ca. 200–118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.Trade ReviewPolybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisLivy, the great Roman historian, presents a vivid narrative of Rome’s rise from the traditional foundation of the city in 753 or 751 BC to 9 BC and illustrates the collective and individual virtues necessary to maintain such greatness. The third decad (21–30) chronicles the Second Punic War of 220–205 BC.

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Book SynopsisVolume V of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the western Greek thinkers Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus, Empedocles, Alcmaeon, and Hippo.Trade ReviewIn brief, André Laks and Glenn Most give us a brilliant and beautiful reference work that can, at the same time, be easily enough read straight through. And spending a few months doing so gives the reader almost all that she needs (perhaps along with Loeb #258, Greek Elegiac Poetry) to reconstruct for herself the origins of the discipline of philosophy. I should want any graduate student or colleague in ancient philosophy or intellectual history to acquire and make their way through it. -- Christopher Moore * Classical Journal *The publication of the Loeb Classical Library’s nine-volume set, Early Greek Philosophy, gives us a new edition of the original texts, with fresh translations. It is a monumental achievement—the result of many years of dedicated work on the part of the two editors/translators André Laks and Glenn W. Most… We owe a profound debt of gratitude to the editors/translators for their thorough and impeccable scholarship, and to the publishers for their usual high standards of production. If you can afford them, don’t hesitate: you will be all the richer for having these volumes on your shelves. -- Jeremy Naydler * Minerva *André Laks and Glenn W. Most have made available to the world of scholarship in early Greek philosophy a resource of immense value. Every study of a thinker or of an issue within the thematic ambit of Early Greek Philosophy must henceforth start by canvassing and taking into account the appropriate selections in the Loeb set. -- Alexander P. D. Mourelatos * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The publication of a Loeb Classical Library edition of the evidence for early Greek philosophy is a major event in classical scholarship…The editors and their assistants are to be commended for their exemplary execution of such a vast and difficult task. They have succeeded in producing what is far and away the best available edition of the texts of the early Greek philosophers with accompanying English translation…More than that, their edition effectively supersedes Hermann Diels and Walter Kranz’s Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, which has long held sway as the standard edition of the Presocratics, but it only does so because Laks and Most have respectfully taken Diels-Kranz as their model…Laks and Most have set such a high standard with this work that it is hard to imagine that we will see a better general collection on early Greek philosophy in our lifetimes…Laks and Most’s philological acumen, judiciousness as editors, and excellence as translators is evident on every page. -- John Palmer * Arion *

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Book SynopsisVolume VI of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the later Ionian and Athenian thinkers Anaxagoras, Archelaus, and Diogenes of Apollonia, along with chapters on early Greek medicine and the Derveni Papyrus.Trade ReviewIn brief, André Laks and Glenn Most give us a brilliant and beautiful reference work that can, at the same time, be easily enough read straight through. And spending a few months doing so gives the reader almost all that she needs (perhaps along with Loeb #258, Greek Elegiac Poetry) to reconstruct for herself the origins of the discipline of philosophy. I should want any graduate student or colleague in ancient philosophy or intellectual history to acquire and make their way through it. -- Christopher Moore * Classical Journal *The publication of the Loeb Classical Library’s nine-volume set, Early Greek Philosophy, gives us a new edition of the original texts, with fresh translations. It is a monumental achievement—the result of many years of dedicated work on the part of the two editors/translators André Laks and Glenn W. Most… We owe a profound debt of gratitude to the editors/translators for their thorough and impeccable scholarship, and to the publishers for their usual high standards of production. If you can afford them, don’t hesitate: you will be all the richer for having these volumes on your shelves. -- Jeremy Naydler * Minerva *André Laks and Glenn W. Most have made available to the world of scholarship in early Greek philosophy a resource of immense value. Every study of a thinker or of an issue within the thematic ambit of Early Greek Philosophy must henceforth start by canvassing and taking into account the appropriate selections in the Loeb set. -- Alexander P. D. Mourelatos * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The publication of a Loeb Classical Library edition of the evidence for early Greek philosophy is a major event in classical scholarship…The editors and their assistants are to be commended for their exemplary execution of such a vast and difficult task. They have succeeded in producing what is far and away the best available edition of the texts of the early Greek philosophers with accompanying English translation…More than that, their edition effectively supersedes Hermann Diels and Walter Kranz’s Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, which has long held sway as the standard edition of the Presocratics, but it only does so because Laks and Most have respectfully taken Diels-Kranz as their model…Laks and Most have set such a high standard with this work that it is hard to imagine that we will see a better general collection on early Greek philosophy in our lifetimes…Laks and Most’s philological acumen, judiciousness as editors, and excellence as translators is evident on every page. -- John Palmer * Arion *

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Book SynopsisQuintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica, composed between the late second and mid-fourth centuries AD, boldly adapts Homeric diction and style to fill in the story of the Trojan expedition between the end of the Iliad and the beginning of the Odyssey. This edition replaces the earlier Loeb Classical Library edition by A. S. Way (1913).

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Book SynopsisAppian (ca. AD 95–161) is a principal source for the history of the Roman Republic. His theme is the process by which Rome achieved her contemporary prosperity, and his method is to trace in individual books the story of each nation’s wars with Rome up through her own civil wars. This Loeb edition replaces the original by Horace White (1912–13).Trade ReviewA superb, nuanced translation…It is not simply that McGing updates the translation to reflect contemporary idiom; he also breathes new life into Appian’s prose on almost every page…This exceptionally well executed Loeb is a welcome resource that will be deeply appreciated by all those interested in Appian and his remarkable Roman History as well as expand his appeal to a new generation of readers. -- Alain M. Gowing * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *I have not read any fictions that have more dramatic tension, philosophy, or narrative curiosities than this history of Appian’s. * Pennsylvania Literary Journal *

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Book SynopsisWorks in this volume explore the relationship between two people known as love (erōs) or friendship (philia). In Lysis, Socrates meets two young men at a wrestling school; in Symposium, he joins a company of accomplished men at a drinking party; and in Phaedrus, experimental speeches about love lead to a discussion of rhetoric.

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Book SynopsisThe Satyrica, traditionally attributed to the Neronian courtier Petronius, is a comic-picaresque fiction recalling the narrator’s adventures in the early imperial demimonde, including Trimalchio’s banquet. Apocolocyntosis (Pumpkinification) is a satirical pamphlet lampooning the death and deification of the emperor Claudius.

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Book SynopsisThe clarity of Joyce's translation highlights the poem's superb versification, sophisticated use of intertextuality, and bold formal experimentation and innovation. A substantial introduction and annotations make this epic accessible to students.Trade Review"Jane Wilson Joyce's translation of the Thebaid is a stunning achievement. The long lines of loosely flowing rhythms represent Statius' manner more accurately and vividly (and in more accomplished verse) than any translation of the poem I have seen. The result is a sophisticated and very challenging poem, striking and even austere in some ways, hardly modern yet less old fashioned than other fashioned, and in its way quite new." -- William Levitan, Grand Valley State University"Our generation has developed such an appetite for violence and horror that it is more than ready to appreciate Statius' Thebaid. Thanks to Jane Wilson Joyce, a poet in her own right, we now have a rich and vivid translation that matches the pace and urgency of Statius' narrative: his gods are vindictive, his demons gruesome, his champions brutal, while brave and innocent young warriors meet their deaths and loving women grieve for them. Statius' imaginative power and Joyce's language set before us in passionate variety scenes of human hatred and loyalty, arrogance and exaltation, supernatural omens, ghosts and furies, and a fratricidal climax that drives the gods from the battlefield in sheer disgust. How lucky for readers that Jane Wilson Joyce is also a scholar! She has doubled the value of her work by supplying everything the reader needs to follow the heroic tale, a substantial introduction on Statius' life and times, synopses to open each book, footnotes, and a lively critical commentary." -- Elaine Fantham, Giger Professor of Latin Emerita, Princeton University"The scholar-poet Jane Wilson Joyce offers a new translation of Statius' Thebaid that is a major contribution to the field. Very readable, well researched, and insightful, it should prove useful and stimulating to students, casual readers, and serious scholars (both Statians and the uninitiated). It addresses three important needs. It provides the first English commentary on the epic in its entirety. It is the first verse translation in English using a six-beat line. And it it's the first English translation with a decent chance of convincing readers that Statius the epic poet can be enjoyable, that his is indeed a vox iuncunda.... This vigorous, engaging translation, copious supporting material, and confident interpretive voice... rewards casual reading or more intense study. An impressive achievement that will be hard to match, it deserves to become the new standard." -- Kyle G. Gervais, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisA new expanded edition of the classic study of translation, finally back in printTrade Review"Essential reading for anyone interested in translation." -- M. A. Orthofer - Complete Review"There is a great profusion of Chinese poetry in English, and this fact is significant. It suggests that, despite all the barriers, this poetry does communicate, even urgently, to modern Western readers. Both the difficulty and the urgency are elegantly demonstrated in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei. Weinberger collates and comments on a series of translations of Wang Wei’s famous poem ‘Deer Park,’ allowing the reader to see how even this brief poem—twenty characters, in four lines—contains endless shades of meaning and implication." -- Adam Kirsch - The New Republic"Weinberger’s sensitivity to words and gift for clear thinking underlie nearly every page in Nineteen Ways...and he writes with erudition and charm. He sees lines of Wang Wei’s poems as 'both universal and immediate,' and he sees much else in human cultures in that same spirit, which I think is wonderful." -- Perry Link - The New York Review of Books"Nineteen cheers to New Directions for reissuing Eliot Weinberger's Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, first published in 1987 and hard to find since then. In this tiny volume, Weinberger examines nineteen different translations of a classic four-line poem by the eighth-century poet Wang Wei. The result is the best primer on translation...also the funniest and most impatient." -- Lorin Stein - The Paris Review"Weinberger is like an ancient Chinese zither player, tuning lonely in the mountain overlooking the world." -- Bei Dao

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Book SynopsisWinner • Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for Translation Bawdier than The Canterbury Tales, The Fabliaux is the first major English translation of the most scandalous and irreverent poetry in Western literature.Trade Review"Like Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf,…Dubin reproduces the world and the feeling of the medieval tale…that travel joyfully from the Middle Ages to the present." -- R. Howard Bloch, from the introduction to The Fabliaux"Devilishly bawdy and irreverent…The 69 fabliaux presented here in their original French and translated into rascally, buoyant English by Nathaniel E. Dubin, are relentlessly scabrous, egregiously misogynistic, and exuberantly oppositional to ‘bourgeois respectability’ and the church…. Vivid, funny, robustly grotesque, and drolly outrageous, these satirical tales of lust, revenge, and folly feature lecherous peasants, fornicating priests, scoundrels, fools, and women wily and tough, castigated and abused…. An historic literary achievement bound to arouse vociferous discussion." -- Booklist"Pure, unadulterated fun…. A golden bough of erotic imagination and folk humor, peopled by randy wives, cuckolded husbands, fornicating priests, and priapic knights…. Ultimately, what’s so potent and profound about these risqué yarns is not their unbridled expressions of sexuality and vulgarity per se, but their unusual ability to provoke a carnivalesque laughter in all. Through denuding, debauchery, and bodily degradation, the fabliaux create a common denominator for humanity, an earthy, holistic world in which, to quote Bakhtin again, ‘he who is laughing also belongs to it.’ Flaunting unabashed obscenity in delightful verse, The Fabliaux is a book that would entertain the fans of Dr. Freud and Dr. Seuss alike." -- Yunte Huang - The Daily Beast"Fabliaux are comic tales, in verse, composed between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries…. The words used…have not been adjusted to conform to modern immodesty; the translation is literal…[This is the] first substantial collection of fabliaux, in any language, for today’s general reader." -- Joan Acocella - The New Yorker"The fabliaux, then, is a short story that is a tall story. It combines a burly blurting of dirty words with a reveling in humiliations that are good unclean fun. A popular venture that is keen to paste—épater—everybody (not just the bourgeoisie), it is the art of the single entendre. Highly staged low life, it guffaws at the pious, the prudish, and the priggish. High cockalorum versus high decorum…. The introduction here, like the translator’s note, tells well the story of the comic tales, anonymous for the most part, usually two or three hundred lines long, of which about 160 exist." -- Christopher Ricks - New York Review of Books"The fabliaux are important not only for their approach to humor, but for their focus on sex, class and wealth, and bodily functions like eating and defecating—all elements quite absent from more highbrow, courtly, or Church-sanctioned religious texts. Liveright’s edition serves as the largest and most complete collection of fabliaux, in English or French, ever published “for the general reader…" The Fabliaux is a reminder that medieval texts can remain engaging, lively, and, above all, funny." -- Charlotte Bhaskar - Zyzzyva

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Book SynopsisA work of literary theory that draws on the writings of Demosthenes, Plato, Sappho, Thucydides, Euripides, and Aeschylus, among others, to examine and delineate the essentials of a noble style.Trade ReviewGrube's translation is a masterful work of scholarship, and is admirably accessible for the common reader.--Jeffrey Walker, Emory University

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Book SynopsisOutstanding. - The Sunday TimesBeautifully written. The TimesSuperbly adroit. The SpectatorExcellent. BBC History MagazineThe Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of Anglo-Saxon England so what happened to the children this conflict left behind?Conquered offers a fresh take on the Norman Conquest by exploring the lives of those children, who found themselves uprooted by the dramatic events of 1066. Among them were the children of Harold Godwineson and his brothers, survivors of a family shattered by violence who were led by their courageous grandmother Gytha to start again elsewhere. Then there were the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line Edgar Ætheling, Margaret, and Christina who sought refuge in Scotland, where Margaret became a beloved queen and saint. Other survivors, such as Waltheof of Northumbria and Fenland hero Hereward, became Trade ReviewConquered is beautifully produced and written with flair and great scholarly acumen. Parker teaches medieval English literature at the University of Oxford and she dedicates her book to her students. Because of the pandemic these young people, she points out, like the young people in her book, have had to cope with upheaval, loss and a sudden change in the expected course of their lives. They have faced it with courage and determination, but, she writes, “it is no doubt an experience that will remain with them”. -- John Carey * The Sunday Times *In her superbly adroit new history, Eleanor Parker examines how memories of Edgar and his like – the generation that straddled the Conquest – survived, or were melded to meet the needs of the time…. It is much to the credit of Parker’s sensitivity as a scholar that, almost 1,000 years later, she has been able to resurrect, often from silence, the pathos of those decades and the plight of those who endured them. -- Alex Burghart * The Spectator *This outstanding, beautifully written history follows the young Anglo-Saxons whose lives were shattered by the Norman conquest. -- Andrew Holgate and Robbie Millen * The Times, Best Books of 2022 *This excellent book offers an original premise: that there is much to learn by considering the children whose lives were upended by the Conquest… Parker insightfully shows how the experiences of these children of Anglo-Saxons (among others) illustrate the accommodations being made in England as conquered and conquerors adjusted to the new reality, and reframed the 1066 narrative for future generations. -- Dave Musgrove * BBC History Magazine *A child grasps a woman’s hand as they flee a house being torched by two men seemingly unconcerned for their plight. This image, embroidered onto the Bayeux Tapestry several years after 1066, is a hauntingly timeless reminder of the devastation warfare and conquest can wreak on individuals, families and communities... Conquered narrates their stories vividly and knowledgably in a refreshing departure from popular narratives of the Norman Conquest, which concentrate on the political and military concerns of adult men. -- Emily J. Ward * Times Literary Supplement *Fascinating and accessible. -- Sarah Foot * The Church Times *This book is a revelation. What it demonstrates is the international inter-connectedness of the pre-Norman secular and ecclesiastical aristocracy. -- Duncan Bowie * The Charist *Eleanor Parker has written an innovative book in clear and evocative language. She invites the reader to engage with an idea we do not often consider—that many of the European historical sources from the late-11th century were written by people whose childhoods were defined by the Norman Conquest. Parker’s use of Icelandic Sagas and other non-English texts shows us the world in which these “conquered” children lived and worked, exploring how their stories continued past 1066 and its aftermath. * Dr Janet Kay, Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, USA *Eleanor Parker brings to life what the upheaval of the Norman Conquest meant for men and women in England. Following the personal experiences of individuals, she eloquently evokes the loss and uncertainty of the age. This is a book of rich stories of misfortune, perseverance and adaptability, told in an accessible yet authoritative voice. * Dr Rory Naismith, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, UK *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Genealogical Tables Introduction 1. Hero of the English: Hereward 2. A Sparrow in the Snare: Margaret of Scotland 3. A Lost Generation: The Grandchildren of Gytha and Godwine 4. Warrior, Traitor, and Martyr: Waltheof 5. Child of Memory: Eadmer of Canterbury Epilogue: New Englands Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSpanning almost seven centuries, this anthology encapsulates the foundation and consolidation of literature written in English, culminating in some of the finest works produced in the Middle Ages. Building on the success of the first two editions, Old and Middle English c. 890-c.Table of ContentsAlphabetical List of Authors and Works x List of Illustrations xii Preface and Acknowledgements to the First Edition xii Preface and Acknowledgements to the Second Edition xiv Preface and Acknowledgements to the Third Edition xv Chronology of Events and Literary Landmarks xvi Introduction xix Bede’s Ecclesiastical History 1 Cædmon’s Hymn 1 The Settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes; The Life of Cædmon 2 Alfred 13 Preface to the Translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care 13 Translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy 16 The Accounts of the Journeys of Ohthere and Wulfstan 24 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 33 Annal 755: Cynewulf and Cynheard; Annal 855–78: The Death of Edmund; Alfred’s Battles with the Vikings 33 The Reign of Æbelstan and The Battle of Brunanburh 42 The Exeter Book 48 Advent Lyrics vii and viii 49 The Wanderer 54 The Seafarer 60 The Whale 66 Deor 70 Wulf and Eadwacer 74 Exeter Book Riddles 5, 7, 12, 26, 29, 30, 43–6, 55 76 The Wife’s Lament 86 The Husband’s Message 90 The Ruin 94 The Vercelli Book 100 The Fates of the Apostles 101 Vercelli Homily x 108 The Dream of the Rood 118 Ælfric 129 Old English Preface to his First Series of Catholic Homilies 129 Homily on the Nativity of the Innocents 134 Old English Preface to his Lives of Saints 142 Passion of Saint Edmund 144 The Battle of Maldon 155 The Beowulf-Manuscript 171 The Wonders of the East 173 Beowulf 182 Judith 224 The Junius Manuscript 243 Exodus 243 Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos 259 King Cnut’s Letter to the English of 1020 269 Apollonius of Tyre 275 The Peterborough Chronicle 301 The Life of Saint Margaret 308 The Hymns of Saint Godric 324 The Orrmulum 326 Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 52 335 Poema Morale, edited by Carla M. Thomas 336 Trinity Homily 33 354 Worcester Cathedral Library, F. 174 363 The First Worcester Fragment 363 Hali MeiKhad 366 Ancrene Wisse 382 Sumer is Icumen In 409 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 86 412 Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount? 413 Stond Wel, Moder, Ounder Rode 415 The Fox and the Wolf 417 Dame SiriF 423 Love is Sofft 434 Arundel 292: The Bestiary 435 Oxford, Jesus College 29 437 The Love-Ron of Friar Thomas Hales 437 The Proverbs of Alfred 443 London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. ix 456 La3amon’s Brut 456 The Owl and the Nightingale 468 Lyrics from Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 39 506 Of One That Is So Fair and Bright 507 When I Think on Domesday 508 When the Turf is Thy Tower 509 A Saying of Saint Bernard 509 I Sing of One That Is Matchless 509 An Orison to Our Lady 510 The South English Legendary 512 The Life of Saint Wulfstan 513 Cursor Mundi 519 Robert Mannyng of Brunne 525 The Chronicle 525 Handlyng Synne 534 The Land of Cockayne 545 The Auchinleck Manuscript 550 Sir Orfeo 550 The Four Foes of Mankind 563 London, British Library, Harley 2253 567 Earth upon Earth 567 Alysoun 568 Spring 569 Advice to Women 570 An Old Man’s Prayer 571 Blow, Northerne Wynd 574 The Death of King Edward I 576 I Syke when Y Singe 578 An Autumn Song 580 King Horn 582 The Ayenbite of Inwit 615 Richard Rolle 619 Ego Dormio 620 Ghostly Gladness 626 Kyng Alisaunder 627 Ywain and Gawain 642 Athelston 656 Wynnere and Wastoure 675 William Langland 688 Piers Plowman 688 Geoffrey Chaucer 728 The Canterbury Tales 728 The General Prologue 729 The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale 748 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 776 Julian of Norwich 801 A Vision 801 The Book of Margery Kempe 809 Select Bibliography 826 Glossary of Common Hard Words 845 Index of Manuscripts 848 General Index 850

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Book SynopsisThe Iliad has had a far-reaching impact on Western literature and culture, inspiring writers, artists and classical composers across the ages. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by classicist, writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand Ships and host of her own BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics.Paris, a Trojan prince, wins Helen as his prize for judging a beauty contest between three goddesses, and abducts her from her Greek husband Menelaos. The Greeks, enraged by his audacity, sail to Troy and begin a long siege of the city. The Iliad is set in the tenth year of the war. Achilles – the greatest Greek warrior – is angry with his commander, Agamemnon, for failing to show him respect. He refuses to fight any longer, which is catastrophic for the Greeks, and results in personal tragedy for Achilles, too. With themes of war, rage, grief and love, The Iliad remains powerful and enthralling more than 2,700 years after it was composed.This edition is translated into prose by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers.Trade ReviewThe final book of The Iliad has to be regarded, for my money, as the first great work in Western literature -- Ranjit Bolt * Guardian *The granddaddy of all classics -- Luke Slattery * Sydney Morning Herald *All we read today would be unwritable without the ‘love,’ ‘death’ and ‘dark’ that come to us in the first book of The Iliad * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisThe aim of this book is to explore the characteristics of the medieval dragon and discuss the different and sometimes differing views found in the relevant medieval text types. This study is based on an intimate knowledge of the primary texts and presents new interpretations of well-known literary works and also takes into consideration paintings and other depictions of these beasts. Dragons were designed not only to frighten, but also to fire the imagination, and provide a suitably huge and evil creature for the hero to overcome - yet there is far more to them than reptilian adversaries. This book introduces the medieval dragon via brief, accurate and clear chapters on its natural history, religion, literature and folklore, and concludes with how the dragon is constantly revived - from Beowulf to Tolkien, Disney and Potter.Table of ContentsPreface List of illustrations Introduction The Dragon and Medieval Scholarship The Dragon and Medieval Religion The Medieval Dragon and Folklore The Dragon and Medieval Literature Outlook and Conclusion Endnotes Further reading Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA rigorously and imaginatively researched anthology of classical literature, bringing together one hundred stories from the rich diversity of the literary canon of ancient Greece and Rome. Striking a balance between the 'classic classic' (such as Dryden's translation of the Aeneid) and the less familiar or expected, Of Gods and Men ranges from the epic poetry of Homer to the histories of Arrian and Diodorus Siculus and the sprawling Theogony of Hesiod; from the tragedies of Aeschylus and Euripides to the biographies of Suetonius and Plutarch and the pen portraits of Theophrastus; and from the comedies of Plautus to the fictions of Petronius and Apuleius. Of Gods and Men is embellished by translations from writers as diverse as Queen Elizabeth I (Boethius), Percy Bysshe Shelley (Plato), Walter Pater (Apuleius's Golden Ass), Lawrence of Arabia (Homer's Odyssey), Louis MacNeice (Aeschylus's Agamemnon) and Ted Hughes (Ovid's Pygmalion), as well as a number of accomplished translations by Daisy Dunn herself.Trade ReviewThis book is a big and wonderful read for anyone who loves classical literature... Each story is a truly fascinating tale of wars, endless fighting, heroes, deaths, beautiful women – Helen features, of course – gods and goddesses, cruelty, pain and love * Pennant Magazine *This is an excellent collection. Everyone needs to know the Classics, and this volume is a good place not just to start but also to continue and depend one's love for the Ancients * Catholic Herald *The book is perfect gift material but really, you should treat yourself to it first * Minerva *This anthology is hard to beat for big names * BBC History Magazine *

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Book SynopsisOn First Principles by Origen of Alexandria, written around 220-230 AD, is one of the most important and contentious works of early Christianity. It provoked controversy when written, provoked further debate when translated into Latin by Rufinus in the fourth century, and was the subject, together with its author, of condemnation in the sixth century. As a result, the work no longer survives intact in the original Greek. We only have the complete work in the Latin translation of Rufinus, and a few extensive passages preserved in Greek by being excerpted into the Philokalia of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus. John Behr provides a new edition and translation of one of the most important texts from early Christianity. He includes an invaluable introduction, which provides a clear structure of the work with significant implications for how the text is to be read and for understanding the character of theology in the early Christian tradition.

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