headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 1 Jan 2008 17:21

BMCR 2008.01.01, BMCR Books Received (December 2007)

BMCR Books Received (December, 2007).
-------------------------------------

Titles marked by an asterisk are available for review. Qualified
volunteers should indicate their interest by a message to
classrev <at> brynmawr.edu, with their last name and requested author in the
subject line. (PLEASE DO *NOT* REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.) They should
state their qualifications (both in the sense of degrees held and in
the sense of experience in the field concerned) and explain any
previous relationship with the author.

*Avezzu\, Guido, and Paolo Scattolin (edd.), I classici greci e i loro
commentatori. Dai papiri ai marginalia rinascimentali. Atti del
convegno Rovereto, 20 ottobre 2006. Memorie, ser. II, vol. X. Rovereto:
Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati, 2006. Pp. 246.

*Bearzot, Cinzia, Vivere da democratici. Studi su Lisia e la democrazia
ateniese. Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull'Antichita\ Classica,
Monografie 29. Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2007. Pp. 222. EUR
65.00 (pb). ISBN 978-88-8265-447-4.

Bellintanti, Paolo (ed.), Padusa. Bollettino del Centro Polesano di
studi storici, archeologici ed etnografici. Anno XLII, Nuova serie,
2006. Pisa/Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2006. Pp. 218; figs. EUR
220.00 (pb). ISSN 0393-0149.

Bobonich, Christopher, and Pierre Destre/e (edd.), Akrasia in Greek
Philosophy. From Socrates to Plotinus. Philosophia Antiqua, 106.
Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007. Pp. xxvii, 307. $167.00. ISBN
978-90-04-15670-8.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 1 Jan 2008 17:33

BMCR 2008.01.02, Andreas Markantonatos , Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles, Athens

Andreas Markantonatos, Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles, Athens, and the
World.  Berlin and New York:  de Gruyter, 2007.  Pp. x, 360.  ISBN
978-3-11-019326-8.  EUR 91.59.

Reviewed by Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan (rscodel <at> umich.edu)
Word count:  1504 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-02.html
-------------------------------

In 2002, Andreas Markantonatos published a specialized study of
narrative in Oedipus at Colonus.[[1]] This is an original and lively
book that has made a significant impression. The focus of this book,
however, did not allow him to give as much attention to other aspects
of the play, especially its historical and religious contexts, as he
thinks they deserve, and so he offers this sequel, which attempts a
general historicizing interpretation of the play. The first chapter
addresses various issues of context, including Sophocles' biography and
the dramatic festival. The second examines earlier versions of the
story, attempting to point to significant Sophoclean innovations. In
the third, M. goes through the play, looking at each episode and song.
The fourth looks at the many rituals enacted, described, or evoked,
while the fifth studies intertextual connections, especially with
Oedipus Tyrannos and Antigone. A sixth surveys adaptations and modern
productions, and there is a short summary of the results. While this
last chapter is entirely new, and this book is indeed much broader than
the first, there is some repetition. The introduction promises that the
book will solve "long-standing problems." I do not think that it has
actually solved any, though it has made me think differently about
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 1 Jan 2008 21:37

BMCR 2008.01.03, Lucia Floridi , Stratone di Sardi. Epigrammi.

Lucia Floridi, Stratone di Sardi. Epigrammi. Testo critico, traduzione
e commento. Hellenica, 24.  Alessandria:  Edizioni dell'Orso, 2007.
Pp. xiv, 492.  ISBN 978-88-7694-967-8.  EUR 60.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Luis Arturo Guichard, Universidad de Salamanca
(lguich <at> usal.es)
Word count:  1259 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-03.html
-------------------------------

While most epigrammatists of the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity are
still lacking a separate edition and/or commentary prepared with modern
criteria,[[1]] Strato of Sardis has been lucky enough to be the object
of three commentaries in a decade: Gonza/lez Rinco/n (G.R.) in 1996,
Steinbichler (S.) in 1998 and Floridi (F.) in 2007.[[2]] In the book
under review, F. has taken wise advantage of the qualities and
weaknesses of her predecessors to produce the standard edition of this
piquant poet, the author of about a hundred homosexual erotic epigrams
transmitted by the Greek Anthology. F. offers a readable synthetic
introduction (pp. 1-55); a new edition of the text, based on a fresh
collation of the manuscripts, with facing Italian translation (pp.
57-115); a detailed line-by-line commentary (pp. 117-429); bibliography
(pp. 331-457), and useful indexes (pp. 459-492).[[3]] Questions of
detail apart, this is an excellent book, a must for those interested in
the epigrammatic genre, but also illuminating for those working on a
wide variety of topics, such as history of sexuality or daily life in
Antiquity.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 3 Jan 2008 02:23

BMCR 2008.01.04, David B. Hollander , Money in the Late Roman Republic

David B. Hollander, Money in the Late Roman Republic. Columbia Studies
in the Classical Tradition 29.  Leiden:  Brill, 2007.  Pp. 189.  ISBN
978-90-04-15649-4.  EUR 89.00.

Reviewed by Fleur Kemmers, Radboud University Nijmegen
(f.kemmers <at> let.ru.nl)
Word count:  2233 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-04.html
-------------------------------

Table of Contents
(http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0710/2006051844.html)

Money is not confined to coinage alone. Being familiar with our own
world in which digital payments, shares, cheques, etc. constitute a
major part in our monetary transactions, this statement does not come
as a surprise. Yet, for the Roman world money is often equated with
coins, as these are the most tangible and accessible source available.
In the volume under review, based on the author's PhD thesis, Hollander
sets out to remedy this general preconception. Using literary,
archaeological, anthropological and numismatic evidence he examines the
nature and use of money in the late Roman Republic (211 to 31 BC). His
ultimate goal is to get a better insight in the Roman economy at large
in this turbulent period. Hollander's argument and conclusions are
convincing and written down in an outstandingly clear, pleasantly
brief, and well-structured prose. Therefore the book is not only
recommended to, and readable for, specialists in the field of economic
history (though they will find plenty of interest), but to a much wider
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 3 Jan 2008 02:23

BMCR 2008.01.05, Adam Lajtar , Deir el-Bahari in the Hellenistic & Roman Periods

Adam Lajtar, Deir el-Bahari in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: A
Study of an Egyptian Temple Based on Greek Sources. The Journal of
Juristic Papyrology, Suppl. IV.  Warsaw:  Institute of Archaeology,
Warsaw University and Fundacja im. Rafala Taubenschlaga, 2006.  Pp.
xviii, 462; ills. 28.  ISBN 10: 83-918250-3-5.  ISBN 13:
978-83-918250-3-7.  $119.00.

Reviewed by Gil H. Renberg, Washington University in St. Louis
(grenberg <at> artsci.wustl.edu)
Word count:  3485 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-05.html
-------------------------------

Few new publications should be of as much interest to scholars of
ancient religion as epigraphical corpora devoted to the finds from
individual sanctuaries, especially those sites omitted from our
literary sources. Among these is the Egyptian sanctuary of Amenhotep
son of Hapu and Imhotep at Deir el-Bahari, where a rich collection of
scratched and painted wall inscriptions composed primarily in Greek and
Demotic illuminates the beliefs and practices of those visiting the
site during the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Late Antique periods. It is the
323 Greek graffiti and dipinti, representing roughly 60 percent of the
surviving total, that are the subject of this outstandingly interesting
and useful new corpus by Adam Lajtar. Lajtar (henceforth L.) has
participated in Polish and Polish-Egyptian missions at Deir el-Bahari
over a period of two decades, and the great investment of time both on
site and in the library shows: the publication is an exemplary work
that should be emulated by others undertaking work on a corpus of
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 4 Jan 2008 00:29

BMCR 2008.01.06, Peter F. Bang et al., Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies


Peter F. Bang, Mamoru Ikeguchi, Harmut G. Ziche, Ancient Economies,
Modern Methodologies: Archaeology, Comparative History, Models and
Institutions.  Bari:  Edipuglia, 2006.  Pp. 278.  ISBN
978-88-7228-488-9.  EUR 40.00.

Reviewed by Alex Gottesman, Bryn Mawr College (agottesman <at> brynmawr.edu)
Word count:  2270 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-06.html
-------------------------------

[List of authors and titles at the end of the review.]

This volume is the product of an international conference of economic
historians and archaeologists held in 2002 at the University of
Cambridge. The editors invited participants "to check the pulse of
ancient economic history" (8). The metaphor immediately suggests two
things: that ancient economic history can be compared to a single body,
and that it might be ailing. To judge from the volume's interesting and
wide-ranging contributions, neither is the case. If the spate of recent
edited volumes on the subject is any indication, ancient economic
history is thriving, though somewhat prone to self-examination. As a
consequence, its boundaries are in flux, both in terms of geographic
and temporal parameters and in terms of disciplinary interaction and
hierarchy. The tensions of this flux are apparent in this volume,
despite the editors' attempts to massage them away in their
introduction. Perhaps paradoxically, these unresolved tensions make the
volume a rather informative snapshot of the state of the field. In what
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 9 Jan 2008 00:45

BMCR 2008.01.09, Michael Edwards , Isaeus. The Oratory of Classical Greece, 11


Michael Edwards (trans.), Isaeus. The Oratory of Classical Greece, 11.
Austin, TX:  University of Texas Press, 2007.  Pp. xxxi, 229.  ISBN
978-0-292-71646-9.  $22.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Deborah Kamen, University of Washington
(dkamen <at> u.washington.edu)
Word count:  1221 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-09.html
-------------------------------

"The speech is short and bald and built on hackneyed lies": so claimed
William Wyse of one of Isaeus' orations in his definitive -- and
hostile -- 1904 commentary on the Athenian logographer.[[1]] Ever since
the publication of Wyse's work, Isaeus' reputation has been in need of
rescuing. He is still read considerably less often than his fellow
Attic orators, and his corpus has, until now, been translated into
English only twice: by William Jones in 1779 and by Edward Seymour
Forster (F.) in his 1927 Loeb.[[2]]

Michael Edwards' (E.) work marks both the third English translation of
Isaeus and the 11th volume in the Oratory of Classical Greece series,
edited by Michael Gagarin (G.) and published by University of Texas. In
G.'s words, "The aim of the series is to make available primarily for
those who do not read Greek up-to-date, accurate, and readable
translations with introductions and explanatory notes of all the
surviving works and major fragments of the Attic orators of the
classical period (ca. 420-320 BC)" (xi). Isaeus is a welcome addition
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 9 Jan 2008 00:44

BMCR 2008.01.08, Eyjo/lfur Kjalar Emilsson , Plotinus on Intellect


Eyjo/lfur Kjalar Emilsson, Plotinus on Intellect.  Oxford:  Oxford
University Press, 2007.  Pp. 232.  ISBN 978-0-19-928170-1.  $65.00.

Reviewed by Andrew Smith, University College Dublin
(andrew.smith <at> ucd.ie)
Word count:  1584 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-08.html
-------------------------------

In his introduction Eyjo/lfur Emilsson explains that this book owes a
good deal to a number of articles that he had previously published. But
the book is all the better for that period of reflection and
discussion, which has produced an extraordinarily stimulating analysis
of what is probably the most central and engaging aspect of Plotinus'
metaphysics. A useful introduction prepares us for the contents of the
four chapters into which the book is divided. The first, on 'Emanation
and Activity', examines the origin of Intellect as a product of the
ultimate principle, the One. The core of the chapter is a detailed
analysis of Plotinus' doctrine of 'double activity' which is his most
philosophical exposition of the causal relationships obtaining between
transcendent realities. The second chapter, 'The Genesis of Intellect',
engages with the reasons why and how it is that the product of the One
is an Intellect. New light is here thrown on the concepts of procession
and return, the way in which the second 'Hypostasis' is a plurality and
what sort of 'self-thinking' constitutes its cognitive activity. The
third chapter, 'Intellect and Being', moves away from Intellect's
relationship with the One to clarify the internal structure of
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 9 Jan 2008 00:45

BMCR 2008.01.10, V. I. Anastasiadis , Eleusi/na:


V. I. Anastasiadis, Eleusi/na: The/atro mias Antidrastike/s Outopi/as.
Athens:  Institouto tou Vivliou - A. Kardamitsa, 2006.  Pp. 207.  ISBN
960-354-188-5.

Reviewed by Andreas Markantonatos, University of Patras, Greece
(b1938 <at> otenet.gr)
Word count:  1599 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-10.html
-------------------------------

The unwary reader might suppose, on the basis of the flamboyant title
of this book ('Eleusis: Scene of a Reactionary Utopia'), that it
perhaps attempts to address matters of religious interest. In fact,
however, this rather controversial volume is far from being a
comprehensive discussion of Eleusinian mysticism and its various
discontents, for the book is devoted only to the oligarchic state
established at Eleusis in the wake of the restoration of Athenian
democracy at the end of the fifth century BCE.

Anastasiadis (henceforth A.) focuses primarily on the notion of this
exceptional oligarchic state situated within the Attic borders as a
major separatist event in Athenian history. Although much of this
bizarre short-lived episode is well-worn ground in spite of the ragged
evidence, A. goes so far as to contest the traditional idea that the
oligarchic self-ruling community at Eleusis was an abortive plan of
mass emigration from the Athenian city -- an excessive response, that
is, to the rampant social divisiveness of the day and a welcome way of
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryn Mawr Reviews | 9 Jan 2008 00:44

BMCR 2008.01.07, Raban von Haehling, Griechische Mythologie und fruehes Christentum


Raban von Haehling  (ed.), Griechische Mythologie und fru+hes
Christentum.  Darmstadt:  Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005.
Pp. xiii, 401; ills. 20.  ISBN 10: 3-534-18528-5.  ISBN 13:
978-3-534-18528-3.  EUR 59.90.

Reviewed by J. R. C. Cousland, University of British Columbia
(cousland <at> interchange.ubc.ca)
Word count:  3200 words
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-01-07.html
-------------------------------

[List of authors and titles at the end of the review.]

This volume had its inception in a course of lectures organized by
Raban von Haehling at the University of Aachen over the 2003/4 academic
year on Greek mythology and early Christianity. The book's origin as a
series of invited lectures means that it circumvents many of the
pitfalls endemic to Festschriften or conference proceedings. The
articles are not obscure or diffuse, and often overlap; where they do,
they typically complement each other and help reinforce the points at
issue. In keeping with their origin, most of the essays are not
intended to court controversy, but to illumine particular aspects of
the 'pagan' and Christian interface. Accordingly, this review has
adopted a similar tack and is largely expository. It should be noted at
the outset, however, that the caliber of the contributions is uniformly
high, and that it sets a very high standard for future volumes of this
kind. Taken together, the articles convey the impression, if not of an
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |

Gmane