Gábor Betegh presents the first systematic reconstruction and examination of the Derveni papyrus and analyzes its role in the intellectual milieu of its age. Found in 1962 near Thessaloniki among the remains of a funeral pyre, it is one of the earliest surviving Greek papyri and is a document of primary importance for understanding religious and philosophical developments of the time of Socrates. The book will appeal strongly to classicists, philosophers and historians of religion.

The Derveni Papyrus, discovered accidentally in 1962, is the oldest known European book. Papers in Poetry as Initiation address many open questions about the papyrus, including its authorship, the context of the peculiar chthonic ritual described in the text, and the relationship of the author and the ritual to the so-called Orphic texts.

The Derveni Papyrus: Unearthing Ancient Mysteries is devoted to this fascinating and challenging document, discovered in 1962 in a tomb in Derveni, near Thessaloniki, and dated c. 340-320 BCE. It contains a text probably written at the end of 5th c. BCE, which after some reflections on minor divinities and unusual cults, comments upon a poem attributed to Orpheus from an allegorical and philosophical perspective. This volume focuses on the restoration and conservation of the papyrus, the ideas of the anonymous author about Erinyes and daimons, the quoted Orphic poem in comparison with Hesiod’s Theogony and Parmenides’ poem, the exegetical approach of the commentator, his cosmogonic system, his attitude regarding mystery cults and his peculiar theology.

In a paradigm shift, this book redefines Orphism as a polemical label for extra-ordinary religion, good or bad.

This beautifully illustrated book represents the first full publication of the most elaborate metal vessel from the ancient world yet discovered. Found in an undisturbed Macedonian tomb of the late 4th century B.C., the volute krater is a tour de force of highly sophisticated methods of bronze working. An unusual program of iconography informs every area of the vessel. Snakes with copper and silver inlaid stripes frame the rising handles, wrapping their bodies around masks of underworld deities. On the shoulder sit four cast bronze figures: on one side a youthful Dionysos with an exhausted maenad, on the other a sleeping Silenos and a maenad handling a snake. In the major repousse frieze on the body a bearded hunter is associated with Dionysian figures. What was the function of this extraordinary object? And what is the meaning of the intricate iconography? The krater is placed in its Macedonian archaeological context as an heirloom of the descendants of the man named in the Thessalian inscription on its rim, and in its art-historical context as a highly elaborated, early-4th-century version of a metal type known in Athens by about 470 B.C.

Meisner offers a new interpretation of four Orphic theogonies: Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic. The fragments of these poems, thought to be written by Orpheus, contained narratives of the creation of the cosmos and the births of the gods, but differed from the mainstream account of Hesiod's Theogony.

Soon after its publication, Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy was hailed as the favorite to become "the 'standard' text for survey courses in ancient philosophy."* More than twenty years later that prediction has been borne out: Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy still stands as the leading anthology of its kind. It is now stronger than ever: The Fifth Edition of Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy features a completely revised Aristotle unit, with new translations, as well as a newly revised glossary. The Plato unit offers new translations of the Meno and Republic. In the latter, indirect dialogue is cast into direct dialogue for greater readability. The Presocratics unit has been re-edited and streamlined, and the pages of every unit have been completely reset. * APA Newsletter for Teaching Philosophy

Begleitend zu den Editionsbänden der Reihe Traditio Praesocratica, in der Texte frühgriechischer Naturphilosophen in kritischer Ausgabe mit Übersetzung erscheinen, werden in der Reihe Studia Praesocratica Kommentare, Monographien und Sammelbände zur frühgriechischen Philosophie und ihrer Doxographie veröffentlicht.