The Classical Tradition (PDF)

The classical tradition--the legacy of Ancient Greece and
Rome--is a large, diverse and important field that continues
to shape human endeavour and engender wide public interest. The
Classical Tradition: Art, Literature, Thought presents an
original, coherent and wide-ranging guide to the afterlife of
Greco-Roman antiquity in later Western cultures and a
ground-breaking reinterpretation of large aspects of Western
culture as a whole - English-speaking, French, German and
Italian - from a classical perspective. Encompassing almost
two millennia of developments in art, literature, and thought, the
authors provide an overview of the field, a concise point of
reference, and a critical review of selected examples, from Titian
to T. S. Eliot, from the hero to concepts of government. They
engage in current theoretical debate on various fronts, from
hermeneutics to gender.

Themes explored include the Western languages and their
continuing engagement with Latin and Greek; the role of
translation; the intricate relationship of pagan and Christian; the
ideological implications of the classical tradition; the interplay
between the classical tradition and the histories of scholarship
and education; the relation between high and low culture; and the
myriad complex relationships--comparative, contrastive, and
interactive--between art, literature, and thought themselves.
Authoritative and accessible, The Classical Tradition: Art,
Literature, Thought offers new insights into the powerful
legacy of the ancient world from the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance to the present day.