Greek Elegy and Iambus: A Selection

Description

Elegy and iambus are major forms of Greek literature which are crucial to understanding the Archaic and early Classical periods in particular. This edition gathers work by ten poets: two iambic (Semonides and Hipponax), six elegiac (Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus, Theognis, Xenophanes, Simonides), and two writing in both forms (Archilochus and Solon). It explores a representative sample of each poet's surviving work, while also highlighting their variety, and provides an up-to-date commentary on major pieces, including recent discoveries such as Simonides' Plataea elegy and Archilochus' Telephus elegy. The wide-ranging Introduction discusses such issues as poet and persona, contexts of performance, and various cultural themes (expansion and contact with foreign cultures, social and political revolution, sexuality and gender, rationalism) as well as language, style, metre, and textual transmission. The volume will be of interest to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to scholars of early Greek literature and cultural history.

William Allan is McConnell Laing Fellow in Classical Languages and Literature at University College, Oxford. His publications include an edition in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series of Euripides' Helen (2008).

'Readers with WA's book in hand will be well equipped to deal with the riches of Greek elegy and iambus.' Krystyna Bartol, Exemplaria Classica 'Allan's commentary is sensitive and well-edited and will offer good guidance to those who want to learn about, or embark on research on, aspects of the history of early Greek iambus and elegy.' Demetrios Yatromanolakes, EIRENE: Studia Graeca et Latina