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by C. T. Hadavas (Author)
The story of Odysseus' encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus ("Odyssey" 9.105-566) is probably the most famous of his adventures in Homer's "Odyssey" (c. 700 BCE). In fact, Homer's tale of the one-eyed giant proved so popular that it was retold (often in radically new ways) in many different visual, dramatic, and literary works throughout antiquity. This collection of extant Ancient Greek "Cyclopea" contains six texts by four different authors: Homer, "Odyssey" 9.105-566; Theocritus, "Idylls" 6 and 11; Callimachus, Epigram 46 Pf./G-P 3; Lucian, "Dialogues of the Sea-Gods" 1 and 2. On account of its length, Euripides' satyr play, "Cyclops" (possibly 408 BCE), the other extant Ancient Greek cyclopic literary text, is available in a separate volume. In addition to providing students with brief introductions to each work, this edition of the Ancient Greek texts with commentary in English offers grammatical, lexical, and metrical assistance, along with notes focusing on the works' various cultural contexts, thematic and intertextual interconnections, and linguistic and dialectical differences (Homeric Greek ["Odyssey"], literary Doric [Theocritus' "Idylls" and Callimachus' Epigram], and Atticizing Greek [Lucian's "Dialogues of the Sea Gods"]). Together with its companion volume, "Euripides: Cyclops," these two editions offer students access to a collection of works-each fascinating in its own right-that span nearly nine centuries and are united by a single theme, thus facilitating a variety of diachronic comparative analyses.
