Classical Literature

by Richard Jenkyns

What makes Greek and Roman literature great? How has classical literature influenced Western culture? What did Greek and Roman authors learn from each other? Richard Jenkyns is emeritus Professor of the Classical Tradition and the Public Orator at the University of Oxford. His books include Virgil's Experience and The Victorians and Ancient Greece, acclaimed as 'masterly' by History Today.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Literature, Classics, Literary Criticism, Ancient History, Classical Studies

332 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 29, 2015

About the author

Richard Jenkyns is emeritus Professor of the Classical Tradition and the Public Orator at the University of Oxford. His books include Virgil's Experience and Victorians and Ancient Greece, acclaimed as "masterly" by History Today.

Reviews

[Lily MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a humanities major, I had read most of the ancient Greek writers’ major works: Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sappho, Solon, Plato, Aristotle, Hesiod, Pindar, and many others. But Richard Jenkyns’ Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond has not only reintroduced these major figures to me, but it has also revealed how complex their work was. It’s still amazing to read how profound they were at such an early point in western history. They were laying a foundation for what followed, functioning as guides into the complexities of philosophy, history, drama, poetry, and even the novel. Contemporary writers who haven’t read their work are incomplete without it.

Jenkyns, Emeritus Professor of the Classical Tradition and the Public Orator at the University of Oxford, has a fine ear for what sings in these early writers, his own prose clear and lilting. In this example, Jenkyns is reflecting on the Odyssey:

In the Odyssey poets are honoured but subordinate people who perform in the halls of chieftains, a picture which surely reflects a historical reality. It was a remarkable idea to give the greatest warrior imagination and sensitivity. The poetry of his mind comes out in two strange similes that he uses. In his most furious speech he likens himself to a bird collecting morsels for her young and going hungry herself—an odd image, and for all his passion almost a humorous one. Later, talking to Patroclus, he compares him to a little girl running alongside her mother and tugging her dress until the mother picks her up; that simile is teasing and affectionate, but also self-aware, for Achilles recognizes that he is going to give in to his friend’s request. And both times this supreme example of masculinity has the quirkiness to compare himself to a female. No one else in the poem talks like this. (page 9)

And no other classicist that I’m aware of has made this observation, setting up Achilles as a very different tragic hero, one who isn’t afraid of having feminine qualities as well as his obvious masculine ones. Jenkyns’ ability to see these works freshly opens them up in new ways, offering thoughtful, nuanced interpretations.

We moderns tend to think we have progressed, leaving behind our forefathers/mothers. But just as with our biological parents, our belief that we have surpassed them (and sometimes we have) prevents us from really appreciating their gifts. So too with our culture’s classical period. As a novelist, I was amazed to discover that while the 18th Century witnessed the rise of the novel as we know it, there were earlier writers already exploring that form. The Golden Ass by Apuleius is the only ancient Roman novel (AD 125) to survive in its entirety, a precursor to the episodic picaresque genre. It contains several different narrators and stories, including Cupid and Psyche’s tale. Jenkyns translates what he believes to be “the most sheerly beautiful sentences ever written in Latin prose:

She sees the festive tresses of his golden head drunken with ambrosia, the clusters of ringlets that roam over his milky neck and rosy cheeks beauteously trammeled, some hanging a little before, some hanging a little behind, at whose excess of brilliance, flashing like lightening, the very light of the lamp wavered. Along the shoulders of the flying god dewy feathers glisten, their flowers sparkling, and although his wings are settling to rest, the ends of the featherlets, tender and delicate, wanton restlessly in tremulous dance. (p. 240)

It is gorgeous writing, and magical realism exists even then, each sentence swollen with those qualities that lift the reader from the mundane to the sublime. The ringlets come across as in motion, and this god has flowering feathers that end in the featherlets “tremulous dance.” The passage is a tour de force.

My comments here offer only a slice of what this study covers. I hope you gentle readers and writers will make time to read this inspiring work. It seems important in this tumultuous era to be grounded in material that still sings to us of what it means to be human. And it’s uplifting to be reminded that the ancients set us off on such a prolific path.

[Melora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really excellent! I didn't really expect a survey of Greek and Roman literature to be this lively and engaging, but it is. Jenkyns gave me new things to appreciate in the works I've already read, and made me eager to get to quite a few that I haven't yet gotten to. Highly recommended.

[Stephen Sharkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, lucid, inspiring. Prof Jenkyns taught me in my college days (or at least he did his best to teach me) and it's wonderful to have his wisdom and insight distilled in this short, beautifully written gem.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who knew almost nothing about this era of time, literature-wise, this walkthrough was highly informative. The best part is how lightly the expert author touches on an academic tone of voice.

He tells the story of how the greats bent the rules, tried new avenues, and swayed back and forth from mystical myth-tellers to rational modernists and back again.

This book will help you put all of ancient literature into perspective and will serve as a treasure map to truly appreciating the works that inspired the Renaissance ergo inspiring Western civilization as we know it.

[Tamara Agha-Jaffar · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond, Richard Jenkyns displays his extensive knowledge of the classics. He surveys 1,000 years of classical Greek and Roman literature. Jenkyns brings the greatest thinkers of classical literature to life through lively, engaging, and informed discussions of their work. He sprints from one figure to the next, evaluating their work, expressing his opinions, challenging outworn interpretations while simultaneously dropping gems of insight. He discusses the plays of the great tragedian Aeschylus in new and thought-provoking ways. His sentences can take unexpected turns. His views can be somewhat unorthodox as when, for example, he describes Sophocles’ Ajax as leaving us “in a state of appalled wonderment.” Or when he says of the Romans that their original achievement was to “invent imitation.”
Throughout the work, Jenkyns peppers his analysis with humor and tongue-in-cheek irony, which makes for a thoroughly engaging and informative read. The breadth and scope of his knowledge is impressive. This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in Greek and Roman literature.

[Lisa the Tech · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure which is drier; Jenkyns' writing style or the content. I came across a number of glaring errors; Jenkyns should have found a decent proofreader for this work. That said, I found myself becoming deeply interested in Sophocles. I guess it was okay. Not great, mind you.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well written introduction. Jenkyns has nice insights on poetry and drama but a sometimes doubtful grasp of philosophy.

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting manual about most of all the classic literature, that means Greek and Latin authors mostly, and their impact on all the other literature that came after them. Clear and exhaustive, my only problem was the English name gave to authors that I've always known with their Latin names. Anyway a good exercise if you forgot your Literature 101 class.

Manuale molto interessante che copre la maggior parte della letteratura classica, da intendersi pricipalmente quella latina e greca e il loro impatto sul resto della letteratura che l'ha seguita. Chiaro ed esaustivo, ma il mio unico problema era leggere di autori con nomi diversi perché anglicizzati. Comunque un buon Bignami se vi siete scordati le prime lezioni di letteratura.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND PENGUIN BOOKS UK FOR THE PREVIEW!

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting. Jenkyns covers just enough for the layman to understand and the educated to learn a few new things.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent survey of Greek and Roman literature. Jenkyns gave an amazing overview of Classical literature that was informative without being heavy handed.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 a good overview of lit. I had some problems with presentation of some items, generally good, though.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenkyns is the ideal instructor: well-informed, enthusiastic, organized. He's able to convey the material to the reader who is a novice in this area without condescension; his references to people and events outside the area of classical literature are drawn from high culture (Wagner, Shakespeare, Wilde) rather than pop culture. This should not be taken to mean that Jenkyns is in any way uptight: he gives full attention to the bawdy, scurrilous, and polysexual elements of the works he discusses. (Typing that last list reminds me of one minor irritation with the book: this Oxford professor for some reason eschews the Oxford comma). The author gives his own assessment of the various works he discusses and, logically if perhaps somewhat controversially, includes the books of the New Testament among Graeco-Roman literature in the period he covers.

While Jenkyns discusses almost 1000 years of literature written in Greek and Latin, the book itself, like Jonson's Shakespeare, contains "little Latin and less Greek", with almost no quotations from the works in their original language. This is occasionally frustrating as, by Jenkyn's own description, the content and art of Greek and Latin verse was highly dependent on skilled use of meter, but examples of metrical conventions and inventiveness are described second hand without explicit examples. I can't quite mark this as a fault, as it's very possible that such detailed technical digression may well have served as a thorny obstacle on the otherwise clear and navigable path the author has prepared for the reader.

The book does have, however, a more serious failing related to the language issue. The purpose of this book is obviously to serve as an introduction to classical literature for the Anglophone reader with little or no Greek or Latin, but Jenkyns provides no discussion of translations nor any bibliography. Having been guided so expertly through the history of the first millennium of Western literature, the reader is left to their own devices as to going deeper into the subject.
Jenkyns, in fact, seems reluctant to mention other modern authors or works in the field under discussion. Although his endnotes carefully detail the sources of his quotations from the works of the Classical authors, no post-Classical works are cited in them. In introducing Aristotle he quotes two lengthy and contradictory assessments, neither of which is sourced. (These are the two quotations on pp. 95-96 beginning, "The history of western philosophy can be described as a series of footnotes to Plato (A. N. Whitehead)" and "Aristotle was the greatest intellect of the ancient world, and perhaps of any age.")

Overview:

1. Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey
2. Archaic Greece (excursus on how ancient literature survived)
Hesiod - Theogony, Works and Days
Presocratics: Thales, Empedocles
'Homeric hymns'
Elegies - Solon, Theognis, Xenophanes, Mimnermus, Archilochus, Semonides of Amorgos
Lyrics - Alcman, Sappho, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Anacreon
Choral - Simonides, Bacchylides, Pindar
3. The Rise of Tragedy and History
Aeschylus (not the author of Prometheus Bound?)
Herodotus and Thucydides
4. The Later Fifth Century
Sophocles
Euripides - Medea, Bacchae, Trojan Women, Suppliants, Children of Heracles, Helen, Ion, Hippolytus
Aristophanes - Clouds, Birds, Frogs, Peace, Lysistrata, Acharians, Thesmoporia Ladies, Assemblywomen, Waps, Knights, Wealth
5. The Fourth Century
Xenophon - Education of Cyrus, Anabasis
Rhetoric - Gorgias, Lysias, Isocrates, Aeschines, Demosthenes
Philosophy - Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno of Citium (Stoicism)
6. The Hellenistic Age
Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Theocritus - Idylls
Herondas, Aratus, Lycophron - Alexandra
Nicander, Moschus, Bion, "Wisdom of Solomon"
Historian - Polybius (subject was Rome)
7. The Roman Republic
Ennius
Terence (Brothers, Girl from Andros), Plautus (The Braggart Soldier, Captives)
Pacuvius, Accius, Lucilius (satura), Varro
Cicero (The Nature of the Gods, For Caelius, Philippics, Republic, Laws, De Finibus, Against Piso, For Murena)
Lucretius - The Nature of Things
Catullus
8. Virgil
Georgics introduces story of Orpheus and Eurydice
9. The Augustan Age
Tibullus, Propertius, Horace, Ovid
Manilius (Astronomy)
Historians - Julius Caesar, Sallust, Pollio, Livy
10. After the Augustans
Seneca
Lucan - Civil Wars unfinished epic
Paul of Tarsus, Mark, Luke, Matthew, John
Statius, Martial, Pliny the Younger (letters)
Greek - Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch
Tacitus, Juvenal
11. Two Novels
Greek: Longus - Pastoral Tale of Daphnis and Chloe, John of Patmos
Petronius - Satyrica, Apuleius - Metapmorphoses (The Golden Ass)
12. Epilogue
A short meditation on the meaning of "classical" and the heritage of the Greeks and Romans. Mentions Augustines Confessions as first "confessional memoir".

The full NYRB Bowersock review.

[Melia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that inspires a lot of curiosity and further research. It feels like there's infinite layers of precedent and reference that modern western literature is built upon. If you're starting from scratch, this is the perfect place to start.
Jenkyns also has a real talent for gravitas in his writing. Here are a few of his most insightful moments.

pg 4. they present a good world in which men are godlike, women beautiful, the Earth fertile, and the Sea full of fish. The sense of the world's goodness is a part of the poems tragic character: there is so much to lose.

pg. 2. Homeric language, therefore, could not have been spoken at any one time or place; it is a construction which must have been formed over generations and handed down orally.

pg. 50-51 "Clytemnestra has a natural reason for this show: to turn the gods against her victim. [...] After the murders she claims a magnificent speech of triumph, rich in imagery, into which suddenly comes a present tense and a few words of Shakespearean simplicity: 'And I strike him twice.' The language then grows even richer, as she exalts in the shower of blood that bespattered her, adding that she rejoiced no less than the crop rejoices in the god-given reign, in the birth pangs of the sheath.

With resplendent perversity, metaphor is folded within metaphor, Agamemnon's death blood likened to life-giving rain, herself to the ear of corn, the corns breaking from the sheath to childbirth. These are wicked words, but there is something wonderful about them. [...] There is a lust here for the size and abundance of the world that captivates; after some fashion, you have to love this woman."

pg. 71 "A famous interpretation of this play [...]sees the essence of the tragedy in its inevitability. Creon's duty as king is to maintain the order of the state, and therefore he must forbid the burial of Polynices; Antigone's is moral duty is to her family and to the divine law which requires kin to bury their dead. Private morality and public morality each have a compulsive force, and here they are directly opposed. There can only be a disastrous collision and that is what tragedy is: The inescapable smash of ineluctable forces."

pg. 155 "Allegory takes ideas and dresses them in physical form. Virgil's idea is the reverse of this: he takes a solid actuality of the countryside and shows how moral and imaginative truth grows out of this earth."

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nifty little tour of Ancient Greek and Roman literature, which really should have been the title of the book, it is also necessarily slightly superficial. Still it is interesting enough to keep your interest going and it really picks up as you move away from the more famous Homeric and ancient Greek works and into lesser known authors of the Hellenistic and Roman world.
 
It is then in this later part of the book that you get some surprises, the accepted idea that Romans did little more than imitate Greek literature comes across as overly simplistic and it is in these original contributions that there  are some gems to be found here. It's actually more interesting to read about Virgil's Georgics or Juvenal's Satires than the Aeneid, you know that one already.

It is in some ways similar to the Oxford Short Introduction on Classics by Mary Beard, but it is more focused on a whistle stop tour of the works and authors themselves and being over twice the size of it is a more exhaustive list of those than the smaller volume. An accessible read and one that's recommended if you have any interest in the subject at all.

[Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sprightly intro for someone new to (and a lively, provocative "refresher" for someone more familiar with) what is called classical literature. Jenkyns does not simply list and describe: he also judges, and often with brio and flare. I warmed to his evident appreciation of Aeschylus, Lucretius, Horace, Petronius, Tacitus, and Apuleius, and I thought his incorporation of early Christian texts a valuable and bold move. One feels that Jenkyns is more a reader than a critic, in the sense that his reactions are humane and vital, never pedantic. He is scholarly but never (dare I say) academic.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has never read any of the classics (Greek & Roman) covered by this book, but thought I should at least find out what all the fuss is about, I found Jenkyns survey incredibly interesting. It was also a delight to find a book written by an academic who didn’t have a compulsion to impress his readers with how superior his intellect is.

[Mike Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides an overview of ancient Greek and Roman literature starting from Homer through to Apuleius. Assumes working knowledge of poetry (e.g. hexameter, limping iambic). Provides brief summaries of key works in their historic and literary context. An excellent starting point for exploring the literature further.

[Will Marler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books covers a huge amount of writers in a short volume, and I did find it a little difficult to keep up on occasion. However, I still found it really enjoyable and am sure will appreciate it even more a second time round.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent overview of Greek and Roman literature.

[Corydon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool fan of Vergil, with witty remarks.

[Mariam Abood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book and proud of myself for finishing it in one day!!!

4 stars instead of five because it could have said more about Pliny the Younger but a fantastic start to classics!

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to Greek and Roman literature. It can get a little dense and lose its accessibility at times, but overall really comprehensive and helpful.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned much from this reference-like book. And I always appreciate that.

[Charles Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borrowed this from my public library, ended up buying it because I enjoyed it so much. The first half of the book is absolutely top-notch, and it includes a rather gracious view of the Bible and other early writings.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series of books - they are designed with an elegant simplicity, beautifully laid out in a lovely typeface with a clarity that makes reading them a pleasure. This is an admirable introduction to classical literature, it could have been called: "Everything You Wanted To Know About The Classics But Were Afraid To Ask". If you want to sort your Epicurus from your Euripides or your Petronius from your Plutarch, this is the book for you.

Though inevitably in a fairly rapid run through like this there is a danger of writers, especially the minor ones, merging together, I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than Richard Jenkyns. I am working my way through these new Pelicans as they come out, even if the subjects don't particularly appeal, because things that I imagined I wasn't that interested in can turn out to be fascinating, and knowledge allows you to make connections. For instance, reading about Xenophon's "Ananbasis" and the soldiers' cry of "The Sea. The Sea!" I realized where Iris Murdoch had got the title of her novel from and it begins to shed a different light on it (whether our culture would be much the worse for the absence of either work is perhaps a discussion for another time).

What it really set me thinking about though was the fact that for several centuries in this country the knowledge of these ancient works and the ability to translate Ancient Greek & Latin was the basis of almost the entire educational system & the pinnacle of intellectual achievement. Indeed, it was the measure by which someone was considered educated or cultured. It seems utterly bizarre now. I'm not saying that they are not worthy of study, but surely they are a rather esoteric & minority subject. The fact that for generations practically every politician or civil servant in Britain would have learnt about poets & playwrights writing more than a millennia earlier & have no knowledge of recent scientific & technological developments in their own time must have been a contributing factor to Britain's decline as an industrial & world power. These were clever people & yet didn't seem to have the wit or desire to question the system. The past really is a foreign country.

Speaking of connections: the next book in this series is "Who Governs Britain". I suspect that the answer might be something along the lines of - a self-perpetuating oligarchy of classicists!

[Riet · Rating 4 out of 5]

In dit boek geeft de schrijver een overzicht van de klassieke literatuur, beginnend bij Homerus en eindigend bij Apuleius. Een periode van zo'n duizend jaar dus. Hij laat de ontwikkelingen zien, verklaart veel en maakt je over het algemeen benieuwd naar de verschillende schrijvers en hun verhalen. Een flink deel ervan heb ik al gelezen, maar deze extra uitleg en toelichting is toch wel prettig.

[Theodoros Vassiliadis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise although pithy ; serves its purpose and lights the path of the beginning of literature to the culmination of the Roman empire
References guide through and it's criticism addresses main queries one can have on the birth of the western canon
Worth reading

[Chris Via]

There was little more than a synopsis of the major works of the classical canon.

[Luke Mosse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Accessible but weighty. Full of insights, and author is clearly versed in a range of traditional and contemporary interpretations for all the works and authors discussed.