The work concerns 15 epigraphic and/or verse inscriptions, handed down from the writers of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. These inscriptions were probably commissioned from Simonides of Keos. The commentaries on the individual verse inscriptions form the centre of the investigation. Each commentary is introduced by a text for the sake of orientation concerning the epigram in question, by a brief apparatus criticus, and by a review of the relevant secondary literature. The historic, literary, and, when possible, architectural contexts are taken into consideration in the interpretations. The...

Explores dialogue between Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams and their readers and argues for their often-unacknowledged literary and aesthetic achievement.

Was Ancient Greek religion really "mere ritualism?" Early Christians denounced the pagans for the disorderly plurality of their cults, and reduced Greek religion to ritual and idolatry; Protestant theologians condemned the pagan "religion of form" (with Catholicism as its historical heir). For a long time, scholars tended to conceptualize Greek religion as one in which belief did not matter, and religiosity had to do with observance of rituals and religious practices, rather than with worshipers' inner investment. But what does it mean when Greek texts time and again speak of purity of mind,...

This book explores dialogue between Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams and their readers, and argues for their often-unacknowledged literary and aesthetic achievement.