Scrinium Classical Antiquity

BOLKESTEIN, H., Wohltätigkeit und Armenpflege im vorchristlichen Altertum. Ein Beitrag zum Problem 'Moral und Gesellschaft'. Oosthoek, Utrecht, 1939. XVI,492p. Cloth. Cover a bit stained. Spine yellowed. Signature and date on free endpaper. ‘The author seeks to answer the question as to what was the status of the poor in the social ethics, politics, and religion of the ancient pre-Christian Orient (Egypt and Palestine) as compared with that in the West (Greece and Rome). His general thesis is that, in the Orient, philanthropy is emphasised with special reference to the poor, and almsgiving and poor relief are praised as supreme virtues; in pre-Christian Greece and rome, on the other had, the object of well-doing was not the poor bit one’s fellow-citizens (‘Mitbürger’, ‘Mitmenschen’). The true contrast as regards the attitude to the poor, then, is not between heathendom and Christendom, as is popularly supposed, but between East and West. This essential contrast is emphasized by extensive analyses of the Greek and Roman terminology itself. The terms for philanthropy and beneficence among the Greeks and Romans, for example, had no special reference to the poor and were by no means identical with the ‘ charity’  (‘caritas’) of the New Testament, which connoted love to God, including love to man, especially expressed in service to the poor. In the pre-Christian West, all such terms stressed neither religion nor the poor but an attitude of well-doing to one’s fellows (…) In the social ethics of the Egyptians and Hebrews, however, both religion and the poor are emphasized. The notion that these ethical attitudes were original with Christianity is essentially unhistorical. The basic ethical ideas in Christian philanthropy and service to the poor were largely of Jewish, or better, of general oriental origin. (…) In investigating the attitude of each of the four peoples toward the poor, the author carefully distinguishes between the general socioethical practice (‘ gelebte Moral’) and the teaching of the moralists and philosophers (‘gepredigte Moral’). Chapters ii and iii are devoted to classical Greece and Rome, and chapters i and iv to Egypt and the Hebrews before and after their Hellenization through Alexander’s conquests. Each of these four chapters includes an analysis of the sources and discussions on philanthropy as a virtue, the palce of the poor in social and political ethics, individual, state, and temple aid - including the right of asylum - and the motives of well-doing and the resulting forms of philanthropy in each of the four nations. (…) Chapter v summarizes the results of the investigatio (…). Finally, chapter vi explains the basic causes of the difference in conception and attitude between East and West and the bearing of this explanation as ‘ interpreting the relation of any phenomenon to a group of other phenomena.’ He finds the essential cause of the contrast, not in religion as was once supposed, but in the diversity in economic, social, and political conditions between East and West, especially in the difference in attitude in relation to poor and rich. In Egypt and Palestine, the mass of the population were serfs and without civic rights, and slavery was not highly developed. In Greece and Rome, on the other hand, there was a large number of small citizen landowners, and slavery was very highly developed. Thus the free masses in the East were entirely dependent on the landowners, and hence were objects of mercy, while in the West they were independent and more able to take care of themselves. Later, however, through oriental and Christian influence, roman society and the state in the West as well as in the East were orientalized, and hence the status of the poor changed to that of the Orient. (…) The work is rich in interesting points of view and discussions as by-products of the main subject of investigation. (…) The work is scholarly, well documented, critical, sane and well balanced in interpretation. (…) The author has placed all students of ancient social ethics in his debt by his thorough investigation of a fundamental problem in the history of pre-Christian moral and social ideals and practices.' (ALBERT A. TREVER in Classical Philology, 1941, pp.82-85). € 50.00 (Antiquarian)

BAUMAN, R.A., Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. Routledge, London / New York, 1994. 1st paperback ed. XVI,294p. Paperback. Spine with light reading trace. Else fine. ‘B.’s declared subject is to trace the expansion of women’s role in Roman public life from the fourth century B.C. to the early Empire, under two main headings, the politics of protest and later the emergence of the great political matrons. Unfortunately earlier stages almost defy comment. B.’s attempt to erect an imposing edifice from a handful of scraps of inadequate and oracular information is foredoomed to failure (….). In short then an enterprise gravely flawed in conception and execution, but with a number of interesting features, particularly in its later stages.’ (ROBIN SEAGER in The classical Review (New Series), 1994, pp.358-359). € 40.00 (Antiquarian)

FATHI, A., (ed.), Women and the Family in Iran. Brill, Leiden, 1985. IX,239p. Paperback. Upper corner slightly bumped through and through. € 40.00 (Antiquarian)

GOODWATER, L., Women in Antiquity. An Annotated Bibliography. The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, 1975. IV,171p. Original green cloth. Nice copy. € 20.00 (Antiquarian)

ZINSERLING, V., Women in Greece and Rome. Abner Schram, NewYork, 1973. 112p. ills. Cloth. French page folded. € 14.50 (Antiquarian)

BOUVRIE, S. des, Women in Greek Tragedy. An Anthropological Approach. Norwegian University Press, Oslo, 1990. 394p. Bound. Head spine bit worn. Cover bit grimy. Series: Symbolae Osloenses Fasc.Suppl.XXVII. € 100.50 (Antiquarian)

POMEROY, S.B., Women in Hellenistic Egypt. From Alexander to Cleopatra. Schocken Books, New York, 1984. 241p. XXII,(III),241p.ills.(B&W photographs). Hard bound with dust wrps. Spine gilt titled. Edges rust stained. 'Sarah Pomeroy's new book unites, successfully, her long-standing concern with the documentary papyri and her well-proved capacity for lively, lucid writing on women's studies. This book (...) will, above all, bring several illuminating case-studies from the documentary evidence from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt for social history to the attention of a wider public; her numerous extensive discussions and translations of particular documents will be especially welcome. Such welcome introductions to major archives point to the great need for more substantial translations of such archives; it should also be said that Pomeroy's bibliography is splendidly full and helpful. The book is, explicitly, a set of provisional studies, rather than the presentation of a substantial set of theses; while it regularly makes comparisons with comparable evidence from classical Greece and elsewhere, it does not offer a concluding, general assessment or set of explanations of the particular roles and status of women, Greek and native, in Egypt. In the body of the book, however, there are various interesting, interim reflections on different aspects of these complex problems.' (N.R.E. FISHER in The Classical Review (New Series), 1987, p.259). € 25.00 (Antiquarian)

GARDNER, J.F., Women in Roman Law & Society. Croom Helm, London / Sydney, 1987. 1st paperback ed. 281p. Paperback. 'G.'s knowledge of the law is torough and exact. It is to her enormous credit that she has made so much complex law accessible to students and non-specialists. All texts discussed in the book are translated.' (DAVID CHERRY inThe Classical Review (New Series), 1987, p.264). € 20.00 (Antiquarian)

PERADOTTO, J. and J.P. SULLIVAN, (eds.), Women in the Ancient World. The Arethusa Papers. State University of NewYork Press, Albany, 1984. VIII,377p. Paperback. Small personal library mark and name on free endpaper.A.o.: M.B. ARTHUR: Early Greece: The Origins of the Western Attitude Toward Women (pp.7-59); S. McNALLY: The Maenad in Early Greek Art (pp.107-143); F.I. ZEITLIN: The Dynamics of Misogyny: Myth and Mythmaking in the Oresteia (pp.159-195); J.P. HALLETT: The Role of Women in Roman Elegy: Counter-Cultural Feminism (pp.241-263); E.A. FISHER: Theodora and Antonina in the Historia Arcana: History and/or Fiction (pp.287-315). From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 32.50 (Antiquarian)

SOPHOKLES, Women of Trachis. A Version by Ezra Pound. Nevill Spearman, London, 1956. 1st ed. XXIII,66p. Frontispiece (portrait of Exra Pound, 1954, by La Martinelli. Original red cloth with dust wrps. Dust wrps slightly yellowed and to front with two small tears. Nice copy. Contents: Forword (DENIS GOACHER, pp.I-VII); Ezra Pund's translation of Sophokles (S.V. JANKOVSKI, pp.XIII-XXIII), Women of Trachis (pp.1-54); cast of first B.B.C.'s Third Programme performing (p.55); Editorial declaration (RICCARDO M. DEGLI UBERTI, pp.56-66). 'His Sophokles is an artistic achievement, a conscious breach with the old, unsatisfactory method; not an academic test of knowledge. Most scholars and lovers of Greek agree that Greek cannot and should not be translated into english literally. The most distinguished of them, Professor Gilbert Murray, expressly states this to be the reason for his having often used what he calls a more elaborate diction than Euripides did; by deciding, however, to get away from t=what he regarded as the baldness and simplicity of the original, he stripped the 'Trachiniae' of its classical adequacy and oladed it with ornament. He thus eliminated the directness of the dialogue as untranslatable. Pound approaced the same problem in a different way; he undertook the work with the assumption and firm belief that directness of speech is everything that matters. He made his version as hard as hard and direct as it could be. He made it ... nearer the bone; while, at the same time, it would be impossible to detect a note of baldness or monotony in his style. (...0 If (...) we accept Ezra Pound's view that a play of Sophokles can become known and appreciated onluy after a surgical operation has been done to it for the purpose of bringing about its rejuvenation, we must make allowance for the translator's initiative in linkint the idiomatic speech of the Sophoklean area with that of the twentieth century. pound does that linking of two eras with incomparable resourcefulness and mastery. (...) The chorus, as recreated by Pound, should not be analysed in the light of the Greek text whose metrical schemes are different; moreover, the music and dance which accompanied the Greek chorus are and will always remain a matter of conjecture. (...) The declamation or singing of the chorus should, no doubt, also in a modern theatre impress the audience with its awesome grandeur. (...) Pound.s choruses are a creation of his own, both in language and in rhythm, and he has obviously conceived a musical scheme to harmonize with his own verse. (...) The chorus, technically speaking, constitutes that element of the drama wherein the translator can enjoy a much greater freedom of composition than he is allowd in dealing with the dialogue of the performing characters. It is significant that the beauty of Pound's choral verse lies in its poetic independence. The author of that verse is even more master of his own genius than in the dialogue, where, as a translator, he is restricted by the sense of the story. The lines, recited by the chorus, are a matter of poetic fascination; the significance of the dialogue lies in its argument. The dialogue, the duel of words, is the essence of the translation just as it is the essence of the drama; but, the chorus, in Pound's interpretation, will, apart from its dramatic quality, remain a contribution to poetry of the most exalted kind. (...) To the pupils and followers of Pound this is an event of unprecedented cultural value.'(S.V. JANKOWSKI, IN 'Translation of Sophokles, pp.XIII-XXIII). From the library of the late Professor Doktor Nikolaus Himmelmann. € 65.00 (Antiquarian)