Books by Richard (University of Cambridge) Hunter

Through six inter-related studies of major authors and types of criticism, this book builds up a new picture of how similar themes were constantly put to new uses in reflection upon the effects of literature and its functioning in society. These themes are still very much part of modern criticism.

Homer was the greatest and most influential Greek poet. This book explores central themes in the reception of the Homeric poems in antiquity, and pays particular attention to Homer's importance in shaping ancient culture. It will appeal to all those seriously interested in Greek and Roman literature and culture.

This book selects central moments in the literary reception of the Works and Days in antiquity, studies these moments in sophisticated depth, and pays particular attention to Hesiod's importance as the founding father of 'didactic literature'. It will appeal to all those with a serious interest in ancient literature.

This book explores both how Plato challenged existing literary forms, principally Homeric epic, and how later literature then created 'classics' out of some of Plato's richest works. It will appeal to all those with a serious interest in ancient literature; all Greek and Latin is translated.

Through a series of innovative critical readings Richard Hunter builds a picture of how the ancients discussed the meaning of literary works and their importance in society. He pays particular attention to the interplay of criticism and creativity by not treating criticism in isolation from the works which the critics discussed. Attention is given both to the development of a history of criticism, as far as our sources allow, and to the constant recurrence of similar themes across the centuries. At the head of the book stands the contest of Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes' Frogs which foreshadows more of the subsequent critical tradition than is often realised. Other chapters are devoted to ancient reflection on Greek and Roman comedy, to the Augustan critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus, to 'Longinus', On the Sublime, and to Plutarch. All Greek and Latin is translated.

Examines the Roman reaction to, and adoption of, the Greek poetry of the last three pre-Christian centuries. The critical readings offered embrace not just the central figures of Callimachus, Theocritus and Apollonius of Rhodes but the full scope of what remains of Hellenistic poetry.

This book focuses on the hymns, mimes and erotic poems of the Greek poet Theocritus, and examines how Theocritus uses the traditions of earlier Greek poetry to recreate past forms in a way which exploits the new conditions under which poetry was written in the third century BC.