Theophrastus: Characters

This edition offers an improved text and translation of the collection, with a comprehensive commentary.

Theophrastus (Author), James Diggle (Edited and translated by)

9780521839808, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2004

612 pages
22.5 x 15 x 4 cm, 0.935 kg

' This is a masterly achievement in virtually all respects, and one whose great wealth of erudition will make it an invaluable source of reference for anyone seriously concerned with the private and public psychologies of life in classical Athens.' Hermathena

Theophrastus' Characters is a collection of 30 short character-sketches of various types of individuals who might be met in the streets of Athens in the late fourth century BC. It is a work which had a profound influence on European literature, and this is a detailed and elaborate treatment of it. This edition presents an improved text, a translation which is designed both to be readable and to bring out fully the nuances of the very difficult Greek, and a commentary which covers every feature of the text and its interpretation and offers particularly full elucidation of the often enigmatic references to contemporary social practices and historical events. There is also a lengthy introduction, which discusses the antecedents and affiliations of the work, its date, its purpose, and the manuscript tradition. Extensive indexes are also provided, including an Index Verborum.

Preface
Introduction: 1. Theophrastus and his times
2. The nature and purpose of the Characters
3. Date
4. Transmission
5. Some texts and commentaries
Text and translation
Commentary
Abbreviations and bibliography
Indexes.

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