Greek Lyric
A Selection

Full and up-to-date commentary on a varied selection of poems from the attractive corpus of Greek lyric.

Felix Budelmann (Edited by)

9780521633871, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 May 2018

338 pages
21.6 x 13.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'… a remarkable feat of clarity and compression, … exactly what you would want to put into the hands of a student completely new to the subject.' Classics For All

The corpus of Greek lyric holds a twofold attraction. It provides glimpses of the song culture of early Greece in which lyric performance had a central place, and it presents us with some captivating and memorable poetry which has been admired since antiquity. This edition gathers poems by seven of the nine canonical lyricists (Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides), as well as a number of carmina popularia and carmina convivalia and passages from Timotheus' Persians. Both longer and shorter pieces are included. The introduction discusses major issues in the study of Greek lyric including genre, performance and transmission. The commentary is literary in emphasis but also treats questions of syntax, textual reconstruction, metre and dialect. The volume will be of interest to higher-level undergraduates and graduate students as well as to scholars.

List of maps
Preface
Conventions and abbreviations
Introduction
1. Definitions and perspectives
2. Charting the corpus
3. Genre and genres
4. Performers, authors and the lyric voice
5. Relationship with epic
6. Dissemination and transmission
7. Metre
8 Dialect
Greek lyric: a selection: Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Timotheus, Anonymous song
Commentary
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Poetry [DC]