For all the interest in emotions in antiquity, there has been little study of positive emotions. This collection aims to redress the balance with eleven studies of emotions like hope, joy, good will, and mercy that show some of the complexity these emotions play in ancient literature and thought.

• Contents


• Introduction Ruth R. Caston and Robert A. Kaster


• I. Hope


• 1. Douglas Cairns, Metaphors for Hope in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry


• 2. Damien Nelis, Emotion in Vergil's Georgics: Farming and the Politics of Hope


• 3. Laurel Fulkerson, 'Torn between Hope and Despair': Narrative Foreshadowing and Suspense in the Greek Novel


• II. Joy and Happiness


• 4. Ruth R. Caston, The Irrepressibility of Joy in Roman Comedy


• 5. Michael C. J. Putnam, Horatius Felix


• 6. Margaret Graver, Anatomies of Joy: Seneca and the Gaudium Tradition


• 7. Christopher Gill, Positive Emotions in Stoicism: Are they Enough?


• III. Fellow-feeling and Kindness


• 8. Ed Sanders, Generating Goodwill and Friendliness in Attic Forensic Oratory


• 9. David Armstrong, Utility and Affection in Epicurean Friendship: Philodemus On the Gods 3, On Property Management, and Horace, Sermones 2.6


• 10. Gillian Clark, Caritas: Augustine on Love and Fellow-feeling


• 11. Martha Nussbaum, 'If You Could See This Heart': Mozart's Mercy


• Works Cited

Ruth R. Caston is an Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan and the author of Elegiac Passion: Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy.
Robert A. Kaster is the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature and Professor of Classics at Princeton University.