The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica (Johns Hopkins New by Quintus of Smyrna, Alan James

By Quintus of Smyrna, Alan James

Composed within the 3rd century A.D., the Trojan Epic is the earliest surviving literary proof for plenty of of the traditions of the Trojan battle handed down from historical Greece. sometimes called the Posthomerica, or "sequel to Homer," the Trojan Epic chronicles the process the warfare after the burial of Troy's maximum hero, Hektor.Quintus, believed to were an informed Greek residing in Roman Asia Minor, incorporated a few of the war's such a lot mythical occasions: the loss of life of Achilles, the computer virus, and the destruction of Troy. yet simply because Quintus intentionally imitated Homer's language and magnificence, his paintings has been brushed aside through many students as pastiche. A bright and pleasing tale in its personal correct, the Trojan Epic is usually really major for what it finds approximately its sources—the a lot older, now misplaced Greek epics in regards to the Trojan warfare recognized jointly because the Epic Cycle. Written within the Homeric period, those poems mentioned occasions no longer integrated within the Iliad or the Odyssey. As Alan James makes transparent during this brilliant and trustworthy new translation, Quintus's paintings merits realization for its literary-historical value and its narrative energy. James's line-by-line verse translation in English finds the unique as a thrilling and eloquent story of gods and heroes, bravery and crafty, hubris and brutality. James contains a mammoth advent which locations the paintings in its literary and old context, an in depth and annotated book-by-book precis of the epic, a remark dealing almost always with assets, and an explanatory index of right names. Brilliantly revitalized by way of James, the Trojan Epic will attract a variety of readers attracted to Greek mythology and the legend of Troy. (2005)