The paean, or sacred hymn to Apollo, had a central place in the song-dance culture of classical Greece. The most celebrated examples of the genre in antiquity were Pindar's paeans. These became known to twentieth century scholars thanks to the discovery of papyrus fragments; this book offers the first comprehensive re-evaluation of the poems. It includes the Greek text and translation of all the paeans of Pindar with a supplement comprising fragments from poems of uncertain genres. Ian Rutherford accompanies each fragment with an interpretation regarding issues of religion, performance, and...

This is a study of the relationship between Greek prose literature of the Antonine Age in the second century AD (the Second Sophistic) and idea-theory, a type of literary stylistics best known from the Peri Ideon of Hermogenes of Tarsus. The author considers sophistic declamation, the relative value attributed to prose and poetry, attitudes towards Xenophon and Demosthenes, and the reputation of Aelius Aristides.

This book presents a range of case-studies of pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman antiquity, drawing on a wide variety of evidence. It rejects the usual reluctance to accept the category of pilgrimage in pagan polytheism and affirms the significance of sacred mobility not only as an important factor in understanding ancient religion and its topographies but also as vitally ancestral to later Christian practice.

Although recent scholarship has focused on the city-state as the context for the production of Greek poetry, for poets and performers travel was more the norm than the exception. This book traces this central aspect of ancient culture from its roots in the near Eastern societies which preceded the Greeks, through the way in which early semi-mythical figures such as Orpheus were imagined, the poets who travelled to the brilliant courts of archaic tyrants, and on into the fluid mobility of imperial and late antique culture. The emphasis is both on why poets travelled, and on how local...

Explores the phenomenon of wandering poets, setting them within the wider context of ancient networks of exchange, patronage and affiliation.

Oxford Readings in Greek Lyric Poetry contains 17 studies on Greek Lyric, Elegiac, and Iambic poetry by leading international academics drawn from the last three decades, 3 of which are translated here for the first time. Divided into general studies on themes and case studies on specific poets, they are preceded by a detailed introduction by the editor, Ian Rutherford, which surveys the recent trends in scholarship on Greek Lyric. The volume also contains an up to date bibliography to promote further research into the field.
This volume will be a useful resource for students and scholars...