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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 
"The first of autumn, you shall be my guest".:
It has no sense to tell you this book is very good and you ought to read it. Instead I'll give a short introduction to each poet and a short example of their work. So you can judge by yourself if it is interesting enough.
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The first poet is Archilochos. He lived in the seventh century B.C. He was born on the island of Paros, one of the cyclades. He left it for good when he became a mercenary.
He was at his best as a satirist. His work came to us in fragments (like for many poets in this... more info
Davenport's Greeks:
This is a gem of a book for anyone who is interested in ancient Greece. Guy Davenport is a wonderful interpreter of Archilochos, Sappho, and the rest; his introduction, describing each poet is as interesting as the poetry itself. Davenport's explication of how translation of the ancient poets is done is fascinating, and lends integrity to the book. Mr. Davenport tells you when the papyrus he is translating is simply too worn to read (explaining gaps in the verse), but he also speculates about what the... more info
Scrupulously accurate, thoroughly modern:
This is a little book that will take your breath away. Most of the poets here survive only in tatters, rags of verse and words quoted by other authors. Yet the power that dwells in a handful of scattered words from a great verse is poetry itself, like haiku. Sappho and Archilochos read as though they could have been contemporaries of Ted Hughes. The key here is Davenport, a man of incredible sensibility, and the best bridge-builder between the ancient and the modern since Ezra Pound.
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