Landmarks in classical literature / Philip Gaskell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaskell, Philip, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

Summary:

Landmarks in Classical Literature is the final volume in a set of three books about the major authors of Western literature and their works from Classical times until the early twentieth century. In this volume, Philip Gaskell introduces the work of the greatest writers of Classical Greece and Rome in translation. The book begins with prehistory and the age of the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey; and looks at later lyric poets such as Sappho and Pindar. There follows the great age of classical Greece, of miraculous art and pristine democracy, with Sophocles and his fellow-dramatists, the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, and Plato's fascinating Socratic dialogues. After a brief consideration of the next, Hellenistic, period of Greek culture which included the work of the pastoral poet Theocritus, the book moves on to the golden age of Roman literature. Here are the poets and thinkers of late-Republican and early Imperial Rome, a turbulent period of war and grandeur, including Julius Caesar, soldier, historian, and dictator; Cicero, politician, lawyer, and letter-writer; the poets Virgil (of the Aeneid), Horace, and Ovid; and Tacitus, the greatest Roman historian.There are chapters covering politics and society, religion, culture and the arts, language, warfare, economics, technology and philosophy to enable the reader to understand and appreciate the literature in its various contexts. Advice about reading the classics in translation, and the form and pronunciation of classical names and metre in classical verse is provided from the outset, and guidance on the best translations is given. An appendix provides more specialised information on the survival of ancient texts and textual scholarship.Key FeaturesIntroduces the best and most important literature of ancient Greece and RomeClearly and engagingly written for readers with no prior knowledge of the period, or of Greek or LatinSets the authors and their works in their historical contexts

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

I The Homeric age

1 The spread of civilisation: the past in the present - from neolithic tribalism to the first cities - the Minoans

2 The Greeks: the Mycenaeans- Dark-Age Greece - the Greek language - the Greek alphabet- Bronze-Age society and culture - Mycenaean religion

3 Homer and epic poetry: the background - the Iliad - the Odyssey - Hesiod

II Greece in the fifth century BC

4 From Archaic to early-Classical Greece: Athens - Sparta - the Persian Wars - women, resident foreigners, and slaves - colonisation

5 Religion, the arts, education, and books: religious beliefs and practices - architecture - painting - sculpture - music - education, literacy, and books

6 Lyric poetry: Pindar and his predecessors: the lyric - Sappho and Anacreon - Pindar

7 Sophocles and Athenian drama: tragedy - the three tragedians - Aeschylus - Sophocles - Euripides - Aristophanes and comedy

8 Herodotus and Greek history: Greek historians -Herodotus and the Persian Wars- Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War - Xenophon and the Persian Expedition

9 Plato and philosophy: the pre-Socratics - Socrates - Plato - Aristotle

Interchapter: the Hellenistic age

Alexander's empire and its successors - language and society - the visual arts - literature - history - philosophy and science - scholarship and libraries

III Late-Republican and early-Imperial Rome

10 The expansion of Rome: from city-state to superstate - the Latin language - Roman names

11 Republic and Empire: conquest abroad, strife at home - politics and society - religion

12 Maintaining the state: economics and technology - the Roman army

13 The arts: painting, sculpture, and architecture -drama: Plautus, Terence, Seneca -education, books, and libraries

14 Cicero: rhetoric and philosophy - the legacy of Greece: rhetoric, philosophy - Cicero - Seneca

15 Virgil: from pastoral to epic - Theocritus and pastoral poetry - Virgil - the Eclogues - the Georgics- the Aeneid- Virgil's reputation and influence

16 Horace: epigram, lyric, and satire- Catullus -Horace- Juvenal

17 Ovid: love poetry and the novel - Ovid - the novel - Longus - Petronius - Apuleius

18 Tacitus and Roman history: Roman historians - Caesar and the Gallic War - Sallust - Livy - Tacitus- Plutarch- Suetonius

Afterword

Appendix: Classical studies

The survival of ancient texts - the transmission of texts - textual scholarship- history and archaeology

Reference bibliography

Index and guide to pronunciation

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781474468350

1474468357