This is a book about Greek culture. It explains why Greek comedy picked out food in particular as a cultural marker. Hundreds of comic fragments are quoted in translation. The development of comedy is explored together with comic creativity as poets sought to represent 'reality' (figs or cooking-pots) on the stage.

Originally published in 1708, this volume is an exact facsimile reproduction the 1802 edition of The Mathematical and Philosophical Works of the Right Rev. John Wilkins, and includes an index, added for the 1970 new impression. The book includes the works of Bishop John Wilkins, as well as a note on the life of the author; Bishop John Wilkins, as Warden of Wadham Colelge, Oxford and Master of Trinity College Cambridge, played a major role in the revitalization of British university education in the middle of the seventeenth century. Moreover, he was a prime mover in the establishment of the Royal Society of London and was its first secretary.

Originally published in 1708, this volume is an exact facsimile reproduction the 1802 edition of The Mathematical and Philosophical Works of the Right Rev. John Wilkins, and includes an index, added for the 1970 new impression. The book includes the works of Bishop John Wilkins, as well as a note on the life of the author; Bishop John Wilkins, as Warden of Wadham Colelge, Oxford and Master of Trinity College Cambridge, played a major role in the revitalization of British university education in the middle of the seventeenth century. Moreover, he was a prime mover in the establishment of the Royal Society of London and was its first secretary.

The big fact about Archestratus is that the fragments that survive constitute the earliest written culinary text to come down to us from the classical world (pedants might argue that the Babylonian and Egyptian materials are earlier but they in no way resemble a book.)This remarkable and almost unique work was written in the 4th century BC by the poet Archestratus, from Gela, a Greek colony in Sicily. The complete text has long since vanished but these fragments or quotations enshrined in a much later book by Athenaeus have come down to us. Archestratus' description of the foods, particularly fish, available, how they should be cooked and where found in the best condition is precious testimony of the strength of the Mediterranean culinary tradition. His style of cooking can best be called the nouvelle cuisine of the ancient world, and contrasts piquantly with the elaborate and strongly flavoured dishes of Apicius, the much later and perhaps coarser Roman author.The Greek verse has been translated into prose by John Wilkins and Shaun Hill, who set it in context in their introduction, and pursue byways of ancient Greek cookery in their commentary. Archestratus' poem has been the subject of a major new edition by Olsen & Sens. However, its price is prohibitive and the text is much concerned with linguistic and editorial matters, thus making it much less accessible to people interested in the history of food rather than the development of Greek prosody.

An international team of literary specialists explore Athenaeus' work as a whole, and in its own right. Almost all classicists and ancient historians make use of Athenaeus; 'Athenaeus and his World' is the first sustained attempt to understand and explore his work as a whole, and in its own right. The work emerges as no mere compendium of earlier texts, but as a vibrant work of complex structure and substantial creativity. The book makes sense of the massive and polyphonous Deipnosophistae, the quarry upon which classicists and ancient historians depend for their knowledge of much ancient literature, particularly Comedy, and also the source of much of the data used by modern historians for the social history of the classical and Hellenistic worlds. The 41 chapters; written by an international team of literary specialists and historians, each tackle a significant feature, and the book is divided into seven sections, each prefaced by introductory remarks from the editors.

Food as a cultural symbol was as important in antiquity as in our own times and Food in Antiquity investigates some of the ways in which food and eating shaped the lives and thoughts of the indigenous peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. In this volume thirty contributors consider aspects of food and eating in the Greco-Roman world. This is the most comprehensive exploration of questions relating to food in antiquity in this country. The authors, some specialists in this field, others with expertise in other areas, use a range of approaches to investigate the production and distribution of food, social, religious and political factors, medicine and diet, cultural identity and contrasts with neighbouring cultures, and food in literature. The volume is designed for both Classicists and those interested in the history of food. The aim is both to illuminate and to entertain, and at the same time to remind the reader that the Greeks and Romans were not only philosophers and rulers of empires, they were also peasant farmers, traders and consumers of foods who considered that what and how they ate defined who they were.

Selfhood and the Soul is a collection of new and original essays in honour of Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter. All of the essays in the volume contribute to a shared project - the exploration of ancient concepts of self and soul, understood in a broad sense - and, as in the work of the honorand himself, they are distinguished by a diversity of approach and subject matter, ranging widely across disciplinary boundaries to cover ancient philosophy, psychology, medical writing, and literary criticism. They can be read separately or together, taking the reader on a journey through topics and themes as varied as money, love, hope, pleasure, rage, free will, metempsychosis, Roman imperialism, cookery, and the Underworld, yet all committed to examining central issues about the experience of being a person and the question of how best to live. The international line-up of contributors includes many established figures in the disciplines of classical literature, ancient philosophy, and ancient medicine, as well as several younger scholars. All have been inspired by Christopher Gill's contributions to scholarly research in these fields and their collective work aspires to honour through imitation his remarkable combination of range with focus.

Galen is the most important medical writer in Graeco-Roman antiquity, and also extremely valuable for understanding Graeco-Roman thought and society in the second century AD. This 2009 volume of essays locates him firmly in the intellectual life of his period, and thus aims to make better sense of the medical and philosophical 'world of knowledge' that he tries to create. How did Galen present himself as a reader and an author in comparison with other intellectuals of his day? Above all, how did he fashion himself as a medical practitioner, and how does that self-fashioning relate to the performance culture of second-century Rome? Did he see medicine as taking over some of the traditional roles of philosophy? These and other questions are freshly addressed by leading international experts on Galen and the intellectual life of the period, in a stimulating collection that combines learning with accessibility.

This book presents a translation of and detailed commentary on Galen's De alimentorum facultatibus - his major work on the dynamics and kinetics of various foods. It is thus primarily a physiological treatise rather than a materia medica or a work on pathology. Galen commences with a short section on the epistemology of medicine, with a discussion on the attainment, through apodeixis or demonstration, of scientific truth - a discussion which reveals the Aristotelian roots of his thinking. The text then covers a wide range of foods, both common and exotic. Some, such as cereals, legumes, dairy products and the grape, receive an emphasis that reflects their importance at the time; others are treated more cursorily. Dr Powell, an expert in gastroenterology, discusses Galen's terminology and the background to his views on physiology and pathology in his introduction, while John Wilkins' foreword concentrates on the structural and cultural aspects of the work.

This edition and commentary provides an invaluable introduction to one of Euripides' less well-known plays, and describes the enormousvalue of the text for our understanding of Athenian drama, religion,and society. Heraclidae is one of Euripides' `alphabetical' plays, preserved exclusively in a Laurentian manuscript, and therefore not selected in antiquity. Neither in modern times, despite the excellent commentaries of Elmsley (1821) and Pearson (1907), and powerful articles by Wilamwitz, has the play been given the prominence it deserves. This edition interprets the play in a wide cultural setting, considering unorthodox aspects of the structure of the drama, but placing particular emphasis on the cults and myths of Heracles in Attica, on his apotheosis and marriage, on his association with the young, and most of all on the two most striking rituals in the play: the voluntary self-sacrifice of the daughter of Heracles, and the conversion of Eurystheus from an enemy of Athens to a hero whose dead body will protect the city-state. The text is James Diggle's (Oxford Classical Texts 1984)

Galen is the most important medical writer in Graeco-Roman antiquity, and also extremely valuable for understanding Graeco-Roman thought and society in the second century AD. This volume of essays locates him firmly in the intellectual life of his period, and thus aims to make better sense of the medical and philosophical 'world of knowledge' that he tries to create. How did Galen present himself as a reader and an author in comparison with other intellectuals of his day? Above all, how did he fashion himself as a medical practitioner, and how does that self-fashioning relate to the performance culture of second-century Rome? Did he see medicine as taking over some of the traditional roles of philosophy? These and other questions are freshly addressed by leading international experts on Galen and the intellectual life of the period, in a stimulating collection that combines learning with accessibility.

This book presents a translation of and detailed commentary on Galen's De alimentorum facultatibus - his major work on the dynamics and kinetics of various foods. It is thus primarily a physiological treatise rather than a materia medica or a work on pathology. Galen commences with a short section on the epistemology of medicine, with a discussion on the attainment, through apodeixis or demonstration, of scientific truth - a discussion which reveals the Aristotelian roots of his thinking. The text then covers a wide range of foods, both common and exotic. Some, such as cereals, legumes, dairy products and the grape, receive an emphasis that reflects their importance at the time; others are treated more cursorily. Dr Powell, an expert in gastroenterology, discusses Galen's terminology and the background to his views on physiology and pathology in his introduction, while John Wilkins' foreword concentrates on the structural and cultural aspects of the work.