The Classical Period lasted from 1200 BCE to 455 BCE, and it is characterized by the following:
When searching MICAL or an online database, the following Subject Headings can be used for conducting a "Subject" search. You can also follow the links below for a subject search in the catalog:
The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by
Based on the highly praised second edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, this is the only concise guide to ancient Greek and Roman literature available in paperback. Complete with translations of all Greek and Latin words, it is ideal for anyone interested in the classicalworld and its literary heritage. In addition to accounts of the lives and works of key authors, entries on important characters, plot summaries, and details of the development of such literary forms as comedy and tragedy, the Companion also offers comprehensive historical, political, social, andartistic background information.
Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome by
This two-volume survey of Western literature in the classical period contains 47 chronologically arranged essays.
Literature in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A New Perspective by
This book consists of seventeen essays by a team of international scholars exploring aspects of the reception of literature from the earliest surviving Greek poetry to the demise of classical literature at the end of the Roman empire. Deploying fresh insights to map out lively and provocative surveys, the contributors examine all genres of the classical world--epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, history, philosophy, rhetoric, epigram, elegy, pastoral, satire, biography, epistle, declamation, panegyric--in search of answers to the questions of who were the genres for and what did these people make of them.
Fifty Key Classical Authors by
A chronological guide to influential Greek and Roman writers, Fifty Key Classical Authors is an invaluable introduction to the literature, philosophy and history of the ancient world. Including essays on Sappho, Polybius and Lucan, as well as on major figures such as Homer, Plato, Catullus and Cicero, this book is a vital tool for all students of classical civilization.
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Antiquity and the Meanings of Time: A Philosophy of Ancient and Modern Literature by
Society and contemporary culture seem forever fascinated by the topic of time. In modern fiction, Ian McEwan (The Child in Time) and Martin Amis (Time's Arrow) have led the way in exploring the human condition in relation to past, present and future. In cinema, several cultural texts (Memento, Minority Report, The Hours) have similarly reflected a preoccupation with temporality and human experience. And in the sphere of politics, debates about the 'end of history', prompted by Francis Fukuyama, indicate that how we live is deeply determined by our relationship not only to place but also to the passing of time. But what did the ancients think about time? Is our interest in chronology a relatively recent phenomenon? Or does it go further back? In his major new work, Duncan Kennedy indicates that our own fascination with time-reckoning is by no means unique. Discussing a number of key texts (such as Homer's Odyssey; Sophocles' Oedipus Rex; Virgil's Aeneid; and Ovid's Metamophoses) and imaginatively setting these side-by-side with modern works (such as Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Joyce's Ulysses), he shows that, from era to era, and in different ways, human beings have uniformly striven to understand the unfolding of history and their relationship to it. This sophisticated cross-disciplinary book will appeal not only to classicists, but also to scholars and students in the humanities more broadly, as well as beyond.
The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry by
Riddles and other word games are widespread in classical literature and played a crucial role in shaping Greek and Roman cultural discourses, yet few efforts have been made to treat them in all their variety and complexity. This volume, the fruit of a conference held in May 2011 by the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of Warsaw, gathers contributions on a range of topics linked by the theme of linguistic play. With its broad spectrum of approaches, the book serves as companion to a fascinating but somewhat neglected area of ancient culture - the domain of the Playful Muse.
Gilgamesh among Us: Modern Encounters with the Ancient Epic by
The world's oldest work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the adventures of the semimythical Sumerian king of Uruk and his ultimately futile quest for immortality after the death of his friend and companion, Enkidu, a wildman sent by the gods. Gilgamesh was deified by the Sumerians around 2500 BCE, and his tale as we know it today was codified in cuneiform tablets around 1750 BCE and continued to influence ancient cultures-whether in specific incidents like a world-consuming flood or in its quest structure-into Roman times. The epic was, however, largely forgotten, until the cuneiform tablets were rediscovered in 1872 in the British Museum's collection of recently unearthed Mesopotamian artifacts. In the decades that followed its translation into modern languages, the Epic of Gilgamesh has become a point of reference throughout Western culture. In Gilgamesh among Us, Theodore Ziolkowski explores the surprising legacy of the poem and its hero, as well as the epic's continuing influence in modern letters and arts. This influence extends from Carl Gustav Jung and Rainer Maria Rilke's early embrace of the epic's significance-"Gilgamesh is tremendous!" Rilke wrote to his publisher's wife after reading it-to its appropriation since World War II in contexts as disparate as operas and paintings, the poetry of Charles Olson and Louis Zukofsky, novels by John Gardner and Philip Roth, and episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Xena: Warrior Princess. Ziolkowski sees fascination with Gilgamesh as a reflection of eternal spiritual values-love, friendship, courage, and the fear and acceptance of death. Noted writers, musicians, and artists from Sweden to Spain, from the United States to Australia, have adapted the story in ways that meet the social and artistic trends of the times. The spirit of this capacious hero has absorbed the losses felt in the immediate postwar period and been infused with the excitement and optimism of movements for gay rights, feminism, and environmental consciousness. Gilgamesh is at once a seismograph of shifts in Western history and culture and a testament to the verities and values of the ancient epic.
Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry by
This volume addresses questionsconcerning Neoanalysis and Oral theory, the two most fruitful schools of thought in Homeric criticism. It explores the development of Greek myth with respect to the Trojan war; the signs of heroic cult in Homeric poetry; the function of memory; the relation between the catalogue of ships and theIliadic narrative; the tragedy of Achilles; the travels of Odysseus; the Telemachy and the Nostoi, the false tales and Crete; the imagery of Odyssean similes; language and formulas; the Epic Cycle; Hesiod and Homer; the epic of Alpamysh; the Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh.