Ruth Morello

A. D. Morrison

A series of case studies in ancient letters, asking how each letter writer manipulates the epistolary tradition, why he chose the letter form over any other, and what effect the publication of volumes of collected letters might have had upon a reader's engagement with epistolary works.

Classical and Late Antique Epistolography

Ancient Letters

The surviving body of ancient letters offers the reader a stunning variety of material, ranging from the everyday letters preserved among the Oxyrhynchus papyri to imperial rescripts, New Testament Epistles, fictional or pseudepigraphical letters and a wealth of missives on almost every conceivable subject. They offer us a unique insight into ancient practices in the fields of politics, literature, philosophy, medicine and many other areas. This collection presents a series of case studies in ancient letters, asking how each letter writer manipulates the epistolary tradition, why he chose the letter form over any other, and what effect the publication of volumes of collected letters might have had upon a reader's engagement with epistolary works. This volume is the first of its kind on ancient letters in any language, and it brings together both well-established and promising young scholars currently working in the fields of ancient literature, history, philosophy and medicine to engage in a shared debate about this most adaptable and 'interdisciplinary' of genres.

Chiara Thumiger

Pindar's fifteen victory odes for Sicilian victors include some of Pindar's most impressive and widely admired poems, such as the first two Olympians and first three Pythians. The majority of the Sicilian odes date from between about 476 to 466 BC and were composed to celebrate the victories of the great tyrants of Sicily Hieron of Syracuse and Theron of Akragas or their families or courtiers at the crown games. The Sicilian tyrants made spectacular use of their wealth and power in competing in equestrian events at the games and in commissioning Pindar and Bacchylides to celebrate their victories in song. This book examines the Sicilian odes of Pindar as a group, investigating the ways in which they interact and exploit their overlapping and intersecting audiences. It studies the different performances of Pindar's odes (including reperformances subsequent to the first performance) and the audiences of these performances, and argues that these have important consequences for our view of the role victory odes played in the self-display of the Sicilian tyrannies to one another and the wider Greek world, the intertexts between the odes, the 'conventional' material in Pindar and the ways in which Pindar fulfils his promise of lasting fame for his patrons.

Performances and Audiences in Pindar's Sicilian Victory Odes

Alison Sharrock

Daryn Lehoux

The volume unites the three aspects - poetry, philosophy, and science - found in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. With ten original essays and an analytical introduction, the volume aims not only to combine different approaches within single covers, but to offer responses to the poem by experts from all three scholarly backgrounds.

A. D. Morrison

Books

Your next favorite book is out there