Ancient Time - (F.M.) Dunn Present Shock in Late Fifth-century Greece. Pp. xii + 239. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007. Cased, US$75. ISBN: 978-0-472-11616-4.

Abstract

TH E CLA SSI CA L REV IEW in particular on two works inspired by The Lysistrata Project: Marina Kotzamani’s project (2004), in which she invited Arab writers to outline how they would stage the play in their countries; and Salam El-Nisaa (A Peace of Women), an adaptation of Lysistrata by the Egyptian playwright and fi lm director Lenin El-Ramly (2004). This analysis is very well articulated and supported by appropriate bibliographic references. S.’s ‘new version’ concludes the book. It is a readable version, full of contem- porary witty remarks, adapted for the modern stage and, as said above, suitable for being performed and updated into a contemporary farce anywhere, thanks to the useful suggestions given in the footnotes. Despite a few shortcomings, above all in terms of updated bibliographic refer- ences pertaining to the question of Aristophanes’ seriousness, overall this is a book conveniently accessible for all kinds of reader, from generalists to specialists. University of Idaho ROSANNA LAURIOLA lauriola@uidaho.edu ANCIENT TIME D U N N (F.M.) Present Shock in Late Fifth-century Greece. Pp. xii + 239 . Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press , 2007 . Cased, US$75. ISBN: 978-0-472-11616-4. doi:10.1017/S0009840X1100285X D.’s compelling book offers much more than its title implies. Like Toffl er’s Future Shock, written in 1970 to describe the effect of the future crowding in on the present, D.’s work argues that in late fi fth century Athens a major shift occurred in the way that time was experienced and conceptualised. In this period, driven in part by the political and military events of 413, 411 and 403, but also by questions arising in philosophy, literature and medical texts, Athenians began to evaluate their lives not as they previously had in terms of the authority of the past, but rather through the immediacy of the present. D. argues that changes in late fi fth century Athens were ‘in their own way … just as rapid and potentially cataclysmic’ as the events of the late 1960s that inspired Toffl er’s work, leading to what he will call ‘present shock’ (p. 2). Yet although I agree with D. about the magnitude and speed of these changes and their disorien- tating effect (p. 2), the word ‘shock’ does not sum up the real tenor of this book; rather it is the qualities of indeterminacy, uncertainty and even sensitivity in the face of a rapidly-changing present that best evoke what D. describes and analyses here. A second important aspect and great strength of this book is its discussion of ancient time in general. The fi rst two chapters offer an excellent, detailed resource for the complex ways in which the Greeks of this period calculated and theorised time, encompassing a number of different subjects, from the mechanics of the water clock to the sophist’s analysis of kairos. This sets the stage for the following three chapters (and epilogue), where D. offers readings of a variety of texts, with an emphasis on the role of the present in Euripides, Thucydides and the Hippocratic author of Ancient Medicine. The result is an invigorating and rewarding book that makes us re-evaluate familiar texts and familiar moments in Athenian history through a rich conceptual framework. The Classical Review vol. 62 no. 1 © The Classical Association 2012; all rights reserved