Suggest Readings
Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology by
Greek and Roman mythology has fascinated people for more than two millennia, and its influence on cultures throughout Europe, America, North Africa, and the Middle East attests to the universal appeal of the stories. This title examines the best-known figures of Greek and Roman mythology together with the great works of classic literature.
ISBN: 9781438126395Publication Date: 2010
Handbook for Classical Research by
One of the glories of the Greco-Roman classics is the opportunity that they give us to consider a great culture in its entirety; but our ability to do that depends on our ability to work comfortably with very varied fields of scholarship. The Handbook for Classical Research offers guidance to students needing to learn more about the different fields and subfields of classical research, and its methods and resources. The book is divided into 7 parts: The Basics, Language, The Traditional Fields, The Physical Remains, The Written Word, The Classics and Related Disciplines, The Classics since Antiquity. Topics covered range from history and literature, lexicography and linguistics, epigraphy and palaeography, to archaeology and numismatics, and the study and reception of the classics. Guidance is given not only to read, for example, an archaeological or papyrological report, but also on how to find such sources when they are relevant to research. Concentrating on "how-to" topics, the Handbook for Classical Research is a much needed resource for both teachers and students.
ISBN: 9780415425230Publication Date: 2010-08-16
Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC by
Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC is an accessible and comprehensive account of Greek history from the end of the Bronze Age to the Classical Period. The first edition of this book broke new ground by acknowledging that, barring a small number of archaic poems and inscriptions, the majority of our literary evidence for archaic Greece reported only what later writers wanted to tell, and so was subject to systematic selection and distortion. This book offers a narrative which acknowledges the later traditions, as traditions, but insists that we must primarily confront the contemporary evidence, which isnbsp;in large part archaeological and art historical, and must make sense of it in its own terms. In this second edition, as well as updating the text to take account of recent scholarship and re-ordering, Robin Osborne has addressed more explicitly the weaknesses and unsustainable interpretations which the first edition chose merely to pass over. He now spells out why this book features no 'rise of the polis' and no 'colonization', and why the treatment of Greek settlement abroad is necessarily spread over various chapters. Students and teachers alike will particularly appreciate the enhanced discussion of economic history and the more systematic treatment of issues of gender and sexuality.
ISBN: 9780203880173Publication Date: 2009-03-16
After Antiquity by
With the publication of Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, widely considered a classic in Modern Greek studies and in collateral fields, Margaret Alexiou established herself as a major intellectual innovator on the interconnections among ancient, medieval, and modern Greek cultures. In her new, eagerly awaited book, Alexiou looks at how language defines the contours of myth and metaphor. Drawing on texts from the New Testament to the present day, Alexiou shows the diversity of the Greek language and its impact at crucial stages of its history on people who were not Greek. She then stipulates the relatedness of literary and "folk" genres, and assesses the importance of rituals and metaphors of the life cycle in shaping narrative forms and systems of imagery.Alexiou places special emphasis on Byzantine literary texts of the sixth and twelfth centuries, providing her own translations where necessary; modern poetry and prose of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and narrative songs and tales in the folk tradition, which she analyzes alongside songs of the life cycle. She devotes particular attention to two genres whose significance she thinks has been much underrated: the tales (paramythia) and the songs of love and marriage.In exploring the relationship between speech and ritual, Alexiou not only takes the Greek language into account but also invokes the neurological disorder of autism, drawing on clinical studies and her own experience as the mother of autistic identical twin sons.
Call Number: PA5130 .M96 A54 2002ISBN: 9780801433016Publication Date: 2002-06-24
The Sites of Rome by
Rome was a building site for much of its history, a city continually reshaped and reconstituted in line with political and cultural change. In later times, the conjunction of ruins and rebuilding lent the cityscape a particularly fascinating character, much exploited by artists and writers. This layering and changing of vistas also finds expression in the literary tradition, from classical times right up to the twenty-first-century. This collection of essays offersglimpses, sideways glances and unexpected angles that open up Rome in its widest possible sense, and explores how the visible components of Rome - the hills, the Tiber, the temples, the Forums, the Colosseum, the statues and monuments - operate as, or become, the sites/sights of Rome.The analyses areinformed by contemporary critical thinking and draw on ancient historical narrative, Roman poetry, Renaissance literature and cartography, art of the Grand Tour era, Russian and Soviet interpretations, and twentieth-century cinema.
ISBN: 9780191527197Publication Date: 2007-11-01
Confronting the Classics by
One of the world's leading historians provides a revolutionary tour of the Ancient World, dusting off the classics for the twenty-first century. Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writing about Greek and Roman history, provides a panoramic portrait of the classical world, a book in which we encounter not only Cleopatra and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal, but also the common people--the millions of inhabitants of the Roman Empire, the slaves, soldiers, and women. How did they live? Where did they go if their marriage was in trouble or if they were broke? Or, perhaps just as important, how did they clean their teeth? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard forces us along the way to reexamine so many of the assumptions we held as gospel--not the least of them the perception that the Emperor Caligula was bonkers or Nero a monster. With capacious wit and verve, Beard demonstrates that, far from being carved in marble, the classical world is still very much alive.
Call Number: DE59 .B43 2013ISBN: 9780871407160Publication Date: 2013-09-09
Ancient Philosophy by
Getting away from the presentation of ancient philosophy as a succession of Great Thinkers, the book aims to give readers a sense of the freshness and liveliness of ancient philosophy, and of its wide variety of themes and styles.
ISBN: 9780191540196Publication Date: 2000-01-01
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy by
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy is a wide-ranging 2003 introduction to the study of philosophy in the ancient world. A team of leading specialists surveys the developments of the period and evaluates a comprehensive series of major thinkers, ranging from Pythagoras to Epicurus. There are also separate chapters on how philosophy in the ancient world interacted with religion, literature and science, and a final chapter traces the seminal influence of Greek and Roman philosophy down to the seventeenth century. Practical elements such as tables, illustrations, a glossary, and extensive advice on further reading make it an ideal book to accompany survey courses on the history of ancient philosophy. It will be an invaluable guide for all who are interested in the philosophical thought of this rich and formative period.
Call Number: B111 .C36 2003ISBN: 9780521772853Publication Date: 2003-07-31
Ad Infinitum by
The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural history of the West for more than two millennia. It has been the foundation of our education, and has defined the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our knowledge of how the world functions. Indeed, the language has proved far more enduring than its empire in Rome, its use echoing on in the law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern science, and until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. It is the unseen substance that makes us members of the Western world. In his erudite and entertaining "biography," Nicholas Ostler shows how and why (against the odds, through conquest from within and without) Latin survived and thrived even as its creators and other languages failed. Originally the dialect of Rome and its surrounds, Latin supplanted its neighbors to become, by conquest and settlement, the language of all Italy, and then of Western Europe and North Africa. Its cultural creep toward Greek in the East led it to copy and then ally with it in an unprecedented, but invincible combination: Greek theory and Roman practice, delivered through Latin, became the foundation of Western civilization. Christianity, a latecomer, then joined the alliance, and became vital to Latin's survival when the empire collapsed. Spoken Latin re-emerged as a host of new languages, from Portuguese and Spanish in the west to Romanian in the east. But a knowledge of Latin lived on as the common code of European thought, and inspired the founders of Europe's New World in the Americas. E pluribus unum. Illuminating the extravaganza of its past, Nicholas Ostler makes clear that, in a thousand echoes, Latin lives on, ad infinitum.
Call Number: PA2057.O88 2007ISBN: 9780802715159Publication Date: 2007-11-13
The Language of the Papyri by
The modern rediscovery of the Greek and Latin papyri from Egypt has transformed our knowledge of the ancient world. We cannot, however, make the same claim in the specific area of language study. Although important studies of the language of the papyri have appeared sporadically over the past century, we are still dealing today with a linguistic resource of extraordinary richness which has hardly begun to be explored. Every scrap of papyrus and every ostracon(potsherd) or tablet unearthed has the potential to change some aspect of the way we think about the Greek and Latin languages. This book demonstrate that potential, by gathering together essays from seventeen scholars who present a variety of perspectives and methodological approaches. The Language of thePapyri charts current directions of international research, and will also provide a stimulus for future work.
ISBN: 9780191553202
More Latin for the Illiterati by
Scientia est potentia (knowledge is power)! More Latin for the Illiterati demystifies the terminology of modern courtrooms and hospitals, untangles some of the most complex and unforgiving examples of Latin abbreviation, and allows readers to explore the classical roots of law, medicine and the ministry. This new collection contains nearly 5000 entries devoted to law, medicine and religion, and includes phrases.
Call Number: PA2365 .E5 S77 1999ISBN: 9780415922111Publication Date: 1999-06-21
The Wooden Horse by
The Wooden Horse is a powerful, provocative, and engaging new workby perhaps the worlds most insightful and acclaimed historian of the ancient worldthat establishes the foundation of the Western worlds conceptions of society, philosophy, and poetry by tracing the processes by which consciousness evolved from its roots in the mother cults of Ancient Greece, with its attendant matriarchal mode of thought, to be replaced by a patriarchal world of laws with a religious counterpart in the Olympian gods. By examining Homers great epic poems, The Illiad and The Odysseythe Wests most comprehensive picture of the heroic age, which documents the fact that the Trojan War stalemate was resolved through strategic thinking (via Odysseuss invention of the wooden horse) rather than brute physical superiorityKeld Zeruneith explores this fundamental paradigm shift, which constituted nothing less than the liberation of the modern mind. With close analyses encompassing the poetry, drama, philosophy, and history of the ancient world, Keld Zeruneith casts a new light on our cultural ballast and provides startlingly original insight into the psychological forces behind the genesis of European culture.
Call Number: B187 .C67 Z4713 2007ISBN: 9781585678181Publication Date: 2007-09-06
Helen of Troy by
Three millennia after the myth of Helen, our relationship to female beauty remains deeply ambivalent, fraught with both desire and danger. We worship and fear it, advertise it everywhere yet try desperately to control and contain it.In Helen of Troy Ruby Blondell investigates the origins of our persistent anxiety about female beauty, focusing on this key figure from ancient Greek culture in a way that both extends our understanding of that culture and provides a useful perspective on our own. Moving from Homer and Hesiod toSappho, Aeschylus, Euripides, and others, Blondell offers a fresh examination of the paradoxes and ambiguities that Helen embodies.Other mythic women may be more violent but none wreaks more havoc than Helen. She is simultaneously the most desirable and most destructive. She causes the greatest war of all time when she elopes with the Trojan prince Paris, bringing her Greek husband, Menelaus, and thousands of Greek warriors inhot pursuit. Blondell shows that this is Helen's mythic essence: the beauty is inalienable, the destruction inevitable. For ancient Greeks, female beauty is an awe-inspiring, supremely desirable gift from the gods, essential to the perpetuation of a man's name through reproduction; yet it alsogrants women terrifying power over men, posing a threat inseparable from its allure. Three thousand years later, contemporary culture remains almost obsessively preoccupied with all the power and danger of female beauty and sexuality that Helen represents.Considering all aspects of the Helen myth - including the archaeological record, which contains evidence of her status as a cult figure, worshipped by maidens and newlyweds alike - Helen of Troy holds up a fascinating mirror to our own time.
Call Number: PA3015 .R5 H3725 2013ISBN: 9780199731602Publication Date: 2013-05-07
A Guide to Hellenistic Literature by
This book is a guide to the extraordinarily diverse literature of the Hellenistic period. A guide to the literature of the Hellenistic age, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC Provides overviews of the social, political, intellectual and literary historical contexts in which Hellenistic literature was produced Introduces the major writers and genres of the period Provides information about style, meter and languages to aid readers with no prior knowledge of the language in understanding technical aspects of literary Greek Distinctive in its coverage of current issues in Hellenistic criticism, including audience reception, the political and social background, and Hellenistic theories of literature
Call Number: PA3081 .G88 2007ISBN: 9780631233213Publication Date: 2007-05-07
Exploring Greek Myth by
Exploring Greek Myth offers an extensive discussion of variant forms of myths and lesser-known stories, including important local myths and local versions of PanHellenic myths. Clark also discusses approaches to understanding myths, allowing students to gain an appreciation of the variety in one volume. Guides students from an introductory understanding of myths to a wide-ranging exploration of current scholarly approaches on mythology as a social practice and as an expression of thought Written in an informal conversational style appealing to students by an experienced lecturer in the field Offers extensive discussion of variant forms of myths and many lesser known, but deserving, stories Investigates a variety of approaches to the study of myth including: the sources of our knowledge of Greek myth, myth and ritual in ancient Greek society, comparative myth, myth and gender, hero cult, psychological interpretation of myth, and myth and philosophy Includes suggestions in each chapter for essays and research projects, as well as extensive lists of books and articles for further reading The author draws on the work of many leading scholars in the field in his exploration of topics throughout the text
Call Number: BL783 .C53 2012ISBN: 9781405194563Publication Date: 2012-04-23
Women in Greek Myth by
In the first edition of Women in Greek Myth, Mary R. Lefkowitz convincingly challenged narrow, ideological interpretations of the roles of female characters in Greek mythology. Where some scholars saw the Amazons as the last remnant of a forgotten matriarchy, Clytemnestra as a frustrated individualist, and Antigone as an oppressed revolutionary, Lefkowitz argued that such views were justified neither by the myths themselves nor by the relevant documentary evidence. Concentrating on those aspects of women's experience most often misunderstood--life apart from men, marriage, influence in politics, self-sacrifice and martyrdom, and misogyny--she presented a far less negative account of the role of Greek women, both ordinary and extraordinary, as manifested in the central works of Greek literature. This updated and expanded edition includes six new chapters on such topics as heroic women in Greek epic, seduction and rape in Greek myth, and the parts played by women in ancient rites and festivals. Revisiting the original chapters as well to incorporate two decades of more recent scholarship, Lefkowitz again shows that what Greek men both feared and valued in women was not their sexuality but their intelligence.
Call Number: BL795 .W65 L44 2007ISBN: 9780801886492Publication Date: 2007-08-27
Mythical Monsters in Classical Literature by
This engaging, readable yet impeccably scholarly investigation of monsters in Classical literature will entertain and stimulate as well as inform. It covers all the major mythical monsters mentioned by Greek and Roman authors (Medusa, Hydra, Polyphemus, the Minotaur, Sphinx, Harpies, Sirens, Cerberus, Chimaera, Centaurs, and many more) along with Classical precursors of vampires, werewolves and the living dead. Versions of these creatures that appear in later literature and film are also discussed. Mythical Monsters is original in considering monsters squarely from a literary standpoint, introducing elements of literary analysis gradually as the work progresses, and building up to quite a sophisticated approach. This will increase readers' critical appreciation and plain enjoyment of these stories, which continue to fascinate today. To facilitate browsing, each chapter can be read independently. There is a useful bibliography, and the book is enlivened by illustrations from ancient and more recent art.
Call Number: PA3015 .R4 M87 2007ISBN: 9780715636275Publication Date: 2007-03-01
Autobiography of Red by
In her first novel in verse, Anne Carson bridges the gap between classicism and the modern, poetry and prose, with a volcanic journey into the soul of a winged red monster named Geryon. There is a strong mixture of whimsy and sadness in Geryon's story. He is tormented as a boy by his brother, escapes to a parallel world of photography, and falls in love with Herakles--a golden young man who leaves Geryon at the peak of infatuation. Geryon retreats ever further into the world created by his camera, until that glass house is suddenly and irrevocably shattered by Herakles' return. Running throughout is Geryon's fascination with his wings, the color red, and the fantastic accident of who he is. Autobiography of Red is a deceptively simple narrative layered with currents of meaning, emotion, and the truth about what it's like to be red. It is a powerful and unsettling story that moves, disturbs, and delights.
Call Number: PS3553.A7667 A94 1998ISBN: 9780375401336Publication Date: 1998-03-31
Eros the Bittersweet by
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time A book about romantic love, Eros the Bittersweet is Anne Carson's exploration of the concept of "eros" in both classical philosophy and literature. Beginning with, "It was Sappho who first called eros 'bittersweet.' No one who has been in love disputes her," Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view, creating a lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos Williams's Spring and All and William H. Gass's On Being Blue.
Call Number: BL820 .C65 C37 1998ISBN: 9781564781888Publication Date: 1998-03-01
Penelopeia by
Imagine that you have gone back in time 3000 years to the city of Ithaka to greet Odysseus, the sole survivor of a decade of adventures, shipwreck, and mayhem, on his long-awaited return home. Imagine his shock when she informs him that she has another surprise in store; when he left for Troy some twenty years before, he fathered twin daughters. These daughters, now mature and preternaturally gifted, are determined to travel with their mother to the Pythian oracle to learn what the gods have decreed as their fate and to do the goddess's bidding. Imagine, in other words, the next episodes of The Odyssey told in the voice of a woman, in this case a woman who has faithfully waited for her husband to return, who has diligently performed all her duties as wife and mother, and who now wants to experience the same adventure and freedom as her heroic spouse. Recounted in a fast-moving, unrhymed free verse that both pauses and gallops, Ms. Rawlings pulls us back into the landscape and the culture of pre-Attic Greece. She makes us see how this tale might have unfolded if Penelope had been celebrated by Homer. She takes us on adventures that would confound even the cunning Odysseus.
Call Number: PS3618 .A95 P46 2003ISBN: 9781567922066Publication Date: 2003-12-11
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