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. ln Greek and Roman Poetry
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EDINBURGH University Press
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e © F.J.Caims 1972 EDINBUROII UNIVERSITY PRESS 22 George Square, Edinburgh ISBN o 85224 224 7 Nortli America Aldine • Atherton, Inc. 529 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-77763 Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh
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Preface The aim of this work is to suggest an approach whereby the subject matter of ancient literatura may be better understood. I have confined myself to poetic examples for reasons of space, although generic con siderations are equally applicahle to ancient prose. "\Vithin the sphcre of poetry, epic and drama have contrihutcd lcss material than have minor forms. This is partly a matter of personal taste and partly to avoid un nccessary difficultics of cxposition. The method adopted throughout has been to suggest principies of analysis rather than attempt to produce complete lists of genres, or generic examples, or topoi - an impossible task nntil much more work has been clone in the field. Throughout I have tried to move from famil iar to unfamiliar and from easy to diffi.cult. This has meant concentrating on genres already familiar to students of ancient literature, or on genres made familiar in the course of the book. Needless to say, the genres most frequently used are not nccessari!y more complex or more interesting than the others. Greek gencric names have heen f:'llljlloyed mainly, lmt not exclusively, in the form ending in on (i.e.propemplllwn for propcmptzlws logos,pro pempllke laha and propemplllms hr n1110s ), even though this is not normal ancient practice. Latin generic names are unchanged. Where no ancient namo has survivcd for a genre, a modern name is accepted or invonted. Where an ancierlt tcxt has been discusscd at length or in detail it has been quoted i11 all cases where this has hcen practical. The basis of most of these quotations is the relevant Oxford Classical Text published by the Clarendon Press. I am indebted to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press for pcrmission to make use of their copyright material i n this way. It shoulcl he note�, howcver, that I have departed from the readings of thc Oxford Classical Texts where I felt it necessary to do �- Ali thc ancient texts quoted are translated, tltc translations of fragmentary Greek texts or of extracts from J\lcnander thc Rhetor appearing in thc hody ofthc work wltilc the remainder form nn nppcndix. ln this way it is hopecl thnt the book will he useful to rcnners 1111nrq11ai11tml with ancient lang11age�.
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�on ego nunc Hadriae uereor mare noscere tecum, Tulle, neque Aegaeo ducere uela saio, cum quo Rhipaeos possim conscendere montis ulteriusque domos uadere Memnonias; sed me complexae remorantur uerba puella