This collection of essays explores the crucial place of Homer in the shifting cultural landscape of the twentieth century. It argues that Homer was viewed both as the founding father of the Western l
Books XVII and XVIII of the Odyssey feature, among other episodes, the disguised Odysseus' penetration of his home after an absence of twenty years and his first encounter with his wife. The commentary provides linguistic and syntactical guidance suitable for upper-level students along with detailed consideration of Homer's compositional and narrative techniques, his literary artistry and the poem's central themes. An extensive introduction considers questions of formulaic composition, the nature of the poem's audience and the context of its performance, and isolates the concerns most prominent in the poem's second half and in Books XVII and XVIII in particular. Here too are considered the roles of Penelope and Telemachus, questions of disguise and recognition, and the institution of hospitality flaunted by the suitors in Odysseus' halls. Brief sections also discuss Homeric metre and the transmission of the text.
The best known variety of the ancient novel - sometimes identified with the ancient novel tout court - is the Greek love novel. The question of its origins has intrigued scholars for centuries and ha
"Sammons explodes the casual reader's prejudice against Homeric catalogues as boring bits one can safely skip over. In this subtle, precise, and inventive reading of the wonderfully various ways in wh
Readers of The Odyssey who enjoy traveling often turn their attention to the places that are featured in the hero’s wanderings and his son’s journey in search of his absent father. Yet this book is no
These lively narrative poems, attributed in antiquity to Homer, are works of great charm. Composed for recitation at festivals in honour of the gods, they tell of Apollo's birth on the island of Delos and his foundation of the Delphic oracle; Hermes' invention of the lyre and theft of his brother Apollo's cattle; and Aphrodite's love affair with the mortal Anchises. This edition offers a new text of these poems. The Introduction discusses among other things the nature and purpose of the poems in general, their origins, their structure and themes. The Commentary brings out the individual character of each Hymn, by analyzing in depth its language and literary qualities, and also its religious and historical aspects. The aim is to make these Hymns more accessible to students of Greek literature, and help them to appreciate the poems more fully as major works of early Greek poetry.
This book is about the Homeric figure Nestor. This study is important because it reveals a level of deliberate irony in the Homeric poems that has hitherto not been suspected, and because Nestor’s rol
Homer the Classic is about the reception of Homeric poetry from the fifth through the first century BCE. The study of this reception is important for understanding not only the all-pervasive literary
Descriptions of animal sacrifice in Homer offer us some of the most detailed accounts of this attempt at communication between man and gods. What is the significance of these scenes within the framewo
Ten essays, presented by Myrsiades (West Chester U., UK), explore novel ways of approaching the Homeric epics: the Illiad and the Odyssey. Topics include the universal concerns of the Homeric epics, r
The similes in Homer are treasure troves. They describe scenes of Greek life that are not presented in their simplest form anywhere else: landscapes and seascapes, storms and calm weather, fighting a
Longus's romance tells the story of two teenagers, Daphnis and Chloe, who love each other but do not know how to make love. Around their predicament Longus weaves a fantasy which entertains and instr
One of the most popular and widely read books of the Middle Ages, Physiologus contains allegories of beasts, stones, and trees both real and imaginary, infused by their anonymous author with the spiri
Marcianus Graecus Z. 454 [= 822], known to Homeric scholars as the Venetus A, is the oldest complete text of the Iliad in existence, meticulously crafted during the tenth century ce. An impressive tho
This groundbreaking English version by Robert Fagles is the most important recent translation of Homer's great epic poem. The verse translation has been hailed by scholars as the new standard, providi
Philologists know that language is a living thing, constantly evolving. Reece (classics, Saint Olaf's College) looks at the many words in the Homeric epics that seem to have no connection to ancient G
Offers an introduction to Homer's poem which sees it as rooted in a particular culture with its own narrative and thematic conventions, but it opposes the trends of scholarship which place it in a str
In Longus’s ravishing Daphnis and Chloe (second or early third century CE), one of the great works of world literature, an innocent boy and girl gradually discover their sexuality in an idealized past
The Argonautica is the dramatic story of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and his relations with the dangerous princess Medea. The only surviving Greek epic to bridge the gap between Homer and late antiquity, this epic poem is the crowning literary achievement of the Ptolemaic court at Alexandria, written by Appolonius of Rhodes in the third century BC. Appollonius explores many of the fundamental aspects of life in a highly original way: love, deceit, heroism, human ignorance of the divine, and the limits of science, and offers a gripping and sometimes disturbing tale in the process. This major new prose translation combines readability with accuracy and an attention to detail that will appeal to general readers and classicists alike.
