ANST - Book Review: The Argonautika

[njones at ix.netcom.com]

Hello friends!

Here's an idea for a holiday gift.

Gio

*****

http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/h/Argonautika.html

     title: The Argonautika
          : The Story of Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece
        by: Apollonios Rhodios
      from: the Greek [Peter Green]
 publisher: University of California Press 1997
     other: 301 pages, glossary, index

Classical epic is not readily accessible to the modern reader, even
in translation, but Green's verse translation of _The Argonautika_
is as effective an attempt as any I have seen.  (It is certainly more
inspiring than E.V. Rieu's prose translation in the Penguin Classics.)
This paperback edition lacks the full commentary present in the
hardcover edition, but Green's introduction provides the essential
background to the work, describing what is known about Apollonios' life
(and his relationship with Kallimachos) and setting it in the context
of Hellenistic literature and the earlier literature and mythology on
which it draws.  This is coupled with nine pages of maps and an
extensive
glossary.  (At sixty five pages, the latter approaches the proportions
of a dictionary of mythology!)  The result is idea for the newcomer to
Greek literature and mythology and should make it much more practical
to use the _Argonautika_ as a text in general literature courses.

--

Disclaimer: I requested and received a review copy of _The Argonautika_
from the University of California Press, but I have no stake, financial
or otherwise, in its success.

--

%T      The Argonautika
%S      The Story of Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece
%A      Apollonios Rhodios
%F      Peter Green
%M      Greek
%I      University of California Press
%C      Berkeley
%D      1997
%O      paperback, bibliography, glossary, index
%G      ISBN 0-520-07687-7
%P      xvi,301pp
%U      http://www-ucpress.berkeley.edu/books/pages/5860a.html
%K      poetry, mythology, Greece

6 December 1997

        ------------------------------------------------
        Copyright (c) 1997 Danny Yee (danny at cs.su.oz.au)
        http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/
        ------------------------------------------------

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