Scrinium Classical Antiquity

DOVER, K.J., Homoseksualiteit in het klassieke Griekenland. Bakker, Amsterdam, 1989. 285,(56)p. ills.(B&W photographs). Paperback. Spine discoloured and with light reading traces. 'In (...) 'Greek Homosexuality' heeft K.J. Dover nauwkeurig plaatsen bijeengebracht waar in de Griekse letteren sprake is van homoseksualiteit. Deze uitingen heeft hij extra bewijskracht verleend met de afbeelding van schilderingen. Hij heeft getracht hiermee eens en voorgoed af te rekenen met alle dwaze, niet op voldoende kennis gegronde, twistgesprekken over homoseksualiteit in het klassieke Griekenland. Uiteraard is er maar een klein gedeelte van de Griekse literatuur en de vaasschilderkunst bewaard gebleven, maar dat gedeelte is zo prachtig en zo onmiddellijk opgeweld uit het hart van de maker, dat het zich uitstekend leent voor een open, niet-bevooroordeeld commentraar. Dit boek van Dover is nu, elf jaar na eerste verschijnen, in het Nederlands uitgekomen, voorzien van een nieuwe inleiding en uitmuntend vertaald, zoals te verwachten was, door de classicus en homoloog Wim Hottentot. Het boek van Dover is allesbehalve eenvoudig. De vraag doet zich voor of een niet-classicus gemakkelijk met Dover kan meespringen van lyriek naar tragedie, van tragedie naar komedie en van de redenaars naar de filosofen. (...) Het mooie van dit boek is de droge, niet-belerende, van alle emoties verstoken toon. (...) De lezer zal genieten van het boek van Dover waarin het hachelijke onderwerp homoseksualiteit op een hoog wetenschappelijk peil behandled wordt.' (JOHAN POLAK and FRANK GODDIJN in Vrij Nederland, 28 oktober 1989). € 12.00 (Antiquarian)

DOVER, K.J., A Journey on the Mainland of Greece. Private presses, 1938. Typoscript. 68(x2)p. ills. Burgundy cloth bound. Frontispiece: B&W photograph; folding map, 7 hand-drawn maps, 3 pages with drawings (Horses, People (a.o.: drawing of Dörpfeld), and Greeks (vs.) Italians). 'This is a collection of letters written home a six weeks' journey in Greece last spring.' (K.J. DOVER, Foreword, p.1). of K.J. Dover and his school friend Alistair Matthews on their horses accompanied by their Greek guide, near Khasia, Attica, 24.March 1938 on a trip via the so-called Cave of the Nymphs' to Phyle (p.8).12.4.38: 'Well, we have had a day of good surprises; the weather has cleared, and we have had a talk with Dörpfeld. 'We found him old and half blind, but looking extremely well and full of beans. Speaking quite passable English, he showed us round his private museum, and gave us a vigorous exposition of his theory about the Asiatic origin of the ruling dynasty of Mycenae.(..) To the majority of English scholars he is a kind of dragon breathing half-baked heresies; to us, one of the nicest characters one could meet.' (pp.37-38). We (...) 'went by car to the ruins of Nicopolis. It was here that Augustus won the battle of Actium, and to commemorate his victory founded the city, which Justinian afterwards enlarged. (...) Massive ruins stand up along every horizon; instead of stones, the fields are full of bits of Roman brick. (...) We scrambled through masses of brambles and devilish thorns to look of Augustus's temple in order to piece together his inscription, and all but lost our way in pitch-dark passages beneath the Odeon. (...) As Alistair said, if only some rich American would 'donate' a million pounds for its clearing and excavation, it might be a second Pompeii, almost a second Rome.' (pp.38-39). From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 1250.00 (Antiquarian)

DOVER, K.J., Aristophanic Comedy. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles, 1972. 1st ed. XV,253p. ills.(B&W photographs). Paperback. Spine with two light reading traces. 'Dover reconstructs Athenian public opinion to determine what attitudes and characters Aristophanes was able to exploit for comic effect. He supports his interpretations with evidence from drama, rhetoric, philosophy, history, art, and the law of Athens. (...) The book is so crammed with information (...) on all aspects of Greek life that one can almost imagine himself sitting in the theatre in Athens laughing at the same jokes as the rest of the audience. In the last chapter, Dover provides a classic justification for reading a dead author like Aristophanes. 'The moral utility of reading the works of a dead author - and whether he died this morning or two thousand years ago makes no essential difference - lies, I suggest, not in the possibility of doing what he appears to recommend and refraining from what he appears to forbid, but in two other directions. First by adding his experience to ours we can look through his eyes at elements of human life which are common to his culture and ours, and can thus criticize and adjust our assumptions and attitudes, as we can also by understanding and absorbing the experience of contemporary individuals whose lives and environments differ from our own. Secondly, in so far as art is an aspect of our nature, on a part with exercise, religion, sex, and work, enjoying literature is better than not enjoying it, and the effort to relive the intellectual and aesthetic proces through which an ancient dramatist gave a play its final form has some claim to be a self-rewarding activity.' (p.228). 'Aristophanic Comedy' has great value for anyone seeking enlightenment and entertainment, but it offers more to the classicist. It is a model for the theacher who hope to pass on his love and knowledge of Greek culture and his own certainty of its rewards.' (LOUIS SETTLER SPATZ in The Classical Journal, 1975,4, p.71). € 15.00 (Antiquarian)

DOVER, K.J., (ed.), Perceptions of the Ancient Greeks. Blackwell. Oxford / Cambridge USA, 1992. XIII,252p. Hardbound with dust wrps. Spine gilt titled. Stamp on free endpaper. Pages slightly yeloowed. 'This is an ambitious and successful collection of essays whose advertised intention is to trace not the actual influence of the ancient Greeks on the culture and arts of later ages, but the way those ages looked at ancient Greece.' (...) it presents not just ways in which the past has been seen but ways in which it has been used. Each chapter gives an account of how a particular age or culture entered in to a more of less creative dialogue with what remained of ancient Greece or what was thought to be relevant. (...) It is an original, illuminating and learned snapshot of a remarkable range of scholarship on a perennial theme.' (J.V. MUIR in The Classical Review (New Series), 1994, 189-90). With contributions from K.J. DOVER, A. GARZYA, C. SIRAT, J.N. MATTOCK, A.C. DIONISOTTI, P. BURKE, R. ZUBER, J. WOHLLEBEN, C.Th. DIMARAS, and A. GRAFTON. € 55.00 (Antiquarian)

DOVER, K.J., (ed.), Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford University Press, 2004. Reprint 2nd edition. 188p. 3 maps. Paperback. € 30.00 (New) (MD)

DOVER, K.J.D., Philological Note-Book (Maps). Part 1. Alphabetic register A - Z: languages - families. Part 2. p.1-44: some maps of houses; p.52-62: African languages; p. 71-78: Amerindian Family-Languages; p.96-144: Languages from Borneo and Polynesian Islands. Private large format note-book, with hand-drawn maps, from about 1937 onwards. Parchment cover. Marbled end-pages and edges. Lower part front cover with crease. Book lock. From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 200.00 (Antiquarian)

DOVER, K.J.D., Blue File. Gathering of personal notes, vocabularies, and specimen of grammar by a young K.J. Dover from about 1937 onwards. The origin of the personal pronouns; The affinities of the languages of Savo (Solomon Islands) and the Elema district (Gulf of Papua); The affinities of the Orokolo language of the Gulf of Papua; Andaman; a music-fragment; Mon-Annam Numerals, and more. From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 200.00 (Antiquarian)

DOWDEN, K., The Uses of Greek Mythology. Routledge, London, 1992. X,204p. Paperback. Cover partly discoloured. € 23.00 (Antiquarian)

DOWNIE, J., At the Limits of Art. A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides' 'Hieroi Logoi'. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013. X,223p. Hard bound with dust wrps. 'Downie treats the unusual form of the Hieroi Logoi as a deliberate literary innovation by Aristides (rather than some failing on his part, as is so often assumed), and argues that the very strangeness of the text speaks in important ways about Aristides’ literary ambitions and sense of his place in the world. In fact, one of the greatest contributions of this book is the thoughtful way in which it approaches the jumbled impression created by the Hieroi Logoi as a whole, arguing that Aristides aimed to make the work an 'open text' (one that reveals its process of composition) in order to call attention to problems of memory and memorialization, and 'to capture more adequately the hybrid voice that he sees as characteristic of human-divine collaboration' (39; see also 128-29). Downie takes this argument even further when she suggests that the work does not aim to be sequential or complete, but rather 'atemporal, comprehending the divine perspective of eternity' (51). Thus Aristides uses the surface disorder of the Hieroi Logoi to convey his closeness to the god Asclepius, who can be seen as both the dedicatee and the coauthor of Aristides’ works. In discussing Aristides' dream narratives, Downie argues that we should understand as his aim the rhetorical effect of enargeia or 'vividness'. Downie sees this as a sign of the author's literary ambition because dreams provide 'the ultimate test of enargeia in language', in that 'their status as objects of perception is ambiguous' (67). Dreams provide opportunities for self-promotion in other ways as well; by having interpretation occur within the dream itself, Aristides 'turns his dreams into a free narrative space backed by divine endorsement, which allows him to dwell on the social and professional implications of his dreams' (79). (...) Ultimately, Downie argues that rhetoric and religion are closely intertwined throughout Aristides’ work, and that the orator seeks to claim for prose the divine inspiration usually seen as belonging only to poetry. We see this not only when Aristides’ dreams place him among the great Greek writers of the past, but also when he seeks immunity from local and provincial offices on the basis of his special oratorical gifts and with the backing of Asclepius. This book reveals Downie’s profound engagement not just with the Hieroi Logoi but also with Aristides’ entire (and extensive) oeuvre. (...) anyone interested in Imperial-era rhetorical culture and spectacle, the representation of divinity or dreams in literature, or the increasingly popular Aelius Aristides will find this volume illuminating.' (DANA FIELDS in Classical World, 2014, pp.235-37). € 69.50 (New)

DOYLE, Richella, (ed.), Archaeological Reports for 2007-2008. The Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the Council of the British Shool at Athens, 2008. 185p. ills. Sewn. Contents: C. MORGAN, a.o: Archaeology in Greece 2007-2008 (pp.1-114); P. GULDAGER BILDE a.o.: Archaeology in the Black Sea Region in Classical Antiquity 1993-2007 (pp.114-174); A.C. SMITH and A.L. HARRIS: Recent acquisitions and conservation at the Ure Museum. From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 21.50 (Antiquarian)