Martin West is internationally known as one of the outstanding Classical scholars of our time, and one of the most prolific. Hellenica is a three-volume selection of ninety or so of his most notable papers relating to Greek literature and thought. This second volume contains thirty-one items chosen from over four decades of publication. It is devoted to the lyric poets and tragedy; there are papers on Archilochus, Alcman, Sappho, Stesichorus, Simonides, Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Corinna, among others, and the collection includes a previously unpublished lecture on Zeus in Aeschylus. Connoisseurs of Greek verse composition will relish the appendix containing a college dinner menu transformed into a hilarious parody of the Cassandra scene from the Agamemnon. The first volume is devoted to early epic and the third volume will contain papers on philosophy, music, metre, and other miscellaneous topics. Each volume contains a preface, indexes, and a full list of the authors other writings relating to the areas in question.

The second volume in West's Hellenica trilogy is devoted to lyric poetry and drama.