BCP Paperback S. - Böcker

This volume presents a selection from Pope's celebrated translation of Homer's Iliad, edited and arranged so as to concentrate on the central core of the story and thus to be readable as a continuous narrative. Also included is a section of the best of Pope's notes to his own translation;these illuminate his principles as a translator and transmit his intelligent and penetrating assessments of the Iliad's poetic qualities. It will enable students of English literature to sample a neglected poem written by Pope at the height of his powers, once thought to contain some of his finest writing and deepest poetic thoughts about Man and Nature. Students of the Classics, on the other hand, will be able to study in detail the response of one of its most distinguished admirers to the greatest poem of ancient Greece. Felicity Rosslyn's introduction discusses the main themes of the poem and establishes Pope's unique qualifications as a translator of Homer.

As fewer and fewer people learn to read Ancient Greek, there is a need for a critical study of the most influential translations that have been made from the major works of ancient Greek literature. Mason's monograph offers a critical study of the translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. It presents an argument for reading Alexander Pope's translation, his accompanying notes and his Essay on Criticism. Mason's new insights, along with his stringent comments will help bring readers closer to a real understanding of Homer, whether they read him in the original or come to him in translation for the first time.

'Revenge is a kind of wild justice...' (Francis Bacon). Euripides' "Hecuba" is dominated by the vengeance which Hecuba takes on the faithless Polymestor, and explores in a complex and profound manner the potential for revenge as a subject for tragedy. The sacrifice of Polyxena is in counterpoint to the revenge action; the whole is set in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Troy. The combination of plots creates one of Euripides' most effective dramas, full of pathos, suspense and excitement. This study of the play in English argues that it has been greatly undervalued by critics who have failed to appreciate the power of its rhetoric, the subtlety of its characterisation, and the beauty of its choral odes.

Examining the revolution wrought by Catullus in Latin poetry, this volume encapsulates the way in which principles of modern literary criticism could be applied to classical poetry, without ditching the sound philological scholarship of the classical tradition. In its day this book led the way in showing the philogically trained student how to be a critic; equally it can show the critically trained student the importance of a sound philogical base today.

This text is a study of the origins and development of Greek science, focusing especially on the interactions of scientific and traditional patterns of thought from the 6th to the 4th centuries BC. The starting point is an examination of how certain Greek authors deployed the category of 'magic' and attacked magical beliefs and practices. In the second chapter the book outlines the development and significance of the theory and practice of argument in early Greek science and follows this with a study of the development of empirical research. Finally the author asks why the Greeks invented science: what precisely their contribution was, and what social, economic, ideological and political factors had a bearing on the growth of science in Greece. Designed primarily for students of the history and philosophy of science and classicists, this book also embraces comparative material from anthropology, and from the study of ancient Near Eastern civilisation, and is therefore suitable for anthropologists too.

This text brings new approaches to Herodotus' sources and to his methods of collecting information, to the logic of his narrative and to his understanding of human behaviour. Drawing on recent advances in the understanding or oral tradition, the author takes issue with a number of theories about Herodotus' historical thinking. Herodotus as a story teller, he argues, does not preclude Herodotus as a historian; reciprocity is central to his method; Herodotos' declared subject, the Persian Wars, is itself Herodotus' own construct, embodied in the form of continuous narrative derived from a mass of local and family traditions that reach back far into the past and encompass most of the known world. The book concludes that only a rejection of modern historiographical values that will bring us to the realisation of Herodotus' historiographical importance: we must see him as enacting in narrative the social memory of his own generation.

This book offers a study of Roman attitudes to the Greek world, showing what Romans of the governing class thought about Greeks, both past and contemporary. It considers the practical effects of Philhellenism in Rome and surveys Rome's attempts to assimilate Greek literature. Wardman discusses the faults and virtues of the Greeks through Roman eyes; Roman views on use of the Greek language and Greek art; Roman readings of Homer; interpretations of Greek history and historians; evaluations of Greek rhetorical theory; and the problems they faced in turning Greek philosophy into Latin. The book ranges from the age of Cicero to the second century AD and provides an overall, thematically arranged survey. It is designed to be useful to all students of Greek and Roman civilisation and appeal to all who are interested in the reception of Hellenism. Quotations are in translation, so it is readily accessible to those who do not read the ancient languages.

Acclaimed as one of the pioneering texts to introduce narratology (the theory that deals with the general principles underlying narrative texts) to classical scholarship, Irene de Jong's work explains the key concepts such as "narrator", "focalization" and "prolepsis", highlighting their relevance by using them for the analysis and interpretation of Homer's "Iliad". What is the role of the narrator and how do the parts of the story told by the narrator relate to the many speeches for which Homer is famous? This work was first published in 1987 and it is reissued here with a new introduction by the author, offering an overview of the trends in Homeric narratological scholarship over the last decade.

This volume is an introduction to Plato's dialogues and the ideas they explore, so serving as a readable account of his writing for the uninitiated. It also gives guidance on the historical context in which his thoughts were formed and invites inquiry into his many ideas.

This volume is part of a series of key monographs on topics central to the study of the classical world. It looks at Theocritus as both a source for Vergil and later writers and as a significant poet in his own right. It gives an insight into this classical author which may prove relevant not only for classicists but also for all studying the pastoral tradition in literature.