Winner, PROSE Award, Classics, Association of American Publishers (AAP), 2018
Writing down the epic tales of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus in texts that became the Iliad and the Odyssey was a defining moment in the intellectual history of the West, a moment from which many current conventions and attitudes toward books can be traced. But how did texts originally written on papyrus in perhaps the eighth century BC survive across nearly three millennia, so that today people can read them electronically on a smartphone?
Classics from Papyrus to the Internet provides a fresh, authoritative overview of the transmission and reception of classical texts from antiquity to the present. The authors begin with a discussion of ancient literacy, book production, papyrology, epigraphy, and scholarship, and then examine how classical texts were transmitted from the medieval period through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the modern era. They also address the question of reception, looking at how succeeding generations responded to classical texts, preserving some but not others. This sheds light on the origins of numerous scholarly disciplines that continue to shape our understanding of the past, as well as the determined effort required to keep the literary tradition alive. As a resource for students and scholars in fields such as classics, medieval studies, comparative literature, paleography, papyrology, and Egyptology, Classics from Papyrus to the Internet presents and discusses the major reference works and online professional tools for studying literary transmission.
Here, translated into modern English, are the works of literature, history, science, oratory, and philosophy that constitute the mainstream of classical Greek thought and continue to influence world civilizations. This volume includes:
· Complete translations of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Medea, Aristophanes’ Frogs, and The Constitution of Athens by the “Old Oligarch.”
· Abridged translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, and Plutarch’s Life of Tiberius Gracchus.
· Selections from Hesiod and Lucian; from twenty-eight lyric poets including Sappho, Pindar, and Meleagar; from the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides; and from eight Attic orators, including Isocrates and Demosthenes.
· Selections from the scientific writings of Hippocrates, Archimedes, and Galen.
· Selections from the pre-Socratic philosophers and from Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Epictetus.
Here, translated into modern English, are the works of literature, history, science, oratory, and philosophy that constitute the mainstream of Roman thought and continue to influence world civilizations. This volume includes:
· Complete translations of Plautus’ The Haunted House, Terence’s Woman from Andros, Seneca’s Medea, and the Deeds of the Deified Augustus.
· Selections from Vergil’s Georgics and Aeneid, the poems of Catullus, Horace’s Odes, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Fasti, the Satyricon of Petronius, and the Sixth Satire of Juvenal.
· Selections from Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, Cicero’s speeches and philosophical works, and Quintilian’s The Training of the Orator.
· Selections from histories by Sallust, Livy’s History of Rome, Tacitus’ Annals and Germania, and letters of Pliny the Younger.
Beginning with a short intellectual history of the academic culture wars, Eric Adler’s book examines popular polemics including those by Allan Bloom and Dinesh D’Souza, and considers the oddly marginal role of classical studies in these conflicts. In presenting a brief history of classics in American education, the volume sheds light on the position of the humanities in general.
Adler dissects three significant controversies from the era: the so-called AJP affair, which supposedly pitted a conservative journal editor against his feminist detractors; the brouhaha surrounding Martin Bernal’s contentious Black Athena project; and the dustup associated with Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath’s fire-breathing jeremiad, Who Killed Homer? He concludes by considering these controversies as a means to end the crisis for classical studies in American education. How can the study of antiquity—and the humanities—thrive in the contemporary academy? This book provides workable solutions to end the crisis for classics and for the humanities as well.
This major work also includes findings from a Web survey of American classical scholars, offering the first broadly representative impression of what they think about their discipline and its prospects for the future. Adler also conducted numerous in-depth interviews with participants in the controversies discussed, allowing readers to gain the most reliable information possible about these controversies.
Those concerned about the liberal arts and the best way to educate young Americans should read this book. Accessible and jargon-free, this narrative of scholarly scandals and their context makes for both enjoyable and thought-provoking reading.
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