1st Edition

Theophrastus' Characters A New Introduction

By Sonia Pertsinidis Copyright 2018
    124 Pages
    by Routledge

    124 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book presents an introduction to the Characters, a collection of thirty amusing descriptions of character types who lived in Athens in the fourth century BCE. The author of the work, Theophrastus, was Aristotle's colleague, his immediate successor and head of his philosophical school for thirty-five years. Pertsinidis' lively, original and scholarly monograph introduces Theophrastus as a Greek philosopher. It also outlines the remarkable influence of the Characters as a literary work and provides a detailed discussion of the work's purpose and its connection with comedy, ethics and rhetoric.

    Sources and abbreviations; Preface; Introduction; 1. Theophrastus: his life, works and character; 2. Before and after Theophrastus’ Characters; 3. The Characters as a comedy of manners; 4. Behaving badly: ethics and the Characters; 5. Style, delivery and the role of character in rhetoric; 6. Epilogue: conclusions and implications; Index

    Biography

    Sonia Pertsinidis a lecturer in Classics at The Australian National University.

    "With this book, Pertsinidis offers the broader reading public a friendly, clear and vivid introduction to what is indeed one of the most influential texts of classical literature. This book will be very useful for students in classics as well as anyone else with an interest in the ancient world. It contains everything that a general reader needs to know before taking the decision to delve systematically into Theophrastus’ text." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review