Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greek Comic Drama by Ben Akrigg and Rob Tordoff

174 PHOENIX narratives can appeal where they have genuine explanatory power, but “grand” narratives are by their nature abstractions and vulnerable to detailed criticism, and may not in fact represent well what happened in any given polis. Their value is heuristic, not as the goal of historical endeavour. This book is useful in providing a clear illustration of where the strengths and weaknesses of this model lie, as well as constituting a useful summation of the current views of most of the leading protagonists in the field. The closing chapters, by Van Wees and Hanson themselves, are particularly helpful in identifying the key points of debate. Nonetheless, throughout the volume, readers who are not already familiar with previous work, especially Hanson’s books and Van Wees’s Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities (London 2004) may at times find themselves baffled. Peter Krentz’s excellent chapter provides a good entry point, while also pointing out that the “traditional” narrative before Hanson was not quite as homogeneous as the editors present it. Where the evidence is meagre, it is natural to turn to comparative material, but here there is obviously a further problem. Part of what makes hoplite warfare interesting, especially for proponents of the editors’ orthodoxy, is that it seems unusual, even unique. This makes finding appropriate comparisons particularly difficult. Perhaps this explains the enduring appeal of sporting analogies, in spite of what can often appear to be their bizarre inappropriateness. Krentz’s chapter is helpful on this point too, providing some invaluable and wry commentary on the longevity of the parallel still often drawn between hoplite battle (or at least the othismos) and the rugby scrum, as well as some acute observations on the value of comparison and re-enactment. This kind of material is also discussed in Adam Schwartz’s chapter “Large Weapons, Small Greeks: The Practical Limitations of Hoplite Weapons and Equipment.” Two more chapters attempt to place the discussion in a wider context of Greek interactions with non-Greeks: John Hale builds on an important article published by Nino Luraghi in Phoenix 60.1–2 (2006) and argues that the origins of hoplite warfare lie as much in ship-borne piracy and raiding as in land warfare between poleis; Kurt Raaflaub continues his own earlier work in working to clarify what was distinctively Greek in the military and political developments of the early archaic period. In the end, it is not clear that this volume as a whole succeeds either in moving debate substantially forward or in showing where productive advances might be made in future. After reading it, I could not help but think of the conclusion of Xenophon’s Hellenika, where a hoplite clash between powerful antagonists fails to generate the decisive outcome and clarity about the course of future events that had been confidently expected beforehand. But still that battle mattered; and while the debates here continue, the same can said for this book. University of Toronto Ben Akrigg Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greek Comic Drama. Edited by Ben Akrigg and Rob Tordoff. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2013. Pp. xv, 271, 6 plates. The essays in this volume, inspired by a 2008 conference in Toronto, contribute to our comprehension of a status group that is poorly understood. Many of the essays attend to the status gradations among slaves, masters, and households, teasing out nuances inflected by chronology and geography. Contributors variously employ literary theory and BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 175 literary evidence, tie developments in comedy to historical events, and integrate readings of visual and textual evidence. In six of the eight essays the works of Aristophanes and Menander dominate the discussion; some essays iterate earlier work. The essayists’ conclusions, many of which are necessarily provisional, are strengthened by arresting points of comparison. Tordoff’s introduction challenges the “pervasive guiding assumption” that Aristophanes ’ representation of slaves and their owners reflects social reality, and finds that the Aristophanic hero’s household is “fashioned by the ideological needs of the comic narrative” (34). The Aristophanic hero’s atypicality and eccentricities distance him from the audience but he remains sympathetic in his rebellions against authority. Though slave characters provide “occasional moments of outrageous intransigence” (42

Aesthetics · Appeal · Art · Epistemology · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Computer Science · History · Law · Philosophy