Following a format similar to that of The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, this brings together the work of 30 authorities & organizes their contributions into three main sections. The 1st covers Greece from the 8th to the 4th centuries, a period unparalleled in history for its brilliance in literature, philosophy & the visual arts. The 2nd deals with the Hellenization of the Middle East by the monarchies established in the areas conquered by Alexander the Great, the growth of Rome & the impact of the two cultures on one another. The 3rd covers the foundation of the Roman Empire by Augustus & its consolidation in the 1st two centuries AD. A concluding essay discusses certain aspects of the later Empire & its influence on Western civilization, notably thru the adoption of Christianity. Within each section, chapters dealing with political & social history alternate with ones on literature, philosophy & the arts. Maps & chronological charts--not to mention over 250 illustrations, 16 in color--enrich the basic text, along with bibliographies & an index. John Boardman is Lincoln Professor of Classical Archeology at the University of Oxford. Jasper Griffin & Oswyn Murray are Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford.

    In this unique atlas, one of our most distinguished classical historians describes nearly 900 locations throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa that figure prominently in the history and literature of the ancient world. Covering a period from the first millennium B.C., when the Greek city-states emerged, to the fall of the western Roman Empire in the late fifth century A.D., Grant re-creates these geographical sites in detail, relating events, recounting stories, and providing profiles of the people inextricably linked to the history of each place. Based on such varied sources as classical writings, contemporary history, and evidence from archaeology, this fascinating gazeteer opens a window onto a long-vanished world of farflung and varied influences.

    Students learn grammar and vocabulary intuitively through extended contextual reading and an innovative system of marginal notes, giving students the opportunity to learn Latin without resorting to translation.

    Christopher Smith…. Gadamer’s book exhibits a broad and grand vision as well as a great love for the Greek thinkers.”—Alexander Nehemas, New York Times Book Review “The translation is highly readable.  The translator’s introduction and frequent annotation provide special elucidation on points of doctrinal complexity, giving ample references to other works and rival interpretations.”—Choice“This book is an important addition to the steadily growing number of Gadamer’s works available in English.  In it, we see Gadamer at his best, that is, engaged in the practice of interpreting important texts from the philosophical tradition, and also at his most controversial…. I enthusiastically recommend this…challenging book as one that rewards all efforts to understand the important claims it makes on its readers.”—Francis J. Ambrosio, International Philosophy QuarterlyHans-Georg Gadamer is professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Heidelberg.  He is the author of numerous books, including two others translated by Smith: Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato and Hegel’s Dialectic: Five Hermeneutical Studies.

    Helps readers trace the development of Greek art in the immensely creative period from the eighth to the fourth century BC - the period between the composition of the Homeric poems and the conquests of Alexander the Great.

    

    

    It is written specifically for the reader who does not know Greek and who may be unfamiliar with the context of the Athenian drama festival but who nevertheless wants to appreciate the plays in all their complexity. Simon Goldhill aims to combine the best contemporary scholarly criticism in classics with a wide knowledge of modern literary studies in other fields. He discusses the masterpieces of Athenian drama in the light of contemporary critical controversies in such a way as to enable the student or scholar not only to understand and appreciate the texts of the most commonly read plays, but also to evaluate and utilize the range of approaches to the problems of ancient drama.

    518-438 B.C.), one of ancient Greece's most famous lyric poets, is perhaps best known for his victory (epinicean) odes, written to honor the winners at various sets of games, such as the Olympiad. In Crown of Song, Deborah Steiner's study of these odes, she writes If Pindar isremote from us in genre, his style strikes the reader as vivid and immediate. And in my reading of the epinicean odes, it is the poet's use of metaphor that accounts for the dynamic quality of his verse. Steiner begins her analysis by exploring both ancient and modern theories of metaphor, andthen turns to specific imagery employed by the poet--plant life, athletics, minerals and numerous others--as a way of understanding how these metaphoric complexes function in the poet's praise of the victor, his assertion of his own place as perpetuator of the victor's immortal fame, and in hisvision of human achievement and glory in the context of mortal life and immortal gods. Written in a lively, readable style, Crown of Song opens up the sometimes difficult verse of this celebrated ancient poet to modern readers.

    He stresses the systematic nature of literary discourse and its tendency to create systems of interrelated texts wherein each author's mode of assimilating and changing the tradition becomes a part of the tradition. Imitation, Conte asserts, should not be regarded merely as the inert confluence of historical circumstances but rather as a rhetorical figure in itself-and indeed as one of the major rhetorical devices of classical Latin poetry.The first half of the book establishes Conte's theoretical position; that position is then applied in detail to Virgil in the second half. Conte shows how Virgil, by contrasting bucolic and elegiac genres in Eclogue 10, effects a confrontation between different models of life. He discusses the Aeneid at length, demonstrating how Virgil modifies and transforms both Greek and Roman epic conventions. Virgil's ability to simultaneously maintain a plurality of points of view, Conte believes, made it possible for him to transcend the limits set by his predecessors and thereby to enrich the communicative and expressive range of the epic genre.These suggestive essays address important issues in the field of classical literature and interpretive method. They will find an appreciative audience among classicists and their students, comparativists, literary theorists, and anyone else concerned with the application of contemporary critical and semiotic theory to literary texts.