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Summary
Summary
The third edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is the complete and authoritative reference guide to the classical world and its literary heritage. It not only presents the reader with all the essential facts about the authors, tales, and characters from ancient myths and literature, but it also places these details in the wider contexts of the history and society of the Greek and Roman worlds. With an extensive web of cross-references and a useful chronological table and location maps (all of which have been brought fully up to date), this volume traces the development of literary forms and the classical allusions which have become embedded in our Western culture. Extensively revised and updated, the Companion includes more thematic entries - medicine, friendship, science, the concept of freedom, and sexuality. These topical entries provide an excellent starting point to the exploration of their subjects in classical literature. The Companion contains extensive biographies of classical literary figures from Aeschylus to Zeno; entries on a multitude of literary styles from biography and rhetoric to lyric poetry and epic, and character entries and plot summaries for the major figures and myths in the classical canon. It is the ideal guide for students in Classics, and for all who are passionate about the vast and varied literary tradition bequeathed to us from the classical world.
Author Notes
Margaret Howatson was for many years Fellow and Tutor in Classics at St Anne's College, Oxford. She is now retired.
Reviews (2)
Choice Review
A successor to Sir Paul Harvey's 1937 work has long been overdue, and Howatson (St. Anne's College, Oxford) has provided a new and completely updated edition. As in its predecessor, literature (with summaries of all major works) is paramount, but as in the first Companion--indeed to a greater degree--the whole range of classical culture is surveyed. This characteristic distinguishes this work from other Oxford literary companions. Coverage is detailed for the period c. 800 BCE through 200 CE; earlier and later periods of antiquity are treated less intensively. Howatson has incorporated latest developments in philology and archaeology and written the entries in a manner easily accessible and attractive to the nonclassicist, while not eschewing scholarly problems. The longer synthetic articles are admirably concise and informative. It is unfortunate however that, compared to the first edition, there is less overall emphasis on the classical tradition and classical scholarship, especially in the High Renaissance and after. This is in accord with the approach of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (2nd ed., 1970), upon which, in addition to the first edition of the Companion, Howatson relies to a considerable degree for choice of entries and basic content. This debt to the OCD is not and ought to have been acknowledged in the preface. On a few occasions, Howatson's versions of OCD entries are slightly garbled. Latin spellings of proper names are generally employed and cross-referencing is very adequate. There are no bibliographic references. The book is rounded off with a useful chronological table of events and literature and a new, well-designed series of six maps showing classical sites from the Middle East to Britain. All libraries. -J. H. Kaimowitz, Trinity College (CT)
Library Journal Review
This opulent companion offers the general reader help of every kind in the understanding of classical literature. More than a handbook of authors and titles, the guide illumines the faded images of mythological and historical figures, as well as providing articles on general topics: e.g., genre, theater, politics, religion, the transmission of texts through the Renaissance, and such intimate mysteries as meter. This extensively redesigned second edition, assuming no prior knowledge of ancient languages, greatly expands upon and brings up to date Paul Harvey's popular original volume, published in 1937. This edition should enjoy its own quinquagenial (or 50th) anniversary.-- Stephen Scully, Boston Univ. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Preface |
| A-Z Entries |
| Chronological Table |
| Maps |