The Greek Anthology: And Other Ancient Greek Epigrams

by Peter Jay (Editor)

The Greek Anthology is the famous collection of some 4000 poems assembled by Byzantine scholars nearly a thousand years ago. The poems, drawn from all over the Greek-speaking world, range from the seventh century B.C. through to the renaissance of greek culture in Byzantintium during the sixth century A.D.

This volume contains about 850 of these poems in verse translation. They are arranged chronologically with a brief introduction to each poet and cover every aspect of Greek life -epitaphs, satires, jokes, pastoral epigrams and poems of love and friendship. Over forty British and American poets have contributed to the translations.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, History, Ancient, Literature, Anthologies, Greece

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 1973

About the author

Peter Jay (b. 1945) read Classics and English at Oxford. Among his books are a collection of poems Shifting Frontiers, the Penguin Classic The Greek Anthology, and several translations including Gérard de Nerval’s Chimeras, János Pilinszky’s Crater and the novel Conversations with Sheryl Sutton (with Éva Major) and selections of poems by Ana Blandiana, Ştefan Aug. Doinaş and Nichita Stănescu. He is the managing director of Anvil Press, which he founded in 1968. He lives in Greenwich. (source: Anvil Press)

Reviews

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

An acquaintance from school gave this to me when I was pretty young. I always wondered whether he knew what he was doing. Seared itself into my memory. I learnt heaps, believe me. Wonderful filth.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read and a great reference, this selection of epigrams from the Greek Anthology is well worth the time. Some have advice, some are funny, some are crude, others will make you cry. Almost all of them will make you think.

Several interesting ones are Plato's 7.670 (#28 in this edition), used by Shelley in his Adonais elegy, and 9.506 (#36), calling Sappho the 10th Muse. Theokritos offers sage advice on drinking and night sailing in 7.660 (#122).

Herakleitos had a tombstone epigram that struck me to the core: "Stranger, I am Aretemias of Cnidus. I was the wife / of Euphro. Labour-pains were not withheld / from me. I left one twin to guide my husband's old age / and took the other to remind me of him” (7.465, #162)

Anything that invokes Homer for me is special, so I liked Antipater of Thessalonika talking of morning with "You grow old, Tithonos. Why else would you thus chase / your bedfellow Dawn from your pillow at first light?" (5.3, #380) This reminds me of the opening lines of Iliad 11. He also mentions the seven wonders of the ancient world in 9.58 (#404) when discussing the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. Asklepiodotos mocks Achilles and Thetis in an epigram on Memnon's statues in Egypt (M9.19, #595). Memnon's statue was said to "sing" when the morning sun touched it. The epigram calls to Thetis, Achilles's mother, to say that this statue speaks. "But your son speaking, war-hungry Achilles? / Not a word in the Trojan plain or Thessaly." Memnon fought with the Trojans and killed one of the Greek's best fighters; Achilles then slew him.

Antimedon shows us that some things in human nature never change: Drinking together in the evening we are human. / When dawn comes, animals / we rise up against each other" (11.46, #481).

Ammianus has a strong comment on a grave marker: "May the soil cover / your interred corpse / lightly, pathetic Nearchos, / so that the dogs / have less trouble dragging you out" (11.226, #593).

Palladas reminds me of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Beckett wrote "They give birth astride a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more." Palladas say "Born naked. Buried naked. So why fuss? / All life leads to that first nakedness" (10.58, #644). Another piece of Palladas on death: "Fate didn't hustle Gessius to his death / He ran there well before it, out of breath" (7.682, #646). For the grammarians, he offers us "Having slept with a man / the grammarian's daughter / gave birth to a child, in turn / masculine, feminine & neuter" (9.489, #681).

[Caomhghain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange curate's egg of a book. Obviously the fact that it is a translation of poems written mostly as displays of poetic skills detracts from it. It is also just a little repetitive in theme and presentation. That said the translations are very fine and it is fascinating gradually working your way through centuries of observations on love and life.

[Jarod · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Oxford's Classics collection has some translations which surpass Penguin's, it is this selection of epigrams from the Palatine Anthology that is the choicer, while also making more of authorship than its liberally notated companion by grouping the poets by historical epoch.

[robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed.

Amazing! The quality is impressively consistent. It also becomes a tad depressing because you keep reading about the transience of our lives and about how quickly we will be gone and forgotten.

Beautiful and powerful.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I was so enjoying Greek Lyric Poetry by Sherod Santos which has a fresh translation of 154 poems from The Greek Anthology, I decided to reread my Penguin copy which contains about 850 poems with translations from over 40 distinguished British and American poets.The original collection was made over 1000 years ago and contains 4000 poems drawn from all over the Greek-speaking world.

POETRY....YUK!!!! No, here as fresh as today's baked bread are epitaphs, jokes, satires, poems of love, lust and friendship. ALL very very enjoyable, usually brief and grabbing the essence. You'll LOVE it all.

BUT........read this before the Sherod Santos translation!!
These are great but Santos translations are nothing short of BRILLIANT!!! You will get a real insight into the art of translation and NEVER feel wholly comfortable again reading a favourite foreign writer.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems and epigrams from the Greek Anthology, many newly-translated. The verses here have that austere, hard-edged feel that catches the landscape and spirit of the world of the Greek poleis. And, yes--- Housman and Kipling did both crib openly from the Greek Anthology, and more power to them. One can read these collected epitaphs and epigrams and love poems and laments and utterly lose oneself. Brilliant collection--- very much a book to be kept and treasured on even the most minimalist shelves.

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably in my top twenty of the books I have in my house.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

My desert-island book. This is far and away the best edition ever to have appeared in English.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great starter primer for anyone studying ancient Greek.

[Dan Yingst]

Thing I learned about myself, I enjoy early epigrams far more than those composed after the advent of Rome.