Dover Thrift Editions
2 total works
This comprehensive edition of "Birds" aims to enable the reader, including the less-advanced student of Greek, to understand, interpret and enjoy the play. It is a play generally recognized as one of Aristophanes's masterpieces - both for its imaginative plot and for the charm and originality of its lyrics. The commentary gives help with the translation to cater for the less-advanced student of Greek, and also with interpretation and the lyric metres, as well as fully discussing the staging. It uses the resources of modern ornithology to elucidate Aristophanes's reference to birds. The introduction discusses the nature of the play: its historical and mythological background; the history of the text, including the contributions of ancient scholars recorded in the scholia, which are exceptionally important in this play; and also more recent scholarship.
Aristophanes' Lysistrata was last edited in 1928, and the last commentary was in 1927; the only previous edition in English appeared in 1911. The present edition brings the play up to date in terms of the advances made in Aristophanic scholarship in the past sixty years. In particular, it is the first to report all the manuscripts, papyri, and testimonial sources of the text, offering a new account of its history and a detailed review of the transmission of the Aristophanic corpus as a whole.