Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition: Visits to the Underworld from Antiquity to Byzantium ed. by Gunnel Ekroth and Ingela Nilsson (review)

Abstract

brief mention of the shape of the orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus in Athens in note 103 on page 20 [one might add, e.g., H. R. Goette, “An Archaeological Appendix,” in P. Wilson (ed.), The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 116–121)]. The operations of the Delphic oracle (e.g., its “consultation day” or “regular operations”) are repeatedly referred to (124n5–7, 143n82–85, and 180n334), but not more fully explained until later in the line-by-line commentary (190n421). For those unfamiliar with these operations, an earlier explanation or cross-references to the later explanation might have been helpful. The use of the term “privileged” to describe any form of slavery—as on page 237: “[t]he former is an idealization (from the master’s point of view) that may correspond fairly well to reality in the case of nurses and tutors, privileged slaves who care for the master’s children,” referencing K. Synodinou, On the concept of slavery in Euripides (Ioannina: Ioannina University Press, 1977), and D. J. Mastronarde, Euripides Medea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 174n54)—is problematic as it can mislead naïve readers about the harsh realities of ancient slavery, particularly in the household. Gibert does, however, appear to acknowledge these harsh realities elsewhere (e.g., in mention of the “sexual availability of slaves” to their masters, 248n819–822). I noted only a few very minor typographical irregularities in the bibliography (sometimes a journal article citation was followed by a period and sometimes not: e.g., on pages 361–362) and Greek index (e.g., in the entries from εἰσπίπτειν to θυμέλη on page 374, the font used for the Greek is frequently used for page numbers as well). Despite these criticisms, this commentary fully deserves to join the ranks of Mastronarde’s 2002 Medea and L. Battezzato’s 2018 Hecuba (to name just two outstanding Euripidean examples in the Cambridge ‘Green and Yellow’ series) and be assigned to undergraduate and graduate students as well as treasured by more advanced scholars for years to come.