A Short History of Greek Literature

A Short History of Greek Literature
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 320
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226143125
ISBN-13 : 0226143120
Rating : 4/5 (25 Downloads)

Synopsis A Short History of Greek Literature by : Jacqueline de Romilly

Offers profiles of ancient Greek writers, including Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, and traces the development of Greek literature.

The Family in Greek History

The Family in Greek History
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 296
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674041929
ISBN-13 : 0674041925
Rating : 4/5 (29 Downloads)

Synopsis The Family in Greek History by : Cynthia B. Patterson

The family, Cynthia Patterson demonstrates, played a key role in the political changes that mark the history of ancient Greece. From the archaic society portrayed in Homer and Hesiod to the Hellenistic age, the private world of the family and household was integral with and essential to the civic realm. Early Greek society was rooted not in clans but in individual households, and a man's or woman's place in the larger community was determined by relationships within those households. The development of the city-state did not result in loss of the family's power and authority, Patterson argues; rather, the protection of household relationships was an important element of early public law. The interaction of civic and family concerns in classical Athens is neatly articulated by the examples of marriage and adultery laws. In law courts and in theater performances, violation of marital relationships was presented as a public danger, the adulterer as a sexual thief. This is an understanding that fits the Athenian concept of the city as the highest form of family. The suppression of the cities with the ascendancy of Alexander's empire led to a new resolution of the relationship between public and private authority: the concept of a community of households, which is clearly exemplified in Menander's plays. Undercutting common interpretations of Greek experience as evolving from clan to patriarchal state, Patterson's insightful analysis sheds new light on the role of men and women in Greek culture.

Women and the Comic Plot in Menander

Women and the Comic Plot in Menander
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 312
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781139472623
ISBN-13 : 1139472623
Rating : 4/5 (23 Downloads)

Synopsis Women and the Comic Plot in Menander by : Ariana Traill

Taking a fresh look at mistaken identity in the work of an author who helped to introduce the device to comedy, in this book Professor Traill shows how the outrageous mistakes many male characters in Menander make about women are grounded in their own emotional needs. The core of the argument derives from analysis of speeches by or about women, with particular attention to the language used to articulate problems of knowledge and perception, responsibility and judgement. Not only does Menander freely borrow language, situations, and themes from tragedy, but he also engages with some of tragedy's epistemological questions, particularly the question of how people interpret what they see and hear. Menander was instrumental in turning the tragic theme of human ignorance into a comic device and inventing a plot type with enormous impact on the western tradition. This book provides original insights into his achievements within their historical and intellectual context.

Greek and Roman Comedy

Greek and Roman Comedy
Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Total Pages : 342
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780292778825
ISBN-13 : 0292778821
Rating : 4/5 (25 Downloads)

Synopsis Greek and Roman Comedy by : Shawn O'Bryhim

Much of what we know of Greco-Roman comedy comes from the surviving works of just four playwrights—the Greeks Aristophanes and Menander and the Romans Plautus and Terence. To introduce these authors and their work to students and general readers, this book offers a new, accessible translation of a representative play by each playwright, accompanied by a general introduction to the author's life and times, a scholarly article on a prominent theme in the play, and a bibliography of selected readings about the play and playwright. This range of material, rare in a single volume, provides several reading and teaching options, from the study of a single author to an overview of the entire Classical comedic tradition. The plays have been translated for readability and fidelity to the original text by established Classics scholars. Douglas Olson provides the translation and commentary for Aristophanes' Acharnians, Shawn O'Bryhim for Menander's Dyskolos, George Fredric Franco for Plautus' Casina, and Timothy J. Moore for Terence's Phormio.

An Introduction to Menander

An Introduction to Menander
Author :
Publisher : Manchester University Press
Total Pages : 230
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0719005906
ISBN-13 : 9780719005909
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Synopsis An Introduction to Menander by : Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster

The Making of Menander's Comedy

The Making of Menander's Comedy
Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
Total Pages : 157
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781472507822
ISBN-13 : 1472507827
Rating : 4/5 (22 Downloads)

Synopsis The Making of Menander's Comedy by : Sander M. Goldberg

The discovery on papyrus of plays by Menander, the greatest writer of Greek New Comedy, at last makes possible an evaluation on his own terms of an ancient author who, through the adaptations of Plautus and Terence, profoundly influenced the course of western drama. The present study establishes a critical perspective for understanding the kind of comedy Menander wrote, his roots, the theatrical effects he sought, and the extent of his achievement. Chapters on the major plays analyse their techniques of construction and characterisation, suggesting both the strengths and the limitations of Menander's comic tradition. This study is based on the Oxford Greek text but cites all ancient authors in translation to open the discussion to a wider audience. An introductory chapter places the tradition of New Comedy in the history of drama, and modern parallels are drawn wherever helpful. It will therefore be of value to students of drama as well as to classicists.

Menander’s Characters in Context

Menander’s Characters in Context
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages : 349
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781527544949
ISBN-13 : 152754494X
Rating : 4/5 (49 Downloads)

Synopsis Menander’s Characters in Context by : Stavroula Kiritsi

Menander was renowned—and still is—for his naturalistic representations of character and emotion. However, times change, and our ideas of what is ‘natural’ change with them. To appreciate Menander’s art fully, we need to attune ourselves to the expectations of his time, and for this there is no better guide than Aristotle (along with his successor Theophrastus), who described and analysed notions of character and emotion in brilliant detail. This book examines the relevant observations of Aristotle, and explores two of Menander’s comedies in this light. It also discusses how these comedies, which have only been recovered in the past century, were adapted and performed on the Modern Greek stage, where tastes were different and Menander had been virtually unknown. The book’s comparison of the ancient originals and the modern versions sheds new light on both, as well as on cultural values then and now.

The Story of the Bodmer Papyri

The Story of the Bodmer Papyri
Author :
Publisher : James Clarke & Company
Total Pages : 218
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780227903506
ISBN-13 : 0227903501
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Synopsis The Story of the Bodmer Papyri by : James M Robinson

The United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) entrusted author James Robinson with tracking down the place where the Nag Hammadi Codices had been discovered. Priests whom the author interviewed in the region told Robinson that the codices had once been in the possession of a priest in the town of Dishna, a bit further upstream than Nag Hammadi itself. Robinson found that this priest had not had the Nag Hammadi Codices but rather the Bodmer Papyri. For Dishna is where the monastery headquarters of the first monastic order was located. The Bodmer Papyri discovery consisted of all that was left of the library of the Pachomian monastic order: Coptic letters of Pachomius and very early Greek copies of Luke and John, perhaps donated when Athanasius was in hiding at the monastery. These treasures were preserved in a jar hidden in the mountain where monks were buried. This book traces the story of the Bodmer Papyri from beginning to end.

Comic Democracies

Comic Democracies
Author :
Publisher : JHU Press
Total Pages : 224
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781421419343
ISBN-13 : 1421419343
Rating : 4/5 (43 Downloads)

Synopsis Comic Democracies by : Angus Fletcher

Drawing on new empirical research from the political and cognitive sciences, Angus Fletcher deftly analyzes the narrative elements of two dozen stage plays, novels, romances, histories, and operas written by such authors as Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, William Congreve, John Gay, Henry Fielding, and Washington Irving. He unearths five comic techniques that were used to foster democratic behaviors in antiquity and the Renaissance, then traces the role of these techniques in Tom Paine's Common Sense, Thomas Jefferson's preamble to the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's farewell address, Mercy Otis Warren's federalist history of the Revolution, Frederick Douglass's abolitionist orations, and other key documents that played a pivotal role in the development of the early American Republic. --Publisher description.

A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations

A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations
Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages : 920
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781786730497
ISBN-13 : 1786730499
Rating : 4/5 (97 Downloads)

Synopsis A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations by : Marinos Yeroulanos

'Human wisdom is of little or no value', wrote Plato in his Apology. And yet the ancient Greeks, including Plato himself, more than any other people of antiquity were fascinated by the pursuit of the wisdom they called philosophia. That search for knowledge involved an extensive use of maxims and quotations, as we can see from those expressions of Homer prefaced by the phrase 'as people say'. Homer, the Seven Sages and the Pre-Socratic philosophers are still extensively quoted in all the major western languages. Yet for all their popularity, until now there has been no single resource to which interested readers might turn. This unique reference book offers one of the most comprehensive selections of Greek quotations ever committed to print. With its English text matched by the original Greek, the volume collects 7500 entries, ranging from the archaic period to late antiquity, and across philosophy, drama, poetry, history, science and medicine, each indexed with key words to enable fast sourcing. Together, these selections provide an incomparable insight into the glories of Greek civilization.