The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica (Johns Hopkins New Translations from Antiquity)

A vivid and entertaining story in its own right, the Trojan Epic is also particularly significant for what it reveals about its sources -- the much older, now lost Greek epics about the Trojan War known collectively as the Epic Cycle. Written in the Homeric era, these poems recounted events not included in the Iliad or the Odyssey. As Alan James makes clear in this vibrant and faithful new translation, Quintus's work deserves attention for its literary-historical importance and its narrative power. James's line-by-line verse translation in English reveals the original as an exciting and eloquent tale of gods and heroes, bravery and cunning, hubris and brutality. James includes a substantial introduction that places the work in its literary and historical context, a detailed and annotated book-by-book summary of the epic, a commentary on sources, and an explanatory index of proper names.