Author: P. E. Easterling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
The period from the eighth to the fifth centuries B.C. was one of extraordinary creativity in the Greek-speaking world. Poetry was a public and popular medium, and its production was closely related to developments in contemporary society. At the time when the city states were acquiring their distinctive institutions epic found the greatest of all its exponents in Homer, and lyric poetry for both solo and choral performance became a genre which attracted poets of the first rank, writers of the quality of Sappho, Alcaeus and Pindar, whose influence on later literature was to be profound. This volume covers the epic tradition, the didactic poems of Hesiod and his imitators, and the wide-ranging work of the iambic, elegiac and lyric poets of what is loosely called the archaic age. The contributors make use of recent papyrus finds (particularly in the case of Archilochus and Stesichorus) to fill out the picture of a cosmopolitan and highly sophisticated literary culture which had not yet found its intellectual centre in Athens.
Author: P. E. Easterling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359832
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
This volume ranges in time over a very long period and covers the Greeks' most original contributions to intellectual history. It begins and ends with philosophy, but it also includes major sections on historiography and oratory. Although each of these areas had functions which in the modern world would not be considered 'Literary', the ancients made a less sharp distinction between intellectual and artistic production, and the authors included in this volume are some of Europe's most powerful stylists: Plato, Herodotus, Thucydides and Demosthenes.
Author: P. E. Easterling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359849
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
The emphasis of this volume is on Greek literature produced in the period between the foundation of Alexandria late in the fourth century B.C. and the end of the 'high empire' in the third century A.D. Here we see a shift away from the city states of the Greek mainland to the new centres of culture and power, first Alexandria under the Ptolemies and then imperial Rome, Greek literature, being traditionally cosmopolitan, adapted to these changes with remarkable success, and through the efficiency of the Hellenistic educational system Greek literary culture became the essential mark of an educated person in the Graeco-Roman world.
Author: P. E. Easterling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Volume 1 offers a comprehensive survey of Greek literature from Homer to end of the period of stable Graeco-Roman civilation in the third century A.D. It embodies the advances made by recent classical scholarship and pays particular attention to texts that have become known in modern times. After its success in hardcover, this volume is now being issued in four paperback parts, providing individual texts on early Greek poetry, Greek drama, philosophy, history and oratory, and on the literature of the Hellenistic period and the Empire. A chapter on books and readers in the Greek world concludes Part 4. Each part has its own appendix of authors and works, a list of works cited, and an index.
Author: Albrecht Dihle
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780415865449
Category : Greek literature
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The most up-to-date history of Greek literature from its Homeric origins to the age of Augustus. Greek literary production throughout this period of some eight centuries is embedded in its historical and social context, and Professor Dihle sees this literature as a historical phenomenon, a particular mode of linguistic communication, with its specific forms developing both in an organic way and in response to the changing world around. In this it differs from conventional humanist approaches to Greek and Latin literature which analyse the works as objects of timeless value independent of any historical setting or purpose. This magisterial survey by one of the leading European authorities on classical literature will establish itself, as it already has in Germany, as the standard account of the subject.
Author: Elizabeth Irwin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521851787
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380
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Book Description
The poetry of archaic Greece gives voice to the history and politics of the culture of that age. This book explores the types of history that have been, and can be, written from archaic Greek Poetry, and the role this poetry had in articulating the social and political realities and ideologies of that period. In doing so, it pays particular attention to the stance of exhortation adopted in early Greek elegy, and to the political poetry of Solon; it also stresses the importance of considering performance context as a critical factor in interpreting the political expressions of this poetry. Part I of this study argues that the singing of elegiac paraenesis in the élite symposium reflects the attempt of symposiasts to assert a heroic identity for themselves within this wider polis community. Parts II and III turn to the political poetry of Solon: Part II demonstrates how the elegy of Solon both confirms the existence of this élite practise, and subverts it, drawing on the poetic traditions of epic and Hesiod to further different political aims; Part III looks beyond Solon's appropriations of poetic traditions to argue for another influence on Solon's political poetry, that of tyranny. The book concludes by exploring the implications of this reading of elegy for a political interpretation of the Homeric epics in Athens.
Author: Ewen Bowie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009213407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 886
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Book Description
In this book one of the world's leading Hellenists brings together his many contributions over four decades to our understanding of early Greek literature, above all of elegiac poetry and its relation to fifth-century prose historiography, but also of early Greek epic, iambic, melic and epigrammatic poetry. Many chapters have become seminal, e.g. that which first proposed the importance of now-lost long narrative elegies, and others exploring their performance contexts when papyri published in 1992 and 2005 yielded fragments of such long poems by Simonides and Archilochus. Another chapter argues against the widespread view that Sappho composed and performed chiefly for audiences of young girls, suggesting instead that she was a virtuoso singer and lyre-player, entertaining men in the elite symposia whose verbal and musical components are explored in several other chapters of the book. Two more volumes of collected papers will follow devoted to later Greek literature and culture.
Author: Brian M. Lavelle
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119370450
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307
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Book Description
An introductory guide to the Archaic period in ancient Greece—the people, their society, and their culture. Excerpts from literary and other texts give voice to the interests, concerns, and emotions of the Archaic Greeks themselves. This book provides a brief but comprehensive introduction to the society and culture of the Archaic period in the Greek world from c. 750 to c. 480 BCE. It focuses on the persistent and often-conflicting themes, topics, and controversies of the Archaic Age (e.g., elite and non-elite, religion and science, tradition and humanism). It seeks to lead the reader to a broader and deeper understanding of the period by placing themes and topics in a mutually supportive contextual network that will underscore their significance. Archaic Greece: The Age of New Reckonings begins with a chapter on how sources for the period are evaluated and deployed, and goes on to offer a concise yet thorough historical overview of the Archaic period. Subsequent chapters cover polis and politics; war and violence; religion; science; philosophy; art; literature; festivals and games; social forces, values, and behaviors; and gender and sex. The book: Offers a novel approach to a very significant period that foregrounds literary evidence and the words voiced by Archaic Greeks, combining scholarship with readability; Conceptualizes Archaic Greek culture and society by focusing substantially on topics that supplement the history of the period; Combines diverse elements of society and culture, including religion, art, literature, games and festivals, gender, sexuality, and politics in order to develop a unique picture of Greece during the Archaic period; Includes a summarizing essay that draws chapters together, emphasizing the implications of their topics and themes. Archaic Greece: The Age of New Reckonings should appeal to college-level instructors as a book to assign to students enrolled in courses involving Archaic Greece and to others interested in this intriguing and pivotal period in ancient Greece.
Author: Floris Overduin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004283609
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 601
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Book Description
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.
Author: Neil Hopkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521423137
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
This book contains a selection of pagan Greek poetic texts ranging in date from the first to the sixth century AD. It makes easily accessible for the first time work by poets such as Quintus Smyrnaeus, Nonnus, Musaeus and Babrius hitherto neglected in Classical syllabuses. Genres represented include epic, epyllion, didactic, epigram, lyric and the verse fable. There is a brief general introduction, and in addition each section of detailed commentary is prefaced by a discussion of literary aspects of the poems and of their wider contexts. The book is intended primarily for undergraduate and graduate students of Greek, but will be of interest also to Classical scholars.
