The story of Cupid and Psyche is part of The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses, a Latin novel by Apuleius (second century A.D.). It is both a charming fairytale and an allegory of the search of the Soul for happiness and fulfillment. This edition, the first with a full commentary in English to appear for eighty years, comprises a Latin text with facing translation, making the edition more accessible to students of comparative literature. An introduction and a commentary provide help with interpretation and up-to-date guidance to scholarship in the field.

The four private speeches contained in this collection were functional artefacts whose object was to persuade a jury numbered in hundreds by manipulating both the facts of the case and the prejudices, beliefs and attitudes of the Athenian man-in-the-street. It is as vehicles of persuasion that Dr Carey and Dr Reid seek primarily to treat the speeches, using their commentary to shed light on how well the speeches perform their function. The speeches have also been chosen for their value as documents of Athenian law, commerce and private life. The commentary explains as far as possible any...

This is the first self-contained edition of Books VI-VIII of the Odyssey--the account of Odysseus' time among the Phaeacians, and a popular introduction to Homer. While not neglecting matters of language and formulaic composition, the Commentary aims to provide guidance on questions of literary and narrative technique and poetic artistry. The Introduction deals with the problem of Homeric composition in general, and with the place of the Phaeacian books in the poem as a whole. There are also brief sections on Homeric meter and the text.

The Odyssey, besides being one of the world's first adventure stories, is a poem of great subtlety, rich in irony and sophisticated characterization. The poet's art is amply illustrated by books XIX and XX, in which Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, spends the night in his own palace and lays plans for his awesome revenge. Particularly memorable is the episode in which Penelope converses with her husband without suspecting his identity. In this edition, Richard Rutherford provides not only detailed comment on the action, characterization, and style of the books in question, but also, in an...

This edition contains the Latin text of most of the surviving parts of Cicero's most elaborate philosophical dialogue, De re publica, together with a full commentary explaining the philosophical and historical argument, and elucidating the grammar and style. De re publica is a major document in the history of European political theory, and a masterpiece of Ciceronian style. This is the fullest commentary ever to appear in English.

This is the first major single-volume edition in English of Book IX of Virgil's Aeneid, a pivotal part of the poem that contains the nocturnal interlude of the ill-fated expedition of the young Trojans Nisus and Euryalus. The volume includes a detailed linguistic and thematic commentary on the text, and an introduction consisting of a series of interpretative essays on the book. It offers invaluable help to students of Virgil and will also be of interest to professional scholars of Latin literature.

In this volume, Professor Knox provides the first full-scale commentary in English in this century on a selection from Ovid's Heroides, a collection of letters in elegiac verse supposedly addressed by heroines of mythology to their absent lovers or husbands. This edition is intended to provide students of Latin literature with guidance in the interpretation of these poems. The Introduction also includes a general account of Ovid's career and the place of the Heroides in the development of Augustan poetry.

This volume provides a commentary on the six speeches of the fifth-century BC Athenian orator Antiphon, all of which concern homicide. This is the first complete English commentary on Antiphon and the first in any language since 1838. The book opens with a substantial introduction to the life and work of Antiphon and the nature of Athenian law and legal oratory. A new Greek text follows. The commentary itself discusses grammatical, stylistic, legal, rhetorical and historical matters.

Horace's book of Epodes consists of seventeen poems in different versions of the iambus, the meter traditionally associated with lampoon. David Mankin's introduction and commentary examines all aspects of Horace's relationship with his models and of the technical accomplishment of his verse, and places the Epodes firmly in their literary and historical context while also giving help with linguistic problems. Students and scholars alike will welcome this commentary, the only one providing a full and detailed interpretation in English.

This edition offers the first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey: De bello civili. It pays particular attention to Lucan's inheritance from Virgil's Augustan epic and response to its challenge. The introduction gives a general account of Lucan's life and work, a discussion of his narrative, a survey of language, style and meter, and a brief history of the text. The commentary offers assistance with grammar and translation and aims to provide the political, historical and geographical background to Lucan's epic...