The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by Paul Harvey (ed.)

$20.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Reading Level: very good

The Odyssey

$15.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: very good

The Iliad by Homer

$15.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: very good

Sophocles II by Sophocles; David Grene (Editor); Richmond A. Lattimore (Editor)

$10.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Series: Complete Greek Tragedies Ser. | Reading Level: very good

"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."—Robert Brustein, The New Republic "This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."—Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation "The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly p oetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."—Times Education Supplement "These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."—Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian "The critical commentaries and the versions themselves...are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."—Commonweal "Grene is one of the great translators."—Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times "Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."—Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review ...Show more

Heracles and Other Plays by Euripides

$10.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: good

"Heracles", "Iphigenia Among the Taurians", "Helen", "Ion", and "Cyclops": Of these plays, only "Heracles" truly belongs in the tragic sphere with its presentation of underserved suffering and divine malignity. The other plays flirt with comedy and comic themes. Their plots are ironic and complex with d eception and elusion eventually leading to reconciliation between mother and son in "Ion", brother and sister in "Iphigenia", and husband and wife in "Helen". The comic vein is even stronger in the satyric "Cyclops" in which the giant's inebriation and subsequent violence are treated as humorous. Together, these plays demonstrate Euripides' challenge to the generic boundaries of Athenian drama. ...Show more

Whom Gods Destroy - Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness by Ruth Padel

$16.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: very good

Madness is central to Western tragedy in all epochs, but we find the origins of this centrality in early Greece: in Homeric insight into the "damage a damaged mind can do." Greece, and especially tragedy, gave the West its permanent perception of madness as violent and damaging. Drawing on her deep know ledge of anthropology, psychoanalysis, Shakespeare, and the history of madness, as well as of Greek language and literature, Ruth Padel probes the Greek language of madness, which is fundamental to tragedy: translating, making it reader-friendly to nonspecialists, and showing how Greek images continued through medieval and Renaissance societies into a "rough tragic grammar" of madness in the modern period. ...Show more

In and Out of the Mind - Greek Images of the Tragic Self by Ruth Padel

$15.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: very good

Ruth Padel explores Greek conceptions of human innerness and the way in which Greek tragedy shaped European notions of mind and self. Arguing that Greek poetic language connects images of consciousness, even male consciousness, with the darkness attributed to Hades and to women, Padel analyzes tragedy's biological and daemonological metaphors for what is within. ...Show more

The Theban Plays: King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone by Sophocles; E. F. Watling (Translator, Introduction by)

$8.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Series: Classics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

The legends surrounding Oedipus of Thebes and his ill-fated offspring provide the subject matter for Sophocles' three greatest plays, which together represent Greek drama at the pinnacle of its achievement. Oedipus the King, the most famous of the three, has been characterized by critics from Aristotle to Coleridge as the perfect exemplar of the art of tragedy, in its unforgettable portrayal of a man's failed attempt to escape his fate. In Oedipus at Colonus, the blind king finds his final release from the sufferings the gods have brought upon him, and Antigone completes the downfall of the House of Cadmus through the actions of Oedipus's magnificent and uncompromising daughter defending her ideals to the death. All three of The Theban Plays, while separate, self-contained dramas, draw from the same rich well of myth and showcase Sophocles' enduring power. Translated by David Grene. (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) ...Show more

Three Theban Plays by Sophocles

$6.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Series: Classics of World Literature Ser. | Reading Level: good

Features three plays which are not about fate and irony, but are about character, choice and consequence. In "Antigone", a woman defies human law. "Oedipus the Tyrant" is the story of a ruler destroyed by the qualities which made him ruler in the first place. In "Oedipus at Colonus", the aged king achie ves a personal reconciliation, but at a cost. ...Show more

The Histories by Herodotus

$12.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Series: Penguin Classics Ser. | Reading Level: good

"The Histories" describes how a small band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But while this epic struggle forms the core of his work, Herodotus' natural curiosity frequently gives rise to colourful digressions: a description of the natural wonders of Egypt; an account of European lake-dwellers; and far-fetched accounts of dog-headed men and gold-digging ants. With its kaleidoscopic blend of fact and legend, this text offers a compelling Greek view of the world of the 5th century BC. ...Show more

The Odyssey by Homer; translated by E. V. Rieu

$12.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Reading Level: very good

The Odyssey is a classic poem written by Homer that consists of 12.110 verses. It is unique already in that it has reached our days in its original form. This poem is a genuine revelation of the poetic thought of ancient Hellas....After the Trojan War, most of the survived Greek leaders returned by sea to Troy. However, after numerous troubles, only the chosen ones could have stayed alive. One of them -- the cunning king Odysseus -- was wandering in the sea for almost ten years...Pretty illustrations by Elena Odarych provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story. ...Show more

A History of My Times by Xenophon; George Cawkwell (Notes by, Introduction by); Rex Warner (Translator)

$12.00 NZD

Category: Greek Literature | Series: Penguin Classics Ser.

Xenophon's History recounts nearly fifty turbulent years of warfare in Greece between 411 and 362 BC. Continuing the story of the Peloponnesian War at the point where Thucydides finished his magisterial history, this is a fascinating chronicle of the conflicts that ultimately led to the decline of Greec e, and the wars with both Thebes and the might of Persia. An Athenian by birth, Xenophon became a firm supporter of the Spartan cause, and fought against the Athenians in the battle of Coronea. Combining history and memoir, this is a brilliant account of the triumphs and failures of city-states, and a portrait of Greece at a time of crisis. ...Show more