Promise-giving and treaty-making : Homer and the Near East /
:
This book challenges the current view of the Homeric epics that they reflect only the institutions and ideas of the Dark Ages, during which they were composed, telling us nothing about the Mycenaean Age preceding it. Comparing evidence from the Near East with the Homeric corpus, Peter Karavites argues that the epics actually contain much that harks back to the Mycenaean Age, and that the two eras may not be completely discontinuous after all. Most contemporary scholars maintain that the mighty Mycenaean period was almost completely separated from the Dark Ages and that virtually no evidence of the former remains, with the exception of the archeological finds and the meager testimony of the Linear B tablets. However, the Near Eastern evidence about treaties and other forms of promising suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey may indeed provide historical pictures of the Mycenaean times featured in their narratives.
:
1 online resource (x, 224 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-216) and indexes. :
9789004329157 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Virgil, Aeneid 7 : a commentary /
:
This commentary was begun in 1967, but most of the period from 1971 to 1996 was spent on work that was in some sense an essential preliminary to a detailed study of Aeneid 7. The work will serve as a guide to recent (and future) work on Virgilian language, grammar, syntax and style. Recent approaches to the text have been, where possible, taken into account, with sympathy but without jargon. Virgil's sources, in verse and prose, have been studied with special care and the commentary presents a coherent approach to Virgil's view of Italian religion, antiquities and topography. Unusually full indexing is intended to further the book's use as a guide to many aspects of Augustan poetic idiom. There is a text independent of recent editions and a precise, prose translation.
:
1 online resource (xliv, 567 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. xxxix-xliv) and indexes. :
9789004351233 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Vergil's Aeneid : a poem of grief and love /
:
For more than a century, critics of the Aeneid have assumed that all or most of its episodes must propound something about Aeneas and his mission to found the Roman people, and through them about Rome and Augustus; whether that is their positive aspects, or their brutality and destructiveness, or the contrast between the public "voice" of their achievements and the private "voice" of the suffering they cause. This book argues that this assumption is wrong; the Aeneid 's main purpose was to present a series of emotionally moving episodes, especially pathetic ones. This book shows that the Aeneid makes more sense when regarded primarily as a series of emotion-arousing episodes than as expressing a pro-Aeneas, anti-Aeneas or two voices message. That is how it was regarded into the nineteenth century and that is what the ancient Greeks and Romans assumed was the main purpose of literature.
:
1 online resource (xii, 174 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-171) and index. :
9789004329188 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The challenge of epic : allusive engagement in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus /
:
Nonnus once vied with Homer for popularity; today his Dionysiaca languishes in obscurity. The Challenge of Epic offers a literary critical rehabilitation of Nonnus' fifth-century AD poem. It argues that modern neglect stems from a failure to appreciate the central position of allusion in late-antique poetry. Attention first focuses on intertextual allusion. It is argued that the poet draws on a plethora of allusions to the cycle of Greek mythology in order to imbue his specific narrative with a universal significance. Focus then shifts to metapoetic allusion: the way in which Nonnus alludes self-consciously to the process of writing, and develops parallels between himself and his subject, Dionysus. Through an appreciation of Nonnus' alllusive strategies, the modern reader can again engage with the mind-bending challenge of the Dionysiaca .
:
1 online resource (viii, 245 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-227) and indexes. :
9789004351103 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Virgil, Aeneid 3 : a commentary /
:
This is the first detailed commentary on Aeneid 3, being some three times the size of that by R.D.Williams(1962), and aimed at the scholarly public. It treats fully the thorny problem of book 3's place in the growth of the poem, matters of linguistic and textual interpretation, metre, prosody, grammar, lexicon and idiom, as well as Virgil's sources and the literary tradition in which he writes. Full attention is given to matters geographical and nautical. New critical approaches and recent developments in Virgilian studies have been taken into account, with more attention to their spirit than to their language. A text, with translation, and three indices are included.
:
1 online resource (liv, 513 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. xliii-liv) and indexes. :
9789047418245 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theatrum Arbitri : theatrical elements in the Satyrica of Petronius /
:
Theatrum Arbitri is a literary study dealing with the possible influence of Roman comic drama (comedies of Plautus and Terence, theatre of the Greek and Roman mimes, and fabula Atellana ) on the surviving fragments of Petronius' Satyrica . The theatrical assessment of this novel is carried out at the levels of plot-construction, characterization, language, and reading of the text as if it were the narrative equivalent of a farcical staged piece with the theatrical structure of a play produced before an audience. The analysis follows the order of each of the scenes in the novel. The reader will also find a brief general commentary on the less discussed scenes of the Satyrica , and a comprehensive account of the theatre of the mimes and its main features.
:
Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.--University of Glasgow, 1993). :
1 online resource (xxv, 225 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-207) and indexes. :
9789004329515 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The mythic voice of Statius : power and politics in the Thebaid /
:
This is the first thematic study of Statius' Thebaid to be published in monograph form in English in the past twenty years. It examines in detail the thematic design and intent of the Thebaid and considers the question of its contemporary relevance. The book focuses on the central theme of power - how it is exercised on the supernatural and human levels and the consequences of its pursuit and abuse in terms of the human condition. An ensuing discussion explores the political undercurrents of the epic. This discussion is in four main parts: (1) 'Use and Abuse of Supernatural Power'; (2) 'Pursuit and Abuse of Monarchal Power'; (3) 'Consequences of the Abuse of Power'; and (4) 'Political Relevance to Contemporary Rome'. The views expressed represent a fundamental departure from previous studies and constitute a critical reassessment of the Thebaid . The provision of translations makes the book accessible to the Latinless reader.
:
1 online resource (xiv, 198 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-190) and indexes. :
9789004329416 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Lygdamus : Corpus Tibullianum III. 1-6: Lygdami elegiarum liber /
:
This volume is an in-depth study of the short poetic cycle of Lygdamus, one of the authors included in Book III of the Corpus Tibullianum . The Introduction analyzes the controversial quaestio Lygdamea (identity and dating of the poet), the relationship between Lygdamus and his beloved, Neaera, the incorporation of his poems into the Corpus Tibullianum , and the manuscript tradition. This is followed by a rigorous critical edition (taking fully into account the earliest editions and conjectures). Finally, there is a detailed and exhaustive line-by-line and word-by-word commentary on each poem, paying particular attention to elegiac terms and motifs. This is the first comprehensive study of the work of Lygdamus, considered as a poet with his own literary identity.
:
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral--University of Seville), 1993. :
1 online resource (627 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 531-550) and index. :
9789004329805 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Land of Dreams : Greek and Latin Studies in Honour of A.H.M. Kessels /
:
This collection of essays by twenty-eight Dutch scholars is intended as a tribute to prof. dr. A.H.M. Kessels on the occasion of his retirement as professor of Greek Language and Literature at the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). It reflects his broad interests in the entire field of classical scholarship, ranging from early Greek poetry to later Latin literature and the reception of classics in modern literature. At the same time, the volume singles out some areas for special interest, notably dreams in classical literature (6 essays), classical drama (7 essays), the reception of Homer (4 essays), Greek literature (5 essays) and Latin literature (6 essays). The collection as a whole may be considered a sampler attesting the breadth and depth of present-day classical scholarship in the Netherlands. With contributions by G.J.M. Bartelink; A.A.R.Bastiaensen; L.J. ter Beek; L. de Blois; J. den Boeft; B.M.C. Breij; J.M. Bremer; J.N. Bremmer; J.H. Brouwers; A.M. van Erp Taalman Kip; A. Harder; A.J.L. van Hooff; P. v.d. Horst; V.J.Chr. Hunink; I.F.J. de Jong; A.P.M.H. Lardinois; E.M. Moormann; A.P. Orbán; M.G.M. van der Poel; R.P. Salomons; D.M. Schenkeveld; W.L.G.M. Slenders; H. van Tress; G.C. Wakker; H.T. Wallinga; J.H. Waszink; M.J.H. van der Weiden.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047409281
9789004150614
Hercules furens /
:
This is most comprehensive study of Seneca's Hercules Furens to date and indeed of any Roman tragedy. Apart from illustrating the poetic language, the literary conventions and the dramatic technique of the play, the book highlights the figure of the Roman Hercules in relation to its Greek model, the Euripidean Herakles. The comprehensive introduction on myth, modern interpretations and textual transmission of the play is followed by a discussion of the newly discovered collation of the codex Etruscus by J.F. Gronovius. The detailed commentary is provided with a new critical edition and a new German translation. The work includes a full bibliography, an analytical index and a complete index of passages cited. Special attention is given to literary motifs and topoi as well as to Seneca's poetic language in its pivotal position between the Augustan poets and Neronian-Flavian epic.
:
1 online resource (xxix, 727 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. xi-xxix) and indexes. :
9789004351431 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A companion to Apollonius Rhodius /
:
This volume on Apollonius of Rhodes, whose Argonautica is the sole full-length epic to survive from the Hellenistic period, comprises articles by fourteen leading scholars from Europe and America. Their contributions cover a wide range of issues from the history of the text and the problems of the poet's biography through questions of style, literary technique and intertextual relations to the epic's literary and cultural reception. The aim is to give an up-to-date outline of the scholarly discussion in these areas and to provide a survey of recent and current trends in Apollonian studies which will be useful to students of Hellenistic poetry in general as well as to scholars with a specialised interest in Apollonius.
:
1 online resource (xiii, 362 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-360) and index. :
9789047400462 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Commentaries on Pindar /
:
This volume contains word-for-word commentaries on Pindar's Olympian Odes 3, 7, 12, 14. Emphasis is placed on the explanations of peculiarities of grammar and idiom, but due attention is paid to figures of style and problems of poetic structure. The interpretations proposed by the author - many of them which are new - are documented as fully, but at the same time as concisely, as possible. This documentation, which includes a critical examination of other views, has been made more easily accessible by detailed indexes. The poems discussed do not have special similarities or interrelationships. On the other hand, they may be considered representative of the poet's art. From this point of view, the present selection may serve as an introduction to the study of Pindar's work. Vol. II will contain commentaries on Olympians 1, 10, 11, Nemean 11, and Isthmian 2. A third volume on Pythians 1, 8, 10 is inteded to conclude the series.
:
1 online resource (xi, 132 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004328327 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Euripides' Bacchae : the play and its audience /
:
The purpose of this book is to investigate what it was Euripides intended to convey to the theatre-going public of his day when he wrote his most exciting and most gruesome play, the Bacchae . The meanings which are to be attached to the action of a play are woven by an audience, both during and after the performance, into a single dramatic experience, labelled in this book as 'audience response'. After some introductory chapters dealing with the history of the interpretation of the Bacchae and with the theory of audience response, the main part of the book is devoted to a detailed analysis of the action of the play (chapters 4 and 5), and to a study of Dionysus in his various apects in Athenian life and in his appearances in earlier literature and on the tragic stage. The discussion of the choruses concentrates on the choruses' repeated utterances about cleverness and wisdom, which form the core of the Dionysian propaganda of the play. The most immediate results of this new interpretation of the Bacchae are that the widely-accepted view of Pentheus as a dark puritan, a man possessed by the Dionysian qualities of his divine opponent, proves to be untenable, and that that which in the past has been rightly called the overriding theme of the play - the god's epiphany - also contains the poet's most serious and ironical discussion of divinity and of man's treatment of it. The problems of the Greek text are given full discussion, mainly in the nots and appendices. In many cases new solutions are proposed; some new problems are however added.
:
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Free University of Amsterdam. :
1 online resource (200 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-198) and index. :
9789004328051 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Founding the year : Ovid's Fasti and the poetics of the Roman calendar /
:
This book considers the relationship between the Fasti , Ovid's long poem on the Roman calendar, and the calendar itself, conceived of as consisting both in the rites and commemorations it organizes and in its graphic representation. The Fasti treats the calendar, recently revised by Caesar and Augustus, as its most important cultural model and as a quasi-literary 'intertext': the poem simultaneously reshapes and is itself shaped by the calendar. The study includes chapters on Book 4 and the rites of April, on the addition of Julio-Claudian holidays to the calendar, and on the final two books of the poem as shaped by the renaming of the months Quintilis and Sextilis for Julius Caesar and Augustus.
:
1 online resource (326, [4] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-308) and indexes. :
9789047409595 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Animal Encounters in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica /
:
This first in-depth study of Valerius Flaccus' animals reveals their role in his poetic programme and the manifold ways in which he establishes their subjectivity. In one encounter, a trapped bird becomes a tragic victim, while the trapper is dehumanized. Elsewhere there are touching portrayals of animal/human camaraderie and friendship. Furthermore, Valerius' provocative consideration of the 'monstrous' challenges simplistic definitions of any being's nature, or the nature of relationships across species. His challenge entails profound ethical implications for his Roman readership, which resonate with us as we assess our own relationship to animals and the natural world today.
:
We reveal Latin epic poet Valerius' empathetic portrayal of animals, and his challenge to assumptions about human dominion. The analysis ranges from animal experience and subjectivity, to the role of animals in Valerius' poetics, to "what makes a monster". :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004519619
9789004519602