Stanley Lombardo

Tales of Dionysus is the first English verse translation of one of the most extraordinary poems of the Greek literary tradition, the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. By any standard, the Dionysiaca is a formidable work. It is by far the longest poem surviving from the classical world, a massive mythological epic stretching to over 20,000 lines, written in the tradition of Homer, using Homer’s verse, Homer’s language, his narrative turns and motifs, and invoking his ancient Muses. But it is also the last ancient epic to follow a Homeric model, composed so late in fact that it stands as close in time to the Renaissance as it does to archaic Greece. Like its titular hero, Dionysus, with his fluidity of forms, names, and divine incarnations, the poem itself is continually shifting shape. Out of its formal epic frame spills a tumult of ancient literary types: tragedy, elegy, didactic, panegyric, pastoral idyll, and the novel are all parts of this gigantic enterprise, each genre coming to the fore one after the other. Tales of Dionysus brings together forty-two translators from a wide range of backgrounds, with different experiences and different potential relationships to the text of Nonnus’ poem. All work in their own styles and with their own individual approaches to the poem, to translation, and to poetic form. This variety turns Tales of Dionysus into a showcase of the multiple possibilities open to classical translation in the contemporary world.

Tales of Dionysus is the first English verse translation of one of the most extraordinary poems of the Greek literary tradition, the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. By any standard, the Dionysiaca is a formidable work. It is by far the longest poem surviving from the classical world, a massive mythological epic stretching to over 20,000 lines, written in the tradition of Homer, using Homer’s verse, Homer’s language, his narrative turns and motifs, and invoking his ancient Muses. But it is also the last ancient epic to follow a Homeric model, composed so late in fact that it stands as close in time to the Renaissance as it does to archaic Greece. Like its titular hero, Dionysus, with his fluidity of forms, names, and divine incarnations, the poem itself is continually shifting shape. Out of its formal epic frame spills a tumult of ancient literary types: tragedy, elegy, didactic, panegyric, pastoral idyll, and the novel are all parts of this gigantic enterprise, each genre coming to the fore one after the other. Tales of Dionysus brings together forty-two translators from a wide range of backgrounds, with different experiences and different potential relationships to the text of Nonnus’ poem. All work in their own styles and with their own individual approaches to the poem, to translation, and to poetic form. This variety turns Tales of Dionysus into a showcase of the multiple possibilities open to classical translation in the contemporary world.

As every student of British history is aware, Bonny Prince Charlie made a right cockup of the Battle of Culloden. However, a secret known to only a select few historians is that the berk who brought disaster upon the highlanders in 1745 was not the Prince, but a player impersonating him, while the Prince, himself, lived in Cornwall in the guise of a humble cheesemonger. In "Song of the Highwayman; or, The Smuggler's Opera: The True Secret History of Charles III's Near Restoration to the Throne of England," medievalist Stanley Lombardo reveals how identical twins separated at birth changed the course of English history. Therein, the reader shall meet players, smugglers, gamblers, Earls, Countesses, whores, Jacobites, redcoats, renegades, taverners, Sidhe enchantresses, Herne the Hunter, and King Herla's Wild Rout -- and, above all, the enigmatic highwayman known as the Fen Tiger If Alexandre Dumas ("The Corsican Brothers"), Henry Fielding ("Tom Jones"), and Russell Thorndyke ("Doctor Syn: The Scarecrow") had collaborated on a tale of thundering hooves and flashing steel to create the opus maximus of their careers, the result would have been "The Song of the Highwayman; or, The Smuggler's Opera"

The year is 1991, and the ancient evil of the Nephilim, long dormant, has awakened. Ashmodiel, centuries-old Patriarch of the Children of Ramiel, has decreed that the time has come to summon their ancestor, the fallen Watcher Ramiel, from the desert realm of Duda ra, to which he has been exiled. For nurse Liz Grisanti, the terror begins when the Ramielites announce they will kidnap and sacrifice six blond, blue-eyed six-year-old children at a series of rituals between Halloween and the Winter Solstice -- and Liz's younger daughter, Bella, exactly fits the description of the cult's chosen victims. Called in as the Massachusetts State Criminal Investigation Division's specialist on cults, Detective Lieutenant Patrick Michael Pentangeli consults his mentor, occult master Trevor Faulkner, whose contacts in the field include rabbis and priests, as well as medievalist Sebastian Barber - who happens to be dating Liz Grizanti. As a series of angelic children are kidnapped and sacrificed and the days progress inexorably toward the Winter Solstice, the tightly knit circle of friends endeavors to protect Bella from falling victim to the Banim Ramiel - and, ultimately, to stop the final sacrifice before Ramiel can be summoned for from his imprisonment and free the legions of Nephilim to create a Hell on earth.

"The Christmas Dragon" is a holiday parable about the selfish Marquis of Monte Maggiore, Sicily, who feels no charity at all -- not even during Christmastime To teach him compassion for his people, la Befana, the Christmas Witch, transforms him into a Dragon, but offers him one hope of regaining his human form: he must give away his seven most cherished possessions. Which seven will he choose? To whom will he give them? And will he ever regain his human form?

Stanley the Raptor is a meek dinosaur skeleton, who comes alive at night and eats the roses in nearby parks and gardens. He is befriended by 13-year-old Penelope June, the museum curator's daughter, who helps him find other sources of roses to eat.

In the tradition of Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels, medievalist Stanley Lombardo's Paxton versus the Armada delivers a tale of adventure, romance, and thought-challenging alternative history in the third installment of The Crosstime Adventures of Carter Paxton. Newly arrived in England after a time-volta of a century, Carter Paxton, his beautiful wife Lady Joanna, and their companions discover that the year is 1588 and the Spanish Armada will arrive in July. Upon their return to London, they meet swashbuckling playwright Christopher Marlowe, an agent in Doctor John Dee's intelligence bureau. Marlowe introduces the buffalo hunter to Doctor Dee, who challenges him and Joanna to prove they are who they claim to be; in an audience with the Queen, they convince the skeptical Elizabeth of their identity. Meanwhile, Father Tranquillus searches for his descendants -- Edwina, Mistress of the Royal Arsenal, and C dmon, herbalist and mediciner at Saint Waltrudis Paupers' Hospital. Upon entering the hospital, the poor, indigent patients acclaim the priest as "Saint" Tranquillus, to Edwina's chagrin and anger; however, C dmon is more willing to accept their ancestor's identity. Off on his own errands, one-eyed, hard-drinking Captain Sir Ralph Oldcastle endeavors to get His Majesty's Ship Constitution and their prize Spanish galleon, the Santa Eulalia, released from impoundment and, furthermore, to locate a shipwright willing to construct Paxton's submerged rams - the first in the cowboy's proposed arsenal of weapons against the Armada. At the Royal Arsenal, Paxton consults Edwina to help him construct an array of armaments ranging from Congreve rockets to Colt's marine mines, but the proposed weapon that astonishes the Mistress of the Arsenal is the Carter's "sky galleon" - an airship mounting rocket launchers and Gatling guns. Learning of Carter's plans, the Queen demands a sky galleon of her own, which she vows to captain with an all-woman crew. With the Armada cruising up the English Channel, Marlowe's beloved Anastasia Petrovka stalked by a fanatic assassin of the Russian Orthodox Inquisition, and Joanna six months pregnant with the twins, Destiny and Gawayne, Paxton has his hands full. When Anastasia's former master, Count Anton Pretorius, arrives in search of her, Doctor Dee enlists his aid in conjuring a tempest to scatter the Spanish fleet and save England - but will any of them survive the Armada's suicidal assault on Tilbury to capture the English Queen?

A translation of the complete correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, this volume also includes a translation of "The Calamities of Abelard", of the letters of Heloise and Peter the Venerable, and of selected songs, hymns, and laments of Abelard. It also includes a chronology, map, and index.

A translation of the complete correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, this volume also includes a translation of "The Calamities of Abelard", of the letters of Heloise and Peter the Venerable, and of selected songs, hymns, and laments of Abelard. It also includes a chronology, map, and index.