This book considers what evidence the "new Simonides" fragments offer for Simonides' elegiac compositions on the Persian Wars. The current orthodoxy is that they represent three separate elegies on individual battles, one on Artemisium, one on Salamis, and one on Plataea. Kowerski evaluates what evidence these fragments provide for these compositions, and in doing so, questions the validity of the current interpretation of the "new Simonides."
Lawrence Kowerski is Associate Professor at Hunter College, USA .
Introduction 1. Too Many Fragments, Too Few Poems? Models for Combining the Fragments of the new Simonides 2. A Panhellenic Poem for Panhellenic War: The Subject Matter and Themes of the new Simonides 3. To Praise, To Commemorate, To Mourn: The new Simonides and Elegy Toward a Conclusion Appendix Bibliography
'[This book] contains much detailed, close argumentation ... [the] greates strength is its constant awareness of the dangers posed by fragmentary texts. If the books only virtue were to push readers back to unsupplemented texts and reconsideration of every piece of evidence, that would be enough to recommend it: and it does a good deal more than that.' – Journal of Hellenic Studies
