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SUPPLICATION
NAIDEN (F. S.) Ancient Supplication. Pp. xiv + 426, ills, map.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Cased, ?45. ISBN:
978-0-19-518341-2.
doi: 10. 101 7/S0009840X07002417
In the first few pages of this book, N. establishes - through two examples, one Greek
and one Roman - what was entailed in ancient Greek and Roman supplication
(pp. 3-8, cf. 20). While attempts to schematise ancient rituals and activities are bound
to fail because of the infinite variety of possibilities and combinations, N.'s basic
categorisation of Greek and Roman supplication as a four-part process seems sound
(he refers to the stages as 'steps'). First, there was the approach by the suppliant to the
person they were supplicating, secondly, the gesture of supplication (be it clasping the
The Classical Review vol. 58 no. 1 (? The Classical Association 2008; all rights reserved
It is rare that a conference volume is able to sustain both quality and thematic
coherence, but this collection of essays, the outcome of a symposium of the
Copenhagen Polis Centre, does exactly that. The twelve essays, arranged in (roughly)
chronological order and with an introduction by Hansen setting out the main themes,
look at the polis from a number of angles and from a range of methodological
perspectives. This is a stimulating treatment of an important and fascinating topic.
To begin, Haubold discusses the Homeric polis, which he locates on the cusp
between the age of gods and the ages of men, marking a point of crisis and transition.
While the polis of the Iliad looks back to a relationship between the gods and
the family, the Odyssey, he argues, looks forward to a world where the main
relationship is between gods and the polis. In a particularly compressed and elusive
argument H. maintains that Homeric epic has an internal cosmic chronology
apart from the external chronologies of Dark Age Greece, which needs to be
understood within the context of its performance, especially the Athenian
Panathenaea. As a result, through the audience's comparison of their city with the
Homeric poleis, the performing of epic became a means of celebrating and
performing the creation of the city of Athens itself and of placing that creation in its
wider theogonic context.
Easterling, in her essay on Athenian tragedy, clearly and effectively aims a
broadside at the now popular idea that the Theban polis represented Athens' symbolic
opposite. She argues that the treatment of Thebes reflects the experience of the polis
in general. In this way, tragedy presents us with the difficulties and tensions of living
in any polis as well as the 'potential value' of polis life; hence it became for contem
poraries in other cities 'a thrillingly modern medium', quickly creating resonances
around the Greek world.
The Classical Review vol. 58 no. 1 (C The Classical Association 2008; all rights reserved