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,...
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...
The Greek lyric poets composed some of the liveliest, juiciest, most personal lines that the ancient world ever knew. The very personal nature of these poems has made them perennial favorites with a wide variety of readers; it has also meant that they are often difficult to understand. In Early Greek Lyric Poetry David Mulroy offers an accurate and lively translation of all the important lyric fragments and new papyri, as well as selections from the more fully preserved works of Theognis, Bacchylides, and Pindar. Unlike any other version of these poems, Early Greek Lyric...
The Greek lyric poets composed some of the liveliest, juiciest, most personal lines that the ancient world ever knew. The very personal nature of thes...
"The first translation from the Greek that I ever did was the apple orchard of Sappho in my fifteenth year. It left me so excited with accomplishment that I couldn't sleep well for nights. Since that time, on the freight trains of my youthful years of wandering, in starlit camps on desert and mountain ranges, in snow-covered cabins, on shipboard, in bed, in the bath, in love, in time of loneliness and despair, in jail, while employed as an attendant of the insane, and on many other jobs and in many other places, the Anthology and the lyric poets of Greece have been my constant companions."...
"The first translation from the Greek that I ever did was the apple orchard of Sappho in my fifteenth year. It left me so excited with accomplishment ...
Oedipus Rex is the greatest of the Greek tragedies, a profound meditation on the human condition. The story of the mythological king, who is doomed to kill his father and marry his mother, has resonated in world culture for almost 2,500 years. But Sophocles' drama as originally performed was much more than a great story--it was a superb poetic script and exciting theatrical experience. The actors spoke in pulsing rhythms with hypnotic forward momentum, making it hard for audiences to look away. Interspersed among the verbal rants and duels were energetic songs performed by the...
Oedipus Rex is the greatest of the Greek tragedies, a profound meditation on the human condition. The story of the mythological king, who is...
75 Classical Myths Condensed from their Primary Sources is designed to familiarize students with these stories in the most economical and accessible way possible. This text provides condensed versions of the essential myths and legends of the Greeks and Romans, as told by their primary sources. The streamlined stories, which retain much of the drama, irony, and pathos of the originals, include Homeric epics, Greek tragedies, Vergil s Aeneid, the most famous episodes of Ovid s Metamorphoses and Hesiod s poems, and more. Based on their primary sources, the stories...
75 Classical Myths Condensed from their Primary Sources is designed to familiarize students with these stories in the most economical and acces...
Oedipus at Colonus is the third in Sophocles' trilogy of plays about the famous king of Thebes and his unhappy family. It dramatizes the mysterious death of Oedipus, by which he is transformed into an immortal hero protecting Athens. This was Sophocles' final play, written in his mid-eighties and produced posthumously. Translator David Mulroy's introduction and notes deepen the reader's understanding of Oedipus' character and the real political tumult that was shaking Athens at the time that Sophocles wrote the play. Oedipus at Colonus is at once a complex study of a tragic...
Oedipus at Colonus is the third in Sophocles' trilogy of plays about the famous king of Thebes and his unhappy family. It dramatizes the myster...
Agamemnon, King of Argos, returns to Greece a victor in the Trojan War. He has brought with him the seer Cassandra as his war-prize and concubine. Awaiting him is his vengeful wife Clytemnestra, who is angry at Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia to the gods, jealous of Cassandra, and guilty of taking a lover herself. The events that unfold catch everyone in a bloody net, including their absent son Orestes. Aeschylus (525/4-456/5 B.C.E.) was the first of the three great tragic dramatists of ancient Greece, a forerunner of Sophocles and Euripides. His early tragedies were...
Agamemnon, King of Argos, returns to Greece a victor in the Trojan War. He has brought with him the seer Cassandra as his war-prize and concubine. Awa...