CONTENTS
Announcement

The Gildersleeve Prize Winner for 2004

ARTICLES

Porter, David H., 1935- Aeschylus' Eumenides: Some Contrapuntal Lines

Abstract:
Although Aeschylus' Oresteia moves toward resolution on many fronts, there are significant counterpoints to these positive progressions. Human stature and initiative decline over the course of the trilogy; the "hero"of the final play is largely passive, with speech and action increasingly the province of the gods; Orestes' "initiation" in Eumenides remains incomplete; and the trilogy ends with not just "uppity" women put in their place but the capacity for human greatness itself reduced. These and other contrapuntal undercurrents complicate and enrich our response to the many resolutions that do occur in the final play of the trilogy.

Dhuga, Umit Singh. Choral Identity in Sophocles' Oedipus Coloneus

Abstract:
This article argues that the chorus of elders in Sophocles' Oedipus Coloneus is far from ineffectual, as some scholars assume choruses of elders generally are, but exceptionally authoritative in its role as a chorus. The exceptional authority of the Elders of Colonus derives from their old age, wherefrom their sympathy for Oedipus obtains, and from the fact that they are Athenian and thus have the capacity to enact their sympathy for Oedipus by granting him special rights of residency as an heroic protector of Athens. Detailed analysis of this particular chorus's speech, song, and action is helpful not only to our understanding of Oedipus Coloneus but also, more broadly, to our understanding of the ongoing, if not increasing, importance that the chorus will have maintained in ancient Greek tragedy.

Frazel, Thomas D. Furtum and the Description of Stolen Objects in Cicero, In Verrem 2.4

Abstract:
Cicero portrays Verres here in ways that are strikingly similar to those that would be used against a thief in a civil proceeding: he emphasizes that Verres carried off goods, characterizes Verres' purchases as forced sales, and describes the stolen objects in a spare manner like the one used in theft accusations. Cicero's matter-of-fact descriptive mode also plays a key role in his own self-presentation as an informed, but not enthusiastic, consumer of art, unlike Verres. The spare descriptions thus reinforce Cicero's ethical strategies.

Asmis, Elizabeth. A New Kind of Model: Cicero's Roman Constitution in De republica

Abstract:
This article attempts to answer the question: What makes the Roman constitution "by far the best," as Cicero claims in De republica? Following Polybius, Cicero analyses the Roman constitution as a mixed constitution, which both regard as the best type of constitution. Cicero, however, does not merely impute the best type of constitution to the Romans. He elevates the Roman constitution above all other mixed constitutions as the single best constitution. In rivalry with Plato, he constructs a model of the Roman constitution as an exemplum that can unite the Romans in a common purpose. The constitution is distinguished by two main features: a fair system of cooperation among the whole citizen body and wise guidance by individual leaders. The moral unity of this constitution sets it apart from all other mixed constitutions.

Williams, Gareth D. Seneca on Winds: The Art of Anemology in Natural Questions 5

Abstract:
The familiar challenge of reconciling the scientific and moralizing aspects of Seneca's Natural Questions is here taken up in specific reference to Book 5—on winds. The familiar correlation drawn in Greco-Roman literature between wind and aspects of human character suggestively influences Seneca's procedure, in that his depiction of, for example, the uncontrolled violence of whirlwind offers an analogy for the human waywardness portrayed in the moralizing portions of the book. His broader systematization of the winds has important symbolic implications for moral limit and self-control at the human level. Seneca's experimental, highly "literary" mode of physico-moral investigation is thus to be distinguished from the narrower, more strictly technical focus that prevails earlier in the anemology tradition.

BOOK REVIEWS

Haley, Shelley P. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (review)

Connors, Catherine. Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience (review)

Deslauriers, Marguerite. The Female in Aristotle's Biology: Reason or Rationalization (review)

Elsner, Jas. Modes of Viewing in Hellenistic Poetry and Art (review)

Richlin, Amy, 1951- Comedy and the Rise of Rome (review)

Books Received