Epigrams from the Greek Anthology

by Gideon Nisbet (Editor)

Overview

Lush Diodorus sets the lads on fire,
But now another has him in his net -
Timarion, the boy with wanton eyes . . .
Meleager, AP 12.109

Encompassing four thousand short poems and more, the ramshackle classic we call the Greek Anthology gathers up a millennium of snapshots from ancient daily life. Its influence echoes not merely in the classic tradition of the English epigram (Pope, Dryden) but in Rudyard Kipling, Ezra Pound, Virgina Woolf, T. S. Eliot, H.D., and the poets of the First World War. Its variety is almost infinite. Victorious armies, ruined cities, and Olympic champions share space with lovers' quarrels and laments for the untimely dead - but also with jokes and riddles, art appreciation, potted biographies of authors, and scenes from country life and the workplace.

This selection of more than 600 epigrams in verse is the first major translation from the Greek Anthology in nearly a century. Each of the Anthology's books of epigrams is represented here, in manuscript order, and with extensive notes on the history and myth that lie behind them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198854654
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2021
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,111,883
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 5.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gideon Nisbet is Reader in Classics at the University of Birmingham. He researches and teaches in ancient literature, particularly epigram, and its reception in the modern world. His previous OUP publications include Greek Epigram in the Roman Empire (2003), Greek Epigram in Reception (2013), and, also in the Oxford World's Classics, Martial: Epigrams, with Parallel Latin Text (2015).

Table of Contents

IntroductionThe Christian epigramsEpigrams at CyzicusErotic epigrams by various poetsThe dedicatory epigramsEpigrams on tombsEpigrams of Saint Gregory the TheologianRhetorical epigramsAdvisory epigramsSympotic and scoptic epigramsStrato's Boyish MuseEpigrams in assorted metresArithmetical problems, riddles, and oraclesMiscellaneous epigramsThe Planudean AppendixExplantory Notes

Editorial Reviews

"This new edition of Greek epigrams, translated by Gideon Nisbet ... must be counted as a service to society as well as a significant literary achievement." — Robert S. Erickson, The New Criterion

"The verse translations are elegant, often witty, and amazingly faithful, and all the explanatory material helpful." — Professor Simon Hornblower, University of Oxford

"This lively, learned, witty, yet sometimes melancholy, translation is a thing of great beauty. Dipping in and out of it has been a joy." — Professor Llloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Cardiff University

"My quibbles with Nisbet often concern the Greek text being translated. He accepts that of W.R. Paton, The Greek Anthology, Loeb Classical Library, 5 vols (Cambridge MA 1916-1918), but a look at subsequent textual work might have repaid the effort: for example, Tueller's revision of Paton for the difficult texts of book 3. Nisbet wisely avoids burdening his book with scholarly detail, although the endnotes are helpful on mythical and historical matters, and sometimes on stylistic points hard to convey in translation. He provides further guidance in the introduction and index. Especially for those new to the subject, the introduction (vii-xlii) outlines the history of Greek epigram and the Anthology, reviews its content, sketches modern reception and offers a helpful bibliography." — Joseph W. Day, JHS

From the Publisher