Customer Reviews (4)

Should Have Been A Bestseller
Mary Jemison was a Scot-Irish girl captured by the Shawnee and French during the French and Indian war. Subsequently "gifted" to two Seneca sisters, she was raised with their culture, values, and spirituality.Seaver's book does not do this woman or her story justice and Lois Lenski is not "in tune" with the heritage.Rayna Gangi is a versatile author, and has the insight, spirituality, and cultural heritage to make this truly fascinating story come alive. Mary is strong, vulnerable, wise and trusting.She loses two sons to white devices, and chooses to stay a Seneca.Letchworth State Park has her statue, Gangi has her real story.This book is the ONLY one on Mary Jemison sanctioned by the Seneca Nation as being the truth.Highly recommended for all ages.

Glad I Found This
Rayna Gangi is most definitely a talented and versatile author.I have read, "Forget The Cures, Find The Cause," (3 times!) and then searched to see what else she has written.Mary Jemison is based on a true story and this is the only version sanctioned by the Seneca nation. She's also written the screenplay.What a find!Anyone from 9 to 90 will love this book!`

Mary Jemison:Our Local Ledgend Comes to Life
This interpretation of the life of Mary Jemison as written by
Ranya M. Gangi is wonderful.It is one of the few versions that is actually approved by the Seneca Nation, and also features an epilogue by Pete Jemison, who I met along with Wanda Jemison as a small child.This story of Mary Jemison is focused on the harsh reality that occured when she was captured in Pennsylvania and given as a gift to the Seneca's to replace a fallen brother.Gangi's interpretation of this story teaches us many unknown facts about Jemison as well as the Seneca Indians, which people may be unaware of.After reading this touching story, I went to Letchworth State Park where Ms. Jemison is buried to pay my respect to this local heroine.This book is the best version of Jemison's life that I have read, and I strongly reccomend it for all ages.

Agree with Author, This book is MUCH more than a children's
Underrated and profound!Much more than a children's book. The story, the spirituality, and the simplicity/truth of style make this book a compelling read for anyone from age 9-100. ... Read more

Product Description
Handsome Lake (1735-1815) was a religious reformer among the Iroquois, the prominent alliance of New York tribes. His 'Code', presented in this book in full, attempted to simplify the spiritual practices of the Iroquois, preaching temperance, a strict moral code, and self-determination. It also contains some startling prophecies: Handsome Lake believed the world would end (by fire) in the year 2100; he predicted the destruction of the environment, famines, and war; and one of his visions (see section 93) appears to describe the destruction of the ozone layer. This book also contains invaluable descriptions of Iroquois religious rituals and myths at the turn of the twentieth Century. (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

About the Author

Arthur Caswell Parker (1881 - 1955)
Arthur Caswell Parker (April 5, 1881 - January 1, 1955) was an archaeologist, historian, folklorist, museologist and noted authority on American Indian culture. He was director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences from 1924 to 1945, and an honorary trustee of the New York State Historical Association.

Arthur C. Parker was born on the Cattaraugus Reservation in western New York, the son of Frederick Ely Parker, a Seneca Iroquois, and Geneva Griswold, a woman of Scottish and English descent, who taught school on the reservation.

Arthur's Iroquois name was Gawasco Waneh (meaning "Big Snowsnake"). His grandfather, Nicholas H. Parker, was an influential Seneca leader, whose brother, Ely S. Parker, was a brigadier general and secretary to Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War, and later the first Indian Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Arthur lived on Nicholas Parker's farm and was strongly influenced by him.

Arthur Caswell Parker was also influenced by both ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet
Of course, the purchased item arrived in promised time and in perfect condition.I expect nothing less from Amazon.The book was authored by Arthur C Parker, a Seneca Indian who managed quite adroitly to assimilate into the 19th century State of New York, having himself been born on the Cattaraugus Reservation.The book gives a good overview of the religion of Handsome Lake as well as an excellent and concise history of the life and times of the prophet.The code is clearly translated and thorough.I wish Mr. Parker was still among us so I could thank him personally for his work.I recommend the book TO BE INDIAN, by Joy Porter, a wonderful treatment of the life of Mr. Parker. ... Read more

Product Description
Feminists from 1848 to the present have rightly viewed the Seneca Falls convention as the birth of the women's rights movement in the United States and beyond. In "The Road To Seneca Falls", Judith Wellman offers the first well documented, full-length account of this historic meeting in its contemporary context. The convention succeeded by uniting powerful elements of the antislavery movement, radical Quakers, and the campaign for legal reform under a common cause. Wellman shows that these three strands converged not only in Seneca Falls, but also in the life of women's rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is this convergence, she argues, that foments one of the greatest rebellions of modern times.Rather than working heavy-handedly downward from their official "Declaration of Sentiments," Wellman works upward from richly detailed documentary evidence to construct a complex tapestry of causes that lay behind the convention, bringing the struggle to life. Her approach results in a satisfying combination of social, community, and reform history with individual and collective biographical elements."The Road to Seneca Falls" challenges all of us to reflect on what it means to be an American trying to implement the belief that 'all men and women are created equal', both then and now. A fascinating story in its own right, it is also a seminal piece of scholarship for anyone interested in history, politics, or gender. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume offers new translations of the most important of Seneca's "Moral Essays": On Anger, On Mercy, On the Private Life, and the first four books of On Favours.They give a full picture of the social and moral outlook of an ancient Stoic thinker.A General Introduction describes Seneca's life and career and explains the fundamental ideas underlying the Stoic moral, social and political philosophy in the essays.Individual introductions, footnotes and biographical notes explain their historical and philosophical contexts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good purchase
It arrived in good condition. The real color of the cover is a bit darker though.

Was this the book that was referred to in the play "ART"?
My friends and I saw the play "ART" in Los Angeles, with Alan Alda and two other very fine actors. The book Seneca was mentioned. The play was about a man buying a white on white painting and the relationshipthereafter with his two friends. ... Read more

Product Description

Are there no limits to human cruelty? Is there any divine justice? Do the gods even matter if they do not occupy themselves with rewarding virtue and punishing wickedness? Seneca's plays might be dismissed as bombastic and extravagant answers to such questions -- if so much of human history were not "Senecan" in its absurdity, melodrama, and terror. Here is an honest artist confronting the irrationality and cruelty of his world -- the Rome of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero -- and his art reflects the stress of the encounter. The surprise, perhaps, is that Seneca's world is so like our own.

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, but often more adaptation than translation
The "translations" in this two volume set aim at capturing the flavor of Seneca in roughly the same number of lines of poetry (most translations are longer than the originals, expanding upon the compactedLatin for the sake of literalness).These are good reading, and do capturesomething of the power of Senecan tragedy.But teachers should beware thatthey are often interpretive adaptations rather than literal translations. Ideas are often added to clarify the translators' sense of what a speech isabout, for example.These occasionally obtrusive choices make these textsless than optimal for certain kinds of classroom teaching. ... Read more

Product Description

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and advisor to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Seneca—whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson—to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.

Product Description
Traces the course of the women's rights movement from its origin in the Seneca Falls Convention through the passage of the Nineteenth Ammendment giving women the right to vote. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Long Arduous Struggle For A Woman's Right To Vote
March Is Woman's History Month

One of the few historically interesting anecdotes that came our of last year's Democratic Party nomination process during the America presidential election campaign that pitted both the first serious black, Barack Obama, and woman, Hillary Clinton,candidates for that office was the rounding up ofa number of very elderly women who were the beneficiaries of the successful struggle for the woman's right to vote by the Clinton campaign to be used as symbol of the need to go that next step and elect a woman president. The historic symbolism of those gestures brought into sharp relief the very long, arduous struggling for the right of women to vote. Equally, it brought into relief the sometimes frictional nature of the two constituencies represented by the two campaigns last year in those earlier days of struggle for increasing the democratic franchise beyond that of then narrow one of white male property owners and their hangers-on.

That tension is the subject, or rather one of the subjects, of this very readable narrative history of the movement that uses the organizing efforts culminating in the famous Seneca Falls Woman's Right Convention in 1848 as its central focus. Moreover, today at a time when there is something of a lull in the current "third wave" women's movement about where it should head and what issues it should fight arounda quick read of the past, its struggles, its controversies and its victories seems in order as we commemorate Woman' History Month. A number of books that I review, and the present volume is one such example, concerning important issues for political leftists are older ones.I again provide the caveat that this book is a place to begin and reflects the knowledge and understandings of thirty years ago in the heat of the "second wave" women's movement. It is nevertheless a place to start.

It may seem unbelievable today, and probably even the most hidebound male chauvinist, that in the early part of the 19th century here is the democratic citadel of America that not only were the overwhelming majority of blacks disenfranchised but that was also the case with women. The well-known plight of most blacks as slaves, male and female, reduced them to chattel property with no rights that "a white man need respect." What is not so well-known is that as to property rights, access to the courts, education and most conditions of life the women of America had no rights that "a white male need respect". The struggle to turn this condition of servitude around is quite well detailed in Ms. Gurko's study.

In the early 19th century the role of women in politics, if any, was as an adjunct to men's interests. This was a period, particularly in the "Age of Jackson" when there were a plethora of reform movements led by men. Women centrally concerned themselves with the religious revival, temperance or anti-slavery agitation. The question of women's rights, as it emerged and became a separate issue strangely enough was, at least formally, initially led by men. Thus when the likes Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a couple of the well-studied and quoted heroines of this book, started their efforts those were in a subordinate role to men. The most striking aspect of this role, at least to this reviewer's eyes, was that the first feeble efforts at organizing woman's rights meetings had men as chairmen. By the time of Seneca Falls the `ladies' had gotten the hang of running their own meetings.Thanks, Elizabeth and friends.

Ms. Gurko has concentrated on two main themes in her study. First, a wide- ranging detailed look at the personalities who dominated the early days of the "first wave " of the woman's rights movement. She, thus, gives thorough and thoughtful snapshot biographic sketches of the above-mentioned Mott and Stanton. Needless to say she has words to say about the very pivotal figure of Mary Wollstonecraft as the 18th century forerunner of such efforts, as well. As the story unfold the towering figure of Susan B.Anthony and that of Lucy Stone come forth. Lesser time is spend acknowledging the pioneering efforts of the Grimke sisters, Margaret Fuller and other more episodic figures like Amelia Bloomer and the `notorious' Victoria Woodhull (who has the distinction of being the first woman candidate for president in 1872). Very little attention is paid to later figures who took up the final struggle to get the 19th Amendment passed, ratified and enacted in 1920. That is, in any case, seemingly was left for another author.

Her second theme centers on an analysis of the various strategies, issues, organizing methods and goals that the woman's rights movement fought fight around. This is the most interesting aspect of her study for it goes into some detail about the various controversies that swirled around the movement at the time. Those included such topics as the thorny one of the relationship of the woman's rights movement to the ant-slavery struggle and later to the quest for black (male) suffrage that caused one split in the movement. Whether males should or should not be excluded from the movement, for another... Whether there should be a one issue campaign on woman's suffrage or a whole range of issues of property rights, divorce, education and other forms of advancement that caused another split. Whether woman should `take to the streets' to win their program or depend on strictly parliamentary methods. Whether and in what way propaganda tools like newspapers, meeting and other actions should be undertaken. And, finally, whether and in what form alliances with other formations should be undertaken. (I am thinking here of the alliance with Frances Willard's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, WCTU, and other types of socially conservative organizations).

I have taken some pains to list the questions posed by the "first wave" of the women's movement in the 19th century because, in a general way, those political issues confronted the "second wave" women's movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's as well. To put the question politically, in short hand, the question of which way for the woman's movement-radical reconstruction or piecemeal reforms?Sound familiar? Questions of social reform take life of their own that apparently goes beyond time and place. One ironic (from today's perspective) series of anecdotesthat kept coming up in the book was the question of the correct deportment of women in those days, from the question of `proper' dress to whether they should speak in public or travel alone and the like. While those are not, or should not, be issues today those whostruggled in the "second wave" or are today struggling through the "third wave" should run through this little book to get a sense of history, woman's history of political struggle.

Ladies of Seneca Falls
This was an excellent historical account of the early phase of the women's rights movement It provides the background of several of the woman viewed as leaders of the women's movement.It provides a perspective andoffers details which other accounts fail to provide. The struggles of the women who were at the forefront of the women's movement in its early years is lucidly presented.It is a well written account and added substantially to my knowledge of the early phases of the movement.I highly recommend the book.

Great read; great reminder
Our (usually fiction-reading) book club read this in October, 2004.I avoided starting it for a long time, but as soon as I got past the first chapter, I couldn't put it down.It was amazingly well-written with wonderful stories of the women who only earned a passing mention in our 7th-grade history books.This book made me see how many dedicated and strong women were needed to make a basic change in American culture and made each member appreciate her right to vote so much more in the November 2004 election.

Slow scattered start, builds in confidence and writing style
An overview of the women's suffrage movement in the United States during the 18th. Century.This was a time when the legislature of Tennessee declared that women could not own property since they had no souls.In the few states where a women could own property, she had no voice over its taxation, a complaint the Founding Fathers had against the English crown.The book begins with a series of sketchy biographies, and then tells the tale very ably.If you know little of the American suffrage movement two centuries ago, this is a good primer.Truly makes you respect Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, giants in the quest for freedom for all.The irony of newly freed black male slaves, totally unbooked, refusing to be taught by an educated person because they were female and therefore beneath them, was an interesting cocktail of prejudice.Even the great Even Frederick Douglass spoke about his concern that black male suffrage should proceed a woman's...either white or black.Susan B. Anthony thought that equal meant just that, equal rights for both women, blacks, and the white males.

"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform.Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."-Susan B. Anthony, 1860.

An essential reference
A thorough, easily-read, fascinating book about the early American Women's Rights movement.I have read many books on this subject, and rate this as one of the highest in objectivity and appeal.Especially good as aspringboard for those not already familar with the subject. Brush up onyour HERstory! ... Read more

Product Description
The historical tragedy Octavia focuses on Nero's divorce from the princess Octavia, Claudius' daughter by Valeria Messalina, and on the emperor's subsequent marriage to Poppaea Sabina. This book includes a full-length introduction, a new edition of the text based on a fresh examination of the manuscripts, and a detailed commentary dealing with textual, linguistic, and literary points. Spanning three days in June AD 62, the tragic action of the play ends with Octavia's deportation to the island of Pandateria, where she would be executed shortly afterwards. ... Read more

Product Description

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, born at Corduba (Cordova) ca. 4 BCE, of a prominent and wealthy family, spent an ailing childhood and youth at Rome in an aunt's care. He became famous in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service. After some disgrace during Claudius' reign he became tutor and then, in 54 CE, advising minister to Nero, some of whose worst misdeeds he did not prevent. Involved (innocently?) in a conspiracy, he killed himself by order in 65. Wealthy, he preached indifference to wealth; evader of pain and death, he preached scorn of both; and there were other contrasts between practice and principle.

We have Seneca's philosophical or moral essays (ten of them traditionally called Dialogues)—on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness—and treatises on natural phenomena. Also extant are 124 epistles, in which he writes in a relaxed style about moral and ethical questions, relating them to personal experiences; a skit on the official deification of Claudius, Apocolocyntosis (in Loeb number 15); and nine rhetorical tragedies on ancient Greek themes. Many epistles and all his speeches are lost.

The 124 epistles are collected in Volumes IV–VI of the Loeb Classical Library's ten-volume edition of Seneca.

Customer Reviews (2)

A Secular Bible for the 21st Century
Seneca's one hundred and twenty four letters to Lucilius constitute a secular bible, an ethical catechism written in a gnomic and epigrammatic style that sparkles as it enlightens.So impressed were the early church fathers with Seneca's moral insights that they advanced (fabricated?) the speculation that he must have come within the influence of Christian teachings. T.S. Eliot sneers at Seneca's boyish, commonplace wisdom and points out that the resemblances between Seneca's 'stoic philosophy' and Christianity are superficial. For those seeking a practical, modern manual on how to do good and how to do well,written in the 'silver point' style that values brevity, concision and memorable expression, Seneca's letters are indeed the Good Book.

A Secular Bible for the 21st Century
Seneca's one hundred and twenty four letters to Lucilius constitute a secular bible, an ethical catechism written in a gnomic and epigrammatic style that sparkles as it enlightens.So impressed were the early church fathers with Seneca's moral insights that they advanced (fabricated?) the speculation that he must have come within the influence of Christian teachings. T.S. Eliot sneers at Seneca's boyish, commonplace wisdom and points out that the resemblances between Seneca's 'stoic philosophy' and Christianity are superficial. For those seeking a practical, modern manual on how to do good and how to do well,written in the 'silver point' style that values brevity, concision and memorable expression, Seneca's letters are indeed the Good Book. ... Read more

Product Description
A biography of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the organizers of the country's first women's rights convention, which took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

WAKEUPTOWHATWEOWETHESUFFRAGISTS !
"The Road to Seneca Falls" will take contemporary readers back to the time of their great, Great, GREAT-grandparents. Can today's 4th and 5th graders identify with what may seem ancient history? Will Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her sausage curls draw young readers?

Let's hope Gwenyth Swain's story ignites interest & even passion
in 'Women's Rights' and the tough fight to change conditions which today's girls can hardly believe ever existed: NO college for women! NO rights to personal or real property! and definitely NO VOTE!

Elizabeth was never a shy violet. She was bright and determined. The story of her childhood makes her seem genuinely real. Her beliefs were authentic and she never turned her back on them, or those who stood with her, persistent and dedicated.

As a fan of the author, I was delighted to see her picture on the back cover of the library edition. She is shown at the truly meaningful national historical monment to women's rights, an exciting museum complex in Seneca Falls -- in upstate New York.
This is a town which many people identify asthe backdrop for the movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life". The museum draws people from all over the USA and world and gives one the opportunity to pay tribute to women who did battle for a worthy cause. I could bridge many decades and pose next to a hero, Frederick Douglass!

I recommend this 5-star book for its well-researched story, and useful bibliography. It will help growing readers as they learn to choose values for their own lives. ... Read more

Product Description

Roman secondary education aimed principally at training future lawyers and politicians. Under the late Republic and the Empire, the main instrument was an import from Greece: declamation, the making of practice speeches on imaginary subjects. There were two types of such speeches: controversiae on law-court themes, suasoriae on deliberative topics. On both types a prime source of our knowledge is the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Spaniard from Cordoba, father of the distinguished philosopher. Towards the end of his long life (?55 BCE–?40 CE) he collected together ten books devoted to controversiae (some only preserved in excerpt) and at least one (surviving) of suasoriae. These books contained his memories of the famous rhetorical teachers and practitioners of his day: their lines of argument, their methods of approach, their idiosyncrasies, and above all their epigrams. The extracts from the declaimers, though scrappy, throw invaluable light on the influences that coloured the styles of most pagan (and many Christian) writers of the Empire. Unity is provided by Seneca's own contribution, the lively prefaces, engaging anecdote about speakers, writers and politicians, and brisk criticism of declamatory excess.

Product Description

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and advisor to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Seneca—whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson—to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.

Written near the end of Seneca’s life, Natural Questions is a work in which Seneca expounds and comments on the natural sciences of his day—rivers and earthquakes, wind and snow, meteors and comets—offering us a valuable look at the ancient scientific mind at work. The modern reader will find fascinating insights into ancient philosophical and scientific approaches to the physical world, and also vivid evocations of the grandeur, beauty, and terror of nature.

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
The forced suicide of Seneca, former adviser to Nero, is one of the most tortured -- and most revisited -- death scenes from classical antiquity. After fruitlessly opening his veins and drinking hemlock, Seneca finally succumbed to death in a stifling steam bath, while his wife Paulina, who had attempted suicide as well, was bandaged up and revived by Nero's men. From the first century to the present day, writers and artists have retold this scene in order to rehearse and revise Seneca's image and writings, and to scrutinize the event of human death.

In The Deaths of Seneca, James Ker offers the first comprehensive cultural history of Seneca's death scene, situating it in the Roman imagination and tracing its many subsequent interpretations. Ker shows first how the earliest accounts of the death scene by Tacitus and others were shaped by conventions of Greco-Roman exitus-description and Julio-Claudian dynastic history. At the book's center is an exploration of Seneca's own prolific writings about death -- whether anticipating death in his letters, dramatizing it in the tragedies, or offering therapy for loss in the form of consolations -- which offered the primary lens through which Seneca's contemporaries would view the author's death. These ancient approaches set the stage for prolific receptions, and Ker traces how the death scene was retold in both literary and visual versions, from St. Jerome to Heiner Müller and from medieval illuminations to Peter Paul Rubens and Jacques-Louis David. Dozens of interpreters, engaging with prior versions and with Seneca's writings, forged new and sometimes controversial views on Seneca's legacy and, more broadly, on mortality and suicide.The Deaths of Seneca presents a new, historically inclusive, approach to reading this major Roman author. ... Read more

Product Description
Perhaps the strangest and most strikingly modern work to survive from the ancient world, The Satyricon relates the hilarious mock epic adventures of the impotent Encolpius, and his struggle to regain virility. Here Petronius brilliantly brings to life the courtesans, legacy-hunters, pompous professors and dissolute priestesses of the age and, above all, Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose pretentious vulgarity on an insanely grand scale makes him one of the great comic characters in literature. Seneca's The Apocolocyntosis, a malicious skit on the deification of Claudius the Clod', was designed by the author to ingratiate himself with Nero, who was Claudius' successor. Together, the two provide a powerful insight into a darkly fascinating period of Roman history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Ancient fun
How much you appreciate THE SATYRICON depends on why you're reading it.If you're reading for a good story, look elsewhere.This is a fragment.The missing parts are gone forever.We can only imagine what the missing parts contained.But if you're reading for a glimpse into Roman life in first century AD, this is a treat.It's a very readable translation that is also very funny.I laughed out loud a couple of times.The introduction explains that it is a spoof of THE ODYSSEY.Odysseus gets blown around the Mediterranean as a result of having offended Poseidon.In THE SATYRICON the protagonist has offended Priapus and must suffer his wrath as the bounces around the Bay of Naples.

This work is famous for its depiction of the uber-freedman, Trimalchio, and his excessively vulgar banquet, and it lived up to my expectations.Oh how I wish that someone would miraculously discover the missing parts.What there is of this is great.

The APOCOLOCYNTOSIS is an amusing brief work (once again fragmentary) by Seneca that gives some insight into the sensibilities of the time.Also included are several chunks of text that were perhaps part of the SATYRICON at one time.There are detailed notes and introductions for everything.I can't imagine anything better, other than complete texts.Five stars.

Political and literary satires
The Satyricon is an interesting story on many levels.It includes a fascinating look into concepts of friendship and love in Rome, and is one important source we have for views of magic and witchcraft in Rome.The work has a great deal to tell us about Roman society, and perceptions of Roman society despite its satirical nature.Secondly, just as Livy and Virgil tend to draw a great deal from the Illiad, this work draws from the Odyssey but does so in what seems to be intended to be a humorous way. It is also an enjoyable read.

The Apocolocyntosis is a humorous skit mocking the late emperor Claudius's ascent into godhood.The title includes a play on words (if Apotheosis is turning a person into a god, then Apocolocyntosis is turning a person into a gourd or pumpkin).The message seems to be that Claudius was a gambler who was more fit to be remembered for his gambling tools (made of gourd?) than honored as a god.There are subtle elements to this metaphor which are dependent on a good knowledge of the Hellenistic world (such as the widespread cult of Tyche, the goddess of luck).

The translations are easy to read and well put together.This edition also adds insightful introductions and copious end-notes to help the serious student get more out of these works.I would highly recommend it.

Scurrilous is a Four-Letter Word...
... or at least the Latin equivalent, one of those great Latin adjectives that are being dumped from English and replaced by raw slang. Scurrilous means roughly 'raunchy' or 'sleazy', but with a sharply disapproving tone to it. "Shameful' might also be a near synonym. The Satyricon is a scurrilous book - a collection of fragments, actually - a depiction of gluttony, pretentiousness, vulgarity, and sexual decadence: sodomy, pederasty, public intercourse, scatophilia, sadism, rape, all subjects to be laughed at uproariously. The challenges to any modern reader will be to decide whether Petronius meant his work as satire or pornography... or both... and whether he intended to censorious. Clearly the extravagance portrayed was perceived as "shameful", as scurrilous, or else it wouldn't have been funny. Another and greater challenge to the modern historian is to decipher just how realistic such a portrayal of bizarre perversion and vulgarity might be. The Roman Empire was unquestionably a marvel of administration and efficiency. It had to be, to survive the insanity at the center ... if even a tenth of the center were as corrupt as Petronius and Suetonius describe. With no means of transportation or communication faster than a man on foot or a ship with rowers, the Roman Empire was so much more secure and luxurious than any lands around it that every barbarian with a sharp stick was ready to fight his way in.

Yet Nero was real. We know that. We have archaeological as well as literary evidence of the scale of his excesses. Making sense of how an administrative empire with high internal security and general satisfaction could survive Nero, and the dozens of mini-Neros implied by Petronius, is half the fun of being a historian. And if you, dear reader, have any ambition of appreciating ancient Rome historically, you must see it through the obscene descriptions of Petronius.

The young Nero's personal tutor was none other than the austere stoic philosopher Seneca, and Seneca was capable of scurrility as shameful as Petronius, though never as lurid. The Apocolocyntosis (a title translated by Robert Graves as the "Pumkinification of Claudius") is a scurrilous semi-dramatic account of the efforts of the dead Emperor Claudius to claim his rights as a demi-god, with a place on Olympus. Like several of the plays attributed to Seneca, it was obviously written to amuse and to curry favor with Nero, Claudius's successor. We all know that Seneca's boot-licking failed in the end; Nero ordered him to commit suicide.

These two translations were done in the 1960s, a time when the late Victorian conventions of language still prevailed. The vocabulary of sexuality and body functions is a good deal less blunt here in English than in the original Latin, but perhaps our modern imaginations are more attuned to euphemisms.

This society of rich slaves, imperious freedmen, opulent prostitute priestesses, and the unchallengeable privilege of the super rich was the substrate of Christianity, and of Islam, and of the modern world. Get to know it. From Petronius's Trimalchio to the Renaissance Popes and to the Saudi Kings is a direct historical progression.

Good, considering
Lacking the complete text, which is probably forever lost, this surviving material is still a very entertaining look into Roman life and culture. It offers perspectives that you will find no where else in classical literature, often very humorous. I've wanted to read this text for many years and was not dissapointed when I final picked it up. Those who are reading this review are likely aware of how frequently this work has been cited and referenced by more modern writers, and upon reading it one can easily see why that is so. I recommend it to anyone who is into classics, satire, novels, Swift, etc.

Wonderful bawdy
Petronius, according to the translator's notes, was a person of unidentified occupation and member of Emperor Nero's court. Chances are that Petronius got by ingratiating himself with the rich and famous, perhaps by amusing them with his stories. It's also fair to guess that he joined some of their debuaches - perhaps some of this is drawn from experience - and that the tales grew in the telling.

The story starts with the narrator Encolpius, with his friend Asclytus, and with the toyboy they share, Giton. What follows is a wandering series of encounters. They split and reunite a number of times, usually around some improbable scheme. Later on, the aging poet Eumolpus takes Asclytus' place in the story, in Giton's intimacy, and in the petty schemes with Encolpius.

At one point, Encolpius is found spying on the ecstasies offered up to one of the gods. The punishment for that lewd interlude is in kind, to have ecstasy thrust upon (and into) him beyond bearing. That's an early passage, and sets the tone for all the other adventures and escapes in this book.

Towards the end, his dissolute ways make him the Cialis poster boy. He seeks an aged witch for aphrodisiac treatment, and she gives it to him all different ways. To his dismay, many ways involve her own aged body in the treatment. A reader with a vivid imagination will see lots more humor than this 1965 translation would have dared put on paper.

But I wonder, is this really the best translation? Yes, it has some integrity - Sullivan has been careful to note breaks in the manuscript. He even adds a chapter of "fragments," too broken and disjoint to guess at. The reader doesn't get a false sense of continuity caused by the translator's patches. On the other hand, the reader doesn't get a full sense of continuity, either. On the scale from academic rendering to storytelling, I wish this were a bit more in the storytelling direction. No matter, it's a great story anyway.

//wiredweird ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1885.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
Phaedra is one of Seneca's most successful tragedies. It was the first ancient drama to be performed in the Renaissance, marking an epoch in European theatre. The myth, as reworked by Seneca on the basis of dramas by Euripides, was endowed with fresh power, and his characterisation of Phaedra, especially in her frank avowal of love to her stepson, Hippolytus, fired the imagination of later tragic poets, especially Racine. Roland Mayer introduces the reader to the complex dramatic and literary inheritance which Seneca appropriated and in his turn bequeathed, and he sets out some of the main lines of contemporary interpretation and performance practice. ... Read more