Representation of myth in the novel, as a poetic, narrative and aesthetic device, is one of the most illuminating issues in the area of ancient religion, for such narratives investigate in various ways fundamental problems that concern all human beings. This volume brings together twenty contributions (six of them to a Roundtable organized by Anton Bierl on myth), originally presented at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient novel (ICAN IV) held in Lisbon in July 2008. Employing an interdisciplinary approach and putting together different methodological tools (intertextual, psychological, and anthropological), each offers a illuminating investigation of mythical discourse as presented in the text or texts under discussion. The collection as a whole demonstrates the exemplary and transgressive significance of myth and its metaphorical meaning in a genre that to some extent can be considered a modernized and secular form of myth that focuses on the quintessential question of love.

The Prolegomena provide an introduction to the Basler Iliad commentary. The volume includes essays on the history of Iliad commentaries and the text, formulaic language and the oral tradition, grammar, meter, characters, plot and chronological structure, narrative technique, and developments in Homeric criticism, as well as an Index of Mycenaean words with brief explanations.

The series MythosEikonPoiesis begins with the publication of contributions to an international conference held at Castelen-Augst near Basle. The conference laid new foundations in examining the interdependence of myth, ritual and Greek literature in many different genres (Homeric epic, lyric poetry, Presocratic and Platonic philosophy, tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, historiography, Hellenistic poetry, and the novel) with regard to their textual structure and poetics. Working in interdisciplinary cooperation, some participants also direct their attention towards Egypt, the Near East, Rome, and to the reception of these poetological principles in modern literature.

The series MythosEikonPoiesis begins with the publication of contributions to an international conference held at Castelen-Augst near Basle. The conference laid new foundations in examining the interdependence of myth, ritual and Greek literature in many different genres (Homeric epic, lyric poetry, Presocratic and Platonic philosophy, tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, historiography, Hellenistic poetry, and the novel) with regard to their textual structure and poetics. Working in interdisciplinary cooperation, some participants also direct their attention towards Egypt, the Near East, Rome, and to the reception of these poetological principles in modern literature.

The volume presented here is a collection of the contributions to an authora (TM)s colloquium with Walter Burkert, which was held in November 2007 in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Bielefeld. Well known experts looked in detail at the work of the internationally renowned scholar of Greek. In his epochal cultural-scientific studies focusing on the origins of human co-existence in rites, on violence, sacrifice, guilt and horrific scenarios of death, Burkert approached questions of biological behavioural research, anthropology and aggression theory, and developed an enormous intellectual impact that reached beyond classical and religious studies.

Die Herausforderung durch "das Neue" hat sich zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts noch einmal entscheidend verschArft. Bio-, Nano- und Medienwissenschaftler verkA1/4nden zum wiederholten Male VerAnderungen, die das Gesicht und die Ordnung der "Welt" tiefgreifend umgestalten werden. Futurologen sprechen sogar von einer "zweiten Evolution," die sich bereits jetzt ankA1/4ndige. Die Wahrnehmung des Neuen ist aber selbst eine historische Variable. Deshalb werden in diesem Bande zwei paradigmatische Typen von Gesellschaften auf ihren Umfang mit dem Neuen hin untersucht: eine traditionale, die Antike, und eine modernisierende, die Renaissance. Inhaltlich geht es in beiden Bereichen um Fragen der Kunst- und Literaturtheorie, der Asthetischen und politischen Praxis, der gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen, die das Neue begleiten, bis hin zu dem direkten Vergleich zweier herausragender Gestalten der beiden Epochen: Augustus und Cosimo di Medici. Dabei werden in den AufsAtzen von Altertumswissenschaftlern und Spezialisten fA1/4r die Renaissance Konzepte unterschiedlicher historischer Gesellschaften nach ihren mentalen Dispositionen und Methoden befragt, um TraditionsbrA1/4che, Innovationen sowie Imaginationen "des Neuen" zu reflektieren.

In "Antike Literatur in neuer Deutung," a book dedicated to Joachim Latacz, a group of scholars of high international standing present the most recent developments and acquirements in several important areas of ancient literature und philosophy. The first eight contributions, dealing with Homeric studies, are followed by a number of essays on presocratic philosophy, Greek tragedy and comedy, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, Hellenistic epic, Roman literature, and papyrology.

In this groundbreaking study, Anton Bierl uses recent approaches in literary and cultural studies to investigate the chorus of Old Comedy. After an extensive theoretical introduction that also serves as a general introduction to the dramatic chorus from the comic vantage point, a close reading of Aristophanes' "Thesmophoriazusae" shows that ritual is indeed present in both the micro- and macrostructure of Attic comedy, not as a fossilized remnant of the origins of the genre but as part of a still existing performative choral culture. The chorus members do play a role within the dramatic plot, but they simultaneously refer to their own performance in the here and now and to their function as participants in a ritual. Bierl's investigation also includes an unparalleled treatment of the phallic songs preserved by Semos.