Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
From Achilles's heel to the sword of Damocles, Western culture teems with allusions from the rich heritage of classical literature, and this new edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, the first updating since Sir Paul Harvey's original edition of 1937, provides the key to these works and the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations that produced them. Substantially revising the first edition, this volume condenses the findings of the most recent scholarship into highly readable prose and supplies a wealth of background information not found in Harvey's Companion. Indispensable to those studying classical literature in depth, the book will be equally accessible to the non-specialist. All Greek is transliterated, with translations given for all quotations from Greek and Latin. The main focus of the Companion remains the lives and works of the principal authors. Biographical entries offer the essential facts and sift the conjectural evidence, while entries on the major works include discussions of the philosophical dialogues and political speeches and plot summaries of the epic poems and plays. The various literary forms--epic, comedy, tragedy, rhetorical writing--are covered in depth, supplemented by articles on the origins of the Greek and Latin alphabets and languages. The Companion also puts this literature into its societal and historical contexts, including many articles on political, social, and artistic achievements. We learn, for example, about the political climate that produced the great speeches of Demosthenes and Cicero. Orators, statesmen, and generals stalk the pages, and major battles and conquests from the time of Alexander to the fall of Rome are summarized. Articles on contemporary social mores and religious beliefs help explain literary references, while the glories of philosophy, science, and art are celebrated from Cynics to Stoics, astronomy to water-clocks, and flute competitions to vase painting. Helpful maps supplement geographical entries, a chronological table provides an overview of the main historical and literary events, and a systematic set of cross-references links the entries. The breadth and accuracy of this volume will surely make it the standard reference book of its kind for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
A Comprehensive Survey of Classical Literature
Customer Rating:
A useful reference work for anyone interested in the literature of the ancient world, The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is arranged alphabetically and contains encyclopedic entries for all of the major authors and their particular works, Greek and Latin gods, mythological characters, histories of Greece and Rome, major historical figures, and relevant places.
The original edition of the 1930s by Sir Paul Harvey became a classic of its own and was intended by the author to be a handbook of information for readers of the Greek and Latin authors and of modern works that touched upon the classical world. The current second edition is edited by Margaret Howatson, who revises and enlarges the Harvey edition. She notes that while a few of the entries on technical subjects were written with classical specialists in mind, the book generally requires no knowledge of Greek or Latin and is intended for anyone curious to find out more about the classical world.
An ideal companion for any reader interested in Greek or Latin literature and history.
Avocational Requirement
Customer Rating:
For anyone interested in reading from Greek and Latin / Roman history, literature, philosophy, &c. this will help you through. Entries include texts, themes, authors, characters, place names, and genre discussion.
If you have always wanted to read Virgil, Homer, Julius Caesar, and were not inclined to begin with a chronological survey of culture, history, philosophy, this book will enliven and make intelligible your reading. One literary help for me was to be able to look up the name of a character, geographical location, or common noun, and find enough information to make a whole text intelligible.
While Oxford Classical Dictionary covers subjects in greater detail, this volume is a direct help in reading Greek and Latin texts in translation.
Select button not working? 
