Aris & Phillips Classical Texts – serie

This edition of Daphnis and Chloe , the best known of the Greek romances, provides the first modern commentary in English on this intriguing work. This is the story of two young people growing up as goatherd and shepherdess, and their discovery of love, sex and their true selves. Beneath the charm of its deceptively simple surface, this novel explores perennial questions about the naturalness of conventional gender relations, about the roles of instinct and culture in love, about the pain and responsibilities involved in becoming an adult, and ultimately about the relationship between Art and Nature, Fiction and Truth. Morgan presents a sequential reading of the novel, using the tools of modern literary theory to explain how narrative articulates meaning, and exploring Longus' creative dialogue with the literary tradition. The Greek text and English translation are on facing pages.

The earliest comic drama to survive, Acharnians is a highly committed play, its message being that Athens war with the Peloponnesians can and should be ended, and that peace will mean the restoration of normal life after six years' separation of the country people from their land. First published in 1980, this scholarly edition has been continuously updated, and presents the Greek text with facing-page English translation, commentary and notes. This volume also contains the general introduction to the complete set of Aristophanes comedies in the Aris & Phillips Classical Texts series.

The Satires contain six Latin poems of moderate length in the hexameter metre. Persius belonged to the well-to-do and landowning gentry of Italy and the tone and philosophical content of the Satires suggest that he pursued philosophy with an ardour beyond that conventionally thought proper by Romans. Latin text with translation, commentary and notes.

Ovid’s three books of personal love elegies are arguably his most attractive work. In this acclaimed edition of Amores Book II, Joan Booth offers a Latin text with parallel prose translation and on each poem, or pair of poems, a critical essay written especially for the reader with little or no Latin. For the more advanced scholars she also provides a traditional line by line commentary on the Latin text and a generously select apparatus criticus.

In his De Bello Civili Lucan tells the story of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, dealing in Book VIII with the defeat and death of the latter. This edition provides a literary commentary to accompany the Latin text and the revised translation of J.D.Daff. The introduction covers the life of Lucan and the literary revival of Nero's time, the meaning of Lucan's choice of theme, a sketch of the form of the whole poem and the eighth book's place within it, the rhetorical style and the transmission of the text. A glossary of proper names, a select bibliography and index complete this work which will be useful to students of Latin literature and of the literary epic in particular. Latin text with translation, commentary and notes.

Knights was the first play to be produced by Aristophanes on his own behalf. In it, he launched a violent attack on Cleon, the leading politician of the day, on the whole style of leadership that he represented and on a system which seemed to guarantee that a bad leader could be displaced by a worse. This edition presents the Greek text with facing-page translation, introduction, commentary and notes.

Book IV 2-41 of the Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War concerns the events of the campaign fought at Pylos and the island of Sphacteria between the Athenians and the Spartans in 425 BC. J.B. Wilson's much cited edition includes a Greek text and translation, followed by supplementary tets. The bulk of the volume consists of historical and topographical notes analysing in detail the events of the campaign based on both close textual analysis of Thucydides account, and first hand experience of the geography of the area.

Clouds is a partly revised version of a play that failed when it was first produced. It has always fascinated (and usually shocked) students of philosophy because of its portrayal of Socrates as an atheist and a teacher of dishonest rhetoric, justly punished by the agents of the gods whom he refuses to recognise. This third edition was published in 1991, and has been reprinted in 2007 with addenda and a new bibliography. [Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes.]

Wasps was first produced at the Lenaea festival of 422 BC. The play is at once a political satire and also, like Clouds and the lost Banqueters, a comedy on the theme of the conflict of generations. The play follows the efforts of a mischievous and mercurial old man to escape the control of a stern and heavy son. In its political aspect it attacks the leading Athenian politician Cleon, as Knights had. But Wasps represents a departure as it concentrates less on Cleon personally, and more on his and his associates’ alleged domination of the law courts and the men who served in them as jurors. First published in 1983, this edition contains addenda and a new bibliography. Greek text with facing-page English translation, commentary and notes.

A thorough and detailed account of one of the best known pharaohs of Egypt, written by the leading expert on the subject. Kitchen discusses the early life and childhood of the young king, his reign, politics, wars and policies, and his death and the after-life. This book is to be read rather than studied and is more than a simple biography, giving the wider context of Ramesses' life; daily life in the towns and cities, temples and the gods, political advisers and the royal family.

Text with facing translation, commentary and notes.

Plautus' Bacchides is one of the best and most typical of his plays which in its treatment of character, theme and dialogue provides an excellent introduction to Plautus. Since the rediscovery of a passage from its Greek model, Menander's Dis Exapaton, it is now in the fore-front of scholarly discussion as direct comparisons can now be made of style and methods. The line-by-line verse translation aims to reproduce the sense and also to represent Plautus' linguistic liveliness and metrical variety, while the commentary explores the literary and dramatic qualities of the play in the light of modern scholarship. The Dis Exapaton fragment is given in text and translation. Latin text with facing-page translation, introduction and commentary.

Trojan Women is very much a play for our times. Strongly against war, it shows its aftermath through the eyes of a group of women, members of the Trojan royal household. They have experienced displacement, degradation and deprivation as their city has been sacked by the Greeks. The play expresses their protest, their articulation of grief, their reflection upon the world they now find themselves in, one in which the more they suffer the more their love for each other and for the family they have lost is strengthened. Trojan Women is concentrated in its emotive power and its uniquely lyric quality and it is not without the irony either that the positions of victors and vanquished are not always as fixed or as irreversible as they seem. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

This rich and challenging play ranges over the supreme myth of Oidipous and his doomed family. With its brooding imagery, extravagant language, ebullient rhetoric and scenic display it is quintessential Euripides. With its broad, yet unified, thematic sweep it offers important points of comparison with other Theban plays and valuable insights into late fifth century religion, politics and society.For this volume Elizabeth Craik has prepared a new edition of the play, with a selective apparatus. Suspect lines are clearly marked; but the fundamental integrity of the tradition is defended. Text with facing translation, commentary and notes.

In this often neglected play, Euripides explores the contrast between myth and reality by portraying the story of Heracles' murder of his wife and children. In treating this act the dramatist explores the boundaries of madness and Heracles’ painful emergence from this state to a bitter realisation of what he has done. A further contrast is drawn between the callous gods who cause the madness and the caring and loving support of human friends and remaining family (Theseus and Amphitryon). This edition attempts to bring out the human and psychological qualities in the play and to defend its structure and dramatic power, arguing that it is neither “a grotesque abortion” (Swinburne) nor “broken-backed” (Murray) but a coherent and exciting work. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

The theme of Euripides’ Alcestis blends the primitive folk-tale of the self-sacrificing bride, Alcestis, and of Heracles’ heroic struggles with the ogre Death, with a morality tale of “virtue rewarded”, in this case twice rewarded. The Alcestis is the only tragedy which we know to have been produced in the position usually allotted (at the Athenian tragic festivals) to the semi-comic “satyr-play”. Like a satyr-play, it has a happy ending but does the poet intend his audience to interpret the play in quite such simple terms? Opinions differ widely but the ironic, slightly mocking tone of the play suggests, at least to some critics, that more sombre meanings may lie beneath the surface of this beautifully constructed little masterpiece. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary. For this second edition, the General Bibliography has been updated, with major revision and expansion.

Hecuba, in slavery after Troy's fall, fails to dissuade Odysseus, whose life she once saved, from sacrificing her daughter to honour his dead friend, Achilles; but the girl dies proudly, true to her royal blood in surmounting degradation. Then Hecuba learns of her sons' treacherous murder by a former ally; out of her terrible loss comes determination for revenge, which she claims as a right but how just is her horrific cruelty? How credible against her earlier characterisation? The play has striking effects: the ghost of the murdered son, and his murderer subsequently blinded; poignant lyricism; vivid narratives; above all, a careful pattern of scenes demonstrating the equivocal power of 'Persuasion, man's only sovereign' (v.816). Hecuba is both a study of resilience and weakness, and a typically Euripidean comment on the uncertain, even collapsing, values of his time. Text with facing translation, commentary and notes.

Euripides works with a common story pattern – a young man (Hippolytus) becomes the object of a married woman’s (Phaedra’s) desire, rebuffs her sexual overtures, and is then falsely accused to the woman’s husband (Theseus, Hippolytus’ father) of rape. To this familiar tale Euripides adds the story of divine vengeance – Aphrodite has brought about this passion in Phaedra in order to punish Hippolytus for condemning her and neglecting her realm of sex and marriage. The play explores the themes of passion and moderation, speech and silence, honour and shame, and the relationship between gods and mortals. This play holds a particular place in Euripidean studies, not only because of its acknowledged excellence and influence, but also because it allows the unique opportunity to observe the playwright’s ‘rewriting’ of his earlier play on the same mythological topic, remarkably replacing the brazen Phaedra of earlier legend and previous treatments with a virtuous woman. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

Ion is generally regarded as one of Euripides’ most attractive plays. A skilfully organised plot, charming characters, exciting situations and thought-provoking themes make it an excellent introduction to the study of Greek drama generally and of Euripides in particular. The introduction deals with Euripides’ adaptation of the myth of Ion, his treatment of the theme of autochthony and his attitude to the seemingly licentious behaviour of Apollo. There is also a discussion of the play’s date, its structure, form and language. The commentary is designed to encourage students to read the play in a responsive way and to pay attention to matters of form, language and dramatic technique. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

Rational persuasion and appeal to an audience's emotions are elements of most literature, but they are found in their purest form in oratory. The speeches written by the Greek Orators for delivery in law-courts, deliberative councils and assemblies enjoyed an honoured literary status, and rightly so, for the best of them have great vitality. There is no crude, primitive stage of development: the earliest speeches are perfect in form and highly sophisticated in technique. They inform the reader about aspects of Greek society and about their moral values, in a direct and illuminating way not paralleled in other literature.This edition offers a contrasting pair of early orators. In his speech The Murder of Herodes, edited by Michael Edwards, Antiphon relies on a varied and resourceful use of probability argument, presented with great force and gravity. Motivation of both defendant and prosecutor is also explored thoroughly, as are the religious aspects of homicide. The five speeches by Lysias, edited by Stephen Usher, illustrate that orator's skill in using narrative to portray character and his talent for creating and dispelling personal and political prejudice in difficult cases. The Commentary seeks to call attention to the orators' rhetorical and stylistic skills to a degree not previously attempted in editions of the orators, to elucidate historical and legal matters and to explain textual and grammatical difficulties. The notes are keyed to the translation, rendering the speeches accessible to the reader with little or no Greek.Greek text with translation, commentary and notes.

Plato’s Meno is the dialogue which more than any other occupies a transitional position between the early Socratic dialogues and the developed middle period theory of the Phaedo, Symposium and Republic. It is thus of particular interest for the insights that it gives us into the process by which Plato arrived at that theory. The issues which it raises are philosophically interesting in themselves: how can we know that we have the right answer to a question, unless we knew what the answer was before we asked the question in the first place? Is excellence (aretē) something that we can acquire by being taught, or is it something that we are born with? And the dialogue is of historical interest for the evidence it provides, both for ancient Greek notions of what constitutes excellence, and for contemporary attitudes to the Sophists, who claimed to teach excellence and took larger fees for doing so. First published in 1985, this edition was revised in 1991, and the preface and bibliography updated in 2004. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction, notes and commentary.

A significant two-fold development in recent classical scholarship has been a revival of interest in, and respect for, post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy and Cicero’s contribution to our knowledge of it. Of Cicero’s major works in this field the Tusculan Disputations is perhaps the most approachable. Less technical than Academia and De Finibus, it still provides many insights into Hellenistic philosophical controversies, especially those concerning the two great schools of Stoicism and Epicureanism. At the same time it contains significant evidence of a reviving interest in Plato and Aristotle themselves. The theme of the first Tusculan is whether death is an evil. Of the many popular beliefs about the nature of the soul and its fate after death Cicero has little to say, but the philosophically based approach which he adopts is rich in material and provides the inspiration for striking passages worthy of the great orator. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

Cicero’s first major triumph was the prosecution of Caius Verres for misgovernment in Sicily. This speech was given in the second part of the trial and shows the development of Cicero’s rhetoric. This edition communicates the literary flavour of the original and discusses the historical and political background to the trial, with examination of noteworthy textual cruces and problems of interpretation. [Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.]

Cicero’s great polemic against Antony, a literary masterpiece, is here made available with full translation and notes. The introduction to this edition deals with the historical setting, Roman rhetoric and Cicero’s style while the notes are mainly literary, not historical. Attention is paid to Cicero’s use of the devices and techniques of rhetoric, and the variety of tones by which he sustains his attack on Antony without ever losing the reader’s interest. The notes also draw attention to the rhythms of the Latin and the clausulae. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

Ovid’s poetical career reached its climax in his masterpiece, the Metamorphoses. The work displays his mature genius and has become a standard treasure-house of mythology for all succeeding generations. This edition of the first four of the fifteen books presents a new line by line translation which strives to display something of the wit, polish and balance of the original. The Latin text provided reflects the considerable recent progress made in establishing a sound text of Ovid’s greatest work. The notes trace the sources from which Ovid worked and discuss how and why he adapted them. The history of Ovid’s influence on his successors in literature and art down to modern times is also extensively treated, with copious notes for further reading. [Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.]

Sophocles’ Antigone is among the greatest and most famous of all works of Greek literature, and it is often the play that is read first, whether in Greek or in translation, by those who are beginning to study Greek tragedy. But it is by no means an easy play, and readers requires careful guidance if they are to appreciate its subtleties and come to grips with its problems. In this edition the introduction includes an account of the myth, a brief survey of the main interpretative issues, and a bibliography. The text is newly constituted in the light of the latest scholarly research, with an abbreviated critical apparatus. The facing translation stays as close to the Greek wording as English idiom allows, one of its purposes being to show how the Greek is to be construed. The commentary is designed to elucidate the play, not to discuss points of grammar or philology, though the reader is alerted to all serious textual uncertainties. While full account is taken of recent developments in scholarship and literary criticism, the needs of the complete beginner are constantly borne in mind, and almost all the notes are accessible to readers with no Greek at all. Copious references are provided to places where further discussion can be found. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

Birds was produced at the City Dionysia in the spring of 414 BC. It differs from all the other fifth-century plays of Aristophanes that survive in having no strong and obvious connection with a topical question of public interest, whether political (like Acharnians, Knights, Wasps, Peace and Lysistrata), literary-theatrical (like Thesmophoriazusae and Frogs), or intellectual-educational (like Clouds). It has, indeed, in its own way, plenty of topical and satirical content: in particular, as the city of Cloudcuckooville begins to take shape, it proves in many ways to be a replica of Athens, and is soon visited by many of the less desirable elements of the Athenian population. But taking the play as a whole, satire is kept firmly subordinate to fantasy; and as fantasy Birds has no rival in what we possess of Greek literature, until we reach Lucian nearly six centuries later. Alan Sommerstein's celebrated edition, reprinted with revisions in 1991, presents the Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes.

The Ruodlieb, an anonymous narrative poem dating from the 11th century, is widely acknowledged to be one of the most interesting pieces of Latin literature to have survived from the Middle Ages, albeit in a fragmentary state. The poem describes the fortunes of a young knight in a foreign country and on his return home, embodies many features both of medieval Latin epic and of vernacular works such as the Nibelungenlied, looking forward in many aspects to the courtly romances of Chretien de Troyes. It thus stands in both Latin and vernacular traditions, and is consequently of great interest not only to the medieval Latin specialist but also to the student of medieval literature and culture in general. The text is based on a fresh examination of the existing manuscript fragments, and takes into account all previous editions: an apparatus criticus is appended. The introduction tackles questions of date and provenance, grammar, metre and literary background, whilst the commentary deals with points of philological, literary and cultural interest. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and notes.

Joseph wrote his epic around the year 1180, and revised it at the court of Henry II of England where he had obtained some sort of post through the influence of his uncle, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury. The work is one of a series of texts in Latin and Anglo-Norman, apparently commissioned by the King, helping to trace back the Plantagenet line to the Trojans. It is a pendant to the Anglo-Norman Roman de Troie written by Benoit de Sainte-More in the 1160s. Joseph rejected the Vergilian 'mendacious poetic' account of the war in favour of the 'historical' narrative of Dares Phrygius, an 'eye-witness' of the events. This version not only coincided with the Plantagenets' preference for historical material but also presented Aeneas, the founder of the Romans, as a traitor. In Henry's struggles with the Pope over the Investiture problem any slur on the origins of the Romans could be useful ammunition. Books I-III cover the first Trojan war when Laomedon was besieged, the Judgement of Paris and the Rape of Helen. In style Joseph closely resembles Lucan whom he had read "with an eye that allowed little to escape" (Raby), yet his imitation is far from servile. Sedgwick even goes so far as to say that Joseph "surpasses the bold constructions of Silver Latin". Moreover, Joseph restores to epic the gods that Lucan had banished. The result is an epic that in the 17th century was still considered to have been written in the classical period. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.