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<uPREFACE>u
This little book is a pendant to the first part of my <uEpicorum Graecorum>u
<uFragmenta>u published this year by Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. It contains a
literal English translation of those fragments of the Epic Cycle there
edited which are directly quoted by ancient authors. It also contains a
re/sume/ of the import of those fragments which are not verbal quotations;
a paraphrase of Proclus' prose summary of the contents of the Trojan epics
within the cycle; and a very brief commentary on fragments and prose summary.
Perhaps this scheme needs some justification.
Why, for instance, publish literal translations of those tiny portions
of confessedly second-rate epics that happen to have survived? Partly,
I suppose, because less literal translations that hide their originals'
shortcomings can themselves be misleading. To take one example: Iona
and Peter Opie, at the start of their fascinating book <uThe Singing Game>u
(Oxford 1985 . . .
