Greek Lyric Bacchylides Corinna And Others

Volume Two concludes solo lyric with Anacreon (and the Anacreontea, here given special attention) and covers choral lyric from Olympus to Alcman, including Eumelus and Terpander. Comprehensive testimonia are given, as also all papyris fragments which yield adequate sense. Bibliographies, concordance-tables, an index of names and sources, and a general index are included.

In this landmark collection of essays, renowned classicist Charles Segal offers detailed analyses of major texts from archaic and early classical Greek poetry; in particular, works of Alcman, Mimnermus, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna. Segal provides close readings of the texts, and then studies the literary form and language of early Greek lyric, the poets' conception of their aims and their art, the use of mythical paradigms, and the relation of the poems to their social context. A recurrent theme is the recognition of the fragility and brevity of mortal happiness and the consciousness of how the immortality conferred by poetry resists the ever-threatening presence of death and oblivion, fixing in permanent form the passing moments of joy and beauty. This is an essential book for students and scholars of ancient Greek poetry.