The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature

By M.C. Howatson

Book Overview

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 myth 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, 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199548544
• ISBN13: 9780199548545
• Release Date: September 2011
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 642 Pages
• Weight: 2.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Comprehensive Survey of Classical Literature

A useful reference work for anyone interested in the literature of the ancient world, The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is arranged alphabetically and contains encyclopedic entries for all of the major authors and their particular works, Greek and Latin gods, mythological characters, histories of Greece and Rome, major historical figures, and relevant places. The original edition of the 1930s by Sir Paul Harvey became a classic of its own and was intended by the author to be a handbook of information for readers of the Greek and Latin authors and of modern works that touched upon the classical world. The current second edition is edited by Margaret Howatson, who revises and enlarges the Harvey edition. She notes that while a few of the entries on technical subjects were written with classical specialists in mind, the book generally requires no knowledge of Greek or Latin and is intended for anyone curious to find out more about the classical world. An ideal companion for any reader interested in Greek or Latin literature and history.

Avocational Requirement

For anyone interested in reading from Greek and Latin / Roman history, literature, philosophy, & c. this will help you through. Entries include texts, themes, authors, characters, place names, and genre discussion. If you have always wanted to read Virgil, Homer, Julius Caesar, and were not inclined to begin with a chronological survey of culture, history, philosophy, this book will enliven and make intelligible your reading. One literary help for me was to be able to look up the name of a character, geographical location, or common noun, and find enough information to make a whole text intelligible.While Oxford Classical Dictionary covers subjects in greater detail, this volume is a direct help in reading Greek and Latin texts in translation.