Book Description

This text contains two works, Cebes' Tablet and Xenophon's paraphrase of Prodicus "Choice of Heracles," that are particulary suitable to students of Ancient Greek who are making the transition from first-year grammar and morphology to reading narratives of unadapted prose. These works are also thematically related, for both describe through an allegorical lens what effects the choices one makes in life have on achieving philosophical wisdom and happiness. In addition to providing introductions, extensive vocabulary assistance, and grammatical, historical, cultural, and literary notes for each work, this edition also includes several appendices that contain: (1) textual and visual materials for understanding better certain aspects of these two narratives within their cultural and historical contexts; (2) a facsimile of Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie's 1910 English translation of Cebes' Tablet; (3) four works (Jacob Matham and Hendrick Goltzius' 1592 engraving TABVLA CEBETIS, Benjamin West's 1814 holograph "Allegorical Sketch," Albrecht Dürer's c. 1498 engraving Der Hercules, and Pompeo Girolano Batoni's 1742 painting Ercole al Bivio together with his 1740-1742 prefatory drawing for this work, Study of Hercules) that engage the two original texts' moral and ethical propositions in a visual medium; (4) William Dunkin's eighteenth-century poem "The Judgment of Hercules," an innovative translation-cum-adaptation of Xenophon's paraphrase of Prodicus' "Choice of Heracles."