Customer Reviews

Lucian: Vera Historia (Greek Edition)

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Bolchazzy-Carducci, doyens of the cheap knock-off editions of out-of-copywright Classical texts, have resurrected C.S. Jerram's 19th century public-school edition of the Vera Historia and stuffed it with whimsical, if unnecessary, line drawings. The passage where the vine-women turn the crew's members to wood is excised, and, sadly, the Traveler's account of the sexual/reproductive habits of the male-only Moon-men is deleted, although happily it's added to an appendix. Once the ornate introduction is past, the Atticized Greek is pellucid and easy, and the story itself is a continual delight. The hero sails his ship to the Moon, fights in the war between the Moon-men and the forces of the Sun (including centaurs from Sirius!)visits the Frozen Sea and the Island of Cheese, and is accidentally swallowed by a whale. Second-year Greek students might enjoy this more than, say, the Anabasis, although it's admittedly a marginal work.