front cover of Plautus' Poenulus
Plautus' Poenulus
A Student Commentary
Erin K. Moodie
University of Michigan Press, 2015
Erin K. Moodie presents a rigorous yet accessible guide to Plautus’ satirical play Poenulus for use in the contemporary classroom. Likely written and staged in the years following the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, Poenulus tells the tale of a young Carthaginian,
the adopted son and heir of the man who purchased him as a slave when he was a child, who is in love with a female Carthaginian slave and prostitute. The comedy, especially Plautus’ portrayal of his main character, compels the reader to consider Rome’s relationship with Carthage, its former enemy; Plautus’ role in choosing and adapting plays for the Roman stage; and the constraints of the palliata genre.

The full Latin text, based primarily on that of Friedrich Leo, is included in this volume. Moodie’s detailed introduction, map, and comprehensive notes approach the text from multiple angles, enabling the advanced undergraduate or graduate student to grapple directly with the issues
Poenulus raises. Her commentary, clearly correlated with specific points in the text by the use of line numbers, provides assistance with early Latin grammar and syntax, Plautine meter, Roman history, and the influences on and performance contexts of Roman comedy. The commentary also introduces students to modern scholarship on the genre, including metatheatrical interpretations and performance criticism.

“A comprehensive, user-friendly tool for students of Plautus and ancient comedy . . . almost everything that a student could ask seems to have been anticipated by the author.”
—Radd Ehrman, Kent State University
 
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front cover of A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 1
A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 1
Patrick Paul Hogan
University of Michigan Press, 2014
Patrick Paul Hogan’s A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 1 introduces the first book of Pausanias’ “Description of Greece” to students of Classical Greek. Pausanias’ second century CE work is the only surviving ancient description of the monuments and artwork of mainland Greece. Book 1 of the “Description” covers Athens, its demes, and Megara—that is, Attica, the heart of the ancient Greek world. It offers not only a walking description of buildings, statues, and artwork by an ancient traveler but also insight into the mindset of an educated Greek of the Roman imperial age: his reaction to Roman domination and Classical Greek history and culture, his deeply felt religious beliefs, and his ideas regarding Hellenism and Hellenic identity.

This textbook, the first on Pausanias aimed at students in almost a century, brings Pausanias back into the classroom for a new generation of readers. It is based on the Greek text edited by M. H. Rocha-Pereira and includes philological and historical commentary by Hogan. This volume elucidates difficult syntax and helps the reader with the immense number of names and places Pausanias mentions. It is suitable for students of Classical Greek at the graduate and undergraduate levels, whether Classical philologists or Classical archaeologists and art historians. Professors of archaeology will find this textbook an excellent starting point for any course on Pausanias and easily supplemented by their own knowledge of material remains and modern finds.
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front cover of A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 2
A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 2
Patrick Paul Hogan
University of Michigan Press, 2018
Patrick Paul Hogan guides students through Pausanias’ description of the strategic and rich city of Corinth and its neighbors
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front cover of A Student Commentary on Plato’s Euthyphro
A Student Commentary on Plato’s Euthyphro
Charles Platter
University of Michigan Press, 2019
The Euthyphro is crucially important for understanding Plato’s presentation of the last days of Socrates, dramatized in four brief dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. In addition to narrating this evocative series of events in the life of Plato’s philosophical hero, the texts also can be read as reflecting how a wise man faces death. This particular dialogue contains Socrates’ vivid examination of the intentions of Euthyphro to prosecute his own father for murder and culminates in an attempt to understand holiness—a topic central both to Euthyphro’s justification of his actions and to the charge of impiety that Socrates faces before the Athenian court.
 
This accessible student commentary by Charles Platter presents an introduction to the Euthyphro, the full Greek text, and a commentary designed for undergraduates and selected graduate students. As part of the series Michigan Classical Commentaries, now edited by Josiah Osgood and Alexander Sens at Georgetown University, and K. Sara Myers at the University of Virginia, the volume is sized and priced for student use.
 
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