One of the most diverse books in the Iliad, Book III moves between intimate scenes in the heart of Troy and scenes serious and comic on the battlefield. It describes a major ritual …
Demosthenes, as an emerging political leader in fourth-century Athens, delivered a series of fiery speeches to the citizens in the democratic Assembly, attacking the Macedonian …
Book VI of the Histories is one of Herodotus' most varied books, beginning with the final collapse of the Ionian Revolt and moving on to the Athenian triumph at Marathon (490 BC); …
Book 18 of the Iliad is an outstanding example of the range and power of Homeric epic. It describes the reaction of the hero Achilles to the death of his closest friend, and his …
When Ovid, already renowned for his love poetry, the Metamorphoses and other works, was exiled by Augustus to Tomis on the Black Sea in AD 8, he continued to write. After five …
Books XVII and XVIII of the Odyssey feature, among other episodes, the disguised Odysseus' penetration of his home after an absence of twenty years and his first encounter with his …
Pseudolus of all Plautus' comedies most fully reveals its author's metapoetics. As its eponymous clever slave telegraphs his every move to spectators, Pseudolus highlights the …
In Books 6 and 7 Thucydides' narrative is, as Plutarch puts it, 'at its most emotional, vivid, and varied' as he describes the Sicilian Expedition that ended so catastrophically …
One of the most important works of history in Western literature, by the freshest and liveliest of all classical Greek prose authors, Herodotus's Histories is also a key text for …
Book IX of Herodotus' Histories provides the conclusion and climax to his work, as the victories at Plataea and Mycale complete the improbable Greek victory over Persia. The major …
