[First posted in AWOL 20 May 2016, updated 14 February 2025]
Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics, Second Edition
A coy tease, enchantress, adulteress, irresponsible
mother, hard-hearted wife—such are the possible images of Penelope that
Homer playfully presents to listeners and readers of the Odyssey, and
that his narration ultimately contradicts or fails to confirm. In this
updated and expanded second edition of Regarding Penelope, Nancy Felson
explores the relationship between Homer’s construction of Penelope and
his more general approach to poetic production and reception. Felson
begins by considering Penelope as…
Read more
Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry
Amidst conflicting information and personal experiences,
how can someone distinguish between truth and falsehood? Criteria of
Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic
Poetry tackles this fundamental question through a study of five
Hellenistic poems dated to the third and second centuries BCE:
Aratus’s Phaenomena, Nicander’s Theriaca, Callimachus’s Aetia, Apollonius
of Rhodes’s Argonautica, and Lycophron’s Alexandra. Situating these
poetic works in their intellectual and literary milieu, Kathleen Kidder
applies the philosophic concept of the criterion of truth, arguing that
each…
Read more
A Monument More Lasting than Bronze: Classics in the University of Malawi, 1982–2019
Formed in 1964, the year of independence, the University
of Malawi promised more than the distant University College of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland—founded 1952—ever could. A decade and a half later,
Hastings Kamuzu Banda, by then Life President of the Republic of Malawi,
let it be known to the University that a Department of Classics was to
be established—teaching the history and languages of the ancient
Mediterranean world at Zomba, on…
Read more
The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition
The Iliad reveals a traditional oral poetic style, but
many researchers believe that the poem cannot be treated as solely a
product of oral tradition. In The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition,
Karol Zieliński argues that neither Homer’s unique artistry nor
references to events known from other songs necessarily indicate the use
of writing in its composition. The development of traditional oral
cycles suggests that the Iliad is only one of many possible retellings
of the…
Read more
Greek Media Discourse from Reconstitution of
Democracy to Memorandums of Understanding: Transformations and
Symbolisms
An examination of the changes in the language used by the
media in Greece since the fall of the dictatorship, Greek Media
Discourse demonstrates the way language provokes critical debate,
questions the forces that shape a discourse, and leaves unanswered: How
pedagogical can a public discourse be when it loses its democracy as a
social good?…
Read more
Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond
This collaborative volume focuses on imagined geography
and the relationships among power, knowledge, and space. A sequel
to Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, Imagined
Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond shares with
its predecessor a strong focus on the role of empire and ideas of space
viewed in inter-regional and interdisciplinary terms. Both volumes bring
together specialists on history, art history, literature, and theater
studies, but the present…
Read more
Love in the Age of War: Soldiers in Menander
Love in the Age of War explores soldier characters in
Menander’s situation comedies, the oldest of their kind. Menander came
to dominate and define comedy for centuries, and a soldier served as the
central character in many of his plays. This study reveals that these
soldier characters are not the bragging buffoons that later became the
stereotype in this brand of comedy, but challenging and complex men who
struggle to find…
Read more
Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in Late Antiquity
The relationship between the soul and the body was a point
of contentious debate among philosophers and theologians in late
antiquity. Modern scholarship has inherited this legacy, but split the
study of the relation of body and soul between the disciplines of
philosophy and religion. Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body
integrates, with Plato and Aristotle in the background, philosophical
and religious perspectives on the concepts of soul and…
Read more
Blemished Kings: Suitors in the Odyssey, Blame Poetics, and Irish Satire
Each of the suitors in the Odyssey is eager to become the
king of Ithaca by marrying Penelope and disqualifying Telemachus from
his rightful royal inheritance. Their words are contentious, censorious,
and intent on marking Odysseus’ son as unfit for kingship. However, in
keeping with other reversals in the Odyssey, it is the suitors who are
shown to be unfit to rule. In Blemished Kings, Andrea Kouklanakis
interprets the language of the suitors—their fighting words—as Homeric…
Read more
The Purpled World: Marketing Haute Couture in the Aegean Bronze Age
During the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1500 BCE), the
spread of woolen textiles triggered an increased demand for color. The
dyes included those made from the labor-intensive processing of crocus
stamens for saffron dye and even more costly dyes made from certain sea
snails (the Muricidae/Murex). Minoan and Mycenaean textile producers
(the palaces) operated mainly in the Black Sea region, rich in gold.
“Purpled world” is Morris Silver’s term for this…
Read more
And see AWOL's Alphabetical List of Open Access Monograph Series in Ancient Studies
Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics, Second Edition
A coy tease, enchantress, adulteress, irresponsible mother, hard-hearted wife—such are the possible images of Penelope that Homer playfully presents to listeners and readers of the Odyssey, and that his narration ultimately contradicts or fails to confirm. In this updated and expanded second edition of Regarding Penelope, Nancy Felson explores the relationship between Homer’s construction of Penelope and his more general approach to poetic production and reception. Felson begins by considering Penelope as… Read more
Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry
Amidst conflicting information and personal experiences, how can someone distinguish between truth and falsehood? Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry tackles this fundamental question through a study of five Hellenistic poems dated to the third and second centuries BCE: Aratus’s Phaenomena, Nicander’s Theriaca, Callimachus’s Aetia, Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica, and Lycophron’s Alexandra. Situating these poetic works in their intellectual and literary milieu, Kathleen Kidder applies the philosophic concept of the criterion of truth, arguing that each… Read more
A Monument More Lasting than Bronze: Classics in the University of Malawi, 1982–2019
Formed in 1964, the year of independence, the University of Malawi promised more than the distant University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—founded 1952—ever could. A decade and a half later, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, by then Life President of the Republic of Malawi, let it be known to the University that a Department of Classics was to be established—teaching the history and languages of the ancient Mediterranean world at Zomba, on… Read more
The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition
The Iliad reveals a traditional oral poetic style, but many researchers believe that the poem cannot be treated as solely a product of oral tradition. In The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition, Karol Zieliński argues that neither Homer’s unique artistry nor references to events known from other songs necessarily indicate the use of writing in its composition. The development of traditional oral cycles suggests that the Iliad is only one of many possible retellings of the… Read more
Greek Media Discourse from Reconstitution of Democracy to Memorandums of Understanding: Transformations and Symbolisms
An examination of the changes in the language used by the media in Greece since the fall of the dictatorship, Greek Media Discourse demonstrates the way language provokes critical debate, questions the forces that shape a discourse, and leaves unanswered: How pedagogical can a public discourse be when it loses its democracy as a social good?… Read more
Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond
This collaborative volume focuses on imagined geography and the relationships among power, knowledge, and space. A sequel to Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond shares with its predecessor a strong focus on the role of empire and ideas of space viewed in inter-regional and interdisciplinary terms. Both volumes bring together specialists on history, art history, literature, and theater studies, but the present… Read more
Love in the Age of War: Soldiers in Menander
Love in the Age of War explores soldier characters in Menander’s situation comedies, the oldest of their kind. Menander came to dominate and define comedy for centuries, and a soldier served as the central character in many of his plays. This study reveals that these soldier characters are not the bragging buffoons that later became the stereotype in this brand of comedy, but challenging and complex men who struggle to find… Read more
Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in Late Antiquity
The relationship between the soul and the body was a point of contentious debate among philosophers and theologians in late antiquity. Modern scholarship has inherited this legacy, but split the study of the relation of body and soul between the disciplines of philosophy and religion. Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body integrates, with Plato and Aristotle in the background, philosophical and religious perspectives on the concepts of soul and… Read more
Blemished Kings: Suitors in the Odyssey, Blame Poetics, and Irish Satire
Each of the suitors in the Odyssey is eager to become the king of Ithaca by marrying Penelope and disqualifying Telemachus from his rightful royal inheritance. Their words are contentious, censorious, and intent on marking Odysseus’ son as unfit for kingship. However, in keeping with other reversals in the Odyssey, it is the suitors who are shown to be unfit to rule. In Blemished Kings, Andrea Kouklanakis interprets the language of the suitors—their fighting words—as Homeric… Read more
The Purpled World: Marketing Haute Couture in the Aegean Bronze Age
During the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1500 BCE), the spread of woolen textiles triggered an increased demand for color. The dyes included those made from the labor-intensive processing of crocus stamens for saffron dye and even more costly dyes made from certain sea snails (the Muricidae/Murex). Minoan and Mycenaean textile producers (the palaces) operated mainly in the Black Sea region, rich in gold. “Purpled world” is Morris Silver’s term for this… Read more
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