Research Catalog

Title

The victory poems / translated with introduction and commentary by Arthur McDevitt.

Author

Bacchylides

Publication

London : Bristol Classical Press, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McDevitt, Arthur S.

Description

vii, 232 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

The victory poems of the Greek lyric poet Bacchylides are here presented in a fresh new translation, together with an introduction and commentary. The translation captures the tone of the original, combining the joy of the occasion with the ever-present serious moral undertones, while the introduction sets the poems in their social and religious context, detailing the connection between competition and religious festival. The introduction also discusses the rise of the victory poem as a genre, and the way in which the poems were used by both client and poet as an avenue to immortality. The commentary on the translation, designed primarily for non-language students, is full and detailed; it provides extensive background and explanatory information to enable students to appreciate the poems more fully, while broader issues are also discussed, such as the integration of the mythic narratives and their relevance to the poet's purposes, as well as the structural, thematic and poetic qualities of the poems. This new commentary will allow the poems of Bacchylides to be more widely read, enjoyed and appreciated, as they deserve.

Uniform Title

Works. Selections. English. 2009

Alternative Title

Works. 2009

Subject

• Bacchylides > Criticism and interpretation
• Bacchylides > Translations into English
• 500 b.C.-400 b.C
• Athletics > Greece > Poetry
• Athletes > Greece > Poetry
• Mythology, Greek > Poetry
• Games > Greece > Poetry
• Laudatory poetry, Greek
• Laudatory poetry, Greek > History and criticism
• Laudatory poetry, Greek > Translations into English

Genre/Form

• Laudatory poetry, Greek.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• Poetry
• Translations
• Translations (form)
• Commentaries (form)
• Poems (texts)

Note

• Bristol Classical Press is an imprint of Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd.
• "The translation is based on the text established by Prof. Herwig Maehler and published by him in volume 1 of his two-volume edition of the victory poems: Die Lieder des Bakchylides: Die Siegeslieder (Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1982)."--P. vii.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language (note)

• Translated from the Ancient Greek.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Competition and the Greeks -- The festivals and the Games -- The poets and the poems -- The text of the poems of Bacchylides.

ISBN

• 9781853997211
• 1853997218

OCLC

• 301882906
• SCSB-12041455

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library