Reviewed by: The Oxford Latin Syntax. Volume II: The Complex Sentence and Discourse by Harm Pinkster Andrew R. Dyck Harm Pinkster. The Oxford Latin Syntax. Volume II: The Complex Sentence and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xxxii, 1,438. $190.00. ISBN 9-780199-230563. In 1969, after refuting the widely held belief that A, B, and C coordination is not found in Cicero and Caesar, Harm Pinkster lamented that “a continuous up to date re-editing of an opus maximum like K(ühner)-St(egmann), that aims at providing the philologist with a mass of grammatical facts and not so much at giving him insight into the historical evolution, has been omitted” (Mnemosyne 22: 267). Having identified that gap, Pinkster set about to fill it and provide a complete analysis of the Latin language aided by the tools of modern linguistics. Having catered for the simple clause in the first volume of his Syntax (2015), reviewed in this journal at 110 (2017), 575–76, with this volume, which appeared shortly before his death, Pinkster put the coping stone on his project. The format of the previous volume continues, with numbered sections and sub-sections each beginning with a descriptive analysis of the phenomena and supported by example sentences mostly drawn from Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, each supplied with an English rendering. Many of the sections also include [End Page 228] a “Supplement,” with further examples quoted in a smaller font and without an English version. It is in the area of terminology that readers trained in traditional Latin grammar are likely to have difficulty. The terminology of Dutch Functional Grammar is used throughout, so readers unfamiliar with it should consult the explanations at the beginning of Volume 1. But the new terminology sometimes seems unnecessarily opaque, as, for instance, when Pinkster speaks of “the expansion type” of result clause (p. 308), by which he means what we ordinarily call a “consecutive clause with limiting force,” an expression he does not use. Since the large grammar of Kühner and Stegmann is the model, this second volume deals, like theirs, with the various types of subordinate clauses. There are some differences, however. Thus, Pinkster treats the ablative absolute in this volume as a clause, whereas Kühner and Stegmann handled it in their first volume under the participle (1:766). One might not have expected a detailed treatment of word order (pp. 948–1137)—Kühner and Stegmann offered a relatively brief one (2:589–629)—or of stylistic matters (pp. 1138–1231). This volume concludes with an Index Locorum and a General Index to both volumes, prepared by the author’s daughter Akke Pinkster (pp. 1303–1438). As in Volume 1, Pinkster explores a wide range of materials and does so from a deep base of knowledge of linguistics and of European languages. A number of myths that are often disseminated in Latin classrooms are unceremoniously exploded, such as the idea that Latin has a pervasive Subject-Object-Verb word order. In fact, in a study of the languages of Europe using twelve variables of constituent order, Latin emerges as the most flexible (p. 966). Another instance is the doctrine, found in some grammars, that high frequency asyndeton is an archaic feature; but the frequency in Seneca is very high, so it is better described as a stylistic preference (p. 1163). In general, reflecting both his own interests and those of recent scholarship, Pinkster is at his best in the various kinds of interactive discourse, where, as it happens, his predecessors are weakest. Thus, he offers a section on “curses and swear words” with an accompanying table showing distribution by the speaker’s gender (pp. 919–22). Typical of Pinkster’s systematic approach is the treatment of interjections, which begins with a definition of the term and then divides them into types with attention to the authors and periods of their occurrence (pp. 923–37), whereas the short treatment by Kühner and Stegmann (2:272–74) is mainly concerned with the syntax of any accompanying noun. Similarly, Pinkster offers a fairly detailed treatment of “address” (pp. 937–47), whereas Kühner and Steg-mann are interested...

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the polysemy of οὐ̑λος (“deadly,” “repeated,” “whole/healthy”) in Nicander’s Theriaca as a window onto the poet’s interest in the process of discovery. The core of this article treats the use of the term to describe a hound’s howl in the aetiological narrative of Alcibius’ discovery of a curative herb. I argue that Nicander deploys οὐ̑λος to call attention to the polysemy of the adjective whose meaning shifts and overlaps as one reads the narrative of Alcibius’ discovery. The challenge of formulating a contextually appropriate meaning of οὐ̑λος reinforces the theme of aetiological discovery and is consonant with Nicander’s use of the term elsewhere in the Theriaca as well as his broader interest in rare words and philological research.

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on one of ancient mythology's most notorious voices, the nymph Circe, daughter of the Sun and witch of Aeaea. Tracing the evolution of Circe's mythology through the works of Vergil, Ovid, and Valerius Flaccus, it shows how these early imperial authors use her presence in Rome's family tree to push back on Augustus' version of Rome's genealogy and his own right to rule. By embedding Circe in the "Italian" side of Rome's antecedents, they demonstrate the fragility of the principate's claim to legitimacy through control of Rome's inheritance.

Beginners' Latin courses play a crucial role in opening up the study of the ancient world to university students with little or no previous exposure to the language. Yet many learners struggle: in 2018, for example, 23% of undergraduates in UK universities either failed or withdrew from their beginners' Latin module. The current article reports on a series of semi-structured interviews dedicated to exploring with Latin students and their instructors the factors they perceive as contributing to success and failure, the overarching aim of the project being to identify potential strategies to improve student success.

Students in large-enrollment humanities courses need each other and frequent instructor feedback to learn complex concepts. This article details active learning techniques and assessments that we used to increase student communication, engagement, and learning in a large-enrollment, university-level Greek mythology course. We first inventory these techniques, including polling, structured-analysis activities, and two-stage exams, before demonstrating them at work with a concept central to our course, the oral palimpsest. We then assess their effect on student learning and show how expanded opportunities for communication and practice increased student comprehension of a difficult mythological concept.

This article explores postcolonial theory as a teaching tool for use in the ancient history classroom. Postcolonial theory is invaluable in the diverse classrooms in which we teach today, offering our students—and ourselves—powerful new ways for seeing and considering issues of marginality, representation, and the nuances of interactions between cultures. I use as case study my own field of research expertise, namely the medieval Islamicate engagement with ancient Greco-Roman science. I also offer examples of secondary literature on postcolonial theory that work well in the classroom, plus excerpts of relevant primary source literature from my own research field.

Reviewed by: Euripides Ion by J. C. Gibert Simone Oppen J. C. Gibert. Euripides Ion. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xiv, 383. £74.99 (hardback), £25.99 (paperback), and $27 (eBook). ISBNs 978-0-5215-9361-8 (hardback), 978-0-5215-9656-5 (paperback), and 978-1-1086-2741-2 (eBook). Euripides’ Ion is now well-served by English-language commentaries [K. H. Lee, Euripides: Ion (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1997); M. Gunther, Euripides, Ion: Edition and Commentary (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2018)]. However, the linguistic insight and student-focused presentation of Gibert’s 2019 commentary make it especially well-suited for undergraduate and graduate courses reading ancient Greek drama in the original language. This commentary is comprised of a preface, introduction, Greek text, line-by-line commentary, bibliography, and Greek and subject indices, which I survey in turn. Divided into ten sections, the introduction covers topics ranging from “Euripides: Life and Works” to “Transmission of the Text.” Some particular high-points were Gibert’s discussion of genealogical myth (§2.1), Euripides’ handling of Creusa’s experience (§2.2–3), and his nuanced treatment of citizenship, autochthony, and Athens as an Ionian Metropolis (§6.1–3). Although Gibert’s Greek text is largely identical to J. Diggle’s Oxford Classical Text [(Euripidis fabulae, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981)], at several points it differs from its predecessor by restoring and thoughtfully defending the text of our earliest surviving manuscript (Laurentianus plut. 32.2, ca. 1300–1320): e.g., lines 168, 379, 487, 578–581, 601, 602, 711, 751, 992–993, 1002, 1275–1278, and 1489. Gibert’s work especially shines in his line-by-line commentary, one that empowers an intermediate to advanced student to get the sort of deep knowledge of one work of Greek literature foundational to all future pursuits in the field. For the sake of space, I single out but three examples of this commentary’s excellent quality. Gibert helpfully elucidates the function of vocabulary that first appears in Euripides’ play (ἀντίπηξ 128n19, cf. 132n39–40, 319n1338; and πετρου̑σθαι 291–292n1111–1112, cf. 312n1266–1268). In Ion’s monody, Gibert twice notes “a rare, unnamed colon” (u u u u — — —) that appears only once more in the play, during Creusa’s monody (141n82–183, 150–151n150, and 253–254n859– 922). At line 1002, he defends the transmitted text μέλλον (which he, unlike Diggle, does not obelize) as playing with “the stichomythic convention of incomplete syntax” (275n1002, cf. 164–165n220–221). Gibert’s discussion of the thematic implications of Euripides’ vocabulary, meter, and transmitted text exemplify the detail and accessibility of this commentary overall. I had a few quibbles as I read through this remarkably learned and lucid work, which I mention in order of their appearance. Note 37 on page nine of the introduction cites Cyrus as a prose example of a story pattern around a child born to a mortal princess impregnated by an Olympian god, but Cyrus’ father Cambyses I (as described at Hdt. 1.108–117, cited in this note) was mortal. More archaeologically-focused and recent bibliography is merited in Gibert’s [End Page 205] brief mention of the shape of the orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus in Athens in note 103 on page 20 [one might add, e.g., H. R. Goette, “An Archaeological Appendix,” in P. Wilson (ed.), The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 116–121)]. The operations of the Delphic oracle (e.g., its “consultation day” or “regular operations”) are repeatedly referred to (124n5–7, 143n82–85, and 180n334), but not more fully explained until later in the line-by-line commentary (190n421). For those unfamiliar with these operations, an earlier explanation or cross-references to the later explanation might have been helpful. The use of the term “privileged” to describe any form of slavery—as on page 237: “[t]he former is an idealization (from the master’s point of view) that may correspond fairly well to reality in the case of nurses and tutors, privileged slaves who care for the master’s children,” referencing K. Synodinou, On the concept of slavery in Euripides (Ioannina: Ioannina University Press...

Reviewed by: The Werewolf in the Ancient World by Daniel Ogden Giulia Freni Daniel Ogden. The Werewolf in the Ancient World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 280. £25.00. ISBN 978-0-19-885431-9. The best-known werewolf story from Graeco-Roman antiquity is the one of Petronius' Satyricon 61–62, but there is other evidence about a man becoming a wolf. The volume The Werewolf in the Ancient World, by D. Ogden, intends to provide an overview on werewolfism in the ancient world, considering also the medieval and early modern traditions about the phenomenon. A significative role in this analysis is the folkloric approach, which permits tracing connections between the ancient material and the later evidence. The first two chapters discuss the connection of werewolves with magic and witchcraft on one hand, and with ghosts on the other. On the former, Ogden explores the transformation of men into animals beginning with Circe's wolves in the Odyssey. The focus is the strix -witch and her ability to transform herself and other people into animal creatures, especially screech owls and wolves who stole and mutilated children. Multiple examples from Greek and Latin literature as well as Near Eastern and medieval texts illuminate other uses of magic ghosts. Ogden notes the link between werewolves, ghosts and death in the Faliscan and Etruscan worlds within a folkloric context; other comparanda are made with the vampire, whose relationship with werewolfism results from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The third chapter is dedicated to the articulation of the werewolf, studied both from an inside and outside perspective. The werewolf sports clothing, which signifies belonging to the human world, but also possesses a hairy heart, related instead to the lupine world. Ogden subsequently examines the transformation from human to wolf and vice versa, obtained by the ingestion of a certain substance, but also associated with the motifs of the wolf in the woods or across the water. The result is a perception of the werewolf as a wolf contained within a human body, juxtaposing the inner-outer selves. The following chapter resumes this dichotomy with the opposition of soul-projection and soul-flying, which means that the soul is sent off on adventures while preserving the human body in order to reanimate it. Ogden hypothesizes that Greek shamans and the Pythagorean tradition ascribed the soul-projection to werewolfism. In the fifth chapter Ogden takes up the connection between werewolves and ghosts again, focusing on the Hero of Temesa, who, according to Pausanias, was defeated by the boxer Euthymus. Ogden identifies other literary and iconographic similarities with Pausanias' two accounts of the Hero, conceptualized as a ghost. The last chapter focuses on the myths and the rites linked to the Lykaian festival, celebrated in Arcadia. Ogden begins with the aetiological myths about Lykaon and explores two separate traditions related to the festival: the historical Anthid rite and the tale of Damarchus transformed into a wolf. Ogden argues that the story of Damarchus predates the Anthid rite, which thus derived metaphorically from an ancient folkloric tradition. This chapter is particularly [End Page 481] effective in elucidating the varying traditions of werewolfism. Ogden concludes by trying to answer the question, "How did the people of the Ancient World know what a werewolf was?" The book contains three appendices which cover Circe's role as a witch, Cynocephali, and two cases of false werewolves. In conclusion, Ogden offers a thorough discussion of werewolfism in antiquity, covering as well sources since the Middle Ages. He integrates literary sources with folkloric material to illustrate the influence of the latter, and in so doing provides a rich study of werewolves, both their perception and presentation. Giulia Freni University of Siena Copyright © 2021 The Classical Association of the Atlantic States, Inc.

The tragedies of Euripides are composed of traditional mythological material, yet the characters in his tragedies question the validity of their own stories, including the involvement of gods and goddesses. Philosophy, historiography, and early mythography were rationalizing myths at the time when Euripides was composing tragedies. I present several scenes from his tragedies, which exemplify and parallel these other rational genres. My article maintains that Euripides used these approaches to innovate the art of tragedy and participate in the intellectual climate of his milieu.