Briefly Singing

Richard C. Smith is a professor in the Classics Department of the
University of Alberta.

Since his earlier Two Hundred Poems from the Greek Anthology is out of
print, Skelton now provides us with a more comprehensive selection of
epigrams and lyrics from the Greek and Roman Mediterranean, ranging from
800 BC to 1000 AD. Altogether, there are 122 selections from named
authors and 31 anonymous items; the majority of the selections come from
Greek sources, but there are seven by Latin poets (including Catullus,
Horace, Martial, and Petronius as well as the less-familiar Emperor
Hadrian).

Other than a brief introduction outlining some reasons for his choice
of authors and why he modernized some poems while translating others
more strictly, Skelton provides almost no commentary on the poems and
allows the verses to “sing” for themselves. He has conventionally
arranged them into time periods, with the known authors of the Classical
Greek period (to 350 BC) coming first, followed by the Hellenistic and
early Roman periods, the time of the Roman Empire (50-450 A.D.) and the
Byzantine period. The anonymous poems range over the whole timeframe.
Skelton also follows the traditional attribution of authorship without
noting (as in the case of Plato, for example) that little or no evidence
may exist indicating the cited author is the real one.

The translations of the poems are very much in the Classical spirit,
even though they sometimes have a modern vocabulary and presentation.
The erotic, the satirical, and the melancholy are all well represented
in phrases that make the ancient wits part of our contemporary society.