The poet of the Odyssey exhibits great artistic flexibility in his handling of the highly conventional elements of early Greek epic: larger themes and narrative patterns, character and episodic doublets and triplets, type-scenes, and even short formulaic phrases. The poet’s presentation of a sequence of ‘just as a father to his own son’ formulas over the course of the Odyssey is examined here, with a view to illustrating how they interact with one another to convey sentiments that are at first genuinely pathetic, arousing in the audience sadness and sympathy, but then increasingly ironic and even sarcastic.

This article examines the portrayal of social class and conviviality in Aristophanes’ Wasps 1208–15 and argues that the passage—in which Bdelycleon corrects Philocleon’s clumsy reclining as he prepares to attend an elite symposion—assumes that Philocleon (though a man of modest means) is no novice to reclined symposia, merely to the elegance expected of wealthy symposiasts. It is argued that the exchange between father and son focusses on reclining elegantly rather than on more rudimentary points, and that the passage’s language of haste suggests the matter is viewed as a trivial preliminary to more important components of Philocleon’s sympotic education. The article then considers external evidence supporting the argument that symposia were widespread through the social spectrum in fifth-century Athens, although more modest symposia did not employ costly paraphernalia such as banqueting klinai. Based on this external evidence and on consideration of the terminology in Wasps 1208–15, it is further argued that a klinê would have been used as a prop during the scene and that the scene centres on Philocleon’s unfamiliarity with using this costly piece of furniture rather than on more general ignorance of reclined conviviality. This conclusion has implications for sympotic scholarship, which remains divided on the extent to which symposia were restricted to the wealthy elite in Classical Athens. This article provides support for the position that sympotic conviviality was widespread across the social spectrum and that differences between elite and non-elite symposia centred on paraphernalia (such as banqueting klinai) and behavioural norms.

The account in Odyssey Book 9 of Odysseus’ safe arrival by ship on ‘Goat Island’ off the coast of the land of the Cyclopes, the elaborate description of the geography of the island itself, and even the specific detail of Odysseus and his shipmates slaughtering with bows and spears 108 + 1 wild goats all work together to serve as an ‘anticipatory doublet’ of the account in the second half of the epic of Odysseus’ safe arrival by ship on the island of Ithaca, the elaborate description of the geography of the island itself, and even the specific detail of Odysseus and his comrades slaughtering with bow and spears the 108 arrogant suitors + 1 treacherous goatherd.

Contemporary historians of philosophy almost universally embrace the idea that the young Plato had a close, personal relationship with the historical Socrates. Many refuse to countenance a similar status for Plato’s contemporary, Xenophon. This note takes as its focus a novel argument intended to support the claim that Xenophon was never on intimate terms with Socrates or even privy to reliable information about him. The reply offered here has implications far beyond this apparently narrow focus, however, and points to pervasive biases in Socratic studies generally that remain in sore need of correction.

This note argues that imitation of Ausonius’ Cento nuptialis in the Peruigilium Veneris establishes 374 c.e. as the terminus post quem for the Peruigilium Veneris. The note enlarges on the argument of Danuta Shanzer, who identified debts to Ausonius in the Peruigilium Veneris and dated the latter poem accordingly: the approach is to locate evidence for Ausonian imitation that Shanzer missed, and thus to reinforce and confirm her position. While the note does not propose a poet for the Peruigilium Veneris, it shows that certain figures to whom the work is commonly attributed, notably Florus and Tiberianus, cannot be its author.

This note addresses a grammatical objection, first raised by Torstrik, to the transmitted text of Aristotle’s De anima 3.7, namely that the text contains at 431a4–7 a μέν without a corresponding δέ (or another adversative particle). Rejecting Corcilius’s suggestion that this is a μέν solitarium, the note shows that modest repunctuation reveals a responding δέ and makes better sense of this part of the text.

Conjectures in the Cynegetica and the Cyropaideia of Xenophon.

This article discusses a passage in the speech of Lycurgus against Leocrates, and argues that a phrase usually interpreted as ‘in the willows’ should be emended to a phrase meaning ‘in the wicker market’.

In Paul of Aegina’s Pragmateia, the reading μυωτά for a type of short arrow has attracted scholarly attention. Das argued that an Arabic parallel supports the emendation μύωπα, but this has been questioned by Moseley. By looking at Graeco-Arabic translation technique, this short note shows that Das’s emendation μύωπα is probably right.