More inclusive scholarly reviews.
An open-access book review journal prioritizing underrepresented scholarly voices in ancient Mediterranean studies.
Recent Reviews
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Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis: Beyond Light and Darkness
12–17 minutesMattias Brand, Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis: Beyond Light and Darkness, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 102 (Leiden: Brill, 2019). ISBN 9789004510296. Reviewed by Evan Axel Andersson, University of California, Santa Barbara, eandersson@ucsb.edu. Manichaeans were often understood through the polemics of their doctrinal enemies or, less often, through the writings of their thought leaders. These texts reveal a religion that perceived two principles, light and life, from which the soul derived, and…
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Ciris: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana
8–12 minutesKayachev, Boris. Ciris: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana. Introduction, Text, Apparatus Criticus, Translation and Commentary. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Waales, 2020. ISBN 978-1-910589-81-6. Reviewed by Thomas R. Keith, Independent Scholar, trkeith@hotmail.com. In the hortus deliciarum (garden of delights) of Latin literature, the Ciris is a thornbush. Its authorship and date are much disputed, as is its literary merit (or lack thereof), and its text has a degree of instability out of proportion to…
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Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments
7–11 minutesLuis Alejandro Salas, Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments (Leiden: Brill, 2020). 9789004439184. Reviewed by Matthew J. Chalmers, Independent Scholar, mattjchal@gmail.com. Medical literature has historically received less attention from classicists than it deserves, as is generally the case with ancient technical literature.1 Nevertheless, specialist study has flourished, especially since the important work of Heinrich von Staden in the 1980s brought attention to the complexity of medical debate in antiquity.2 Salas’s book, illuminating the Galenic…
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From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology
13–20 minutesDonald H. Sanders, From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology (Oxford: Archeopress, 2023). 9781803276182. Reviewed by David M. Wheeler, University of California, Berkeley, david.wheeler@berkeley.edu. From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology is, in many ways, a summation of Donald H. Sanders’s life’s work as a scholar and advocate for digital heritage. This book considers the position of 3D strategies, and in particular 3D modeling, within archaeology. To understand the…
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Gendered Politics in Sophocles’ Trachiniae
8–12 minutesGesthimani Seferiadi, Gendered Politics in Sophocles’ Trachiniae (Bloomsbury Academic Press: 2022). 9781350260313. Reviewed by Janette Snyder, Florida State University, js23c@fsu.edu. Despite the popularity of reexamining tragic Greek heroines, not every play has been considered equally. Seferiadi asserts that the leading heroine of Sophocles’ play Trachiniae, Deianeira, is due for a reexamination. Deianeira, a character often left out in lieu of Sophocles’ more popular heroines such as Antigone and Electra, has yet to experience the same…
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Greek Warfare beyond the Polis: Defense, Strategy, and the Making of Ancient Federal States
12–18 minutesDavid A. Blome, Greek Warfare beyond the Polis: Defense, Strategy, and the Making of Ancient Federal States (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020). 9781501747526. Reviewed by Jesse Obert, University of Pittsburgh, jesse.obert@pitt.edu. David Blome’s book explores four important moments in classical Greek history: the Thessalian invasion of Phocis at the beginning of the fifth century, the Athenian invasion of Aetolia in 426 during the Archidamian War, the Peloponnesian invasion of Acarnania in 389 during the Corinthian…
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Dogs in the Athenian Agora
5–7 minutesColin M. Whiting, Dogs in the Athenian Agora. Agora Picture Book 28 (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2022). 9780876616468. https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/book/?i=9780876616468. Reviewed by Yusi Liu, Bryn Mawr College, yliu2@brynmawr.edu. Since 1931, the Athenian Agora excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) have continuously enriched our understanding of ancient Greece and the broader Mediterranean region. The ASCSA publishes the materials from the Agora excavations in Hesperia and the Athenian…
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The Aeneid and the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vergil’s Epic in the 20th and 21st Centuries
8–12 minutesJ. R. O’Neill and Adam Rigoni, eds., The Aeneid and the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vergil’s Epic in the 20th and 21st Centuries (London: Routledge, 2022). 9781000538823. Reviewed by Alicia Matz, San Diego State University, amatz@sdsu.edu. O’Neill and Rigone begin The Aeneid and the Modern World with the question, “Why do we need another book on the Aeneid?” It is true that the Aeneid is one of the most discussed texts from antiquity. Yet…
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Aristotle and the Animals: The Logos of Life Itself
12–18 minutesClaudia Zatta, Aristotle and the Animals: The Logos of Life Itself (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2022). 9780367409494. Reviewed by Charissa A. Jaeger-Sanders, The Graduate Theological Union, cjaeger-sanders@ses.gtu.edu. In Aristotle and the Animals: The Logos of Life Itself, Claudia Zatta offers a masterful, nuanced, intense philological dive into the word choices that make up Aristotle’s philosophy of science and life, particularly his zoocentric understanding of animals and their connections to humans. Zatta endeavors to…
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Reconstructing Satyr Drama
10–14 minutesAndreas P. Antonopoulos, Menelaos M. Christopoulos, and George W. M. Harrison, eds., Reconstructing Satyr Drama (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021). 9783110725216. Reviewed by Joshua A. Streeter, The Ohio State University, joshua.a.streeter@gmail.com. It is a welcome irony that the massive Reconstructing Satyr Drama, volume 12 of De Gruyter’s MythosEikonPoiesis series, concerns the dramatic genre for which we have the scarcest evidence. In 2016, Andreas P. Antonopoulos and Menelaos M. Christopoulos organized a conference in Patras (Greek Satyr…