Set in 13th-century Florence, part autobiography and part religious allegory, Dante's early masterpiece follows his quest to find a poetic idiom worthy of Beatrice, whom he had loved since boyhood. Her early death plunges him into an emotional turmoil that finds relief only through his faith in her continuing spiritual influence. The work is presented here in a verse translation by Anthony Mortimer.

Comprising updated versions of 31 essays published over the past two decades, this volume takes the reader on 'a provocative tour of what is happening now in Classics'. Professor Beard reassesses old answers in scholarly debates concerning Greco-Roman antiquity; offers fresh interpretations of heroes and antiheroes, from the Greek poet Sappho to the emperor Hadrian; explores the evidence for ordinary Romans' worries and ambitions; and asks what our modern responses to the ancient world say about us.

Four tragedies are presented in this modern prose translation – the relatively light Alcestis contrasting with the darker human passions of Medea, The Children of Heracles and Hippolytus. A general introduction and individual prefaces to each play provide context and analysis. (Previously published as Alcestis and Other Plays.)

Based on a lost Greek original, Terence’s Phormio is an entertaining comedy of love, deception and mistaken identity engineered by the scheming parasite of the title. Maltby provides the Latin text together with facing translation, an introduction and commentary.

With one chapter on each of Sophocles’ seven surviving plays, Morwood surveys recent critical approaches to the analysis of their themes and protagonists, as well as discussing modern adaptations by playwrights including Jean Anouilh and Seamus Heaney.

The tenth book of Ovid’s vast compendium of myth focuses on Orpheus and Eurydice, Venus and Adonis, Myrrha’s incestuous passion for her father and Pygmalion’s love for the statue he created. Ideal for first-time readers of Ovid, this edition contains the Latin text, line-by-line commentary on linguistic and literary matters and a concise introduction addressing the poet’s context and the themes of Book X.

The mythologies of Greece and Rome are full of strange and powerful tales of love and betrayal, war and heroism. These unforgettable stories, whose symbolism still pervades Western culture, are here retold by Jenny March, with translated and quoted passages showing how they were treated in ancient literature and how they have continued to inspire writers up to the present day. This hardback edition is exclusive to Postscript.

Furious that the women of Thebes have flocked to the mountains to worship the newly arrived Dionysus, Pentheus, the Theban king, denounces the god as a charlatan – but no man can deny a god. How Dionysus exacts his terrible revenge, culminating in Pentheus' destruction, is as devastating now as it was in fifth-century Athens. The play is translated and introduced by Robin Robertson.

Part of the Classical Literature and Society series, this study focuses on the role of the poet in the emerging Christian world of the fourth to sixth centuries CE and argues against the traditional view of a 'simple binary opposition' between pagans and Christians. Instead, Shorrock presents the Christian world of late antiquity as imbued with the Classical past, and demonstrates the complex ways in which Classical culture was embraced, integrated, rejected or ignored by poets of the period.

Spanning 1500 to 1960 and using the term 'classicist' broadly this dictionary provides short biographies of over 700 schoolteachers, researchers and administrators, poets, novelists and printers No jackets.

From the birth of the gods to the aftermath of the Trojan War and Plato's myth of Atlantis, Kershaw tells the stories of Greek mythology and discusses the wide-ranging influence of these tales on western culture. The book's final section surveys the ways in which people have tried to understand and rationalize myths, from antiquity to the present.

The female prophets known as sibyls were renowned across the Greco-Roman world and their pronouncements were considered a source of authoritative wisdom. Guillermo focuses on the stories that were told about four prominent sibyls, at Erythrae, Cumae, Delphi and Tibur. He also reflects on the wider cultural associations between women and prophecy and asks how the ancient pagan tradition was later fused with Christianity so successfully that sibyls feature in Michelangelo’s decoration of the Sistine Chapel.

This anthology, which was first published in 1964, is designed as an introduction to a cross-section of poetry, in the original Latin, from the late Republic and early Empire. It presents 36 passages, in different genres and styles, by such authors as Catullus, Virgil and Juvenal. There are short introductions to each extract, detailed notes on language and content and a full vocabulary. Off-mint.

Slightly off-mint. No jacket.

This is Seamus Heaney’s last completed work, an inspired translation of the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid in which Aeneas travels through death’s dark door, into the underworld to meet the spirit of his father. The poem is read here by Ian McKellen.

Stanley Ireland’s critical edition of these two social comedies – The Arbitration (Epitrepontes) and The Shield (Apsis) – aims to make Menander’s sophisticated dramatic technique and use of language accessible to the modern reader. Greek text with facing English translation.

Introducing this edition of Homer’s two epic poems, Michael Dirda writes that ‘few other works ... have so deeply entered our cultural bloodstream’. Here, in their entirety, are Samuel Butler’s prose translations of the exploits of Achilles, Agamemnon and Odysseus and their mortal and immortal adversaries.

Voltaire’s ‘philosophical story’ Micromegas foreshadows science fiction, telling of a 650-year-old giant from Sirius who visits Earth and encounters the stupidity of the human race. This classic Enlightenment text is accompanied by a further 13 short tales, all newly translated.

The first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus’ great work traces the growth of the Persian Empire and its great conflict with the Greeks, up to the defeat of Xerxes in 480–79 BCE. Read by David Timson. Unabridged.

Assuming no prior knowledge of Roman poetry, John Godwin presents a general introduction to Catullus, quoting liberally from the poems in both Latin and translation as he deals with the poet’s innovations, technique and topics, and discusses Catullus’ love poetry, obscenity and humour in the context of contemporary Roman manners. No jacket.

Slightly off-mint.

This volume analyses the complexity and innovation of the two great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and explains their major themes and characters as well as investigating who Homer was and the continuing resonance of his literature.

Jason’s quest for the golden fleece, Echo’s doomed love for Narcissus and the visits to Hades by Ulysses and Aeneas are among the 49 Greco-Roman myths retold here by expert storytellers of the 19th and early 20th century. Inspired by the versions of ancient authors, they recreate an age when mortal heroes mixed with vengeful gods and faced such dangerous creatures as the Sirens and the Minotaur.

This translation of Virgil’s pastoral poetry is ‘framed by cues for reading aloud’, inspired by the work’s popularity on the bawdy Roman stage. Van Sickle also investigates the collection’s interweaving threads through detailed analyses of its structure and themes.