Richard Hunter is Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College. He has published extensively in the fields of Greek and Latin literature; his most recent books include Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (with M. Fantuzzi, 2004), The Shadow of Callimachus (2006), and Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture (with I. Rutherford, 2008). Many of his essays are collected in On Coming After (2008).

• Introduction; 1. Aristophanes' Frogs and the critical tradition; 2. Readings of Homer: Euripides' Cyclops; 3. Comic moments; 4. The ugly peasant and the naked virgins: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Imitation; 5. The grand and the less grand: 'Longinus', On the Sublime; 6. Reading for life: Plutarch, How the young man should study poetry.

'Critical Moments in Classical Literature is a curious book; deeply learned, elegantly written, and filled with subtle observations on a vast array or texts … The individual chapters are filled with insightful observations on countless ancient critical passages …' Hermathena