CONTENTS

Announcement
The Gildersleeve Prize Winner for 2005

Articles

Sider, David. The New Simonides and the Question of Historical Elegy

Abstract:
In this paper I question the validity of the notion of "historical elegy" as a genre of classical Greek elegy. My approach is to view elegy as a whole in order to understand first how the Greeks themselves used the term "elegy" and then what we can learn of the contents of other classical elegies that touched upon historical subjects. I show that the Greeks never attached any descriptive label to "elegy," whether "historical" or otherwise, and that an elegy that included historical matters could also incorporate myth and look forward to the future, while including as well themes now thought of as sympotic.

Edmonds, Radcliffe G. (Radcliffe Guest), 1970- To Sit in Solemn Silence? Thronosis in Ritual, Myth, and Iconography

Abstract:
To explain Strepsiades' initiation in Aristophanes' Clouds, recent scholars have referred to a thronosis ritual at the Eleusinian mysteries to describe the process wherein the initiate sits on a stool with head covered. The term thronosis, however, properly belongs to Korybantic initiation ritual, not to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Not only are the terms employed to describe the rituals different, but the iconographic representations of the ritual and the mythic paradigms are different as well. The purificatory silent sitting of the Eleusinian initiate should not be confused with the bewildering and terrifying treatment of the enthroned initiate in a Korybantic initiation.

Mader, Gottfried. Fighting Philip with Decrees: Demosthenes and the Syndrome of Symbolic Action

Abstract:
Demosthenes' Philippic cycle conveys a satirical picture of Athenians trapped in a spiral of symbolic activity: to a demos nostalgic for great-power status but loath to energetic intervention, high-sounding resolutions substitute for low-level responses and by their character as official enactments create the illusion of meaningful engagement. This "syndrome" is a rhetorical scare-image subserving a political agenda. At a time when his influence was still limited, Demosthenes found it expedient to exaggerate the cautious approach of the "peace party" into a "knowing-doing gap" in order to move the audience to accept his own hard line on the Macedonian question.

Putnam, Michael C. J. Horace to Torquatus: Epistle 1.5 and Ode 4.7

Abstract:
This article documents and explores the relationship between Horace Epist. 1.5 and Ode 4.7, one a verse epistle, the other one of Horace's most magnificent odes, both addressed to a certain Torquatus. It first analyzes each poem individually in detail and then goes on to examine the overlap between the two in search of Horace's purposes behind the interaction. The epistle, an invitation to a convivium at the speaker's home on the evening before Augustus' birthday, deals with the importance of self-discovery in a private setting where confidentiality is crucial. The ode pits this individuality against far larger spatial and temporal universals, and it reminds us of our mortality and of the loss of self that accompanies death.

Coffee, Neil. Eteocles, Polynices, and the Economics of Violence in Statius' Thebaid

Abstract:
In the Thebaid, Statius follows Vergilian epic precedent in using economic language, including prosaic financial terms, for its ethical connotations. These connotations are based in Roman notions of how improper modes of commodity and reciprocal exchange can disrupt society and lead to violence. This article considers how Statius uses this language to provide further insight into his characters' motivations and, in particular, to distinguish between the warring brothers of the Thebaid by assimilating the behavior of Eteocles to that of a stereotypical merchant and Polynices to a young Roman prodigal.

Brief Mention

Meineck, Peter, 1967- Ancient Drama Illuminated by Contemporary Stagecraft: Some Thoughts on the Use of Mask and Ekkyklema in Ariane Mnouchkine's Le Dernier Caravansérail and Sophocles' Ajax

Book Reviews

Cantarella, Eva. Il Mostro e il sapiente: Studi sull'erotica greca (review)

Foley, Helene P., 1942- Euripides' Escape-Tragedies: A Study of Helen, Andromeda, and Iphigenia among the Taurians (review)

Gargola, Daniel J. The Laws of the Roman People: Public Law in the Expansion and Decline of the Roman Republic (review)

Riggsby, Andrew M. Making a New Man: Ciceronian Self-Fashioning in the Rhetorical Works (review)

Books Received