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Cut These Words into My Stone

Ancient Greek Epitaphs

translated by Michael Wolfe
foreword by Richard P. Martin

Publication Date
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The lively ancient epitaphs in this bilingual collection fit together like small mosaic tiles, forming a vivid portrait of Greek society.

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...

The lively ancient epitaphs in this bilingual collection fit together like small mosaic tiles, forming a vivid portrait of Greek society.

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.

Reviews

Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.5
x
8.5
Pages
208
ISBN
9781421408040
Table of Contents

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

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 Bios
Featured Contributor

Richard P. Martin

Richard Martin is Anthony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor of Classics at Stanford University.