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Rapins Hortorum libri IV sind ein antikisierendes Lehrgedicht, das den zeitgenoessischen Gartenbau in Frankreich als Hoehepunkt der Entwicklung auf diesem Gebiet feiert. In den Plantarum libri VI lasst Cowley die Pflanzen als Personen in mythologisch-historischen Erzahlzusammenhangen auftreten, ohne daruber pflanzenkundliche Aspekte zu vernachlassigen. Wahrend die Hortorum libri IV vor allem als Nachahmung von Vergils Georgica beschrieben werden koennen, nehmen die Plantarum libri VI literarisch...

Callimachus (ca. 303–ca. 235 BC), a proud and well-born native of Cyrene in Libya, came as a young man to the court of the Ptolemies at Alexandria, where he composed poetry for the royal family; helped establish the Library and Museum as a world center of literature, science, and scholarship; and wrote an estimated 800 volumes of poetry and prose on an astounding variety of subjects, including the Pinakes, a descriptive bibliography of the Library’s holdings in 120 volumes. Callimachus’ vast lea...

In October 1945 at the age of 19, John Freely passed the southernmost tip of Crete on his way home from the war in China, just as Odysseus did on his homeward voyage from the battle of Troy. He has been bewitched by Homer and the lands of Homer's epics ever since. As the culmination of a life spent exploring both these lands and the stories by, and connected to, Homer, Freely has created a captivating traveller's guide to Homer's lost world and to his epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, investiga...

Perhaps no classical writer has been so consistently in vogue as Horace. Famous in his own lifetime as a close associate of the Emperor Octavian, to whom he dedicated several odes, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BC) has never really been out of fashion. Petrarch, for example, modelled his letters on Horace's innovative Epistles, while also borrowing from his Roman forebear in composing his own Italian sonnets. The echo of Horace's voice can be found in almost every genre of medieval literature...

Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the titular character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias. Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates, Timaeus of Locri, Hermocrates, and Critias. Some scholars believe that it is not the Critias of the Thirty Tyrants who is appearing in this dialogue, but his grandfather, who is also named Critias.

A BBC Radio 3 adaptation by Michael Symmons of Alfred Lord Tennyson's 'The Idylls of the King', narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith and broadcast on 12 July 2009 to mark the bicentenary of the poet's birth. In this extraordinary epic poem, Tennyson transforms Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur', infusing the legend of King Arthur with a passionate intensity. Told here in five acts, the central arc of the narrative encompasses Arthur's arrival, his relationship with Lancelot and Guinevere, the Holy Grail, the...

Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is possible; that he was wealthy is likely; that he was critical of 'advanced' democracy is obvious. He lived to be 80 years old. Linguistic tests including those...

A commentary with an introduction that describes the features of oral poetry and discusses the history of the text of the "Odyssey."Jones provides a line-by-line commentary that explains the many factual details, mythological allusions, and Homeric conventions that a student or general reader could not be expected to bring to an initial encounter with the "Odyssey. "His notes also enhance an appreciation of the "Odyssey "by" "illuminating epic style, Homer s methods of composition, his character...

Born out of two years of presentations in the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section at SBL, this volume discusses 'voice'. This volume is born out of two years of academic presentations on laments in the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section at the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2007). The topics of these papers are gathered around the theme of 'voice'. The two parts to this volume: provide fresh readings of familiar texts as they are read through the lens of lamentation, and deepen our understanding of...

Callimachus (ca. 303–ca. 235 BC), a proud and well-born native of Cyrene in Libya, came as a young man to the court of the Ptolemies at Alexandria, where he composed poetry for the royal family; helped establish the Library and Museum as a world center of literature, science, and scholarship; and wrote an estimated 800 volumes of poetry and prose on an astounding variety of subjects, including the Pinakes, a descriptive bibliography of the Library’s holdings in 120 volumes. Callimachus’ vast lea...

Cliges is generally thought to be the second of Chretien's Arthurian romances, probably written between 1185-87. This critical edition of Cligesis the first since Wendelin Foerster's in (1884) to take account of all the manuscripts. Based on the Guiot manuscript, it contains many emendations, producing a text closer to that of Chretien's original. Variant apparatus, notes, glossary, and editorial comment on the manuscripts accompany the text. STEWART GREGORY is in the Department of French, Le...

This study of early Greek lyric provides portraits of Archilochus, Alcaeus and Sappho and their poetry. It looks at their social setting, and their purposes within it.

Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is possible; that he was wealthy is likely; that he was critical of 'advanced' democracy is obvious. He lived to be 80 years old. Linguistic tests including those...