Books in the Classics Companions series

These two Greek tragedies need no introduction. Their power, riches and influence are immense. All the more reason, therefore, for a volume that can steer the reader through the Penguin translation by Robert Fagles, in which form these masterpieces have reached a far wider audience than Sophocles' original Greek. John Wilkins' Companion to the "Antigone" and Matthew Macleod's to "Oedipus the King", together with an introduction discussing Sophocles and Attic tragedy, provide a valuable tool for the teacher, pupil or general reader.

This is an edition of Book VI of Thucydides. Its notes aim to assist translation, draw attention to features of language and style characteristic of the author, make explicit what the author took for granted in his original audience and comment on the historical background.

With its savage indictment of the horrors of war as they affect women and children on the losing side, Euripides Troades has been one of the most regularly read, performed and adapted of Greek tragedies. It was first produced in 415 BC just after the Athenians slaughter of the male population of Melos and at the point where they were sending out the ambitious Sicilian expedition. It therefore has major contemporary political significance. Like Aeschylus Eumenides, it was performed as the third play in a thematically linked trilogy and, though the other two plays survive only in fragments, important inferences can be drawn about our interpretation of the surviving play and Euripides use of the trilogy form. Lee's edition, first published in the famous "red Macmillan" series in 1976, is the most recent scholarly edition in English. The detailed commentary discusses text, language, interpretation and metre; there is a full introduction and for this paperback edition there is an additional up-to-date bibliography.

The Aeneid of Virgil is one of the greatest works of Classical antiquity. In this study the poetic qualities of epic are analysed and illustrated by frequent quotations from the Latin, always with prose translations. The book will be appreciated by students and teachers of literature, and by knowledgeable non-academic readers.

This companion to the Penguin translation of Tacitus' book XIV provides commentary on an important period of Roman history, the years 59-62 AD when Nero was freed (mainly by murder) from the restraints imposed by Agrippina, Burrus and Octavia. The commentary pays special attention to Tacitus' use of stylistic devices to emphasis important events and traits of personality.

'Menander has so blended his diction that it suits every nature, every disposition, every age.' With these words Plutarch summed up the achievements of this most distinguished writer of New Comedy. The blend of amusement and perceptive human sympathy has made Menander's works as accessible to the modern reader as they were to the audience of his day.This book is designed to be read alongside the Penguin translations of Old Cantankerous, The Girl from Samos, The Arbitration, The Rape of the Locks, The Shield, The Sikyonian, The Man She Hated and The Double Deceiver. With detailed analysis of Menander's dramatic genius, and particularly good insights into dramatic values, characterisation and structure, Stanley Ireland's commentary will form an essential companion to the translations for many years to come.