S. J. Harrison

Vergil's Aeneid was written in twelve books in the last years of the poet's life (29-19 BC). It was designed as a national epic of Rome and is one of the greatest poems of world literature. The tenth book, which contains some of the poem's most dramatic war-narrative, has been unjustlyneglected by Vergilian scholars, and this is the first major commentary to deal exclusively with it. Its aim is to explain Vergil's text for the modern reader. A full introduction examines the literary aspects of Aeneid 10; the scholarly commentary assesses Vergil's skill as a Latin poet and hiscareful and original use of literary models (especially the Iliad of Homer). There is also some discussion of the major interpretational problems of the Aeneid raised in Book 10. The Latin text is reproduced from R.A.B. Mynors's edition in the Oxford Classical Texts series. A facing Englishtranslation makes the text accessible to those with no knowledge of Latin.

Aeneid 10

S. J. Harrison sets out to sketch one answer to a key question in Latin literary history: why did the period c.39-19 BC in Rome produce such a rich range of complex poetical texts, above all in the work of the famous poets Vergil and Horace? Harrison argues that one central aspect of this literary flourishing was the way in which different poetic genres or kinds (pastoral, epic, tragedy, etc.) interacted with each other and that that interaction itself was a prominent literary subject. He explores this issue closely through detailed analysis of passages of the two poets' works between these dates. Harrison opens with an outline of generic theory ancient and modern as a basis for his argument, suggesting how different poetic genres and their partial presence in each other can be detected in the Latin poetry of the first century BC.

Generic Enrichment in Vergil and Horace

This collection of essays explores the extensive use of Latin and Greek literary texts in a range of recent poetry written in English. It contains both contributions from poets, who include Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney, and Michael Longley, talking about their uses of classical literature in their own work in lyric poetry and in theatre poetry, and essays from academic experts on the same topics. Living Classics asks why contemporary poets are returning to making versions of and allusions to Greek and Roman literature in their work, and interrogates the parallel interest of modern classical scholars in the contemporary reception of classical texts.

Greece and Rome in Contemporary Poetry in English

Living Classics

This book is a response to the literary pleasures and scholarly problems of reading the texts of Apuleius, most famous for his novel Metamorphoses or Golden Ass. Living in second-century North Africa, Apuleius was more than an author of fiction; he was a consummate orator and professional intellectual, Platonist philosopher, extraordinary stylist, relentless self-promoter, and versatile author of a remarkably diverse body of work, much of which is lost to us. This book is written for those able to read Apuleius in Latin, and Apuleian works are accordingly quoted without translation (although where they exist suitable translations have been indicated). In this book Dr Harrison has provided a literary handbook to all the works of Apuleius as well as the Metamorphoses, and has set his works against their intellectual background: not only Apuleius' career as a performing intellectual, a sophist, in second-century Roman North Africa, but also the larger contemporary framework of the Greek Second Sophistic. While focusing primarily on the texts as literature and literary-historical, the book also deals with Apuleius' works of didactic philosophy and his consequent connection with Middle Platonism.

A Latin Sophist

Apuleius

Marília Futre Pinheiro

The study of the reception of the ancient novel and of its literary and cultural heritage is one of the most appealing issues in the story of this literary genre. In no other genre has the vitality of classical tradition manifested itself in such a lasting and versatile manner as in the novel. However, this unifying, centripetal quality also worked in an opposite direction, spreading to and contaminating future literatures. Over the centuries, from Antiquity to the present time there have been many authors who drew inspiration from the Greek and Roman novels or used them as models, from Cervantes to Shakespeare, Sydney or Racine, not to mention the profound influence these texts exercised on, for instance, sixteenth-to eighteenth-century Italian, Portuguese and Spanish literature. Volume I is divided into sections that follow a chronological order, while Volume II deals with the reception of the ancient novel in literature and art. The first volume brings together an international group of scholars whose main aim is to analyse the survival of the ancient novel in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in the modern era. The contributors to the second volume have undertaken the task of discussing the survival of the ancient novel in the visual arts, in literature and in the performative arts. The papers assembled in these two volumes on reception are at the forefront of scholarship in the field and will stimulate scholarly research on the ancient novel and its influence over the centuries up to modern times, thus enriching not only Classics but also modern languages and literatures, cultural history, literary theory and comparative literature.

Receptions of the Ancient Novel

Fictional Traces

S. J Harrison

This book collects together seventeen new pieces on the Roman poet Horace, all specially written for the volume by scholars of international reputation. The book is intended both as a celebration of the bimillenary of Horace's death, and to mark the retirement of Professor R. G. M. Nisbet, noted Horatian scholar, from the Corpus Christi Chair of Latin at Oxford. Almost half the contributions deal with Horace's Odes, treating individual poems and general issues such as structure and historical background. There are also pieces on the Epodes, the Satires, and the Epistles. A third of the collection deals with general Horatian issues such as the poet's social status, his treatment of politics, and the later reception of his poetry. An introduction sets the volume in the context of contemporary Horatian scholarship, and there are indexes and a full bibliography.

A Bimillenary Celebration

Homage to Horace

Stephen Harrison

Lorna Hardwick

Classics in the Modern World explores the features and implications of a 'democratic turn' in modern perceptions of the ancient world. Exploring the relationship between Greek and Roman ways of thinking and modern definitions of democratic practices and approaches, it enables a wider re-evaluation of the role of classics in the modern world.

A Democratic Turn?

Classics in the Modern World

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro

The tenth book of Vergil's Aeneid contains some of the poem's most dramatic war narrative and yet has been unjustly neglected by Vergilian scholars. Making the text accessible to the modern reader, this book provides a full introduction examining the literary aspects of Aeneid 10, notes on the text and translation, a discussion of the major interpretational problems of the Aeneid raised in Book 10, and a facing English translation of the text for those with little or no knowledge of Latin. The first major commentary to deal exclusively with Book 10, this work will be invaluable to all interested in the great Roman epic. -- Amazon.com.

With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Vergil, Aeneid 10

This book studies one of the few novels from the Roman Empire, Apuleius' Metamorphoses or Golden Ass. Harrison shows that this work is one of remarkable literary complexity. The volume traces some of the history of the novel's criticism and offers a detailed analysis of its key sections and issues.

Literary Texture in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Framing the Ass

K. W. Gransden

The Aeneid is a landmark of literary narrative and poetic sensibility. This 2004 guide gives a full account of the historical setting and significance of Virgil's epic, and discusses the poet's use of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the most celebrated episodes in the poem, including the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas' visit to the underworld. The volume examines Virgil's psychological and philosophical insights, and explains the poem's status as the central classic of European culture. The final chapter considers the Aeneid's influence on later writers including Dante and the Romantics. The guide to further reading has been updated and will prove to be an invaluable resource to students coming to The Aeneid for the first time.

Virgil: The Aeneid

Stephen J. Harrison

This collection of essays by leading scholars argues that, in the contemporary context of the study and interpretation of classical literature at universities, traditional classical scholarship and modern theoretical ideas need to work with each other in the common task of the interpretation of texts, in order to ensure the survival and relevance of the study of classical literature in the twenty-first century.

S. J. Harrison

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