In Greek Epigraphy and Religion Emily Mackil and Nikolaos Papazarkadas bring together a series of papers first presented at a special session of the Second North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Berkeley 2016). That session was dedicated to the memory of Sara B. Aleshire, one of the leading Greek epigraphists of the twentieth century. The volume at hand includes a combination of previously unpublished inscriptions, overlooked epigraphical documents, and well known inscribed texts that are reexamined with fresh eyes and approaches. The relevant documents cover a wide geographical range, including Athens and Attica, the Peloponnese, Epirus, Thessaly, the Aegean islands, and Egypt. This collection ultimately explores the insights provided by epigraphical texts into the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Greeks, but also revisits critically some entrenched doctrines in the field of Greek religion.

Greek Heroes in and out of Hades is a study on heroism and mortality from Homer to Plato. In a collection of thirty enjoyable essays, Stamatia Dova combines intertextual research and thought-provoking analysis to shed new light on concepts of the hero in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Bacchylides 5, Plato's Symposium, and Euripides' Alcestis. Through systematic readings of a wide range of seemingly unrelated texts, the author offers a cohesive picture of heroic character in a variety of literary genres. Her characterization of Achilles, Odysseus, and Heracles is artfully supported by a comprehensive overview of the theme of descent to the underworld in Homer, Bacchylides, and Euripides. Aimed at the specialist as well as the general reader, Greek Heroes in and out of Hades brings innovative Classical scholarship and insightful literary criticism to a wide audience.

The aim idea of this study is to examine, quantify and critically assess the settlement history of the northern Oman Peninsula from the Hafit period (late 4th - early 3rd millennium BC) to recent times.

Lysias was the leading Athenian speech-writer of his generation (403-380 BC), whose speeches form a leading source for all aspects of the history of Athenian society during this period. The current volume focuses on speeches that are important particularly as political texts, during an unusually eventful post-imperial period which saw Athens coming to terms with the aftermath of its eventual defeat in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) plus two traumatic if temporary oligarchic coups (the Four Hundred in 411, and especially the Thirty in 404/3). The speeches are widely read today, not least because of their simplicity of linguistic style. This simplicity is often deceptive, however, and one of the aims of this commentary is to help the reader assess the rhetorical strategies of each of the speeches and the often highly tendentious manipulation of argument. This volume includes the text of speeches 12 to 16 (reproduced from Christopher Carey's 2007 Oxford Classical Texts edition, including the apparatus criticus), with a new facing English translation. Each speech receives an extensive introduction, covering general questions of interpretation and broad issues of rhetorical strategy, while in the lemmatic section of the commentary individual phrases are examined in detail, providing a close reading of the Greek text. To maximize accessibility, the Greek lemmata are accompanied by translations, and individual Greek terms are mostly transliterated. This is a continuation of the projected multi-volume commentary on the speeches and fragments begun with the publication of speeches 1 to 11 in 2007, which will be the first full commentary on Lysias in modern times.

Slaves were property of their dominus, objects rather than persons, without rights: These are some components of our basic knowledge about Roman slavery. But Roman slavery was more diverse than we might assume from the standard wording about servile legal status. Numerous inscriptions as well as literary and legal sources reveal clear differences in the social structure of Roman slavery. There were numerous groups and professions who shared the status of being unfree while inhabiting very different worlds. The papers in this volume pose the question of whether and how legal texts reflected such social differences within the Roman servile community. Did the legal system reinscribe social differences, and if so, in what shape? Were exceptions created only in individual cases, or did the legal system generate privileges for particular groups of slaves? Did it reinforce and even promote social differentiation? All papers probe neuralgic points that are apt to challenge the homogeneous image of Roman slave law. They show that this law was a good deal more colourful than historical research has so far assumed. The authors' primary concern is to make this legal diversity accessible to historical scholarship.

Drawing on the latest archaeology, epigraphy and historical interpretation, this major volume presents a survey of ancient Macedon, important parts of which are published by their excavators for the first time, including the palace of King Philip II. Archaeologists and historians of the ancient Greek worlds will welcome this milestone in the study of this rapidly changing filed, packed with new information, interpretations and essential bibliography.

Dynamic Reading examines the reception history of Epicurean philosophy through a series of eleven case studies, which range chronologically from the latter days of the Roman Republic to late twentieth-century France and America. Rather than attempting to separate an original Epicureanism from its later readings and misreadings, this collection studies the philosophy together with its subsequent reception, focusing in particular on the ways in which it has provided terms and conceptual tools for defining how we read and respond to texts, artwork, and the world more generally. Whether it helps us to characterize the "swerviness" of literary influence, the transformative effects of philosophy, or the "events" that shape history, Epicureanism has been a dynamic force in the intellectual history of the West. These essays seek to capture some of that dynamism.

Athanasius of Alexandria (c.295-373) is one of the greatest and most controversial figures of early Christian history. His life spanned the period of fundamental change for the Roman Empire and the Christian Church that followed the conversion of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor. A bishop and theologian, an ascetic and a pastoral father, Athanasius played a central role in shaping Christianity in these crucial formative years. As bishop of Alexandria (328-73) he fought to unite the divided Egyptian Church and inspired admiration and opposition alike from fellow bishops and the emperor Constantine and his successors. Athanasius attended the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea summoned by Constantine in 325 and as a theologian would be remembered as the defender of the original Nicene Creed against the 'Arian' heresy. He was also a champion of the ascetic movement that transformed Christianity, a patron of monks and virgins and the author of numerous ascetic works including the famous Life of Antony. All these elements played their part in Athanasius' vocation as a pastoral father, responsible for the physical and spiritual wellbeing of his congregations. This book offers the first study in English to draw together these diverse yet inseparable roles that defined Athanasius' life and the influence that he exerted on subsequent Christian tradition. The presentation is accessible to both specialists and non-specialists and is illuminated throughout by extensive quotation from Athanasius' many writings, for it is through his own words that we may best approach this remarkable man.

The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland represents the first study of the art of rhetoric in medieval Ireland, a culture often neglected by medieval rhetorical studies. In a series of three case studies, Brian James Stone traces the textual transmission of rhetorical theories and practices from the late Roman period to those early Irish monastic communities who would not only preserve and pass on the light of learning, but adapt an ancient tradition to their own cultural needs, contributing to the history of rhetoric in important ways. The manuscript tradition of early Ireland, which gave us the largest body of vernacular literature in the medieval period and is already appreciated for its literary contributions, is also a site of rhetorical innovation and creative practice.

This volume unites scholars of classical epigraphy, papyrology, and literature to analyze the documentary habit in the Roman Empire. Texts like inscriptions and letters have gained importance in classical scholarship, but there has been limited analysis of the imaginative and sociological dimensions of the ancient document. Individual chapters investigate the definition of the document in ancient thought, and how modern understandings of documentation may (mis)shape scholarly approaches to documentary sources in antiquity. Contributors reexamine familiar categories of ancient documents through the lenses of perception and function, and reveal where the modern understanding of the document departs from ancient conceptions of documentation. The boundary between literary genres and documentary genres of writing appears more fluid than prior scholarship had allowed. Compared to modern audiences, inhabitants of the Roman Empire used a more diverse range of both non-textual and textual forms of documentation, and they did so with a more active, questioning attitude. The interdisciplinary approach to the "mentality" of documentation in this volume advances beyond standard discussions of form, genre, and style to revisit the document through the eyes of Greco-Roman readers and viewers.

Stonehenge was not an observatory used by druidical astronomer-priests. It was, instead, a monument in which the moon and the sun and the dead were joined together. In this book the author explains how people in the British Isles, four thousand or more years ago, identified life and death with the cycle of midwinter and midsummer and with the risings and settings of the sun and moon. This is why so many megalithic monuments have astronomical sightlines built into them. This book describes how astronomical customs developed in the British Isles. Unlike other works about 'megalithic astronomy' technical explanations about azimuths and declinations are kept to their simplest. The emphasis here is upon people rather than pertrubations and eclipses.

The study of Regal and Republican Rome presents a difficult and yet exciting challenge. The extant evidence, which for the most part is literary, is late, sparse, and difficult, and the value of it has long been a subject of intense and sometimes heated scholarly discussion. This volume provides students with an introduction to a range of important problems in the study of ancient Rome during the Regal and Republican periods in one accessible collection, bringing together a diverse range of influential papers. Of particular importance is the question of the value of the historiographical evidence (i.e. what the Romans themselves wrote about their past). By juxtaposing different and sometimes incompatible reactions to the evidence, the collection aims to challenge its readers and invite them to join the debate, and to assess the ancient evidence and modern interpretations of it for themselves.

Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts examines the impact of ancient religious, mythological and magical models on modern mentalities and ideologies as expressed in the visual and performing arts.To what extent did mythological figures such as Circe and Medea influence the representation of the powerful "oriental" enchantress in modern Western art? What role did the ancient gods and heroes play in the construction of the imaginary worlds of the modern fantasy genre? What is the role of undead creatures like zombies and vampires in mythological films? The heroes, gods and demons of the ancient world always played a prominent role in the post-classical imagination.Similarly, the great adventures and the love affairs between gods and mortals have always influenced the reception of Classical culture and still features prominently in modern constructions of antiquity. Examples such the use of magic in Medea's myth as a symbol of cultural and political strangeness, the transformation of Circe in a femme fatale, the reshaping of the oriental cults of the Roman Empire as a menace to new-born Christianity and the revival and adaptation of ancient myths and religion in the arts provide an important backdrop for the exploration of contemporary fears, hopes and ideals across centuries. The volume further aims to deconstruct certain scholarly traditions by proposing original interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations and to show to what extent the visual and performing arts of different periods interlink and shape cultural and social identities.This book offers an original approach to different media - from comics to film, from painting to opera - by authors from different fields and countries. The volume provides the reader with a clear insight into mechanisms of re-elaboration and reception which can be steadily seen at work in artistic and commercial productions. It also supplies new approaches to the most debated questions of the relationship between magic, religion and superstition in the ancient and in the modern worlds. It shows and discusses the shifting and biased interpretations of these concepts in modern visual culture.

In Byblos in the Late Bronze Age, Marwan Kilani reconstructs the "biography" of the city of Byblos during the Late Bronze Age. Commonly described simply as a centre for the trade of wood, the city appears here as a dynamic actor involved in multiple aspects of the regional geopolitical reality. By combining the information provided by written sources and by a fresh reanalysis of the archaeological evidence, the author explores the development of the city during the Late Bronze Age, showing how the evolution of a wide range of geopolitical, economic and ideological factors resulted in periods of prosperity and decline. The Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant series publishes volumes from the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Other series offered by Brill that publish volumes from the Museum include Harvard Semitic Studies and Harvard Semitic Monographs, https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications.

This volume aims to provide an interdisciplinary examination of various facets of being alone in Greco-Roman antiquity. Its focus is on solitude, social isolation and misanthropy, and the differing perceptions and experiences of and varying meanings and connotations attributed to them in the ancient world. Individual chapters examine a range of ancient contexts in which problems of solitude, loneliness, isolation and seclusion arose and were discussed, and in doing so shed light on some of humankind's fundamental needs, fears and values.