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This chapter focuses on more indirect adaptations that either disguise their debt to Greek tragedy and/or take greater liberties with their source texts to the point where the precise nature of this connection becomes highly unstable. To illustrate these debates from a classical perspective the author has chosen to focus on the transformations of the tragic heroine Electra in a series of case studies where the relationship between film and classical source text(s) is not straightforward. In mainstream cinema, the chapter examines the character of Elektra in Daredevil (2003) and Elektra (2004), self‐proclaimed adaptations, not of any Greek tragedy but of a series of graphic novels charting the life of Elektra Natchios, a Greek femme fatale and ninja assassin. It argues, however, that there is a tantalizing connection to the ancient Electra that should lead us to re‐examine the perception of what happens to classical stories and characters.

Traditionally, Caelestius has been considered a disciple of Pelagius, and even in scholarly circles this image of master and disciple has been applied to the pair down to the present day. Otto Wermelinger questioned this alleged discipleship more than fifty years ago, but his claim was not taken up in subsequent scholarship. Taking Wermelinger's doubts as a point of departure, the present article reexamines the idea that Caelestius was a disciple of Pelagius. We show that sources are lacking to prove that either Caelestius or Pelagius thought about their relationship as one of discipleship. That characterization of their relationship was a heresiological tactic meant to damage Pelagius; it was probably first deployed around the Synod of Diospolis in 415 and was subsequently systematically adopted (and popularized) by Augustine of Hippo. The treatise Praedestinatus and the anti-Pelagian advocate Marius Mercator illustrate how Augustine's portrayal of Caelestius as a disciple of Pelagius was received early on.

The most important primary texts on homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome are translated into modern, explicit English and collected together for the first time in this comprehensive sourcebook. Covering an extensive period—from the earliest Greek texts in the late seventh century b.c.e. to Greco-Roman texts of the third and fourth centuries c.e.—the volume includes well-known writings by Plato, Sappho, Aeschines, Catullus, and Juvenal, as well as less well known but highly relevant and intriguing texts such as graffiti, comic fragments, magical papyri, medical treatises, and selected artistic evidence. These fluently translated texts, together with Thomas K. Hubbard's valuable introductions, clearly show that there was in fact no more consensus about homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome than there is today. The material is organized by period and by genre, allowing readers to consider chronological developments in both Greece and Rome. Individual texts each are presented with a short introduction contextualizing them by date and, where necessary, discussing their place within a larger work. Chapter introductions discuss questions of genre and the ideological significance of the texts, while Hubbard's general introduction to the volume addresses issues such as sexual orientation in antiquity, moral judgments, class and ideology, and lesbianism. With its broad, unexpurgated, and thoroughly informed presentation, this unique anthology gives an essential perspective on homosexuality in classical antiquity.

This note adduces corroborating evidence for Skutsch's ascription of Enn. Ann. 5 to a description of the water cycle in the speech of Homer in the proem to the Annales. Despite the flawed argumentation in Skutsch's presentation and despite a general reluctance among scholars to endorse his ascription, this note argues that his solution should remain part of the scholarly discussion, not least because there are aspects of Skutsch's argument that remain uncontested and because Lucretius seems to endorse this location of the fragment in the original Annales.

This note identifies the source of a brief quotation in Cassiodorus, Institutiones 1.28.3 as a passage of Lactantius, Diuinae Institutiones 3.28.22. It argues that Cassiodorus possibly intended to draw an implicit comparison between himself and Lactantius.

Carolingian historical texts have long stood at the base of our modern knowledge about the eighth and ninth centuries. The ninth century gave birth to a new revival of secular biography, which has come to be recognized as one of the brightest bands in the spectrum of Carolingian historical writing. This collection brings together, for the first time in one volume, the five royal/imperial biographies written during the Carolingian period. Thomas F. X. Noble's new English translations of these five important texts—Einhard's Life of Emperor Charles, Notker's Deeds of Charles the Great, Ermoldus Nigellus's Poem in Honor of Louis, Thegan's Deeds of Emperor Louis, and the Life of Louis by \"the Astronomer\"—are each accompanied by a short introduction and a note on \"Essential Reading.\" Offering details on matters of style, sources used by the author, and the influence, if any, exerted by the text, Noble provides a context for each translation without compromising the author's intended voice. By \"reuniting\" these five essential medieval texts in an English translation, this volume makes these voices accessible to scholars and non-experts alike throughout the Anglophone world.

This archaeological report provides a comprehensive study of the excavations carried out at Amheida House B2 in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis between 2005 and 2007, followed by three study seasons between 2008 and 2010. The excavations at Amheida in Egypt's western desert, begun in 2001 under the aegis of Columbia University and sponsored by NYU since 2008, are investigating all aspects of social life and material culture at the administrative center of ancient Trimithis. The excavations so far have focused on three areas of this very large site: a centrally located upper-class fourth-century AD house with wall paintings, an adjoining school, and underlying remains of a Roman bath complex; a more modest house of the third century; and the temple hill, with remains of the Temple of Thoth built in the first century AD and of earlier structures. Architectural conservation has protected and partly restored two standing funerary monuments, a mud-brick pyramid and a tower tomb, both of the Roman period. This is the second volume of ostraka from the excavations Amheida (ancient Trimithis) in Egypt. It adds 491 items to the growing corpus of primary texts from the site. In addition to the catalog, the introductory sections make important contributions to understanding the role of textual practice in the life of a pre-modern small town. Issues addressed include tenancy, the administration of water, governance, the identification of individuals in the archaeological record, the management of estates, personal handwriting, and the uses of personal names. Additionally, the chapter \"Ceramic Fabrics and Shapes\" by Clementina Caputo breaks new ground in the treatment of these inscribed shards as both written text and physical object. This volume will be of interest to specialists in Roman-period Egypt as well as to scholars of literacy and writing in the ancient world and elsewhere.

At Leg. 666b7, Burnet's emendation of the transmitted λήθην to λήθῃ has been widely accepted. Newly discovered support for this emendation comes from an Arabic version or adaptation of Plato's Laws , most likely Galen's Synopsis , quoted by the polymath Abū-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī ( a.d. 973–1048) as Kitāb al-Nawāmīs li-Aflāṭun in his ethnographic work on India. I transliterate and translate the passage below, proposing two incidental emendations to the Arabic: wa-qāla l-aṯīniyyu fī l-maqālati l- t āniyati mina l-kitābi: lammā raḥima [ sic pro raḥimati] l-ālihatu ǧinsa l-bašari min aǧli annahū maṭbūʿun ʿalā l-taʿabi hayyaʾū lahum aʿyādan li-l-ālihati wa-li-l-sakīnāti wa-li-ʾf-w-l-l-n mudabbiri l-sakīnāti wa-li-d-y-w-n-w-s-y-s māniḥi l-bašari l-ḫamrata dawāʾan lahum min ʿufūṣati l-šayḫūḫati li-yaʿūdū fityānan bi-l- d uhūli ʿani l-kābati wa-ntiqāli ḫulqi l-nafsi [wa-yantaqila ḫulqu l-nafsi perhaps to be read ] mina l-šiddati ilā l-salāmati [al-salāsati probably to be read ]. The Athenian said in the second book of the work [ sc . the Laws ]: The gods, taking pity on the human race since it was born for toil, established for them feast-days (dedicated) to the gods and to the Muses and to Apollo, overseer of the Muses, and to Dionysus, who gave human beings wine as a remedy for them against the bitterness of old age, so that they might be rejuvenated by forgetting sorrow and (by) the character of the soul changing [and (so that) the character of the soul might change perhaps to be read ] from severity into soundness [into tractability probably to be read ]. The source of the latter part of the passage, that is, the description of Dionysus’ gift and its effect ( māniḥi l-bašari…l-salāmati ), has until now remained unidentified. In the notes to his translation, Sachau, followed by Gabrieli, correctly identified part of Leg . 653c–d (θεοὶ … ἔδοσαν) as the origin of much of the passage (see n. 4). No previous scholarship, however, has noted that the latter part translates a passage in Leg. 666b–c (τοῖς ἀνθρώποις … τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος), here joined to the earlier passage (presumably by Bīrūnī’s source, that is, most likely Galen) on the hinge of their shared mention of Dionysus.

The third stasimon of Oedipus Rex ( OT ) is the climax of the play, separating the conversation with the Corinthian messenger from the interrogation of the shepherd, so crucial for the narrative. Indeed, the question τίς σε, τέκνον, τίς σ’ ἔτικτε, critical for the plot, comes right at the beginning of its antistrophe. Sophocles, however, offers no easy answer to it. Instead, he provides yet another narrative misdirection, one that—for the last time—suggests that the paths of the king of Thebes and of his predecessor may have been divergent: the possibility that Oedipus’ divine ancestry would question the prophecy of Apollo. After enumerating Pan, Hermes and Apollo himself as possible parents, the song also mentions Dionysus and the ‘Heliconian nymphs’. The reference to Helicon has perplexed the readers for many years, since the text seems to focus on Cithaeron as the ‘birthplace’. As a result, editions and translations prefer the conjecture ἑλικωπίδων (Νυμφᾶν) proposed by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in 1879, over Ἑλικωνί(α)δων, the form present in all manuscripts. In this paper I argue that an analysis of our sources for Heliconian cults, an assessment of the performative context, and a close reading of the stasimon and its place in the narrative, all suggest that the manuscript reading should be retained.

Celtiberian Numantia is remembered in ancient to early modern writings for its fierce resistance to Imperial Rome and the terrible nature of its fall under siege in 133 bce, although details and emphases change between the sources. Because of the seemingly oppositional nature of its messages, many have commented on La Numancia's profound ambiguity. [...]some ancient histories mention a remnant of survivors of the seige of Numantia (Strabo 103; Appian 104); more commonly, however, these sources describe a final event of mass suicide that spared none (Livius 333; Maximus, Memorable 95; Florus 346; Orosius, The Seven 188). Additionally, Paterculus discusses the Numantians' \"ferocia\" (ferocity) with apparent reference to savagery in battle (Historiae 14), and Valerius Maximus describes the \"insolentissimos Numantinae urbis spiritus\" (excess pride or insolence of the city of Numantia) that [Scipio] was sent to \"crush\" (Factorum 84)/ However, Valerius Maximus also admires the virility of the Numantian leader Rhoetogenes, who orchestrated mass suicide and then threw himself onto a bonfire when his city fell (Memorable Deeds 94-95)^ Medieval and early modern Iberian accounts of the war and siege of Numantia are largely faithful to these sources but introduce minor if important changes.