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Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature
"Hansen has assembled an anthology like no other, which will fascinate students of late antiquity, folklorists, and curiosity-seekers, and will offer new possibilities to teachers of ancient-culture surveys." ―Classical World
" . . . lively, entertaining, and unique anthology . . . This anthology is appropriate not only for graduate and undergraduate students in classics but for anyone interested in the transmission of folklore." ―Journal of American Folklore
" . . . higly readable English translations of a wide variety of Greek texts . . . a solid introduction to the general question of 'popular literature' in the ancient world." ―Bryn Mawr Classical Review
" . . . what one hopes for in an anthology . . . this volume can be used as a textbook yet is of benefit for the scholar, has clear, well-written, and well-formed introductions that avoid eccentricity while noting different viewpoints, and provides a representative selection of mostly complete works." ―The Petronian Society Newsletter
Readers in ancient Greece didn't curl up with only the weighty tomes of Homer, Plato, and Sophocles―they also enjoyed light entertainment such as novels, short stories, fantasies, jokes, and fortune-telling handbooks. In fact, some of this literature was so successful that it remained in circulation into the Middle Ages. Most of these selections are little known except to scholars, but all will prove an unexpected delight to readers everywhere.
" . . . lively, entertaining, and unique anthology . . . This anthology is appropriate not only for graduate and undergraduate students in classics but for anyone interested in the transmission of folklore." ―Journal of American Folklore
" . . . higly readable English translations of a wide variety of Greek texts . . . a solid introduction to the general question of 'popular literature' in the ancient world." ―Bryn Mawr Classical Review
" . . . what one hopes for in an anthology . . . this volume can be used as a textbook yet is of benefit for the scholar, has clear, well-written, and well-formed introductions that avoid eccentricity while noting different viewpoints, and provides a representative selection of mostly complete works." ―The Petronian Society Newsletter
Readers in ancient Greece didn't curl up with only the weighty tomes of Homer, Plato, and Sophocles―they also enjoyed light entertainment such as novels, short stories, fantasies, jokes, and fortune-telling handbooks. In fact, some of this literature was so successful that it remained in circulation into the Middle Ages. Most of these selections are little known except to scholars, but all will prove an unexpected delight to readers everywhere.
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
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April 15, 2022•phlegon wonders c. 117-138 (when he worked for the emperor) here available 11-last(35) marvels (first ten here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
•Lucius or the ass “The text we possess is an abridgment of the original Greek work, Metamorphoseis (that is, Transformations), which has not survived. We do not know the identity either of the author or of the epitomist, al- though some scholars suppose the former to be the second-century sati- rist Lucian of Samosata. The abridgment has been transmitted to us among the works of Lucian, but it seems unlikely that Lucian himself made the epitome, regardless of whether he authored the original novel or not, since the abridgment is not particularly skillful and contains lin- guistic forms of a sort that are uncharacteristic of Lucian's Attic Greek. Whatever the truth of the matter is, the author of the epitome is conven- tionally known nowadays as Pseudo-Lucian. The fertile lost novel also spawned a Latin reworking, Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), by the Roman novelist Apuleius, who greatly increased the size of the original by the insertion of many new episodes. So the original work has not survived, but we have both shrunken and expanded versions of it. Evidence suggests that the epitomist of Lucius or the Ass may have reduced the work by about one-third of its original length, largely by omitting some episodes, a procedure that creates a slight awkwardness here and there when the narrative refers to a detail as known to the reader that in fact is not familiar because it presumably was mentioned in a passage that the abridger has excised. We can only guess why the unknown epitomist condensed the novel. Perhaps, as Helmut van Thiel imagines, the abridgment was made in order to produce a shorter and cheaper edition for the book market. He points out, for example, that the long account of the lovemaking of the protagonist and the athletic maid Palaestra (her name signifies "wresting school"), which may have been thought to appeal to buyers, seems be relatively intact.”
• Secundus the Silent philosopher late 2nd
•Oracles of Astrampsychus (Sortes Astrampsychi), a Greek work that came into being around the second century A.D. It is not known who composed it or where it was composed; nor has the original work sur- vived. But we possess two descendants of it, known to scholars as the first and second editions. The first edition, which arose from a botched attempt to restore a damaged copy of the work, preserves for the most part the phraseology of the archetype, whereas the second edition is more faithful to the structure of the archetype while altering its wording considerably. I focus on the second edition, which is translated here (the first edition does not survive complete). The second edition did not itself remain a static text but frequently underwent change, most markedly as Christians transformed it to a Christian document. Translators Randall Stewart and Kenneth Morrell render the second edition of the Oracles of Astrampsychus into English, omitting the most obvious Christian accretions the non-Christian original. Their transla- tion is the first into English.
• gravestone verses. First several centuries AD
•Lucius or the ass “The text we possess is an abridgment of the original Greek work, Metamorphoseis (that is, Transformations), which has not survived. We do not know the identity either of the author or of the epitomist, al- though some scholars suppose the former to be the second-century sati- rist Lucian of Samosata. The abridgment has been transmitted to us among the works of Lucian, but it seems unlikely that Lucian himself made the epitome, regardless of whether he authored the original novel or not, since the abridgment is not particularly skillful and contains lin- guistic forms of a sort that are uncharacteristic of Lucian's Attic Greek. Whatever the truth of the matter is, the author of the epitome is conven- tionally known nowadays as Pseudo-Lucian. The fertile lost novel also spawned a Latin reworking, Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), by the Roman novelist Apuleius, who greatly increased the size of the original by the insertion of many new episodes. So the original work has not survived, but we have both shrunken and expanded versions of it. Evidence suggests that the epitomist of Lucius or the Ass may have reduced the work by about one-third of its original length, largely by omitting some episodes, a procedure that creates a slight awkwardness here and there when the narrative refers to a detail as known to the reader that in fact is not familiar because it presumably was mentioned in a passage that the abridger has excised. We can only guess why the unknown epitomist condensed the novel. Perhaps, as Helmut van Thiel imagines, the abridgment was made in order to produce a shorter and cheaper edition for the book market. He points out, for example, that the long account of the lovemaking of the protagonist and the athletic maid Palaestra (her name signifies "wresting school"), which may have been thought to appeal to buyers, seems be relatively intact.”
• Secundus the Silent philosopher late 2nd
•Oracles of Astrampsychus (Sortes Astrampsychi), a Greek work that came into being around the second century A.D. It is not known who composed it or where it was composed; nor has the original work sur- vived. But we possess two descendants of it, known to scholars as the first and second editions. The first edition, which arose from a botched attempt to restore a damaged copy of the work, preserves for the most part the phraseology of the archetype, whereas the second edition is more faithful to the structure of the archetype while altering its wording considerably. I focus on the second edition, which is translated here (the first edition does not survive complete). The second edition did not itself remain a static text but frequently underwent change, most markedly as Christians transformed it to a Christian document. Translators Randall Stewart and Kenneth Morrell render the second edition of the Oracles of Astrampsychus into English, omitting the most obvious Christian accretions the non-Christian original. Their transla- tion is the first into English.
• gravestone verses. First several centuries AD
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