The challenge of epic : allusive engagement in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus /
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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 .
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1 online resource (viii, 245 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-227) and indexes. :
9789004351103 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theatrum Arbitri : theatrical elements in the Satyrica of Petronius /
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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.
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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 /
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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.
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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 /
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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.
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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.
A companion to Apollonius Rhodius /
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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.
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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 /
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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.
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1 online resource (xi, 132 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004328327 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Founding the year : Ovid's Fasti and the poetics of the Roman calendar /
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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.
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1 online resource (326, [4] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-308) and indexes. :
9789047409595 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, Book I : a commentary /
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This work provides a full commentary on the first book of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica , an epic which has received increased attention in the last few decades, as may be seen from two recent editions (1997 and 2003). Its first aim is to clarify the text, which is sometimes rather difficult and, in places, still not established with certainty. Apart from this philological aspect, the literary merits of the poem have also been taken into account.
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1 online resource (xviii, 506 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-503) and indexes. :
9789047405672 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Chaonian dove : studies in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil /
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This is the first book-length critical study of the three Virgilian works to be published in English for twenty years. It examines in detail the thematic design and intent of the Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid , and documents the development of their political, moral and poetic pessimism. It presents the interrelationship of the three texts, their intertextuality, as integral to their meaning. The book is in three main parts - 'Pastoral Meditation', 'Didactic Paradox', 'Epic Vision' - corresponding to the three Virgilian works. A brief introductory chapter is concerned with questions of method and the problem of Virgil misread. A chief focus of the book is Virgil's preoccupation with the relationship between poetry, art - art's values, perceptions, visions - and the political/historical world, and the changing nature of Virgil's attitude to the socio-moral responsibilities of Rome. The evolution of Vergil's presentation both of Roman imperium and of man's place in nature and history is carefully delineated. With close scrutiny of the language, imagery, structures and design of the three texts and of their verbal and thematic interrelationship, the book offers a substantial reassessment of the major political, psychological and moral ideas of Virgil's poetic oeuvre . An intricate and persuasive picture emerges of Virgil's intellectual and poetic development and a radically new conception of Virgil's image of himself as poet. The provision of translations makes the book accessible to the Latinless reader.
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Includes indexes. :
1 online resource (x, 196 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-183). :
9789004328297 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The renewal of epic : responses to Homer in the Argonautica of Apollonius /
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The Renewal of Epic considers various modes of allusion to Homer in the Argonautica of Apollonius, dealing not only with similarities in phraseology but also with thematic and structural resemblances. After an introduction, two chapters discuss Apollonian techniques in treating repeated Homeric scenes: sacrifice, shipwreck, boxing and battle. The central section of the work considers the multiple links between the adventures of the Argonauts and Odysseus' wanderings. A final chapter explores Apollonius' innovative treatment of the divine, both generally and in particular scenes. The work shows convincingly that the Argonautica reproduces many of the patterns which have been found in the Iliad and Odyssey . It demonstrates the presence of allusion at every level in the poem, linking it to its predecesors and acting as an essential interpretative aid to the reader.
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1 online resource (x, 335 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 306-317) and indexes. :
9789004329775 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Blood and iron : stories and storytelling in Homer's Odyssey /
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Blood and Iron is an exploration of the role of gossip, rumor and storytelling in the society depicted in the Odyssey and in the real world in which the poem was performed. It includes extensive analysis of Homeric narrative technique, with particular attention to the way the singer creates tension in a largely traditional tale. Individual chapters treat discrete, generally very traditional literary and historical problems, including the significance of the term kleos , the presentation of Telemachos, the internal chronology of the poem, the nature of Homeric kingship, and the role of violence in the ancient Greek family. The book will be of importance for anyone interested in the literary content or storytelling technique of Homeric epic, as well for historians of the late Dark Ages.
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1 online resource (x, 260 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-252) and index. :
9789004329539 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, Book V : a commentary /
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The book contains a commentary on Book V of the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, paying attention to linguistic, philological and literary aspects. Line by line the words and phrases chosen, sources used and literary models are treated. The last commentary on all eight books of the Argonautica appeared a century ago (Langen 1896), so there is ample room to apply new views in Latin linguistics and concepts of literature. A small number of textual variants is supported.
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Originally presented as the author's thesis. :
1 online resource (xii, 322 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-310) and indexes. :
9789004329843 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to Apollonius Rhodius /
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This volume on Apollonius of Rhodes, whose Argonautica is the sole full-length epic to survive from the Hellenistic period, comprises articles by eighteen 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 of this 2nd edition 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 also to students of Hellenistic poetry in general.
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Revised edition of: A companion to Apollonius Rhodius. :
1 online resource (xiii, 479 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 445-475) and index. :
9789004217140 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.