Teubner Edition Research Articles

Il Thesaurus Linguae Latinae e il lessico filologico antico Primi spunti dalle subscriptiones dei codici

When a scholar writes a Latin preface for his Teubner edition, he uses a specific, philological lexicon, dating from the humanistic age. But how did this lexicon grow, what are its main sources? And, above all, to what extent does the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae help us to reconstruct the history of its emergence and evolution? My paper arises from a reflection on these and other relevant questions: a marginal research on ancient and late antique Latin philological lexicon.

Summaries and Comments

Summaries and Comments Elizabeth C. Shaw, Staff* and Mor Segev ARISTOTLE. Parva Naturalia with On the Motion of Animals. Translated by David Bolotin. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2021. xii + 248 pp. $45.00 This volume offers a translation of Aristotle's Parva Naturalia (PN) alongside De motu animalium (MA). Bolotin mainly uses Biehl's Teubner edition of Sens. and Mem., Muginer's Budé edition of the rest of the PN, and Louis's Budé edition of MA, but he pays attention to, and occasionally adopts, readings based on other editions. Deviations from the editions primarily used are often motivated by faithfulness to the manuscripts. Perhaps the greatest merit of Bolotin's numerous footnotes is that they routinely alert the reader to manuscript variants and editorial emendations, and to the differences in translation that might result from these. The footnotes also provide cross-references and explanations of Greek words, as well as Bolotin's interpretive stance on various issues. The translation itself aims at literalness, bracketing supplementations to the Greek and frequently adding parentheses transliterating key terms and difficult phrases. In places, Bolotin uses the same translation for different Greek words or translates occurrences of the same Greek word differently (thus, he uses "thought" for dianoia, doxa, and nous, and at times renders dianoia and nous also as "intellect"). These decisions are often (though not always) supplemented with transliterations in parentheses and/or explanatory footnotes. But even where a clarification is provided, it still would have been preferable for the choice of words in the translation to correspond more closely to the Greek. To better evaluate Bolotin's translation, let us compare Mem. 453a14–18 as it appears both there and in David Bloch's translation (Leiden, 2007): Bolotin: "A sign that the pathos is bodily and that recollection is a search for an appearance in something of that sort [that is, in something bodily,] is that it causes some people much annoyance when they are unable to recollect, even after directing their thought very much [toward doing so], and when they are no longer attempting [to], they recollect none the less." Bloch: "Now, that the affection is something corporeal, and that recollection is a search for an image in something of a corporeal type, [End Page 587] is proved by the fact that some people are bothered when they cannot recollect, even though they focus their thought extremely hard, and are still bothered even when they are no longer trying to recollect." Bolotin's "the pathos is bodily" reflects Biehl's text (esti sōmatikon to pathos), without indicating alternatives (Bloch's edition has sōmatikon ti to pathos). The square brackets in Bolotin's translation helpfully indicate what is inexplicit in Aristotle's text. The renditions of sēmeion as "[a] sign" and of parenochlein as "causes … much annoyance" are both in keeping with Bolotin's general aim at literalness and seem preferable to Bloch's respective choices. Bolotin merely transliterates pathos (Bloch: "affection"), here and elsewhere, arguing that it has "no adequate English equivalent." But since controversy rages over the proper translation of phantasma (Bolotin: "appearance"; Bloch: "image"), it would have been reasonable to leave it untranslated as well, or at least to allude to the controversy in a footnote (elsewhere in his translation, Bolotin does often transliterate phantasma and its cognate phantasia in parentheses). Finally, whereas Bolotin's reading of ouden hētton at 453a18 as indicating continued recollection has the merit of corresponding directly to the subsequent point about involuntary recollection (453a20–3), Bloch's understanding of it as indicating the persisting irritation after a failure to recollect plausibly produces an argument for the bodily involvement in recollection based not on the occurrence of involuntary recollection (without further explanation) but, rather, on a distinctly psychophysiological occurrence associated with recollection (see the comment on this part of the text in G. R. T. Ross's commentary [Cambridge, 1906]). Both readings are possible and have had their proponents. But, given the main goals of Bolotin's translation and the scope of his footnotes, it would have been useful for him to present the alternative reading here, and indeed to do so more frequently elsewhere. This could have...

Mourning in Sparta (Plu., Lyc. 27.1-4)

With relation to the requirements established by the Spartan Lycurgus on funeral rites, the plutarchean biography mentions two exceptions (one man and one woman) from the rule requiring anonymous burials. The manuscripts’ paradosis has been suspected and corrected from the 16th century onwards: in the last two centuries the conjecture λεχοῦς, proposed by Latte and printed by Ziegler in the text of his Teubner edition, has been generally accepted. In this paper the reasons in support of this conjecture are rediscussed, and the possibility of retaining the manuscripts’ text is advanced on the basis of the Lacedaemonian traditions attested by the sources.

Die Cynegetica des Ps.-Oppian. Möglichkeiten einer Neuedition

The article deals with the textual transmission of Ps.-Oppian’s Cynegetica. It isbased on Papathomopoulos’ Teubner edition (2003) and provides new conjectures and acriticism of Papathomopoulos’ evaluation of MS K (Laur. 32,16). An appendix with a freshcollation of both A (Marc. gr. 479) and K, against the Teubner edition, is also offered.

Validità e fallibilità della congettura. Con esempi da Aegritudo Perdicae 97 e 145

The article discusses again - after the Teubner edition by the same author - two vexati loci of the poem Aegritudo Perdicae proposing original textual solutions through the recovery of appropriate literary models.

Latin Literature

First up, a brace of major Teubner editions. Marcus Deufert's De rerum natura marks a significant moment in Lucretian studies. I suspect that most people, at least in the Anglosphere, are still using Cyril Bailey's venerable Oxford Classical Text (revised in 1922) for everyday reading, if not the equally antique Loeb (W. D. Rouse, 1924). In broadest outline, text-critical views haven't changed much since: a ‘closed’ tradition, in which two Carolingian manuscripts rejoicing in the workaday names Oblongus and Quadratus are prime witnesses, but often problematic ones; a mass of manuscripts from Renaissance Italy, which editors consult primarily for conjectures. But the last century has seen plenty of important work, and Deufert can report more precisely on the various corrections made in O and Q; affirm that all Italian manuscripts descend from O, and give them a stemma; pan many more humanist conjectures; wade in the muddy river (xxi) of modern interventions; and offer his own solutions to, or non liquet on, textual problems small and large. The result is a text with plenty of novelties (and many questions left open), and an edition with a very different look.

Greek Literature

Academics have a professional need to be published; publishers have a commercial incentive to create demand. In recent years these convergent interests have released a flood of edited volumes, not all of which can demonstrate a compelling claim to intrinsic or lasting scholarly importance. So it is reassuring to be reminded that a publishing house that contributes liberally, if not recklessly, to the flood continues to produce heavyweight volumes of unquestionable scholarly importance. Consider, for example, the new edition of the Thucydides scholia, on which Alexander Kleinlogel worked from 1960 until a few months before his death on 1 January 2007. The complex task of bringing his material to publishable form was undertaken by Klaus Alpers; illness prevented Alpers from steering the volume through its final stages, which were overseen by Stefano Valente. The introduction comprises 202 pages (the chapter on transmission is incomplete, breaking off after four pages); the lavish edition of the scholia vetera occupies 705 pages. The material for a projected second volume containing the scholia recentiora was not left in a publishable state, except for the Lexicon Patmense, which is included as a forty-eight-page appendix to the present volume's introduction. Reviewing Karl Hude's Teubner edition of the scholia, published in 1927, H. T. Deas concluded: ‘obviously this is work which will not require to be done again. Indeed, were it not a praiseworthy task for the sake of completeness, one might be permitted to doubt whether it was worth doing at all’ (CR 42 [1928], 145–6). That reminder of the extremes of fallibility should strike terror into every reviewer's soul.

Liviana: Studies on Livy by John Briscoe

Reviewed by: Liviana: Studies on Livy by John Briscoe Seth Kendall John Briscoe. Liviana: Studies on Livy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xiii, 255. $78.00. ISBN 978-0-19-882468-8. As the author himself explains in his preface, the idea for John Briscoe's Liviana began to take shape in 2012 when, having just completed his commentary on Livy 41–45, he proposed to the Oxford University Press the formation of what became his Oxford Classical Text of Livy 21–25. In that proposal, Briscoe noted that, in keeping with the usual tendency in Oxford Classical Texts, he would have a briefer apparatus than was customary for Teubner editions. A dialogue with the press ensued, in which it was suggested that what he was compelled to omit from his apparatus might perhaps be included in a companion volume. This material alone, Briscoe avers, would not have been sufficient to fill a volume on its own, but it could be supplemented with a brief history of the printed editions of Livy, a few essays on some controversies in the identification of certain manuscripts, some corrections of and additions to his commentaries on books 38–40 and 41–45, some emendations to his Teubner volumes, and a correction to a point he made in his contributions to The Fragments of the Roman Historians (Oxford 2014). The result is the current volume under review, which, while not as expansive as a full-fledged commentary on books 21–25—Briscoe himself suggests that he came to consider parts of Liviana as something of an "embryo commentary" on those books—nevertheless succeeds admirably as a supplement to his OCT and, indeed, to all of his recent works on the text of Livy. As hinted at above, the majority of the space in Liviana is devoted to textual matters. These consist of observations of varying lengths on some of the more troublesome passages, made with the unparalleled knowledge of Latin and of [End Page 229] Livy, the editorial acumen, and the sharp eye for discerning textual soundness that are so typical of Briscoe. On these sections little needs to be added here beyond the certainty that for serious classicists, and especially for students of Livy, consultation of these notes will prove exceedingly worthwhile. In addition to this wealth of textual material, Briscoe provides an overview of editions of the Ab Urbe Condita from incunabula all the way down to the twenty-first century. He also proffers evaluations of these editions—an overview that is at points trenchant, especially about those produced in the twentieth century: Briscoe is unsparing in his praise for the excellence that he perceives in these works, but is also unflinching in his assessments when that excellence is harder to find. The same bluntness and vigor are found in later chapters, particularly one that discusses some additions to a manuscript (Harley 2493) that Briscoe, breaking with received wisdom, attributes not to Lorenzo Valla but to a hand that he designates Az. This attribution has not gone unchallenged, and Briscoe takes the opportunity to expand upon his reasoning for it in what are often very direct terms. For the specialist, particularly for the philologist looking to delve deeply into Livy, it cannot be doubted that Liviana will be of great utility. The book will therefore make a welcome addition to the personal libraries of such users, and will obviously be indispensable as a research tool in academic libraries. Further, the committed historian investigating Livy's account of the opening years of the Hannibalic War will find this book to be of considerable use, though it should be understood that strictly historical investigations in Liviana are quite limited, and that textual exegesis receives the bulk of the space. On the other hand, the reader might also question whether it would be of equal use to those whose academic interests do not require such a tight textual focus. As may be anticipated, Liviana presupposes an extensive knowledge of the text of Livy, and was almost certainly written for persons possessing this. In sum, Liviana will probably be of limited relevance to the generalist, but for its intended audience it will certainly be...

Wilamowitziana: Cesare Giarratano, una congettura ad Apic. 4, 27 e dintorni

The conjecture zomoteganon in Apic. 4, 27 is ascribed by editors to Cesare Giarratano and Friedrich Vollmer, who printed it for the first time in their edition of 1922. Two letters of Giarratano to Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff suggest, however, that zomoteganon might be Wilamowitz’s own emendation. The correspondence between Giarratano and Vollmer is included in an appendix, since it represents the background to their Teubner edition of Apicius.

IRONY AND THE TEXT OF CAESAR, BELLVM GALLICVM 5.31.5

The sentence that comprises 5.31.5 in Caesar's Bellum Gallicum has long been felt to be problematic. It was deleted entirely by H. Meusel. A. Klotz posited a lacuna after quare. Others sought smaller adjustments. Yet, the defence of the text as transmitted also drew advocates (T. Rice Holmes, A. Ernout, O. Seel) and the debate quietened. The current Teubner edition, by W. Hering in 1987, prints the transmitted text and does not acknowledge the debate in the apparatus criticus. I propose a new solution, one that reinterprets the sentence in context and requires a small textual change from et to nec. I will first set the context and identify problems with the conventional understanding of 5.31.5.

Note di critica testuale ad Ammiano Marcellino

The text tradition and the critical emendation of Ammianus Marcellinus sometimes are a philological nightmare, rather often a difficult task to deal with. Many scholars assume the Teubner edition to be the last word on this subject; but Clark’s work cannot be dismissed so easily. The core issue is Ammianus’ own personal blend of literary Latin; today old prejudices still haunt Ammianean studies and lead them astray. This paper aims at showing how both a free mind approach to Ammianus’ highly original Latin and the philological principle of the usus scribendi, together with the steady help of Latin paleography, can substantially improve the transmitted text and our understanding of several passages.

RE-READING POLLUX: ENCYCLOPAEDIC STRUCTURE AND ATHLETIC CULTURE IN ONOMASTICON BOOK 3

Ioulios Polydeukes, more commonly known as Pollux, was a Greek sophist and lexicographer active in the closing decades of the second century a.d. His Onomasticon is one of the most important lexicographical texts of the Imperial period. It is essentially a set of word lists dedicated to collecting clusters of related words on topics from a vast range of different areas of intellectual activity and everyday life. The text survives only in epitomized form, and shows signs of interpolation as well as abridgement. Nevertheless, the consensus is that the bulk of what survives is Pollux’ own work, and that reading it in Eric Bethe's Teubner edition gives an accurate cumulative impression of Pollux’ standard procedures and preoccupations, even if we cannot be entirely confident that any particular cluster of words had exactly the same form within the text's original design. It is divided into ten books, each with its own dedicatory preface addressed to the Emperor Commodus. Each book has its own distinctive focus on certain key themes, although the ordering principles are much clearer in some than in others.

Noch viel mehr Textkritisches zu Diodor

In this article it is shown that the Teubner edition of Diodorus Siculus by Vogel-Fischer urgently needs to be replaced by an adequate critical edition. The series of critical notes is intended to serve the needs of the future editor.

AESCHYLUS, SEPTEM CONTRA THEBAS 780–7

The starting point of this brief discussion is the emendation in line 782 of Aeschylus' Septem proposed by M.L. West in his 1990 Teubner edition. In the fifth strophe of the second stasimon, the chorus recollects the misfortunes that struck Oedipus when he finally discovered the truth about his marriage. This severely corrupt passage, whose original meaning was lost at an early stage of transmission, runs as follows:ἐπεὶ δ' ἀρτίϕρων ἐγένετο [στρ. ε]μέλεος ἀθλίων γάμων,ἐπ' ἄλγει δυσϕορῶν 780μαινομέναι κραδίαιδίδυμα κάκ' ἐτέλεσενπατροϕόνωι χερὶ τῶν†κρεισσοτέκνων δ' ὀμμάτων† ἐπλάγχθη.τέκνοις δ' †ἀραίας† ἐϕῆκεν [ἀντ. ε]ἐπίκοτος τροϕᾶς, αἰαί, 786πικρογλώσσους ἀράς.782 δίδυμ' ἃ West 784 κρεισσοτέκνων M2PKQ1Tr κρείσσω τέκνων rell. κυρσοτέκνων Herm. δ' ὀμμάτων HaQTr δ' ἀπ᾽ ὀμμάτων rell. δωμάτων Schütz χρυσοτέχνων πωμάτων Verrall κρεισσοτέρων γνωμάτων West 785 ἀθλίας Prien ἀρχαίας Wil.But when the miserable man became aware of his wretched marriage, vexed with pain in his frenzied heart, he committed double evil: with his parricidal hand †he wandered from his eyes, dearer than children†. But upon his sons he put bitter-tongued curses, angry on account of his †accursed† sustenance.

Artake and Hylaea in Propertius 1.8.25–6

Elegy 1.8 is Propertius' propemptikon for Cynthia, which starts with the poet begging Cynthia not to go off to Illyria with his rival. Once Propertius has abandoned hope of her staying, he modulates into the good wishes for Cynthia's voyage (17–18) which are standard in this genre of content. He himself will continue his elegiac outpourings at her door (21–2), and will accost and interrogate sailors about which sea-port Cynthia has reached on her journey (23–4). Then in lines 25–6 Propertius fantasises about Cynthia settling abroad; he mentions two potential foreign locations – in the MSS they are denoted by Atraciis (25) and Hylaeis (26) – but he remains confident that she will nevertheless be his in the future. In the Teubner edition of Propertius, Paolo Fedeli retained the MSS reading Atraciis (NFL) and the reading Hylaeis implied by the MSS (Hi(y)le(y)is NFL), and he printed the couplet as:et dicam ‘Licet Atraciis considat in oris,et licet Hylaeis, illa futura mea est.’

Marginalia to a New Aeneis recensa

The text of G.B. Conte's Teubner edition (2009) contains more than 70 divergences from Mynors' edition (1969), apart from a number of orthographica. About 40% of these differing readings can also be found in Geymonat's text (1973/2008). Among the rest this reviewer has noted a handful of choices of particular interest and fit to make the new edition a welcome contribution to the long-standing quest for an optimal text of Vergil. Another, more controversial, handful of Conte's preferences is discussed below together with his accompanying information in the app. crit.: 1. 380; 2. 433; 598; 738-739 (with a new conjecture); 3. 685-686; 4. 176; 5. 505; 851; 6. 746; 7. 129; 9. 130; 214; 402; 463; 10. 366 (with a new conjecture); 12. 470.

A Smattering of Verse – Reading Poetic Value in the <I>Historia Augusta</I>

Late Roman education followed a long Roman tradition as it grounded its elites’ first steps into literary culture on Vergil and established a set of cultural and aesthetic values for them to carry throughout adult life (Kaster, Guardians of Language [1988]). Prose texts’ use of poetry economically activated these standards in readers’ minds (e.g., MacCormack, The Shadows of Poetry [1998]). In its evaluation of the succession of Roman emperors against the background of Roman cultural heritage, projected across a miscellaneous canvas of fact, truth, accuracy, and significance (congeries, Syme, Emperors and Biography [1971]; Barnes, The Sources of the Historia Augusta [1978]; synthesis, e.g., Long, Syll.Cl. 2002), the Historia Augusta too capitalizes on the resources of Roman verse. Its proceedings have been little studied (e.g., Baldwin, BICS 1978); this paper will address the deficit by examining how the biographies appropriate poetic value.Vergil of course lays the foundation. Emperors’ tastes betoken their intellectual character (e.g., V.Hadr. 16.6, V.Ael. 5.9). Lines of the Aeneid take on oracular significance, whether consulted by the sortes Vergilianae (e.g., V.Hadr. 2.8) or attributed to a prophetic divinity (V.Alex.Sev. 4.6). Quotation confers an unanswerable authority, especially when the quoters call on ideals of Roman destiny (e.g., V.Macrin. 12.7, V.Diad. 8.7; cf. Den Hengst in Romane memento, ed. Rees [2004]). The classic breathes majesty.Several of the biographies’ emperors compose poetry, but fluency is not automatically admired (e.g., V.Ael. 5.2, cf. Quadr.Tyr. 7.4). Analysis must sound the judgments the text invokes. Scholarly attention has been paid to Hadrian’s animula vagula blandula (V.Hadr. 25.9; Cameron, HSCP 1980; Birley, Laverna 1994). An echo of Ennius recommends an emendation in the verse; Peter emended the Historia Augusta’s comment, rendering it snarkily dismissive (Teubner edition 1865; 1884), but the transmitted text better matches the biography’s ambivalence about Hadrian’s literary acumen. The transfer of diminutive formations from the soul to its destination, and the slowing of the syllables as the lines progress, intelligently sharpen the short poem’s poignancy. Hadrian was clever.Hadrian’s riposte to Florus neatly exemplifies the emperor’s competitiveness (V.Hadr. 16.3-4, cf. 15.10). Comparably, Macrinus replies in couplets to a critical poem; he is deemed to have disgraced himself, presumably by a false quantity (V.Macrin. 11.3-7; cf. Holmes, CQ 2007). The biographies utilize technical standards of Latinity, assuming readers can recognize them. In other examples, alleged translations take verbal form out of consideration, leaving content alone to suffer disparagement (e.g., V.Pesc. 12.6). The showiness of poeticized speech, however, underscores the biographies’ criticism.

Aristophanes and Douglas Young

Douglas Young (1913-73) was a powerful voice for use of Scots language in poetry as part of construction of national identity. His wry humor culminated in two Aristophanic translations, The Puddocks (Frogs) and The Burdies (Birds), which confirmed Young's place as a public poet. (1) It is not possible here to assess nature of Young's translation, (2) nor to explore specific aspects of stage performances, (3) but it is worth distinguishing three threads that braid together throughout his career--his work as an academic, as a politician, and as a litterateur. Young achieved a first-class degree from St. Andrews in Scotland in 1934 and continued his studies at New College, Oxford, until 1938. Following war, he held academic positions at University College, Dundee (1947-53), St. Andrews (1953-68), McMaster University in Ontario (1968-70), and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as Paddison Chair of Greek (1970-73). His most significant scholarly publications were his Teubner edition of Theognis in 1961 (2nd ed., 1971) and his lighthearted but thought-provoking articles on Homeric composition (in one of which he demonstrates that Milton did not in fact write Paradise Lost). (4) posthumously published translation of The Oresteia (1974, into English) has not been received well, in part because of his excessive conservatism as a textual critic; translation nevertheless possesses many inventive and appealing turns of phrase. As a student he supported unsuccessful 1933 campaign of novelist Eric Linklater, who was running for National Party of Scotland (NPS) in a by-election. (5) Within a decade (one that included completing four years at Oxford), while still in his twenties, Young was elected Chairman of Scottish National Party (SNP), as it was then known, a position he held from 1942 to 1945. Following party position, he resisted conscription, defending himself ably in court by arguing that 1707 Act of Union granted British Parliament no right of conscription over Scottish citizens. (6) This unpopular position led to vilification in press and two jail terms. In 1944, he ran in a Kirkcaldy by-election and attained 42 percent of vote. (7) leading figure in what has been called Scottish Renaissance alongside Hugh MacDiarmid, (8) Young wrote poetry in what he called Lallans, Robert Burns's term for Scots language. Young's polyglot Auntran Blads (1943, with a foreword by MacDiarmid) contains poems of Burns rendered into ancient Greek as well as translations into Lallans from a variety of languages. This was followed by Braird o Thristles (1947), celebrations of Edinburgh and St. Andrews, anthologies, and occasional essays. His entertaining 1950 travel narrative Chasing an Ancient Greek takes as its unlikely subject Young's journeys to European libraries while working on Theognis. His moving if overdetermined translation of Psalm 23 (composed in Edinburgh Prison on St. Andrews Day, 30 November 1942) ties his political incarceration with his literary ambitions, and was written amidst his reading of Homer, tragedians, and Theognis. The integration of all three threads can be seen most clearly in two Lallans translations of Aristophanes that Young produced. The Puddocks, A verse play in Scots frae auld Greek o Aristophanes, was self-published in December 1957. The play premiered at Byre Theatre in St. Andrews by Reid Gouns (i.e., Red Gowns an allusion to university academic dress), 25-28 February 1958. The play was subsequently performed by the Sporranslitters (Cutpurses), at 1958 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Perifery o Fest o Embro according to a program note, 29 August-12 September), in advance of which a second edition of script was published in August 1958. Both volumes, envisaging future performances, grant performance rights to amateur companies that pay a guinea (or more) to support Scottish National Dictionary. …

On the Nature of Man (review)

Reviewed by: On the Nature of Man Gretchen Reydams-Schils On the Nature of Man. By Nemesius; translated with an introduction and notes byR. W. Sharples and P. J. van der Eijk. [Translated Texts for Historians, Vol. 49.](Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2008. Pp. x, 273. $29.95 paperback. ISBN 978-1-846-31132-1.) This translation with notes makes an important work accessible to a wider audience of scholars. As an update of the former translation and commentary by W. Telfer ( Cyril of Jerusalem and Nemesius of Emesa[London, 1955]), from which material has been incorporated, it provides a wealth of information, successfully balanced, in the introduction, notes, and bibliography. (The translation is a substantially revised version of work done by J. O. Urmson, but never published.) The work is based on Morani's 1987 Teubner edition. (The electronic Thesaurus Linguae Graecaedatabase also lists as typescript an edition by B. Einarson, as forthcoming in the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum.) This high-quality presentation will empower research by others. The text itself, dating from the late-fourth century AD, is important for the range of issues it covers, for the information it provides on how sources were used and philosophical views summarized and transmitted in late antiquity, and for enhancing our understanding of the interaction between pagan and Christian culture (the work has at times been mistakenly attributed to St. Gregory of Nyssa). The opening section starts with an overview of the order of the universe: sections 2–4 cover the general relation of the human soul with the body, sections 4–28 then focus on more specific topics of physiology, psychology, and the emotions, and sections 29–43 return to the cosmic dimension, but this time from the angle of the question of fate and providence as God's government of the universe. P. J. van der Eijk greatly adds to the value of the work by bringing in his expertise on the medical tradition, and R. W. Sharples contributes state-of-the-art reflections (many of which result from his own previously published research) on connections with the Peripatetic tradition and with Alexander of Aphrodisias in particular. But perhaps the time has also come to re-evaluate, in subsequent research, Porphyry's role in the doxographical transmission chain (and particularly of works of his that are no longer extant), just as Posidonius's influence has been reduced to more realistic proportions in recent scholarship. Throughout his work Nemesius, as a bishop at Emesa in Syria, does not leave his readers guessing at his Christian identity, and when mentioning the Christian tradition always ranks it explicitly higher in truth-value than the other accounts he mentions (as in section 1.4.end ff. and in 2.38). He is also a witness to the debate about Origen's thoughts, accepting some views, and rejecting others (pp. 6–7, introduction 3.b; for criticism cf. 3.44.end, 30.95.18). [End Page 778] The translation in general reads very well. One minor concern one could raise, however, is the varying translations of the Greek term δημιουργóς. When Nemesius is following closely the exposition of Plato's Timaeus, the term is merely transcribed, as "Demiurge" (for example, 2.34.10–15, yet not consistently; cf. 5.48), but elsewhere the word is rendered as the explicitly Christian "Creator" (for example, 1.3, 1.14.15), or, literally, as "Craftsman" (2.36.15).The translation "Creator" in the parts of Nemesius's exposition that are clearly Christian makes sense, because the context indicates that the Christian notion is meant here (yet "Creator" is also used in contexts that are not specifically Christian, as in section 8). But this translation comes at the price of losing the connection between Christian and so-called pagan terminology: the fact that the same word is used in both contexts establishes a common ground for someone who is addressing both audiences simultaneously (2.38.7–9; 42.120.21–23). Gretchen Reydams-Schils University of Notre Dame Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

The Epic Adventures of an Unknown Particle

This paper, a mini-“Autour de ‘ταρ epique’,” is above all a contribution to the study of Homeric formulas and compositional technique. I give an overview and expand our understanding of the underappreciated Homeric particle ταρ (tar), whose Cuneiform Luvian cognate Calvert Watkins discovered over a decade ago and whose essential Greek-ness M. L. West accepts in his Teubner edition of the Iliad; demonstrate on linguistic and stylistic grounds that ταρ is part of the conjunction αὐτάρ (autar) but not of the semantically similar near-look-alike ἀτάρ (atar); and explain why this unstressed and almost unknown monosyllable is of unexpectedly wide interest, being not just a bit of Homeric and Indo-European linguistic trivia, but an important rhetorical device in the description of ancient Greek ritual.