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6. Exile poetry
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
In 8/9 CE Ovid was sent by the emperor Augustus to the town of Tomi in modern Romania, at the time at the far edge of the Roman Empire. 'Exile poetry' focuses on the Tristia (Sad Songs) and ...
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5. The Fasti
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
‘The Fasti’ is a study of the Fasti, Ovid’s poetic version of the Roman calendar. Each book of this poem corresponds to a month of the Roman calendar, and the books, like the Roman ...
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10. An infernal journey
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
Of all his many adventures, Odysseus’ journey to the Underworld is his most extreme. He manages to reach the place most distant from home, and from life itself, yet return even from there. ...
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Introduction
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
The Introduction outlines the two main aims of this Very Short Introduction. The first is to facilitate an understanding of the Iliad and the Odyssey, by providing a succinct and up-to-date ...
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1. Introduction: P. Ovidius Naso
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
'Introduction: P. Ovidius Naso' provides a background to the poetry of Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid, describing the political circumstances of his life, a momentous shift from civil ...
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3. Letters of the heroines
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
'Letters of the heroines' eplores Ovid’s Epistulae Heroidum (Letters of the Heroines) or Heroides (Heroines), love letters sent by famous mythical women to their errant lovers. The Heroides ...
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1. Looking for Homer
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
The first extant sources that mention Homer by name date to the sixth century BCE: from them, we can establish that the Greeks considered him an outstanding poet of great antiquity, but ...
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2. Love poetry
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
'Love poetry' examines Ovid’s ventures into the sub-genre of love-elegy and describes the development of this exclusively Roman literary form over the previous two generations, and the ...
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8. The man of many turns
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
Andra, the first word of the Odyssey, announces a poem about ‘man’. The protagonist’s quest for knowledge, his travels, his suffering, and his determination to return to his ...
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3. Material clues
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
‘Material clues’ considers the archaeological evidence for when the Iliad and Odyssey were composed, including Heinrich Schliemann’s quest to find Troy on the basis of clues in the texts. ...
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4. Metamorphoses
Llewelyn Morgan
in Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
'Metamorphoses; focuses on the Metamorphoses, widely considered Ovid’s masterpiece. The Metamorphoses is a collection of transformation stories, but the principle of change characterizes ...
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6. A poem about Troy
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
The Iliad is not just concerned with Achilles’ destructive anger. Its ancient title promises ‘a poem about Troy’. It focuses on just a small part of the Trojan War—a handful of days, which ...
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4. The poet in the poems
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
There is little evidence about the person or people responsible for the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Within the epics themselves, however, the voice of the narrator can clearly ...
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2. Textual clues
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
Little is known about how the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed, but ‘Textual clues’ suggests that we need to understand how oral techniques worked, as well as epic formulae and type ...
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7. The tragedy of Hector
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
‘The tragedy of Hector’ explains how the death of this hero becomes a symbol for the fall of Troy. It also argues that the Iliad does not allow us to view it only from that general ...
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9. Women and monsters
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
For all that Odysseus is hard to pin down, several characters try to do so, particularly women. In a poem so interested in pleasure and family, survival and return, ‘Women and monsters’ ...
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5. The wrath of Achilles
Barbara Graziosi
in Homer: A Very Short Introduction
‘The wrath of Achilles’ outlines the story of the Iliad. Right at the start, the reader is promised a grand poem about a very specific issue: the wrath of Achilles, which brought countless ...
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