The capacity of proper names to condense concepts, descriptions, or short narratives can tell us a lot about the Aeneid. But names only 'suggest' or 'evoke' meaning, which can be elicited and/or understood properly only by viewing it in a reading of the epic as a whole. Virgil's epic reveals recurrent semantic patterns, which show that names are substituta ble semantic units. One way to elicit their meaning is by exploring the semantic environment in which they occur as well as related semantic environments elsewhere in the narrative, and by examining the way names combine with semantic units of transparent meaning. This study offers a complete semantic analysis of the Aeneid by book, based on the discussion of semantic components and semantic sequences, and using the Laocoon-Horse sequence as a model. The analysis reveals a sustained, pervasive, and deep-going exploitation of the meaning of names. It yields new interpretations for every episode in the epic and provides the semantic features of most major characters. It sheds new light on the significance of Polydorus, the death of Anchises at Drepanum, the Nisus and Euryalus relationship, and Camilla's features in relation to the spearthrow of Metabus. It shows the authenticity of the Helen episode, as well as the significance of the catalogue of the of sinners in Tartarus, and of the deaths of Pallas and Turnus.

The present volume comprises the papers delivered at RICAN 6, which was held in Rethymnon, Crete, on May 30-31, 2011. The focus is placed on male and female characters in the ancient novel and related texts, both pagan and Christian; these characters are presented either as holy or as charlatans but in several cases the two categories cannot be easily distinguished from each other. The papers offer a wide and rich range of perspectives: authority in narratives and authority figures from Teiresias to Apollonius of Tyana as comparands for Kalasiris in Heliodorus (Dowden); the astrologer Serapa as a holy man in Petronius and Trimalchio's exploitation of Serapa's pronouncement and his prediction (Schmeling); the old hag Oenothea as a figure of religious authority and medical expertise in the Satyrica and Encolpius' failure to recognize her as a charlatan (Panayotakis); Cleitophon's claims to knowledge in Achilles Tatius and his apparent lack of understanding of his own narrative (Repath); religious authority in Daphnis and Chloe and the role of the exegetes ('expounder') in Longus' preface (Bowie); the Syrian priests and other religious charlatans in Apuleius' Metamorphoses and their appeal to the reader (Egelhaaf-Gaisser); the contrast in the representation of holy men and charlatans in Lucian's Peregrinus and the Christian Acts of Mar Mari (Ramelli); the controversial figure of Kalasiris in Heliodorus, a priest who behaves like a charlatan (Billault); Apollonius of Tyana as Proteus and Philostratus' contest with Homer in the Life of Apollonius (Paschalis); the similarities in the narrative structure of the biographies of Aesop and Jesus (Andreassi); narrative qualities and intertextuality in the Narrations attributed to Neilos of Ankyra; its interpretation as a conversion-narrative (Morgan).

This thematic fourth Supplementum to Ancient Narrative, entitled Metaphor and the Ancient Novel, is a collection of revised versions of papers originally read at the Second Rethymnon International Conference on the Ancient Novel (RICAN 2) under the same title, held at the University of Crete, Rethymnon, on May 19-20, 2003.Though research into metaphor has reached staggering proportions over the past twenty-five years, this is the first volume dedicated entirely to the subject of metaphor in relation to the ancient novel. Not every contributor takes into account theoretical discussions of metaphor, but the usefulness of every single paper lies in the fact that they explore actual texts while sometimes theorists tend to work out of context.

This special issue of Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1, entitled 'Space in the Ancient Novel', brings together a collection of revised papers, originally presented at the International conference under the same title organized by the Department of Philology (Division of Classics) of the University of Crete and held in Rethymnon, on May 14-15, 2001. This conference inaugurated what is hoped to become a new series of biennial International meetings on the Ancient Novel (RICAN, Rethymnon International Conferences on the Ancient Novel) which aspires to continue the reputable tradition of the Groningen Colloquia on the Novel, established by Heinz Hofmann and Maaike Zimmerman. Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1 includes two additional contributions by Catherine Connors and Judith Perkins, both originally presented in ICAN 2000 at Groningen in July 25-30, 2000 and included here in revised form, and an article by Stelios Panayotakis, which closely relates to the theme of the Rethymnon conference.