AWOL - The Ancient World Online

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry

Curated Books

Despite widespread interest in the Greek hero as a cult figure, little was written about the relationship between the cult practices and the portrayals of the hero in poetry. The first edition of The Best of the Achaeans bridged that gap, raising new questions about what could be known or conjectured about Greek heroes. In this revised edition, which features a new preface by the author, Gregory Nagy reconsiders his conclusions in the light of the subsequent debate and resumes his discussion of the special status of heroes in ancient Greek life and poetry. His book remains an engaging introduction both to the concept of the hero in Hellenic civilization and to the poetic forms through which the hero is defined: the Iliad and Odyssey in particular and archaic Greek poetry in general
Second edition, originally published in 1999 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Copyright, The Johns Hopkins University Press. First edition 1979. Available for purchase in print via The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Cite this work
Use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999.
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Copyright, Johns Hopkins University Press. Published here online with permission.

La Table des rois: Contribution à l’histoire textuelle des ›Tables faciles‹ de Ptolémée

Olivier Defaux

Published by De Gruyter
How could ancient astronomers accurately calculate celestial phenomena on the scale of several centuries? The Table of Kings is a simple list of rulers with the duration of their reigns, which allowed Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer, to have a count of the years that had passed since the Babylonian king Nabonassar (8th century BC). Initially used for astronomy, this table captivated historians and chronology specialists from Antiquity. Rediscovered in Europe in the modern era, it is a crucial source for establishing a chronology of the Ancient Near East. The Table of Kings has always been a living text, modified by generations of scribes, completed over the centuries, sometimes up to the fall of Constantinople. This document with multiple lives is often quoted but has been little studied for its own sake. Historians of the Near East and specialists in the history of texts and sciences will find in this volume the first critical edition of Ptolemy’s Table of Kings based on all known manuscript witnesses, accompanied by an investigation of the history of this document from its elaboration by Ptolemy to its use by modern historians.

Comment les astronomes de l’Antiquité pouvaient-ils calculer avec précision des phénomènes célestes à l’échelle de plusieurs siècles? La Table des rois est une simple liste de souverains avec la durée de leurs règnes, qui permettait à Ptolémée, astronome alexandrin, de disposer d’un comput des années écoulées depuis le roi babylonien Nabonassar (VIII^e siècle av. J.-C.). D’abord mise au service de l’astronomie, cette table a captivé historiens et spécialistes de chronologie dès l’Antiquité. Redécouverte en Europe à l’Époque moderne, elle est une source cruciale pour l’établissement d’une chronologie du Proche-Orient ancien. La Table des rois a toujours été un texte vivant, modifié par des générations de copistes, complété au cours des siècles parfois jusqu’à la chute de Constantinople. Ce document aux multiples vies est souvent cité mais a été peu étudié pour lui-même. Historiens du Proche-Orient et spécialistes de l’histoire des textes et des sciences trouveront dans ce volume la première édition critique de la Table des rois réalisée sur la base de tous les témoins manuscrits connus, accompagnée d’une enquête sur l’histoire de ce document depuis son élaboration par Ptolémée jusqu’à son utilisation par les historiens modernes.

La Table des rois de Ptolémée, astronome alexandrin du II^e siècle, présente une liste continue de souverains depuis l’Empire néo-assyrien jusqu’à l’Empire romain. Elle est une source cruciale pour notre approche chronologique du Proche-Orient ancien et du monde méditerranéen. Cette étude présente une description des témoins manuscrits grecs de la Table des rois, une nouvelle édition critique et une histoire du texte jusqu’à l’époque moderne.
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
French
Date published
October 4, 2023
Pages
379
ISBNs
PDF
9783111304458
Paperback
9783111303956
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111304458

Conceptions of Cyclicity in Babylonian and Greco-Roman Scholarship

Mathieu Ossendrijver

Published by De Gruyter

What did ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman scholars know about the cyclicity of astronomical phenomena, how did they conceptualize cyclicity, and which other phenomena did they consider to be cyclical? This study explores astronomical, astrological, and other scholarly sources, including previously ignored ones, in order to answer these questions. Particular attention is paid to the role of planetary cycles and questions of cross-cultural knowledge transfer. A new account is given of how knowledge of cyclicity, its conceptualization, and its use in predictive practices developed in Babylonia and the Greco-Roman world from the first millennium BCE until Late Antiquity. It is argued that the predictive turn in Babylonian astronomy and astrology led to a new understanding of how astronomical and earthly phenomena are interconnected through time and space. The emergence of horoscopic astrology led to the question of whether human existence is determined by cycles. Even the universe as a whole is governed by cycles according to Plato and later Greco-Roman scholars.
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
English
Date published
December 29, 2025
Pages
114
ISBN
PDF
9783112224250
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112224250

Rome Unveiled: Cardinal Cesare Baronio and San Giovanni in Laterano

Filip Malesevic

Published by De Gruyter
This book offers new insights into the history of Rome’s Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano through the perspective of curial ceremony. It traces the probable contribution by the eminent Oratorian and cardinal, Cesare Baronio, in designing a sophisticated iconographic program for the transept inside this prominent Roman church edifice during Clement VIII’s (Aldobrandini’s) pontificate. Moreover, the book provides the first full reconstruction of the history and curial interventions at the ancient Constantinian Patriarchum Lateranensis during the second half of the 16th century on the basis of hitherto unknown documents from Roman and other Italian archives and libraries.
Funded by: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
License
CC BY 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
English
Date published
March 30, 2026
Pages
478
ISBNs
PDF
9783111586434
Hardback
9783111434711
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111586434

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Rethinking Orality III:From Homer to Neuroscience

Maurizio Bettini, Manuela Giordano, Riccardo Palmisciano (eds.)

Book 9 in the Transcodification: Arts, Languages and Media series
This volume offers innovative perspectives that reassess and update so-called Oral Theory, bridging classical scholarship with cutting-edge theoretical contributions, and host a dialogue with cognitive sciences (linguistics and neuroscience), anthropology, and complexity theory. The book propounds theoretical perspectives alongside case-studies ranging from Homer and Athenian literacy to Roman law.
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
English
Date published
March 30, 2026
Pages
258
ISBNs
PDF
9783111434841
Hardback
9783111431611
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111434841

Frontmatter
Foreword
Contents
Introductory Remarks: “from Homer to Neuroscience”Manuela Giordano
Orality’s Theory of Mind: the Necessity of PerformancePeter Meineck
Oral Poetics and Multimodal Language ModelsCristóbal Pagán Cánovas
New Dawns Forever: Orality and the Plasticity of Homer’s VerseAhuvia Kahane
The Clever Deception and Mirror NeuronsRoberto Nicolai
The Narrative Mind. Narrating, Listening, ReadingAlberto Oliverio
Storytelling and Greek Epic: How to Put the Experience in (Some) OrderAndrea Ercolani
Poetic Pains and Pleasures: Theory of Mind and the Reception of Epic Performance (Odyssey 8 and Beyond)Manuela Giordano
Demodocus, Odysseus, and the Double Standard of Authority in SpeechRiccardo Palmisciano
Was Classical Athens an Oral Society?Margalit Finkelberg
The Need for Voice in Classical Greek: Reading, Complexity, and Prose RhythmAlessandro Vatri & Alessandro Vatri
Solemn Words: Ritual Performance in Ancient Roman CourtsMaurizio Bettini

›Versus ad picturas‹ – Text/Image Relation in Greek, Latin and Arabic Poetry

›Versus ad picturas‹ – Text/Image Relation in Greek, Latin and Arabic Poetry: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Michele Cutino, Francesco Stella (eds.)

Book 115 in the Millennium-Studien / Millennium Studies series

Over the last 30 years, many books, conferences and volumes have been devoted to the relationship between text and image in the Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. But there has been little space for poetic texts, which, in addition to the direct or mediated message, also demand the attention of the analyst through the impact of the intertext of the entire Latin poetic tradition, multiplying the levels of meaning and therefore the possibilities of interpretation. In relation to the recognition of the need to consider texts (mental or written) as sources of inspiration for images, we are now in a position to take a further step by applying to medieval culture the concept of iconotext developed by Liliane Louvel (2018) for modern literature. In this vein, the Versus ad picturas conference therefore aims to contribute to the study of the relationship between the images we now call artistic, painted on walls, fabrics, stained glass or parchments, and the verses that often accompany them materially or ideally, and which are now increasingly recognised as essential to their cultural understanding and social framing, in the hope of bringing us closer to the meaning hidden in their combination and the meaning perceived by the commissioners, executors and viewers of the time.

License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
French
Date published
March 30, 2026
Pages
381
ISBN
PDF
9783112212233
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112212233

Frontmatter
Dedication
Contents
Open Access Transformation of the Series Millennium Studies
Avant-ProposFrancesco Stella
Versus ad picturas ? Retour sur la question des tituli en vers du carmen 27 de Paulin de NoleGaëlle Herbert de la Portbarré-Viard
Vignettes narratives et représentations figurées, le dialogue entre texte et image dans le Carmen Paschale de Sedulius et des ivoires contemporainsBruno Bureau
Texte et image dans les carmina d’Ennode : les « leçons » des manuscritsCéline Urlacher-Becht
Interaction des systèmes sémiotiques et combinaison médiale dans les inscriptions de Gaule et d’Italie du v e au viii e siècle : esquisse d’une étudeLuciana Furbetta
Images et textes dans l’épigraphie métrique de l’Antiquité TardiveGianfranco Agosti
Versus ad Picturas from Text to Context. The Biblical Tituli of the So–Called Bernowinus Episcopus (MGH PLAC I, 413–414) ReconsideredFrancesco Lubian
La place de l’image dans la transmission du savoir à l’époque carolingienneEnimie Rouquette
Cassiodore et la géométrie : le « feuillet Nordenfalk » et la théologie de l’ornementÉric Palazzo
Pictorial Exegesis and Imagination in the Anonymous Pictor in Carmine (ca. 1200)Greti Dinkova-Bruun
L’ Icon peregrini. La construction poétique de l’image de Jean Gerson (xv e –xvi e s.)Isabel Iribarren
Les tituli métriques des fresques de l’église Saint-Georges d’Oberzell sur l’île de Reichenau (IX e –X e siècle)Walter Berschin
, les tituli du cycle de Sant’Angelo in FormisLucinia Speciale
Images and Inscriptions in Islamic Art of the Arab World. Some Basic PointsDoris Behrens-Abouseif
Text and Image, Text as Image: The Beauty of the Book in Byzantine Book EpigramsRachele Ricceri
Les échos de la Loire dans l’ Hortus deliciarum d’Herrade de HohenbourgRoberto Angelini
et Sein d’Abraham : deux images allégoriques et poétiques de l’ Hortus deliciarumBéatrice Louys
L’arbre généalogique du Christ dans l’ Hortus deliciarum (f. 80 v –83 r ). Une illustration exégétique en image, prose et versIlaria Ponti Grimm
Herrade de Hohenbourg et l’iconotexte médiévalFrancesco Stella

The Ancestors of Genesis and the Exodus Traditions: A Festschrift for Thomas Römer

Christophe Nihan, Jean-Daniel Macchi (eds.)

Book 568 in the Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft series

The volume comprises various studies about Israel’s origins in Genesis and Exodus by a broad range of international scholars. The volume is divided into five parts of similar length. Parts One and Two are devoted to the stories about Abraham, Jacob and Joseph in Genesis from a literary and historical perspective. Part Three deals with the connection between Genesis and Exodus. Part Four is devoted to the Book of Exodus and includes contributions dealing with the origins of the Exodus traditions as well as various key themes and figures found in this book. The final section addresses the early reception of Genesis and Exodus outside of these books, in the Prophets, the Psalms, Chronicles and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overall, the volume opens several new perspectives for the discussion on Genesis and Exodus and their significance for the construction of Israel’s origins. Combining archaeological, historical and textual perspectives, it provides in-depth discussion of a wide range of key topics, including the composition of these books, their social, historical and religious background, as well as their overall role in the shaping of the Hebrew Bible.

License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Peer Review Information
This work has been peer reviewed.
Language
German
Date published
February 16, 2026
Pages
726
ISBN
PDF
9783111618517
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111618517