"'Lyric' in contemporary literary criticism is a term as elusive as it is suggestive. It exists both as an adjective, expressing a poetic quality, and as a noun denoting a poetic mode, and both are notoriously difficult to define. It is this protean quality that has allowed 'lyric' to become a powerful creative stimulus for both poets and theorists. A foundational period for today's sense of 'lyric' was the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century"--

This book explores the areas in which novels such as Chariton’s Callirhoe and Heliodorus’s Aithiopika are ideal beyond the ideal love relationship and considers how concepts of the ideal connect to archetypal and literary patterns as well as reflecting contemporary ideological and cultural elements. Readers will gain a better understanding of how necessary is an understanding of these ideal elements to a full understanding of the novels’ possible readings and their reader’s attitudes. This book sets forth critical methods, subsequently followed, which allows for this exploration of ideal themes. Ideal Themes in the Greek and Roman Novel will be an invaluable resource for scholars of these novels, as well as ancient narratives and classical literature more generally. Scholars of cultural and utopian studies will also find the book useful, as well as some undergraduate students in all these areas.

Latin Fiction provides a chronological study of the Roman novel from the Classical period to the Middle Ages, exploring the development of the novel and the continuity of Latin culture. Essays by eminent and international contributors discuss texts including: * Petronius, Satyrica and Cena Trimalchionis * Apuleius, Metamorphose(The Golden Ass) and The Tale of Cupid and Psyche * The History of Apollonius of Tyre * The Trojan tales of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis * The Latin Alexander * Hagiographic fiction * Medieval interpretations of Cupid and Pysche, Apollonius of Tyre and the Alexander Romance. For any student or scholar of Latin fiction, or literary history, this will definitely be a book to add to your reading list.

This companion addresses a topic of continuing contemporary relevance, both cultural and literary. Offers both a wide-ranging exploration of the classical novel of antiquity and a wealth of close literary analysis Brings together the most up-to-date international scholarship on the ancient novel, including fresh new academic voices Includes focused chapters on individual classical authors, such as Petronius, Xenophon and Apuleius, as well as a wide-ranging thematic analysis Addresses perplexing questions concerning authorial expression and readership of the ancient novel form Provides an accomplished introduction to a genre with a rising profile

The first anthology to present the entire range of ancient Greek and Roman stories- from myths and fairy tales to jokes Captured centaurs and satyrs, talking animals, people who suddenly change sex, men who give birth, the temporarily insane and the permanently thick-witted, delicate sensualists, incompetent seers, a woman who remembers too much, a man who cannot laugh-these are just some of the colorful characters who feature in the unforgettable stories that ancient Greeks and Romans told in their daily lives. Together they created an incredibly rich body of popular oral stories that include, but range well beyond, mythology-from heroic legends, fairy tales, and fables to ghost stories, urban legends, and jokes.

First published in 1994. Greek fiction has never been more popular. New approaches to ancient literature, and new courses in literature in translation, have made the ancient novel a fertile field for scholar and student alike. This volume extends the boundaries of the subject beyond the 'canon' of the romances properly called and examines Greek fic­tional writing in the widest possible context, including texts that are not nor­mally treated as novels, such as various kinds of sacred or quasi-historical texts. The editors hope to open up the definition of Greek fiction to further debate and to create cross-currents between scholars working in diverse fields.

The Edinburgh Companion, newly available in paperback, is a gateway to the fascinating worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. Wide-ranging in its approach, it demonstrates the multifaceted nature of classical civilisation and enables readers to gain guidance in drawing together the perspectives and methods of different disciplines, from philosophy to history, from poetry to archaeology, from art history to numismatics, and many more.