A Companion to Greek Lyric

Discover the power of Greek lyric with essays from some of the foremost scholars in the field today 

Recent decades have seen a strong resurgence of interest in Greek lyric, resulting in this topic becoming one of the most dynamic areas of Classical scholarship. In A Companion to Greek Lyric, renowned Classical scholar Laura Swift delivers a collection of essays by international experts and emerging voices that offers up-to-date approaches on the methodology, contexts, and reception of Greek lyric from the archaic to the Hellenistic period. 

This edited volume includes detailed analyses of the poets themselves, as well as a reflection of the current state of play in the study of Greek lyric. It showcases the scope and range of approaches to be found in scholarly work in the field.  

Newcomers to the subject will benefit from the range of contextual and technical information included that allows for a more effective engagement with the lyric poets. Readers will also enjoy:  

• Guidance on working with texts that are mainly preserved as fragments 
• A selection of ways in which lyric poetry has influenced and inspired writers from Rome to the modern era 
• Recommendations for further reading that offer a starting point for how to follow up on a particular topic  

Perfect for undergraduate and master’s students taking courses on Greek lyric or survey courses on classical literature, A Companion to Greek Lyric also belongs in the libraries of students of English or Comparative Literature seeking an authoritative resource for Greek lyric. 

Laura Swift is Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University. The author of Archilochus: The Poems, Greek Tragedy: Themes and Contexts, The Hidden Chorus: Echoes of Genre in Tragic Lyric, and Euripides: Ion, she also works with theatre practitioners on how to represent and stage fragmentary Greek poetry as a contemporary art form.

Abbreviations and Standard Editions x

Preface xviii

Section 1 Contexts 1

1 The Lyric Chorus 3
Lucia Athanassaki

2 Religion and Ritual in Early Greek Lyric 19
William Furley

3 Epic and Lyric 34
Adrian Kelly

4 Commemorating the Athlete 47
Nigel Nicholson

5 Aristocracy, Aristocratic Culture, and the Symposium 62
Marek Węcowski

6 Politics 76
Jonathan M. Hall

Section 2 Methodologies and Techniques 89

7 Papyrology 91
C. Michael Sampson

8 Citation and Transmission 119
Tom Phillips

9 Meter and Music 132
Armand D’Angour

10 The Lyric Dialects 142
Mark de Kreij

11 Deixis and World Building 162
Evert van Emde Boas

12 Lyric Space: Sappho and Aphrodite’s Sanctuary 176
Annette Giesecke

13 Sappho, Performance, and Acting Fragments 192
Jane Montgomery Griffiths

Section 3 Authors and Forms 205

14 Iambos 207
Klaus Lennartz

15 Elegy 221
Krystyna Bartol

16 Stesichorus 234
P. J. Finglass

17 Alcman 245
Timothy Power

18 Sappho 261
André Lardinois

19 Alcaeus 275
Henry Spelman

20 Ibycus and Anacreon 290
Ettore Cingano

21 Solon and Theognis 303
Ewen Bowie

22 Simonides 317
Richard Rawles

23 Pindar 333
Christopher Brown

24 Bacchylides 346
David Fearn

25 The New Music 362
Pauline A. LeVen

26 Dramatic Lyric 377
Laura Swift

27 The Lyres of Orpheus: The Transformations of Lyric in the Hellenistic Period 389
A. D. Morrison

Section 4 Receptions 405

28 Greek Iambic and Lyric in Horace 407
Andreas T. Zanker

29 Greek Lyric at Rome: Before and After Augustan Poetry 424
Tobias Allendorf

30 The Gift of Song: German Receptions of Pindar 437
John T. Hamilton

31 “Anacreon” in America 453
Patricia Rosenmeyer

32 Greek Lyric: A View from the North 467
William Allan

33 Sappho and the Feminist Movement: Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 484
Marguerite Johnson

34 Anne Carson’s Lyric Temporalities: Desire, Immortality, and Time in the Fragments of Sappho and Stesichorus 496
Hannah Silverblank

35 Greek Lyric and Pindar in Brazil 512
Robert de Brose

Bibliography 526

Index 573

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