Books in the Classical Inter/Faces series

"A survey of Horace's role in, and appropriation by, Victorian culture, addressing issues of social class, education and the prestige of classical scholarship"--

We attribute a tragic quality to many things - works, experiences, values, events - but we forget how modern this idea is. This book traces the rise of the tragic idea from early Romanticism to late Modernism. It maps one of the most absorbing philosophical conversations in modernity: the debate about the tragic meaning of life.

Why should Greek tragedy matter now? This book opens a dialogue between the tragic theatre in ancient Athens and the multiple performances of the modern world.

This text examines the literary and cultural environment underlying the various kinds of translation of Greek and Latin literature, discussing the extent to which translations have been regarded as creative works in their own right and their impact in the work of modern writers.

Socrates and Plato have played crucial and dramatically changing roles in western culture. This book is framed by accounts of modern responses to Socrates and has at its centre chapters exploring the idea of Platonic 'origins' in philosophy and of Platonic 'foundations' for philosophical politics.

Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things" provides a vivid poetic exposition of the doctrines of the Greek atomist, Epicurus. This book offers an extensive description of the poem, with special emphasis on its cheerful version of materialism and on its attempt to devise an ethical system.

Using the new lenses provided by gender studies and the diverse forms of feminism, this text re-examines some of the major approaches to interpretation of classical myth in the twentieth century: psychological, ritualist, 'charter', structuralist and folklorist.

"Pity Transformed" is an examination of how pity was imagined and expressed in classical antiquity.

Focuses on the careers of some successful self-promoters, including Alcibiades, Socrates, Alexander the Great, and others. This book investigates the secrets of their success and looks at ways in which other talented individuals turned themselves into celebrities, including sports personalities, entertainers, philosophers, and others.