Ancient Greek Literature

This short book provides a good overview of classical Greek literature from its very beginning to the end of antiquity in the 6th century A.D. It discusses not only epic and lyric poetry, tragedy and comedy, but also prose genres: historiography, oratory, philosophy and science. The book was written to replace Maurice Bowra's Ancient Greek Literature from 1933 and it is not an untimely replacement of Bowra's classic book since scholarly views on various aspects of Ancient Greek literature have changed - in some ways even fundamentally - since the 1930's, due to both the work of classicists and philologists as well as to different approaches of scholars of literature and literary theory. But one of the most fundamental difference is probably the scope of the book, for this book reflects the wider interest of today's scholars in that it takes more account of the literature of later periods. That is to say, this book does not end after - or indeed at the beginning of - the Hellenistic period, but discusses also e.g. Greek literature of the Roman republic. If I can find any fault with the book it might be that it does not go far enough in this direction; perhaps the last chapter, which deals with Ancient Greek literature after 50 B.C. could have been split up into two chapters, covering (a) the period from 50 B.C. to 200 A.D. (discussing at greater length such authors as Lucian, Plutarch, and Dio Chrysostom among others), and (b) Ancient Greek literature after 200 A.D., thus adding maybe around 20 pages or so to the book. Nevertheless, this book does give a good overview of the history of Ancient Greek literature from Homer to the end of antiquity. This is very helpful and anyone interested in Ancient Greece or classical studies would do well to read this book. It is lucidly written and quite accessible to any reader. A serious student of Ancient Greek literature will, naturally, need to consult a more detailed and scholarly work. And yet, I think that even a graduate student preparing for general exams in Ancient Greek literature would benefit from this book, precicely because it presents in a clear manner the broad outlines of the history of Greek literature and does so in only 176 pages. The chronological table and suggested further reading at the back is of some help too. I, therefore, recommend this book to (a) students of Classics, who either focus on other things, such as Ancient History or Ancient Philosophy, and need a good but short outline of the history of Ancient Greek literature, or any students of Classics who require a starting point on which they can later build a more in-depth study of Greek literature; and (b) to anyone interested - although "uninitiated" - in Greek literature or Classical Studies, for whom a broad outline of the history of Ancient Greek literature suffices.