Janet Lembke

Bronze and Iron: Old Latin Poetry from Its Beginnings to 100 B.C. offers an in-depth exploration of the fragments and traditions of early Roman poetry, tracing its evolution from archaic ritual chants to more developed literary forms. This volume situates Old Latin poetry within its historical and cultural context, posing profound questions about the nature of art, the role of poetry in society, and the symbolic shifts it underwent during Rome’s formative years. Through engaging with the surviving fragments—ranging from the mystical Salian hymns to the sophisticated works of Naevius and Ennius—this study illuminates the poetic transition from collective survival and state celebration to the exploration of individual possibilities. Divided into three sections—Historia, Mythos, and Plasmata—the book examines the factual preservation of Old Latin texts, proposes imaginative insights into their cultural and artistic significance, and offers a methodological approach to their translation. Through this framework, it investigates the maturation of poetic expression, the influence of early Roman deities like the Camenae, and the evolving purposes of poetry in the state and personal realms. Whether addressing questions about Ennius as a mathematical poet or the cinematic qualities of archaic epic, this work provides fresh perspectives on the foundations of Western poetic tradition, making it indispensable for classicists, literary historians, and anyone intrigued by the early origins of Roman art and thought. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

Bronze and Iron: Old Latin Poetry from Its Beginnings to 100 B.C. offers an in-depth exploration of the fragments and traditions of early Roman poetry, tracing its evolution from archaic ritual chants to more developed literary forms. This volume situates Old Latin poetry within its historical and cultural context, posing profound questions about the nature of art, the role of poetry in society, and the symbolic shifts it underwent during Rome’s formative years. Through engaging with the surviving fragments—ranging from the mystical Salian hymns to the sophisticated works of Naevius and Ennius—this study illuminates the poetic transition from collective survival and state celebration to the exploration of individual possibilities. Divided into three sections—Historia, Mythos, and Plasmata—the book examines the factual preservation of Old Latin texts, proposes imaginative insights into their cultural and artistic significance, and offers a methodological approach to their translation. Through this framework, it investigates the maturation of poetic expression, the influence of early Roman deities like the Camenae, and the evolving purposes of poetry in the state and personal realms. Whether addressing questions about Ennius as a mathematical poet or the cinematic qualities of archaic epic, this work provides fresh perspectives on the foundations of Western poetic tradition, making it indispensable for classicists, literary historians, and anyone intrigued by the early origins of Roman art and thought. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

Framed by the author’s personal experience with backyard hens, Chickens: Their Natural and Unnatural Histories explores the history of the chicken from its descent from the dinosaurs to the space-age present. En route, Lembke surveys chickens in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the nineteenth century, and modern times, including the role of chickens in Jewish and Muslim practices. She also investigates the birds’ contributions to science and their jaunty appearances in literature. Eggs receive a chapter of their own, as does chicken cuisine, comprising recipes from the Roman Empire to today’s favorites. Stories about chickens appear, too, often written by those who keep them, including the painter Grandma Moses, the man who holds Cleveland’s Farm Animal Permit No. 17, and Brenda, who had to give her young roosters a talking-to for behaving like sheep. Chickens have only recently come to a sorry pass in the Western world, where broilers and laying hens are factory-farmed. Lembke investigates the fate of such birds and explores the sustainable, humane alternatives to raising birds for meat and eggs. A celebration of the chicken in its every aspect, Chickens is sure to delight the chicken fancier, the backyard chicken keeper, and everyone concerned about where our food comes from and how we can treat animals more compassionately.

"A new book by Janet Lembke is always a cause for celebration."?Sue Hubbell We share our lives, for better or worse, with a multitude of animals, white-tailed deer and white-tailed eagles, hens and wrens, frogs and guppies, and, last but hardly least, bugs and bacteria. For the most part, we drift along separately, with neither man nor animal affecting the other's way of life. Sometimes, however, we fall in love?as in the case of the cat in the title?or otherwise encounter our animal neighbors in ways that change both of us. Lembke challenges her readers to consider the idea that all creatures are conscious, with the ability to make choices, exercise awareness, and seek pleasure while shunning pain. Rarely has a book of natural history covered such a broad range of subjects, from the everyday bargains we make with our pets and other domestic creatures to descriptions of bungee-cord snail sex and the purpose of a honeybee's sting. Lembke explores the evolution of her subjects, and draws on literature and myth to paint gorgeous, wide-ranging portraits of everyday (and more unusual) encounters, such as that of a gardener and a groundhog, or a chicken egg and Augustus Caesar's wife. This is a sensitive and timely appraisal of how we treat the creatures we share our planet with?and how we ought to. It is a book that no lover of intelligent writing about the natural world will want to miss. 20 b/w illustrations.

The author of the acclaimed Dangerous Birds followed that success with a new collection of essays on the natural world, these connected by the theme of water: exploring issues as varied as the joy that water brings, the wistful rememberings it engenders, and its sacredness. As with all of Lembke's essays, the world of classical myth and its characters meld with her native haunts and their people, lending resonance to the seemingly simplest things: a beetle in the garden, a tangle of forgotten roses, an afternoon rainstorm. Now available in paperback for the first time, Skinny Dipping brings us waters as diverse as the mythical River Styx and the Bullpasture, a stream near Lembke's Virginia home. In the title essay she looks down a long corridor of time to visit Pliny, the natural historian, for a ""skinny dip"" in A.D. 79; ""Up the Creek"" examines a lazy day's canoe trip with a frightened young friend about to leave home; ""And This Way the Water Comes Down at the Gorge"" is a tale of a burial--with a fine supporting cast of Faulkneresque characters. Skinny Dipping will delight all lovers of Janet Lembke's other books, and anyone who appreciates the art of the personal essay.