This landmark collection looks at the role reception plays, or could play, within the modern discipline of classics, and presents a wide variety of viewpoints on its value, use, and theoretical underpinnings.

Contributions by scholars from Europe, the UK, and the USA illustrate a range of different approaches and methodological commitments, and employ material from many different fields, from translation studies to the visual arts, and from politics to performance.

The volume as a whole offers readers an enriched theoretical understanding of reception and its uses, and makes the case for reception constituting a vital part of classics in the future.

Charles Martindale is Professor of Latin at the University of Bristol He has written extensively on the reception of classical poetry. In addition to the theoretical Redeeming the Text: Latin Poetry and the Hermeneutics of Reception (1993), he has edited or coedited collections on the receptions of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, as well as Shakespeare and the Classics (2004). His most recent book is Latin Poetry and the Judgement of Taste: An Essay in Aesthetics (2005).

Richard F. Thomas is Professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University. His interests are generally focused on Hellenistic Greek and Roman literature, on intertextuality, and on the reception of classical literature in all periods. Recent books include Reading Virgil and His Texts: Studies in Intertextuality (1999) and Virgil and the Augustan Reception (2001). He is currently working on a commentary to Horace, Odes 4 and a coedited volume on the performance artistry of Bob Dylan.