A study of the literary reception of the love-story of Hero and Leander and its popularity from classical times to the present in different genres, from epigram to epic, and including drama, opera, burlesques and modern experimental works.

"Hero and Leander are the protagonists in a classical tale of epic but tragic love. Hero lives secluded in a tower on the European shore of the Hellespont, and Leander on the opposite side of the passage. Since they cannot hope to marry, the couple resolves to meet in secret: each night he swims across to her, guided by the light of her torch. But the time comes when a winter storm kills both the light and Leander. At dawn, Hero sees her lover's mangled body washed ashore, and so hurls herself from the tower to meet him in death. Silvia Montiglio here shows how and why this affecting story has proved to be one of the most popular and perennial mythologies in the history of the West. Discussing its singular drama, danger, pathos and eroticism, the author explores the origin of the legend and its rich and varied afterlives. She shows how it was used by Greek and Latin writers; how it developed in the Middle Ages - notably in the writings of Christine de Pizan - and Renaissance; how it inspired Byron to swim the Dardanelles; and how it has lived on in representations by artists including Rubens and Frederic Leighton."--

This book offers a new English translation of Musaeus' poem Hero and Leander, with the original Greek on the facing page, a substantial introduction and a detailed commentary. The tragic romance of Hero and Leander has had and still has a great appeal, inspiring countless writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians. The Introduction aims at situating the poem within its literary tradition and cultural context as well as at drawing its major themes and describing the salient features of its style. Because Hero and Leander enjoyed an immense and uninterrupted popularity, the Introduction also devotes a large section to the poem’s reception in literature, which crosses paths with the reception of the other main ancient poetic treatment of the legend, Ovid’s Heroides 18 and 19. The commentary, which follows the Greek text and its translation, is addressed to a variety of readers: the student and the scholar of Greek literature, as well as those of other literatures in which the poem has been inspirational. This work has no precedent in the English language. This new translation will be of interest to students and scholars of Greek and late antique literature, as well as those working on mythology and classical reception.

Hero and Leander are the protagonists in a classical tale of epic but tragic love. Hero lives secluded in a tower on the European shore of the Hellespont, and Leander on the opposite side of the passage. Since they cannot hope to marry, the couple resolves to meet in secret: each night he swims across to her, guided by the light of her torch. But the time comes when a winter storm kills both the light and Leander. At dawn, Hero sees her lover's mangled body washed ashore, and so hurls herself from the tower to meet him in death. Silvia Montiglio here shows how and why this affecting story has proved to be one of the most popular and perennial mythologies in the history of the West. Discussing its singular drama, danger, pathos and eroticism, the author explores the origin of the legend and its rich and varied afterlives. She shows how it was used by Greek and Latin writers; how it developed in the Middle Ages - notably in the writings of Christine de Pizan - and Renaissance; how it inspired Byron to swim the Dardanelles; and how it has lived on in representations by artists including Rubens and Frederic Leighton.

A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe is the first comprehensive English ]language study of the reception of classical antiquity in Eastern and Central Europe. This groundbreaking work offers detailed case studies of thirteen countries that are fully contextualized historically, locally, and regionally. The first English-language collection of research and scholarship on Greco-Roman heritage in Eastern and Central Europe Written and edited by an international group of seasoned and up-and-coming scholars with vast subject-matter experience and expertise Essays from leading scholars in the field provide broad insight into the reception of the classical world within specific cultural and geographical areas Discusses the reception of many aspects of Greco-Roman heritage, such as prose/philosophy, poetry, material culture Offers broad and significant insights into the complicated engagement many countries of Eastern and Central Europe have had and continue to have with Greco-Roman antiquity

The volume offers new insights into the intricate theme of silence in Greek literature, especially drama. Even though the topic has received respectable attention in recent years, it still lends itself to further inquiry, which embraces silence's very essence and boundaries; its applications and effects in particular texts or genres; and some of its technical features and qualities. The particular topics discussed extend to all these three areas of inquiry, by looking into: silence's possible role in the performance of epic and lyric; its impact on the workings of praise-poetry; its distinct deployments in our five complete ancient novels; Aristophanic, comic and otherwise, silences; the vocabulary of the unspeakable in tragedy; the connections of tragic silence to power, authority, resistance, and motivation; female tragic silences and their transcendence, against the background of male oppression or domination; famous tragic silences as expressions of the ritualized isolation of the individual from both human and divine society. The emerging insights are valuable for the broader interpretation of the relevant texts, as well as for the fuller understanding of central values and practices of the society that created them.

The first complete edition of Elizabeth Stuart's letters ever published. Volume I covers the years between 1603 and 1631: Elizabeth's life as princess and consort, charting her transformation from political ingenue to independent stateswoman.