Homeric Hymns / Edition 1

by Sarah Ruden, Sheila Murnaghan

Overview

In this new translation of the Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden employs a melodious and flexible non-rhyming line of eleven syllables, offering a close approximation of Greek hexameter verse in natural English rhythms. The result is a Homeric Hymns marked by its accuracy, simplicity, and economy of movement.

Sheila Murnaghan's Introduction situates the Hymns within the mythological and performative traditions that gave rise to them. Focusing on the longer Hymns, she perceptively illuminates these oddly charming and sometimes grave accounts of defining episodes in the evolution of the cosmos.

Notes and a Glossary of Names are included.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872207257
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/13/2005
Series:	Hackett Classics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	543,114
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sarah Ruden is a classically trained poet and translator. Her translations of Petronius' Satyricon and Aristophanes' Lysistrata are also published by Hackett Publishing Company.

Sheila Murnaghan is Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

"Sarah Ruden's translation is clear, lean, intelligent, and delightfully readable."
— (Pamela Gordon, Department of Classics, University of Kansas)

Editorial Reviews

Sarah Ruden's translation is clear, lean, intelligent, and delightfully readable. The notes provide guidance without encumbering the text. This will be marvelous for classroom use, for reading aloud, or simply for reading for pleasure. —Pamela Gordon, Department of Classics, University of Kansas

The translation moves along at a smart and elegant pace. . . . Ruden is clearly a writer with considerable skill in poetic expression. . . . [Sheila Murnaghan's] introduction does a good job of introducing the Homeric Hymns to a general audience and assisting the inexperienced reader in reading the longer hymns, in particular. [This] new translation will clearly fill a niche for a convenient and inexpensive translation of the Homeric Hymns into English verse. . . . —Roger S. Fisher, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Clear, inclusive, luminously helpful, the Ruden/Murnaghan Homeric Hymns is a text I'll use next time I teach my ever-expanding Mythology in Literature class. Introduction, translation, and notes are all of superior quality. —Rachel Hadas, Department of English, Rutgers University

From the Publisher