A comprehensive literary commentary on many of the central pieces of Greek lyric poetry, including works by Alcman, Stesichorus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Pindar, Sophocles, and Euripides. The pieces chosen are usually the longest and best-preserved; a single large poem each is taken from Bacchylides and Pindar; two odes from tragedy illustrate the adoption of lyric into drama. The volume includes the Greek texts and apparatus, which incorporate fresh work on the papyri and numerous new suggestions. Introductions to each poet set the poetry in its historical and literary context. The book brings textual and literary criticism of the poets together, providing a close and sustained analysis of important poems across the genre, and so enables the reader to see in detail the development and diversity of a remarkable body of poetry.