Backing Into the Future: The Classical Tradition and Its Renewal

Bernard Knox, 'the foremost classicist of our time' (Maynard Mack), presents a collection of illuminating essays on diverse topics, united by their common defense of the classics, by their common concern that renewal & innovation go hand in hand with tradition, and by Knox's wit, humanity & elegant prose. Backing into the Future opens with a group of essays on 'Poets & Heroes' of antiquity (exploring such topics as Homer's masterly psychological insight into the character of Achilles, the playful & startlingly obscene poetry of Catullus, & Ovid's poetry of exile). The book then spirals gracefully outward to 'Men, Gods & Cities' (including essays on the Delphic Oracle, the brief appearance of Athenian democracy in 5th-century Athens, the 'quarrel' between Greek tragedy & Greek philosophy, & Caligula--an emperor who has been, Knox argues, the victim of centuries of bad press). The collection closes with reflections on 'Renewals'--the survival & transformation of the classics into the present age--reflections that include critiques of Derek Walcott's narrative poem Omeros & T.E. Lawrence's translation of the Odyssey, as well as thoughts on the problems of teaching the classics today. Backing into the Future encompasses the many lives of Bernard Knox--classicist, historian, literary critic & defender of the humanities--a man who has brought the world of ancient Greece & Rome to life for uninitiated readers & scholars alike.