Bøger i Wisconsin Studies in Classics serien

Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture represents the culmination of some thirty-five years of study. Pat Getz-Gentle offers here much new material and many fresh insights into a tradition, rooted in the Neolithic period, that spanned most of the third millennium B.C. She begins with a review of this tradition, placing particular emphasis on the stages leading to the reclining figure with folded arms that is the unique and quintessential icon of the early Bronze age culture at the center of the Aegean. She then focuses on the styles of fifteen carvers, several of whom are identified and discussed here for the first time. By introducing little-known pieces attributable to these sculptors, she illuminates various phases of their artistic development. With a strong aesthetic sense and a practiced approach grounded in keen observation, Getz-Gentle provides clear and detailed discussions illustrated by photos and drawings of 212 different works. Complementing her observations is a chapter by art historian Jack de Vries, who offers the first published summary of his study of Cycladic images and tests the validity of Getz-Gentle's view that, in designing their works, Cycladic sculptors took deliberate measures involving the use of proportional formulae.

The famous library of Alexandria, founded around 295 BCE by Ptolemaios I, housed the greatest collection of texts in the ancient world and was a fertile site of Hellenistic scholarship. Rudolf Blum's landmark study, originally published in German in 1977, argues that Kallimachos of Kyrene was not only the second director of the Alexandrian library but also the inventor of two essential scholarly tools still in use to this day: the library catalog and the "biobibliographical" reference work. Kallimachos expanded the library's inventory lists into volumes called the Pinakes, which extensively described and categorized each work and became in effect a Greek national bibliography and the source and paradigm for most later bibliographic lists of Greek literature. Though the Pinakes have not survived, Blum attempts a detailed reconstruction of Kallimachos's inventories and catalogs based on a careful analysis of surviving sources, which are presented here in full translation.

Catullus' life was akin to pulp fiction. In Julius Caesar's Rome, he engages in a stormy affair with a consul's wife. He writes her passionate poems of love, hate, and jealousy. The consul, a vehement opponent of Caesar, dies under suspicious circumstances. The merry widow romances numerous young men. Catullus is drawn into politics and becomes a cocky critic of Caesar, writing poems that dub Julius a low-life pig and a pervert. Not surprisingly, soon after, no more is heard of Catullus. David Mulroy brings to life the witty, poignant, and brutally direct voice of a flesh-and-blood man, a young provincial in the Eternal City, reacting to real people and events in a Rome full of violent conflict among individuals marked by genius and megalomaniacal passions. Mulroy's lively, rhythmic translations of the poems are enhanced by an introduction and commentary that provide biographical and bibliographical information about Catullus, a history of his times, a discussion of the translations, and definitions and notes that ease the way for anyone who is not a Latin scholar.

The epic Metamorphoses, Ovid's most renowned work, has regained its stature among the masterpieces of great poets such as Vergil, Horace, and Tibullus. Yet its irreverent tone and bold defiance of generic boundaries set the Metamorphoses apart from its contemporaries. Ovid before Exile provides a compelling new reading of the epic, examining the text in light of circumstances surrounding the final years of Augustus' reign, a time when a culture of poets and patrons was in sharp decline, discouraging and even endangering artistic freedom of expression. Patricia J. Johnson demonstrates how the production of art--specifically poetry--changed dramatically during the reign of Augustus. By Ovid's final decade in Rome, the atmosphere for artistic work had transformed, leading to a drop in poetic production of quality. Johnson shows how Ovid, in the episodes of artistic creation that anchor his Metamorphoses, responded to his audience and commented on artistic circumstances in Rome.

In this groundbreaking work, Patrice D. Rankine asserts that the classics need not be a mark of Eurocentrism, as they have long been considered. Instead, the classical tradition can be part of a self-conscious, prideful approach to African American culture, esthetics, and identity. Ulysses in Black demonstrates that, similar to their white counterparts, African American authors have been students of classical languages, literature, and mythologies by such writers as Homer, Euripides, and Seneca.

Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World explores the implications of sex-for-pay across a broad span of time, from ancient Mesopotamia to the early Christian period. In ancient times, although they were socially marginal, prostitutes connected with almost every aspect of daily life. They sat in brothels and walked the streets; they paid taxes and set up dedications in religious sanctuaries; they appeared as characters--sometimes admirable, sometimes despicable--on the comic stage and in the law courts; they lived lavishly, consorting with famous poets and politicians; and they participated in otherwise all-male banquets and drinking parties, where they aroused jealousy among their anxious lovers. The chapters in this volume examine a wide variety of genres and sources, from legal and religious tracts to the genres of lyric poetry, love elegy, and comic drama to the graffiti scrawled on the walls of ancient Pompeii. These essays reflect the variety and vitality of the debates engendered by the last three decades of research by confronting the ambiguous terms for prostitution in ancient languages, the difficulty of distinguishing the prostitute from the woman who is merely promiscuous or adulterous, the question of whether sacred or temple prostitution actually existed in the ancient Near East and Greece, and the political and social implications of literary representations of prostitutes and courtesans.

Ten years after publishing his first collection of lyric poetry, Odes I-III, Horace (65 B.C.-8 B.C.) returned to lyric and published another book of fifteen odes, Odes IV. These later lyrics, which praise Augustus, the imperial family, and other political insiders, have often been treated more as propaganda than art. But in A Symposion of Praise, Timothy Johnson examines the richly textured ambiguities of Odes IV that engage the audience in the communal or "sympotic" formulation of Horace's praise. Surpassing propaganda, Odes IV reflects the finely nuanced and imaginative poetry of Callimachus rather than the traditions of Aristotelian and Ciceronian rhetoric, which advise that praise should present commonly admitted virtues and vices. In this way, Johnson demonstrates that Horace's application of competing perspectives establishes him as Pindar's rival. Johnson shows the Horatian panegyrist is more than a dependent poet representing only the desires of his patrons. The poet forges the panegyric agenda, setting out the character of the praise (its mode, lyric, and content both positive and negative), and calls together a community to join in the creation and adaptation of Roman identities and civic ideologies. With this insightful reading, A Symposion of Praise will be of interest to historians of the Augustan period and its literature, and to scholars interested in the dynamics between personal expression and political power.

The foremost religious festival of ancient Athens--the city dedicated to Athena, goddess of war, fertility, arts, and wisdom--was the Panathenaia. Challenging old assumptions and refuting new theories, Worshipping Athena addresses the many problems of interpretation and understanding that have swirled for years around the Panathenaia. Among the issues discussed is the recent sensational controversy over the Parthenon frieze, perhaps the best known but least understood work of Greek art. For centuries the frieze has been thought to represent the Panathenaia procession, but recently the argument has been advanced that it depicts the sacrifice of the daughters of the Athenian king Erechtheus. Worshipping Athena offers compelling evidence that the frieze does indeed depict the festal procession and also demonstrates that scenes of contemporary ritual were not unique to the Parthenon. Editor Jenifer Neils and the contributors--eminent classicists, archaeologists, and art historians--explore the role of the Panathenaia in Athenian life and compare it with similar festivals held throughout the ancient Greek world. They discuss such topics as the Panathenaia's mythical origins, the phenomenon of the festival's valuable prizes (oil-filled amphoras, rather than the customary laurel wreath), and the architecture, sculpture, and painting related to the festival. Worshipping Athena will provide valuable insights to scholars and students concerned with ancient religion, mythology, art, literature, and gender issues, as well as anyone with a keen interest in the ritual topography of the Athenian Acropolis and the iconography of the Parthenon frieze.

A trade in Athenian pottery flourished from the early sixth until the late fifth century BCE, finding a market in Etruria. Most studies of these painted vases focus on the artistry and worldview of the Greeks who made them, but Sheramy Bundrick shifts attention to their Etruscan customers, ancient trade networks, and archaeological contexts.

This original look at the Roman love elegies of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid engages postmodern and new materialist feminist theory to assert the significance in the poems of human bodies in all their vulnerability, sexiness, and materiality. This analysis underscores the impact marginalized characters such as mistresses and enslaved individuals have on the genre.

Ancient Athenians were known to reuse stone artifacts, architectural blocks, and public statuary in the creation of new buildings and monuments. These construction decisions were often a visible mechanism for shaping communal memory. Sarah Rous develops the concept of upcycling to refer to this meaningful reclamation.

Examines speech loss across all of Ovid's writings and the ways that motif is explored, developed, and modified in the poet's work after his exile from Rome.

Originally published in Germany fifty years ago, The Gods of the Greeks has remained an enduring work. Influential scholar Erika Simon was one of the first to emphasize the importance of analyzing visual culture alongside literature to better understand how ancient Greeks perceived their gods.

The first comprehensive volume to present visual representations of everything from pets and children's games to drunken revelry and funerary rituals. John Oakley's clear, accessible writing provides sound information with just the right amount of detail. Specialists of Greek art will welcome this book for its text and illustrations.

Offering a radical revision of the Greek myth of the first woman, the author argues that Pandora leaves a decisive mark on ancient poetics and shows that we can unravel the profound impact of Pandora's image once we recognize that she embodies the very id

David Mulroy's brilliant verse translation of Oedipus Rex recaptures the aesthetic power of Sophocles' masterpiece while also achieving a highly accurate translation in clear, contemporary English.

Scholarly investigations of the rich field of verbal and extraverbal Athenian insults have typically been undertaken piecemeal. Deborah Kamen provides an overview of this vast terrain and synthesizes the rules, content, functions, and consequences of insulting fellow Athenians.

Demonstrates the varying conceptions of an institution that was central to ancient social and political life-and remains prominent in the modern world. This book contributes to understanding of the era and will fascinate anyone interested in depictions of marriage and the role and status of women in the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods.

The Persica is an extensive history of Assyria and Persia written by the Greek historian Ctesias around 400 BCE. Written for a Greek readership, the Persica influenced the development of both historiographic and literary traditions in Greece. It also, contends Matt Waters, is an essential but often misunderstood source for the history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

By turns outlandish, humorous, and scatological, the "Historia Augusta" is an eccentric compilation of biographies of the Roman emperors and usurpers of the second and third centuries. By analyzing it as literature rather than as history, David Rohrbacher offers a new and compelling explanation for this strange text that has long vexed scholars.

First presented in the spring of 458 BCE at the festival of Dionysus in Athens, Aeschylus' trilogy Oresteia won the first prize. It is the only surviving example of the ancient trilogy form for Greek tragedies. David Mulroy's fluid, accessible English translation with its rhyming choral songs does full justice to the meaning and theatricality of the ancient Greek.

This insightful study of the Roman poet Horace's first book of Epistles explores his representations of slavery and freedom as a response to the new imperial era in Rome.

A fresh examination of a marginalized women's festival that influenced Athenian art, drama, philosophy, and public institutions.

Argues that the story of Hylas - a famous episode of the Argonauts' voyage - was used by poets throughout classical antiquity to reflect symbolically on the position of their poetry in the literary tradition. Certain elements of the story, including the characters of Hylas and Hercules themselves, functioned as metaphors of the art of poetry.

Reveals the play as a key to Roman social relations centered on many kinds of slavery: to sex, money, and family structure; to masculinity and social standing; to senility and partying; and to jokes, lies, and idiocy. This work includes comprehensive commentary, useful indexes, and a pronunciation guide.

Taking a fresh look at the poetry and visual art of the Hellenistic age, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to 20 BC, Graham Zanker makes enlightening discoveries about the assumptions and conventions of Hellenistic poets and artists and their audiences.

Suggests that Caesar Augustus sought immortality - an eternal glory gained through deliberate planning for his niche in history while flexing his existing power. This title focuses on Augustus' Mausoleum and Ustrinum (site of his cremation), the Horologium-Solarium (a colossal sundial), and the Ara Pacis (Altar to Augustan Peace).