This paper examines the problem of Ptolemaic incest from a variety of cross-disciplinary perspectives. Specifically, it seeks to establish the following: that there is little in the ancient record to support the common claim that the Ptolemies suffered extensively from the deleterious genetic effects of inbreeding; that the various theories so far put forward as explanations for Ptolemaic incest offer at best only a partial rationale for this dynastic practice; that the most compelling rationale for Ptolemaic incest is to be found in complex, and perhaps unconscious, symbolic motivations analogous to those observed by anthropologists in other cultures; and finally, that, for the Ptolemies, incest was, like the truphê for which they were so notorious, a dynastic signature which highlighted their singularity and above all, their power.

Bacchylides' eleventh epinician ends not with renewed praise of the victor but with an extension to the ode's main myth which forges a link between the Arcadian cult of Artemis founded by Proetus and his daughters and the foundation of the victor's home city of Metapontum by Achaean colonists identified with the heroic captors of Troy. The culmination of the ode in praise of a successful colonial foundation, it is argued, is the key to the principles on which Bacchylides has selected and moulded the mythological elements that he deploys in the rest of the ode. Proetus' foundation of Tiryns resolves the civil strife which threatened to destroy Argos and commends colonization as a means of social and political progress; while the cult of Artemis at Lousoi, founded to expiate the Proetids' offence against Hera, emphasizes the role of marriage in maintaining the strength and solidarity of the community. The emphasis in both these myths on the divine intervention which rectifies human error links them to the experience of the victor and to the theme of the proper cultivation of the gods that is emphasized in the ode's conclusion. In constructing mythical narratives that are exemplary for the victor and his community, Bacchylides departs from mythological tradition in significant respects and in ways which suggest that the ode's argument reflects both the victor's status in the community and perhaps also the circumstances of its own performance.

In the Late Geometric and Orientalizing periods, storage vessels with elaborate relief decoration were produced in several Aegean islands, most notably the northern Cyclades, Crete and Rhodes. This article interprets the amphora-shaped relief pithos as a function of prevailing social, economic and living conditions. It is argued that rather than being inspired by funerary or votive uses, the relief pithoi of the Tenian-Boeotian group are the material expression of the vital importance of food storage, which not only ensured subsistence but was an essential prerequisite for social differentiation. Relief pithoi were a form of conspicuous storage. Against this background, the unique iconography of the Tenian-Boeotian pithoi is revisited and the enigmatic fallen warrior on the Mykonos Pithos identified as a possible role model for seventh-century aristocrats.

Plutarch (probably following Aristotle's lost Constitution of the Megarians) associates several episodes of riotous behaviour with the existence of a radical democracy in Archaic Megara (Moralia 295c-d, 304e-f). Modern historians, in turn, have accepted that Megara was ruled by a democracy in the mid sixth century BC. I suggest that this conclusion is unjustified because the connection between riotous behaviour and democracy in Plutarch is based on fourth-century anti-democratic political thought. I propose instead that anecdotes describing the insolent behaviour of the poor towards the rich are better interpreted in terms of customary rituals of social inversion and transgression. Drawing on comparative examples from the ancient world and early modern Europe, I show that popular revelry involving role reversal and transgression of social norms was an important locus for the negotiation of relations between élites and masses. I argue that such rituals provided temporary release from the constraints of the social hierarchy, and served to articulate symbolically the obligation of the powerful to protect the weak. The comparative examples show that such rituals were usually non-revolutionary, but could turn violent in times of rapid social and economic change. I argue that the violent episodes reported by Plutarch reflect the escalation of ritual revelry into real protest and riot in response to the breakdown of traditional relations of reciprocity between rich and poor in Archaic Megara. I suggest that élites in Archaic Megara successfully warded off more far-reaching rebellion and political reform by enacting new measures for the economic relief of the poor (e.g. the return of interest legislation). In conclusion, I address the broader historical question of why subordinate groups use ritual forms to express discontent.

Conventional portrayals of Athenian imperialism, heavily influenced by Thucydides, tend to assume that the Athenians thought of, and described, their imperialistic actions in frank, even brutal, terms. This article seeks to challenge that assumption by exploring two sets of fifth-century Athenian epigraphical material: documents which contain the phrase ‘the cities which the Athenians rule’, and inscriptions imposing regulations on allied states which are erected at the ally's expense. In both cases, it is argued that if these apparently overtly aggressive documents are considered in an epigraphic rather than a Thucydidean context, they reveal the existence of a more subtle, nuanced and diplomatic approach to imperial politics.

This paper takes the Thirteenth Oration as a test case of many of the questions raised by the career and works of Dio Chrysostom. The speech's generic creativity and philosophical expertise are demonstrated. Historical problems are clarified. Analysis shows how Dio weaves seemingly diverse themes into a complex unity. New answers are given to two crucial interpretative problems. Exploration of Dio's self-representation and of his handling of internal and external audiences and of temporal and spatial relationships leads to the conclusion that he has a serious philosophical purpose: the advocacy of Antisthenic/Cynic paideia in place of the current paideia both of Romans and Athenians. Paradoxically, this clever, ironic and sophisticated speech deconstructs its own apparent values in the interests of simple, practical moralizing.

The construal of Apology 30b 2–4 which in JHS 123 (2003) I attributed to John Burnet had appeared in print sixteen years before his edition of Euthyphro, Apology and Crito. I now suggest that it probably originated in the mind of J.A. Smith, who was an undergraduate contemporary of Burnet's at Balliol College, Oxford, and later Waynflete Professor of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy. The unexpected construal, transmitted by Balliol tradition, is typical of Smith's cast of mind.

A Hellenistic terracotta from Myrina now in the Louvre is interpreted as showing a young woman tending the ‘gardens of Adonis’ in connection with the rites of the Adonia. Further associations are made between the perfume apparently being poured into a planter from an alabastron that the young woman holds, Adonis’ mother Myrrha, the provenience of the terracotta (Myrina) and grave rituals.

This article offers a fresh approach to the well-known questions surrounding the identification of Longus' character Philetas with the Hellenistic poet Philetas or Philitas. Noting that the poet was famed in antiquity also for his critical writing, particularly his lexicographical work the ataktoi glôssai, it argues that the fictional characters Daphnis and Chloe consult Philetas for, among other things, a lexical definition of erôs.