Emmet I. Robbins earned an international reputation as a scholar of ancient Greek poetry, possessing a broad cultural background and a command of many languages that allowed him to present sensitive and informed readings of poets from Homer to the tragedians. Thalia Delighting in Song assembles for the first time his work from 1975 through 1999, reflecting his close reading of the Greek texts and his firm grasp of their literary, historical and mythological contexts. Among the essays included in this volume are important reflections on the poetry of Homer, Alcman, Sappho, Pindar and Aeschylus. Also featured are Robbins' writings that situate Greek texts in their wider contexts, comparing Greek poetry and modern opera, for example, or assessing the enduring influence of myth in the Indo-European traditions, accounting for links between Greek literature and the poetry, sagas and songs of several other cultures. Thalia Delighting in Song ensures that the next generation of Classicists will continue to benefit from the insights of one of the foremost scholars in the field.
Emmet I. Robbins earned an international reputation as a scholar of ancient Greek poetry, possessing a broad cultural background and a command of many languages that allowed him to present sensitive and informed readings of poets from Homer to the tragedians. Thalia Delighting in Song assembles for the first time his work from 1975 through 1999, reflecting his close reading of the Greek texts and his firm grasp of their literary, historical and mythological contexts. Among the essays included in this volume are important reflections on the poetry of Homer, Alcman, Sappho, Pindar and Aeschylus. Also featured are Robbins' writings that situate Greek texts in their wider contexts, comparing Greek poetry and modern opera, for example, or assessing the enduring influence of myth in the Indo-European traditions, accounting for links between Greek literature and the poetry, sagas and songs of several other cultures. Thalia Delighting in Song ensures that the next generation of Classicists will continue to benefit from the insights of one of the foremost scholars in the field.
Stephen Scully both offers a reading of Hesiod's Theogony and traces the reception and shadows of this authoritative Greek creation story in Greek and Roman texts up to Milton's own creation myth, which sought to "soar above th' Aonian Mount [i.e., the Theogony]...and justify the ways of God to men." Scully also considers the poem in light of Near Eastern creation stories, including the Enûma elish and Genesis, as well as the most striking of modern "scientific myths," Freud's Civilization and its Discontents. Scully reads Hesiod's poem as a hymn to Zeus and a city-state creation myth, arguing that Olympus is portrayed as an idealized polity and--with but one exception--a place of communal harmony. This reading informs his study of the Theogony's reception in later writings about polity, discord, and justice. The rich and various story of reception pays particular attention to the long Homeric Hymns, Solon, the Presocratics, Pindar, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Plato in the Archaic and Classical periods; to the Alexandrian scholars, Callimachus, Euhemerus, and the Stoics in the Hellenistic period; to Ovid, Apollodorus, Lucian, a few Church fathers, and the Neoplatonists in the Roman period. Tracing the poem's reception in the Byzantine, medieval, and early Renaissance, including Petrarch and Erasmus, the book ends with a lengthy exploration of Milton's imitations of the poem in Paradise Lost. Scully also compares what he considers Hesiod's artful interplay of narrative, genealogical lists, and keen use of personified abstractions in the Theogony to Homeric narrative techniques and treatment of epic verse.
Focusing on songs by the troubadours and trouvères from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera contends that song is not best analyzed as "words plus music" but rather as a distinctive way of sounding words. Rather than situating them in their immediate period, Sarah Kay fruitfully listens for and traces crosscurrents between medieval French and Occitan songs and both earlier poetry and much later opera. Reflecting on a song's songlike quality—as, for example, the sound of light in the dawn sky, as breathed by beasts, as sirenlike in its perils—Kay reimagines the diversity of songs from this period, which include inset lyrics in medieval French narratives and the works of Guillaume de Machaut, as works that are as much desired and imagined as they are actually sung and heard. Kay understands song in terms of breath, the constellations, the animal soul, and life itself. Her method also draws inspiration from opera, especially those that inventively recreate medieval song, arguing for a perspective on the manuscripts that transmit medieval song as instances of multimedia, quasi-operatic performances. Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera features a companion website (cornellpress.manifoldapp.org/projects/medieval-song) hosting twenty-four audio or video recordings, realized by professional musicians specializing in early music, of pieces discussed in the book, together with performance scores, performance reflections, and translations of all recorded texts. These audiovisual materials represent an extension in practice of the research aims of the book—to better understand the sung dimension of medieval song.
First published in 1874, “The Extant Odes of Pindar” contains a complete collection of all known odes written by Ancient Greek lyric poet Pindar. Pindar numbers amongst the nine canonical lyric poets of ancient Greece. Relatively well-preserved, his odes convey the values and beliefs of Ancient Greece at the beginning of the classical period. Contents include: “For Hieron of Syracuse, Winner in the Horse Race”, “For Theron Of Akragas, Winner in the Chariot-race”, “For Theron Of Akragas, Winner in the Chariot-race”, “For Psaumis of Kamarina, Winner in the Mule-chariot-race”, “For Psaumis of Kamarina, Winner in the Mule-chariot-race”, “For Ageias of Syracuse, Winner in the Muile-chariot-race”, etc. Ernest James Myers (1844–1921) was a Classicist, author, and poet. Other notable works by this author include: “The Judgement of Prometheus” (1886), “Gathered Poems” (1904), and “Lord Althorp: a Biography” (1890). Macha Press is republishing this classic biography now in a new edition complete with the extract 'Classical Games' by Francis Storr.
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Extant Odes of Pindar" (Translated with Introduction and Short Notes by Ernest Myers) by Pindar. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Pindar, the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, is renowned for his consummate and intricate verses, composed in celebration of victors at the Panhellenic festivals of the ancient world. The Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Latin and Greek texts. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete extant works of Pindar, with beautiful illustrations, rare fragments, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Pindar's life and works * Features Pindar’s complete extant Victory odes, in both English translation (Myers) and the original Greek * Concise introduction to the poetry and other works * Includes translations previously appearing in Loeb Classical Library edition of Pindar * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the works you want to read with individual contents tables * Includes all of Pindar's rare fragments from the Loeb edition, first time in digital print * Features a bonus biography - discover Pindar's ancient world * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Translations PINDAR’S VICTORY ODES FRAGMENTS The Greek Texts LIST OF GREEK TEXTS The Biography THE LIFE OF PINDAR by Sir John Edwin Sandys Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles
Example in this ebook More perhaps than any other country in Europe, Greece owes its charm to the traditions of a remote past. It has no lack of fine scenery, and there is much that is interesting in its modern life; but what chiefly distinguishes it from other countries is the rich and beautiful mythology which is reflected in its poetry, its art, and its philosophy, and was to a large extent the inspiration of its glorious history. It will not be expected that any attempt should be made in these pages to give an adequate account of the artistic and architectural creations which, even in their ruins, form the chief attraction of the country. For detailed information on these matters, the reader must be left to consult such guide-books as Baedeker and Murray, or works specially devoted to archæology or art. The object of the present writer will be attained if he succeed in providing a congenial intellectual atmosphere for the scenes and objects to be presented by the artist. For this purpose it will be necessary, among other things, to recall many of the ancient legends, as well as the historical events associated with the places referred to. The history cannot be understood apart from the mythology, for the latter is a key to the religious faith as well as to the patriotic sentiment of the nation. Opinions may differ as to the right interpretation of many of the myths, but whatever explanation we may be disposed to give of them, whether we regard them as allegorical, semi-historical, or purely poetical, they are generally full of human interest, and they were very dear to the Greeks as the embodiment of their earliest thoughts and cherished memories. Embalmed in their poetry, consecrated by their temples, and signalised by many other monuments, the Greek mythology formed for centuries the chief intellectual wealth of the nation. Even when history and philosophy had begun to make their influence felt, the old stories, dramatised by the tragic poets, still continued to fill the imagination and to occupy the attention of all classes of the people. Though Plato had a good deal to say against some of them from an ethical point of view, he did not propose in his ideal Republic to do away with them altogether, he only wished them to be so corrected and purified as to promote the interests of a sound morality and a reasonable theology. An important feature of Greek mythology was its close connection with the received genealogies. These nearly always terminated, at the upper end, in a god or a hero, after whom a family or a group of families was named, with the curious result, to our modern mind, that the shorter the pedigree the more honour it conferred upon its living representative. The public genealogies were thus an incentive both to the piety and the pride of the more influential classes, and they help to account for the reverence in which the ancient mythology was so long held by such an enlightened nation as the Greeks. With the exception of Palestine, there is probably no country that can compare with Greece for the influence it has exerted on the life and thought of the world, in proportion to its size and population. In area it was never so large as Scotland, and its population, which is now under two millions and a half, was probably never much greater. To be continue in this ebook
Pindar-the 'Theban eagle', as Thomas Gray famously called him-has often been taken as the archetype of the sublime poet: soaring into the heavens on wings of language and inspired by visions of eternity. In this much-anticipated new study, Robert Fowler asks in what ways the concept of the sublime can still guide a reading of the greatest of the Greek lyric poets. Working with ancient and modern treatments of the topic, especially the poetry and writings of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843), arguably Pindar's greatest modern reader, he develops the case for an aesthetic appreciation of Pindar's odes as literature. Building on recent trends in criticism, he shifts the focus away from the first performance and the orality of Greek culture to reception and the experience of Pindar's odes as text. This change of emphasis yields a fresh discussion of many facets of Pindar's astonishing art, including the relation of the poems to their occasions, performativity, the poet's persona, his imagery, and his myths. Consideration of Pindar's views on divinity, transcendence, time, and the limits of language reveals him to be not only a great writer but a great thinker.
