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English
Johns Hopkins University Press
15 January 2013
""Cut These Words into My Stone"" offers evidence that ancient Greek life was not only celebrated in great heroic epics, but was also commemorated in hundreds of artfully composed verse epitaphs. They have been preserved in anthologies and gleaned from weathered headstones. Three-year-old Archianax, playing near a well, was drawn down by his own silent reflection. His mother, afraid he had no breath left, hauled him back up wringing wet. He had a little. He didn't taint the nymphs' deep home. He dozed off in her lap. He's sleeping still. These words, translated from the original Greek by poet and filmmaker Michael Wolfe, mark the passing of a child who died roughly 2,000 years ago. Ancient Greek epitaphs honor the lives, and often describe the deaths, of a rich cross section of Greek society, including people of all ages and classes- paupers, fishermen, tyrants, virgins, drunks, foot soldiers, generals - and some non-people-horses, dolphins, and insects. With brief commentary and notes, this bilingual collection of 127 short, witty, and often tender epigrams spans 1,000 years of the written word. ""Cut These Words into My Stone"" provides an engaging introduction to this corner of classical literature that continues to speak eloquently in our time.
Foreword by:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 216mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 13mm
Weight:   249g
ISBN:   9781421408040
ISBN 10:   142140804X
Pages:   208
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Translator's Note Foreword, by Richard P. Martin I. Anonymous Epitaphs of No Known Date II. Late Archaic and Classical Periods: 600–350 BCE III. Hellenistic Period: Age of Alexander, c. 323–100 BCE IV. The Millennium: Pagan Roman Empire, 100 BCE–99 CE V. Late Antiquity: Christian Roman Empire, 200–599 CE Notes Selected Bibliography Biographies of the Poets
Author Website:   www.michaelwolfe.net

Michael Wolfe is a poet, author, documentary film producer, and president of Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit media organization. Wolfe is the author of many books of verse and prose, including The Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca. Richard Martin is Anthony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor of Classics at Stanford University.

Reviews for Cut These Words into My Stone: Ancient Greek Epitaphs

For something to read in normal circumstances? Today it's Michael Wolfe's wondrous set of translations of ancient Greek epitaphs, Cut These Words into My Stone. A book Keats would deeply appreciate. A book to keep handy by bed or bath. -- Bill Berkson Harriet Cut These Words into my Stone is not a long book, but its short pages have a great balance between education and emotionally touching poetry. The translator's note, introduction, and chapter introductions are all deeply researched, but still accessible to a lay reader. -- Elizabeth Franklin Portland Book Review This pleasing volume should introduce a new generation of general readers to the important poetic tradition of the ancient Greek grave epigram... No previous English study of quite this scope exist. Choice A wonderful short volume on Greek epitaphs which will appeal both to the general reader and the specialist... I highly recommend this book as a solid introduction to the reading and translating of Greek epigrams, and as a useful reference for illustrating how poetic translations of ancient Greek can be beautifully rendered for the modern audience while still remaining loyal to the ancient Greek use of language -- Philip J. Smith Bryn Mawr Classical Review As you turn the pages of this modest-seeming book you begin to succumb to magic. Each of these epitaphs is a poem that opens a window onto a life in Antiquity... If you wanted to find a single volume that gives a sense of the genius of the ancient Greeks, and reflects their influence on the cultural life of subsequent ages, you would be pushed to find anything better than this. -- Alex Martin The Anglo-Hellenic Review


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