Katharina Volk

Does what it says on the tin, meaning that it is an "Introductory" work for undergraduates exploring Ovid for the first time. The Further Reading section is expansive, though the notes are sparse. I learned more from the Penguin Ovid (Peter Green tr) and his copious notes, tbh, but this is not a bad book for its intended use.

Roman Reflections is a collection of essays that focus on what is Roman about Roman Philosophy. Going into this book, I only knew that the Romans borrowed a lot of ideas from the Greeks. The most obvious contribution was to their Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses; Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite became Venus, Hermes became Mercury and so on. I also knew that the Romans were more practical in what they learned and utilized, but that could be a gross generalization.

As I mentioned, the book is a show more collection of essays. They attempt to show that Roman thought was not merely a carbon copy of the Greek modes of thought but rather took those ideas to a new level. The book is very scholarly with the original Latin and then a translation done by the author of that particular essay. All of the essays have extensive footnotes, but I don’t think this book is for someone with a casual interest in Philosophy.

I don’t really think I am going to finish this one off anytime soon because it just isn’t that interesting to me. The really unfortunate thing is that I bought this book, though not at the retail price. Though since I bought it that does mean I have plenty of time to finish it or make an attempt to do so. Until then, I will put it on the Dropped Shelf and hope for the best. show less