Ancient Literary Criticism

504 Pages·2006·2.245 MB·English

by  Andrew Laird

Oxford Readings in
Ancient Literary Criticism
Oxford Readings in Classical Studies
Greek Religion
Edited by Richard Buxton
Homer’s Iliad
Edited by Douglas L. Cairns
Virgil’s Aeneid
Edited by S. J. Harrison
The Roman Novel
Edited by S. J. Harrison
Aristophanes
Edited by Erich Segal
Greek Tragedy
Edited by Erich Segal
Menander, Plautus, and Terence
Edited by Erich Segal
The Greek Novel
Edited by Simon Swain
All available in paperback
Oxford Readings in
Ancient Literary
Criticism
Edited by
ANDREW LAIRD
3
3
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PREFACE
The first chapter of this book will attempt to define and defend the
field of ancient literary criticism, and to provide a brief introduction
to ancient authors and issues that will not be treated directly in the
subsequent chapters. It is hoped that such a discussion may prove
more useful and stimulating than a conventional résuméof the other
individual contributions—which were selected partly on the basis
that they could stand on their own. The Suggestions for Further
Reading are designed to help readers explore for themselves some
important areas that, given inevitable constrictions on space, could
not be included (or covered in suYcient depth) in the present volume.
Only a foolhardy editor would venture to produce an anthology on
a subject of this complexity without seeking advice: I would like to
thank Donald Russell for discussing this project with me at an early
stage. Kathryn Gutzwiller, Doreen Innes, Hilary O’Shea, and the
Press’s anonymous readers also made a number of useful recom-
mendations. More recently, David Levene, Penelope Murray, Donald
Russell, and Michael Silk were kind enough to comment on my intro-
ductory chapter and each provided some vital additions to the
Suggestions for Further Reading. However, it should be made clear
that my own approach to the subject does not always reflect the
views of those whose help I sought.
It remains to thank all the authors who personally allowed their
work to be included in this volume. Most of them willingly checked
their own contributions, taking pains to transliterate Greek or trans-
late Greek and Latin passages, in order to make their work accessible
to a wider readership; or else advised me of corrections or changes
that needed to be implemented. I am especially grateful to Jennifer
Barnes for providing a new translation of ‘Aristotle on the EVect of
Tragedy’, and to Jonathan Barnes for his introductory comments on
this important essay by Jacob Bernays.
A.L.
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations ix
Dates of Major Authors and Critics xi
1. The Value of Ancient Literary Criticism 1
andrew laird
2. Poetic Inspiration in Early Greece 37
penelope murray
3. Homeric Professors in the Age of the Sophists 62
n.j. richardson
4. A Theory of Imitation in Plato’sRepublic 87
elizabeth belfiore
5. Plato and Aristotle on the Denial of Tragedy 115
stephen halliwell
6. Ethos and Dianoia: ‘Character’ and ‘Thought’
in Aristotle’sPoetics 142
a.m. dale
7. Aristotle on the EVect of Tragedy 158
jacob bernays
(translated by Jennifer Barnes;
introduction by Jonathan Barnes)
8. Literary Criticism in the Exegetical Scholia
to theIliad: A Sketch 176
n.j.richardson
9. Stoic Readings of Homer 211
a.a. long
viii Contents
10. Epicurean Poetics 238
elizabeth asmis
11. Rhetoric and Criticism 267
d.a. russell
12. Theories of Evaluation in the Rhetorical Treatises of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus 284
d.m. schenkeveld
13. Longinus: Structure and Unity 300
doreen c. innes
14. The Structure of Plutarch’s How to Study Poetry 313
d.m. schenkeveld
15. ‘Ars Poetica’ 325
d.a. russell
16. Ovid on Reading: Reading Ovid.
Reception in Ovid,Tristia2 346
bruce gibson
17. Reading and Response in Tacitus’Dialogus 380
t.j. luce
18. The Virgil Commentary of Servius 414
don fowler
19. Ancient Literary Genres: A Mirage? 421
thomas g.rosenmeyer
20. Criticism Ancient and Modern 440
denis feeney
Acknowledgements 455
Suggestions for Further Reading 457
Index of Principal Passages Cited 479
General Index 483
ABBREVIATIONS
Citations are generally given in full in the Suggestions for Further
Reading and in Chapter 1. Elsewhere, classical authors, Greek and
Latin works, collections of fragments and inscriptions, titles of
modern periodicals, etc. will often be abbreviated according to the
system used in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edn., ed. Simon
Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (Oxford, 1996)—which is itself
sometimes abbreviated to OCD iii. Common abbreviations of modern
works are as follows (sometimes authors used diVerent abbreviations
for the same work).
AJP American Journal of Philology
AJPh American Journal of Philology
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
Ant. u. Abend. Antike und Abendland
Arch. Delt. Archaiologikon Deltion
BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
CP Classical Philology
CPh Classical Philology
CQ Classical Quarterly
CR Classical Review
FGH F.Jacoby (ed.),DieFragmente dergriechischen Historiker
(Berlin/Leiden, 1923–58; Leiden,1994– )
GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
LSJ H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones et al. (eds.), Greek–
English Lexicon(1940; suppl. 1968; repr. 1992).
MD Materiali e Discussione per l’analisi dei testi classici
Mnem. Mnemosyne
Mus. Helv. Museum Helveticum
OCT Oxford Classical Texts