Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry

Description

This anthology of the six major Latin poets of elegy and lyric-Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, Horace, and Sulpicia, the sole surviving woman poet, offers translations that combine a high degree of accuracy with a truly contemporary and poetic voice. The six poets represent the sudden flowering of lyric in Rome at the end of the Republic and in the first decades of the Augustan principate from approximately 60 to 10 BC. No other anthology currently available in English introduces the poets in their literary and historical context and provides specific comments on individual poems. The general reader of poetry will find here a broad and accessible sample of the major figures in the Roman literary tradition. Students of lyric poetry and the history of ideas and sexuality will be able to compare different poets' responses to politics, love and sex, literary innovation, self and society. The book is useful in courses in ancient literature and the ancient world, western civilization, and women's studies. While primarily aimed at the reader who does not know Latin, the quality of the translations and the literary-historical emphasis in the notes make this book a splendid supplement to a Latin-language courset. SPECIAL FEATURES Translations have been done by translators who are also poets. The translations combine a high degree of accuracy with a truly poetic voice. * the poems are accompanied by extensive notes which explain references to history, mythology, and literature. * a general introduction by William S. Anderson, the University of California at Berkeley, places the poets in their literary and historical context * an appendix includes background material from Sappho, Callimachus, and the Roman epigrammatic tradition that preceded the development of Latin elegy proper * an introduction examines the problems of translation in general and the translation in this volume in particular. Suitable for Courses in Classical Studies, Latin Language/Literature, Lyric Poetry, Comparative Literature, Ancient History/Literature, Western Civilization, and Women's Studies.

First Sentence

We know little for certain about either the life of Catullus or the publication of his poetry.

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