No area of ancient Greek literature has been more studied over the last few decades than "lyric poetry", which conventionally includes poetry sung by choruses or soloists accompanied by the lyre or aulos (flute). Besides its literary significance, lyric poetry is also a major resource for understanding the culture and history of Archaic Greece, especially the seventh and sixth centuries BC. This volume brings together eighteen of the best and most influential essays to be published on lyric poetry over the last four decades, three of which are here translated into English for the first time.

Authored by experts on Greek lyric poetry from the UK, Europe, and the USA - including Gregory Nagy, Claude Calame, and Malcolm Davies, among several others - the papers cover a wide range of general themes, ranging from studies of genre and the poetic persona to performance andinterpretation, and also offer illuminating case studies of individual poets, from Alcman and Alkaios to Sappho and Simonides. Collated here in a single volume and prefaced by a thorough and up-to-date synoptic introduction by the volume editor, himself a recognised authority on the subject, the plurality ofcritical voices and perspectives offers both scholars and students an accessible yet comprehensive and insightful overview of the field.

Ian Rutherford is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading. Educated at Oxford, he has held academic posts in both the UK and USA and beyond, including as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York from 2013 to 2014 and at ANAMED (Research Centre for Anatolian Civilisations) in Istanbul in 2017. His research focuses on ancient Greek poetry and religion, cultural contact and comparison between Greece and other ancient cultures, and ancient Anatolia.