Peter Jones
In The East Face of Helicon (Oxford, £50), M. L. West, a fellow of All Souls, brings eastern texts (Babylonian, Hittite, biblical etc.) to bear upon Greek language and lit- erature from Homer to Aeschylus, and Shows in brilliant detail that there are par- allels at the level of ritual, custom, belief (you name it) down to even the minute Phraseology of poetic language that can be explained only by intensive interaction between Greeks and the Near East over a long time. What, however, does it all signify? West has laid the foundations of a fascinating debate that will run and run.
David West (no relation) has translated Horace's Odes and Epodes for World's Classics (1997) and is now producing detailed discussions of Odes, Books With the Latin, book by book. His Horace Odes II (Oxford, £30/£12.99) is well up to the standard of his Odes I — illuminating, Punchy, not a hostage in sight.
Previous page
