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)

9780521045766, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 December 2007

612 pages
21.6 x 14 x 3.5 cm, 0.798 kg

'… Diggle has elegantly repackaged in an inviting school edition his magisterial text, translation and commentary on Theophrastus: Characters that is fun to read and appropriate for a number of pedagogical applications.' James J. Clauss, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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]