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Ancient literature features many powerful narratives of madness, depression, melancholy, lovesickness, simple boredom, and the effects of such psychological states upon individual sufferers. Peter Toohey turns his attention to representations of these emotional states in the Classical, Hellenistic, and especially the Roman imperial periods in a study that illuminates the cultural and aesthetic significance of this emotionally charged literature. His probing analysis shows that a shifting representation of these afflicted states, and the concomitant sense of isolation from one's social affinities and surroundings, manifests a developing sense of the self and self-consciousness in the ancient world. This book makes important contributions to a variety of disciplines including classical studies, comparative literature, literary and art history, history of medicine, history of emotions, psychiatry, and psychology. Peter Toohey is Professor and Department Head of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary, Canada.

Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature (Series Editors: Kathleen Coleman and Richard Rutherford) introduces individual works of Greek and Latin literature to readers who are approaching them for the first time. Each volume sets the work in its literary and historical context, and aims to offer a balanced and engaging assessment of its content, artistry, and purpose. A brief survey of the influence of the work upon subsequent generations is included to demonstrate its enduring relevance and power. All quotations from the original are translated into English. Ovid's Metamorphoses have been seen as both the culmination of and a revolution in the classical epic tradition, transferring narrative interest from war to love and fantasy. This introduction considers how Ovid found and shaped his narrative from the creation of the world to his own sophisticated times, illustrating the cruelty of jealous gods, the pathos of human love, and the imaginative fantasy of flight, monsters, magic, and illusion. Elaine Fantham introduces the reader not only to this marvelous and complex narrative poem, but to the Greek and Roman traditions behind Ovid's tales of transformation and a selection of the images and texts that it inspired.

This is the first book-length study to reconstruct the experiences of the abandoned heroines of the Heroides, which have been largely ignored by past criticism. Dr Spentzou seeks ways to isolate, characterize, and release the female voice and experience within Ovid's male-authored text. Building on a wide range of ancient as well as modern images and reflections on gender and writing, the book attempts to map the relationship between gendered sensitivities and experience and generic expression and choices. Dr Spentzou uses the insight gained by the boom of intertextual studies in recent Latin scholarship to go a step further and address explicitly the ideologies of intertextual studies. This is a book about readers and reading, just as much as about women and gender, and it is also an in-depth study of the intricate and heated negotiations behind the interpretative act.

In the Heroides, the Roman poet Ovid wittily plucks fifteen abandoned heroines from ancient myth and literature and creates the fiction that each woman writes a letter to the hero who left her behind. But in giving voice to these heroines, is Ovid writing like a woman, or writing'Woman'like a man? Using feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to examine the'female voice'in the Heroides, Sara H. Lindheim closely reads these fictive letters in which the women seemingly tell their own stories. She points out that in Ovid's verse epistles all the women represent themselves in a strikingly similar and disjointed fashion. Lindheim turns to Lacanian theory of desire to explain these curious and hauntingly repetitive representations of the heroines in the'female voice.'Lindheim's approach illuminates what these poems reveal about both masculine and feminine constructions of the feminine

Der Essayband informiert über den Stand und die Tendenzen der Antikerezeption in der deutsch-sprachigen Literatur der Gegenwart. Im Zentrum steht das anhaltende Wirkungspotential der antiken Tradition, ihre Lebendigkeit und Vielfalt. Dabei werden die unterschiedlichen Ansätze und Perspektiven im Zugriff auf die Antike herausgestellt. Die Beiträge behandeln Texte von Brasch, Braun, Fichte, Fried, Grünbein, Hacks, Haefs, Handke, Jens, Köhlmeier, Kunert, Müller, Ransmayr, Schütz, Strauß und Wolf. Sie sind exemplarisch angelegt und schenken den Fragen der literarischen Form sowie der Funktion der Antikerezeption im Kontext des jeweiligen Gesamtwerks besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Zusätzlich zu den Essays (von Klassischen Philologen und Germanisten, die zum Gebiet der Antikerezeption einschlägig gearbeitet haben) sind programmatische Beiträge von den Autoren selbst, die eigens für diesen Band geschrieben und ausgewählt wurden, aufgenommen.

Blake was a visionary like no other. To some, like William Wordsworth, the only explanation for the remarkable spiritual world Blake witnessed and brought to life in his books was'insane genius'. Although such a view persisted well into the twentieth century, this is the pivotal work which challenged that perspective and changed forever our understanding of William Blake's genius, placing him in the esoteric tradition. For many this book will be a revelation; for lovers of Blake it is indispensable.

Die Beiträge zur Altertumskunde enthalten Monographien, Sammelbände, Editionen, Übersetzungen und Kommentare zu Themen aus den Bereichen Klassische, Mittel- und Neulateinische Philologie, Alte Geschichte, Archäologie, Antike Philosophie sowie Nachwirken der Antike bis in die Neuzeit. Dadurch leistet die Reihe einen umfassenden Beitrag zur Erschließung klassischer Literatur und zur Forschung im gesamten Gebiet der Altertumswissenschaften.

Classical Mythology in English Literature brings together a range of English versions of three classical myths. It allows students to explore the ways in which they have been reinterpreted and reinvented by writers throughout history. Beginning with a concise introduction to the principle Greco-Roman gods and heroes, the anthology then focuses on three stories:• Orpheus, the great musician and his quest to free his wife Eurydice from death• Venus and Adonis, the love goddess and the beautiful youth she loved• Pygmalion, the master sculptor who fell in love with his creation.Each section begins with the classical sources and ends with contemporary versions, showing how each myth has been used/abused or appropriated since its origins

In the absence of the stage directions employed by their modern equivalents, ancient playwrights were obliged to''encode''information into their texts that can be described as implicit stage directions. It is the presence of such information that permits modern''production criticism,''intended to determine how ancient plays were meant to be staged. Since the early nineteenth century, it has been debated whether Seneca's tragedies were or were not written for stage production. Seneca's dramatic texts contain material that looks precisely like the implicit stage directions found in all other ancient drama, and when his plays are subjected to production criticism, it emerges that they make sound dramaturgic sense. Also, Seneca avails himself of the same artificial and sometimes irrational dramatic conventions used by other ancient playwrights, a fact often ignored by those who argue that Seneca was only writing plays for reading or recitation. The internal evidence of the plays offers much to support, and little to contradict, the idea that his plays were written with the stage in mind.

The concealment of embarrassing, often sexual, secrets and the burden of political alliances and strategies-in short, sexual politics-motivated Chaucer in much of his work. This concept, long suspected but mostly ignored by Chaucer critics, finally receives its first full treatment in The Mythographic Chaucer. Firmly placing Chaucer in the cultural politics of his time, Jane Chance shows how he inverted the mythographic and textual conventions of the period for his own literary, social, and political purposes. Comparing significant mythological images, references, and figures in Chaucerian poems with those of other medieval mythographers, Chance discloses Chaucer's ironic use of mythographic tradition to disguise the scandalous and politically sensitive. Here we see, for instance, how Chaucer relied on the medieval model of poetic concealment to construct the fabulation (the narratio fabulosa, itself a medieval techne) of sexual politics. This analysis gives us a rich sense of the complexity of Chaucer's mythographic options and his playful employment of contextual material as he rewrote-and tried to resolve-tensions among vernacular, classical, and Christian (sometimes Hebraic) scriptural and textual traditions. Invaluable to an understanding of Chaucer, this book is also instructive in showing how mythographic analysis can combine'traditional'literary elucidation with the issues of contemporary cultural theory.

With insight and clarity, Norman Pratt makes available to the general reader an understanding of the major elements that shaped Seneca's plays. These he defines as Neo-Stoicism, declamatory rhetoric, and the chaotic, violent conditions of Senecan society.Seneca's drama shows the nature of this society and uses freely the declamatory rhetorical techniques familiar to any well-educated Roman. But the most important element, Pratt argues, is Neo-Stoicism, including technical aspects of this philosophy that previously have escaped notice. With these ingredients Seneca transformed the themes and characters inherited from Greek drama, casting them in a form that so radically departs from the earlier drama that Seneca's plays require a different mode of criticism.'The greatest need in the criticism of this drama is to understand its legitimacy as drama of a new kind in the anicent tradition,'Pratt writes.'It cannot be explained as an inferior imitation of Greek tragedy because, though inferior, it is not imitative in the strict sense of the word and has its own nature and motivation.'Pratt shows the functional interrelationship among philosophy, rhetoric, and'society'in Seneca's nine plays and assesses the plays'dramatic qualities. He finds that however melodramatic the plays may seem to the modern reader, Seneca's own career as Nero's mentor, statesman, and spokesman was scarcely less tumultuous than the lives of his characters. When the Neo-Stoicism and rhetoric of the plays are charged with Seneca's own tortured, passionate life, Pratt concludes,'The result is inevitably melodrama, melodrama of such energy and force that it changed the course of Western drama.'Originally published in 1983.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

L'ouvrage aborde un ancien mythe grec qui traite, à travers le style d'un conte, du problème du désir (Cupidon-Eros) et de l'âme (Psyché). Le conte nous est parvenu par la tradition romanesque d'Apulée, auteur latin du Iie siècle. Pour étudier avec précision les images du mythe, véhiculées par le conte, il fallait disposer d'une traduction nouvelle, dont le souci ne fût pas d'abord littéraire mais sémiotique ; c'est pourquoi on s'appuie ici sur la traduction de Bernard VERTEN qui y a apporté toute l'érudition et la précision nécessaires. L'ouvrage traite de l'éveil de la vie psychique profonde à l'amour de l'Amour, au désir du Désir. L'interprétation de toutes ces figures est une introduction au travail intérieur qui conduit de la beauté à l'amour. La voie du désir est aussi la voie de la métamorphose de la beauté visible en la réalité qu'elle symbolise.

Die Beiträge zur Altertumskunde enthalten Monographien, Sammelbände, Editionen, Übersetzungen und Kommentare zu Themen aus den Bereichen Klassische, Mittel- und Neulateinische Philologie, Alte Geschichte, Archäologie, Antike Philosophie sowie Nachwirken der Antike bis in die Neuzeit. Dadurch leistet die Reihe einen umfassenden Beitrag zur Erschließung klassischer Literatur und zur Forschung im gesamten Gebiet der Altertumswissenschaften.

This is the first comprehensive account of the relationship between Shakespeare and his favourite poet, Ovid.Jonathan Bate examines the full range of Shakespeares work, identifying Ovids presence not only in the narrative poems and pastoral comedies, but also in the Sonnets and mature tragedies. He shows how profoundly creative Ovids influence was, from the raped Lavinias turning of the pages of the Metamorphoses in Titus Andronicus, and the staging of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Nights Dream, to the reanimation of Hermiones statue in The Winters Tale and Prosperos renunciation of hismagic in The Tempest. The Heroides are shown to have been vital to Shakespeares female characters, but it is the Metamorphoses which animate Professor Bates book, just as they animated the whole of Shakespeares career.This original and elegantly written book reveals Shakespeare as an extraordinarily sophisticated reader of Ovidian myth and as a metamorphic artist as fluid and nimble as his classical original.From reviews of the hardback:Jonathan Bate has written the first comprehensive account of Shakespeares relationship with the poet who influenced him most deeply... His book is a fine example of scholarship put at the service of Shakespeare. Sunday TelegraphBates choice of Ovid as affording a means of returning to the idea of literature as transcending history seems to me both correct and very cunning... Bate is, again and again, brilliant. London Review of Booksexcellent study... he brilliantly demonstrates the fructifying presence of Ovid, overtly in the early and late work but also as a subtler underpresence in the mature tragedies. Shakespeare Survey

Description based upon print version of record.

In this pathbreaking book, which includes a powerful new translation of Hesiod's Works and Days by esteemed translator David Grene, Stephanie Nelson argues that a society's vision of farming contains deep indications about its view of the human place within nature, and our relationship to the divine. She contends that both Hesiod in the Works and Days and Vergil in the Georgics saw farming in this way, and so wrote their poems not only about farming itself, but also about its deeper ethical and religious implications. Hesiod, Nelson argues, saw farming as revealing that man must live by the sweat of his brow, and that good, for human beings, must always be accompanied by hardship. Within this vision justice, competition, cooperation, and the need for labor take their place alongside the uncertainties of the seasons and even of particular lucky and unlucky days to form a meaningful whole within which human life is an integral part. Vergil, Nelson argues, deliberately modeled his poem upon the Works and Days, and did so in order to reveal that his is a very different vision. Hesiod saw the hardship in farming; Vergil sees its violence as well. Farming is for him both our life within nature, and also our battle against her. Against the background of Hesiods poem, which found a single meaning for human life, Vergil thus creates a split vision and suggests that human beings may be radically alienated from both nature and the divine. Nelson argues that both the Georgics and the Works and Days have been misread because scholars have not seen the importance of the connection between the two poems, and because they have not seen that farming is the true concern of both, farming in its deepest and most profoundly unsettling sense.

In der 1968 gegründeten Reihe erscheinen Monographien aus den Gebieten der Griechischen und Lateinischen Philologie sowie der Alten Geschichte. Die Bände weisen eine große Vielzahl von Themen auf: neben sprachlichen, textkritischen oder gattungsgeschichtlichen philologischen Untersuchungen stehen sozial-, politik-, finanz- und kulturgeschichtliche Arbeiten aus der Klassischen Antike und der Spätantike. Entscheidend für die Aufnahme ist die Qualität einer Arbeit; besonderen Wert legen die Herausgeber auf eine umfassende Heranziehung der einschlägigen Texte und Quellen und deren sorgfältige kritische Auswertung.

Synthesizing a wealth of detailed observations, Joseph Solodow studies the structure of Ovid's poem Metamorphoses, the role of the narrator, Ovid's treatment of myth, and the relationship between Ovid's and Virgil's presentations of Aeneas. He argues that for Ovid metamorphosis is an act of clarification, a form of artistic creation, and that the metamorphosed creatures in his poem are comparable to works of art. These figures ultimately aid us in perceiving and understanding the world.

This is the first collection of critical essays devoted exclusively to Shakespeare's first published work, his long narrative poem Venus and Adonis which established his reputation as the literary darling of London and the heir of Ovid. Particularly important is the book's coverage of the little-known presence of Venus and Adonis on stage.A s

Readers new to ancient epic are hampered in two ways: they do not know the ancient languages, and they are unfamiliar with the ancient world. This survey addresses the needs of these readers by offering guidance through the major classical writers of epic: it begins with Homer and concludes with an overview of the development of late ancient epic and of the interface between the epic and the novel.

Chaucer's Legend of Good Women is a testament to the disparate views of women prevalent in the Middle Ages. Dr Percival contends that the complex medieval notion of Woman informs the structure of the poem: in the Prologue Chaucer praises conventional ideas of female virtue, while in the Legends he demonstrates a humorous scepticism, apparently influenced by a contemporary antifeminist tradition. The debate Chaucer thus promotes could be relied on to entertain many medieval readers, at the same time that it demonstrates the power of the vernacular translator/poet to handle language wittily and to do just as he pleases with the august texts of the past. This is a comprehensive account of the Legend's interpretative puzzles, which does not ignore the element of political writing, and adds to a close and nuanced reading of the text an examination of literary, historical, and social contexts.

Milton's 1645 Poems is a double volume, containing not only Milton's major English lyric poems - the Nativity ode,'L'Allegro'and'Il Penseroso,''Lycidas,'and the mask Comusbut also his youthful elegiac poetry and his mature Latin poems, which were written in the late 1630s after his major English lyrics had already been composed. In Milton and the Tangles of Neaera's Hair, Stella P. Revard traces the development of the 1645 Poems as a double book and investigates the debt of both English and Latin poetry to the neo-Latin and vernacular traditions of the Continental Renaissance. Too often critics simply ignore the presence of the Latin poems in the 1645 volume. Revard claims that to do so is to miss Milton's implicit intention to balance English and Latin works. She shows that the Latin poems complement the English works and reveal even more than the English poems the personal, political, and cultural crises that Milton was undergoing in the late 1630s, supplementing what the earlier English poems and particularly'Lycidas'tell us about Milton's shift of direction as poet. The Latin poems also announce Milton's intention to write an epic in his native tongue rather than in Latin. Yet even as Milton renounced Latin as the language for poetical expression, he resolved to carry into his English poems the ideals of the Continental humanistic tradition. Milton and the Tangles of Neaera's Hair provides a balanced view of Milton's first book of poetry and also looks at poetry from the Continental Renaissance tradition hitherto neglected. The reader is better able to understand how this tradition shaped both the English and the Latin poetry of Milton's 1645 Poems, as well as how Milton became the poet who went on to write the greatest epic in the English language, Paradise Lost

Florence Verducci challenges the presuppositions and expectations that have led to embarrassed censure of the wit and comic irreverence that Ovid wove into these dramatic monologues, addressed by his heroines to absent lovers.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Die Beiträge zur Altertumskunde enthalten Monographien, Sammelbände, Editionen, Übersetzungen und Kommentare zu Themen aus den Bereichen Klassische, Mittel- und Neulateinische Philologie, Alte Geschichte, Archäologie, Antike Philosophie sowie Nachwirken der Antike bis in die Neuzeit. Dadurch leistet die Reihe einen umfassenden Beitrag zur Erschließung klassischer Literatur und zur Forschung im gesamten Gebiet der Altertumswissenschaften.