The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 1, Early Greek Poetry

Covers the epic tradition, the didactic poems of Hesiod and his imitators, and the work of the poets during the archaic age.

P. E. Easterling (Edited by), Bernard M. W. Knox (Edited by)

9780521359818, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 May 1989

264 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.362 kg

"...a mighty achievement, bringing together the work of nineteen of the finest scholars in the field to produce a single volume...It will surely not be superceded in this century, and probably never will..." The New York Review of Books

The period from the eighth to the fifth centuries B.C. was one of extraordinary creativity in the Greek-speaking world. Poetry was a public and popular medium, and its production was closely related to developments in contemporary society. At the time when the city states were acquiring their distinctive institutions epic found the greatest of all its exponents in Homer, and lyric poetry for both solo and choral performance became a genre which attracted poets of the first rank, writers of the quality of Sappho, Alcaeus and Pindar, whose influence on later literature was to be profound. This volume covers the epic tradition, the didactic poems of Hesiod and his imitators, and the wide-ranging work of the iambic, elegiac and lyric poets of what is loosely called the archaic age. The contributors make use of recent papyrus finds (particularly in the case of Archilochus and Stesichorus) to fill out the picture of a cosmopolitan and highly sophisticated literary culture which had not yet found its intellectual centre in Athens.

Abbreviations
Editorial note
1. Homer G. S. Kirk
2. Hesiod J. P. Barron and P. E. Easterling
3. The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod J. P. Barron, P. E. Easterling and G. S. Kirk
4. Elegy and iambus J. P. Barron, P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox
5. Archaic choral lyric Charles Segal
6. Monody David A. Campbell
7. Choral lyric in the fifth century Charles Segal
Appendix of authors and works Martin Drury
Metrical appendix Martin Drury
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary essays [DNF]