Ancient Greek Epigrams A Selection

This book provides vocabulary and commentary to 85 Ancient Greek epigrams arranged chronologically from the end of the sixth century BCE to the middle of the first century CE. Sixteen named epigrammatists are included, as well as two anonymous works. Although this selection from the thousands of surviving Ancient Greek epigrams is a personal one, examples from the four main thematic areas of epigrammatic writing are represented: funerary/sepulchral; dedicatory; amatory/erotic; display/epideictic. Slightly more than half of the epigrams are by Callimachus, Meleager, and Philodemus (often considered the three "greatest" Ancient Greek epigrammatists), but there are many interesting and fascinating examples from other writers as well. In addition to complete vocabulary listings for each epigram, all poetic, Ionic, and Doric forms are given their Attic equivalents. The notes also explicate syntactical and grammatical aspects that may be challenging for intermediate students, point out many (not all!) of the various literary/rhetorical figures and tropes that are employed, and provide information on historical and cultural issues raised by the poems. In order to encourage reading of the texts out loud (an essential component of most epigrams' literary nature, and one that often works hand-in-glove with the literary/rhetorical figures and tropes used), a section is provided that describes both the nature of the standard meter used in epigrams, the elegiac couplet, and the basic rules regarding Ancient Greek scansion. Finally, English translations of certain epigrams (some of which are provided with two or more versions, for the purpose of further comparison) are included to demonstrate the variety of ways that these poems have been appropriated and reproduced linguistically, aesthetically and culturally in the past four centuries.

This volume presents a selection of Greek epigrams in verse translation, including many from the recently discovered Milan papyrus. The poets represented are Anyte, Leonidas of Tarentum, Asclepiades, Posidippus, Callimachus, Theocritus, Meleager, Philodemos and Lucillius.

Greek epigram is a remarkable poetic form. The briefest of all ancient Greek genres, it is also the most resilient: for almost a thousand years it attracted some of the finest Greek poetic talents as well as exerting a profound interest on Latin literature, and it continues to inspire and influence modern translations and imitations. After a long period of neglect, research on epigram has surged during recent decades, and this volume draws on the fruits of that renewed scholarly engagement. It is concerned not with the work of individual authors or anthologies, but with the evolution of particular subgenres over time, and provides a selection of in-depth treatments of key aspects of Greek literary epigram of the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine periods.0Individual chapters offer insights into a variety of topics, from explorations of the dynamic interactions between poets and their predecessors and contemporaries, and of the relationship between epigram and its socio-political, cultural, and literary background from the third century BCE up until the sixth century CE, to its interaction with its origins, inscribed epigram more generally, other literary genres, the visual arts, and Latin poetry, as well as the process of editing and compilation which generated the collections which survived into the modern world. Through the medium of individual studies the volume as a whole seeks to offer a sense of this vibrant and dynamic poetic form and its world which will be of value to scholars and students of Greek epigram and classical literature more broadly.

This edition with commentary covers a wide selection of Hellenistic epigrams in a way suitable for both students and scholars.

Excerpt from Select Epigrams From the Greek Anthology About four thousand of them have been preserved in two collections made at Constantinople in the tenth and the fourteenth century, and the remainder have been brought together from literary and inscriptional sources by more scholars. The earliest of the date from 700 B.C., and they extend from that time almost continuously down to 1000 A.D. Throughout all that period they present little or no change in language or versification. A form of poetry which remained alive for seventeen centuries is unique in literary history, and bears striking testimony to the extraordinary vitality of the Greek genius. That vitality is not yet exhausted; it is still an influence over modern life, art, and thought. This selection of Greek minor poetry draws for us a picture of Greece in little; it is an epitome, slightly sketched with a facile hand, of the book of Greek life. A translation, notwithstanding its limitations and its necessary inadequacy, may give to English readers much of the substance, and something even of the tone and flavour, of the original. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.