An Anthology of Greek Prose, compiled and edited with an introduction by D.A. Russell, was first published by Oxford University Press in 1991. It is intended to give students – both in the last two years of school, and at undergraduate level – the opportunity of sampling a very wide variety of Greek prose texts, chosen to illustrate both development and generic differences.
There are 100 passages in the anthology, drawn from 53 different authors, with only Plato and Plutarch receiving really substantial sections of their own. There is thus rather more variety in Russell’s anthology than in most collections of unseens. Use of this anthology will therefore may provide pupils in schools that lack an unusually large library of Greek texts with exposure to a far greater variety of authors than would otherwise be possible.
The anthology is prefaced by an introductory essay which beings by pointing out the poetic roots of Greek literature, and the extent to which this affects the nature of Greek prose, before providing a brief historical survey of the development of Greek prose, as illustrated in this anthology. This is followed by an introduction to Greek literary theory, which is based on the analyses of the Greek themselves – in particular those of Dionysius, Demetrius and Hermogenes – which is provided in order to provide a framework within which the characteristics of the passages within the anthology can be described. This is followed by a select bibliography of texts and commentaries.
Each passage is prefaced by a brief introduction, giving the historical background, a summary of the subject matter to aid the translator, and/or a short appraisal of the style. Brief notes follow each passage, explaining difficult words, and drawing attention to linguistic and stylistic points occurring in the extracts, in addition to giving contextual and historical information.