Ancient & Classical

First published in 1979, Texts and Contexts identifies those classics of Roman literature which deserve to survive because of their intrinsic quality and their lasting significance. The most important of these texts are placed in the context of the...

First published in 1970, Leyla and Mejnun provides a thorough introduction to the Leyla and Mejnun love story and the various forms in which the story has appeared in the Islamic world. Finally, it offers for the delight of the English poetry lover, an...

First published in 1923, Feminism in Greek Literature explores the representation of women in ancient Greek literature. It provides an in-depth analysis of various works of literature and examines how women were portrayed in these works. The book also...

'The poem I had planned to write on the banks of the Ganga was never written. But it materialized in my life.' Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Nobel Laureate and polymath, is one of the most eminent Indian writers of world literature. This volume...

The Alexiad, written in the twelfth century by a Byzantine princess, Anna Komnene, tells the story of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, offering accounts of its political and military history, including its involvement with the First...

This is the first accessible volume exploring and analysing evidence for Greek Old Comedy through what remains only in the form of fragments of plays. Hundreds of comedies were written and performed in Athens during this period (roughly 486-386 BCE), but...

Presenting a new approach to Euripides' plays, this book explores the playwright's ancient tragedies in relation to quotation culture. Treating extant works and lost works side-by-side, Matthew Wright presents a selective survey of ways in which...

Through an extensive series of extracts and accompanying interpretative and contextual essays, this open access volume showcases the expertise in classical learning that flourished in medieval Gaelic Ireland. Providing translations of all excerpts, it...

Focusing on the works of Camillo Sbarbaro and Giovanna Bemporad, this book offers the first in-depth analysis of poetic translations of Greek tragedy in 20th-century Italian poetry. The close examination of the linguistic and ideological diversity...

Peter Hajdu examines the cultivation of the Classics as an intellectual framework and crucial ingredient of the western aspect of Hungarian national identity. This book approaches the relationship of modern Hungarian culture to classical heritage from...

This book critically analyses classical Indian literature and explores the philosophical, literary, and cultural landscapes which have emerged in response to ancient Indian texts. It highlights the relevance of these texts and studies and how they have...

Before they were written down, the poems attributed to Homer were performed orally, usually by rhapsodes (singers/reciters) who might have traveled from city to city or enjoyed a position in a wealthy household. Even after the Iliad and the Odyssey were...

Greek and Latin Literature (1969) examines the two ancient literatures using a comparative method that recognizes the links between them - most Latin genres owe something to their Greek forebears. How far was Virgil influenced by Homer, Cicero by...

Just as the story of an epic poem is woven from characters and plot, so too the individual similes within an epic create a unique simile world. Like any other story, it is peopled by individual characters, happenings, and experiences, such as the...

In this book one of the world's leading Hellenists brings together his many contributions over four decades to our understanding of major genres of Greek literature, above all the Greek novel, but also Attic Comedy, fifth-century historiography, and...

In this open access book, leading Greek scholars explore the rich and diverse poetry and prose of the long Hellenistic period. Chapters focus on the poets of Alexandria such as Callimachus, Theocritus, Apollonius, and Posidippus and on prose texts...

This volume explores emotion and its importance in Polybius' conception of history, his writing of historiography, and the benefits of this understanding to readers of history.How and why did ancient historians include emotions in their texts? This book...

As the second volume of a two-volume set on Chinese narratology, this title investigates the quintessential characteristics of the Chinese narrative style, with a focus on image and perspective.The first chapter introduces two opposing concepts of...

As the first volume of a two-volume set on Chinese narratology, this title introduces the cultural fundamentals that nurture Chinese literary works and investigates the structure and time of Chinese narrative.In the introductory chapter, the author...

Isaeus, a professional speechwriter and expert in inheritance law, wrote Orations 5 and 11 for litigants from elite Athenian families engaged in bitter and protracted disputes over the property of their deceased relatives. The speeches provide a wealth...

The mid-twentieth century gave rise to a rich array of new approaches to the study of the Middle Ages by both professional medievalists and those more well-known from other pursuits, many of whom continue to exert their influence over politics, art, and...

Combining literary analysis and theoretical linguistics, Tiffany Beechy's timely and engaging study provides a critical reassessment of Old English texts that challenges the distinction between Anglo-Saxon prose and verse, ultimately recognizing an...

Erotic Medievalisms is about the liberatory potential of sexualities, particularly as they relate to medieval histories and modern pleasures. Each of the texts analyzed within subvert norms rooted in medieval cultures or assumptions about the "real"...

Roman political leaders used distance from Rome as a key political tool to assert pre-eminence. Through the case studies of Caesar's hegemony, Augustus's autocracy, and Tiberius's reign, this book examines how these figures' experiences and...

This book presents a new way of looking at Wole Soyinka’s engagement with the classical past. Nigerian author and activist Wole Soyinka was the first Black African author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1986), and his oeuvre has become seminal to...

This book opens up new perspectives on the English fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien, arguing that he was an influential thinker of utopianism in 20th-century fiction and that his scrutiny of utopias can be assessed through his dialogue with antiquity...

A systematic etymological approach to understanding the Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes of "med-speak" Greek and Latin Roots of Medical and Scientific Terminologies explains the Greek and Latin origins of the roots, prefixes, and suffixes...

The Spirit of Aristophanes is a wide-ranging collection of new studies of ancient literature and culture from fifth-century drama to the Roman novel. The essays use an array of approaches that will appeal to scholars and students interested in classical...

An account of the Scandinavian contributions to the field of Old English studies from the eighteenth century onwards. The discipline of Old English Studies began in Scandinavia, not England, pioneered by the work of the great Danish scholar, N.F.S...

An account of the Scandinavian contributions to the field of Old English studies from the eighteenth century onwards. The discipline of Old English Studies began in Scandinavia, not England, pioneered by the work of the great Danish scholar, N.F.S...

In Ancient Greek Heroes, Athletes, Poetry, Gregory Nagy continues where The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours left off. This book is also centered on some of the greatest masterpieces of ancient Greek literature-including the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey and...