doi:10.1017/S0075426915000282 Journal of Hellenic Studies 135 (2015) page 1 of 2 © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2015 REVIEWS OF BOOKS LITERATURE OLSON (S.D.) Ed. Ancient Comedy and Reception: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Henderson. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. Pp. xi + 1,086. €299.95. 9781614511250. doi:10.1017/S0075426915000282 It is undoubtedly most appropriate that a scholar of Jeffrey Henderson’s calibre is presented a Festschrift of such gigantic size, scope and diversity as the one reviewed here. Comprising no less than 50 essays in five different languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish and German) and numbering nearly 1,100 densely-printed pages in total, the sheer bulk of the volume, even before the turning of a single page, certainly impresses upon the reader the impact of the honorand’s work. The production of this volume also amounts to a major editorial feat, for which the editors – Olson along with W. Haase, who initially conceived of the project and, as Olson duly notes in the foreword, is mostly responsible for its design – deserve much kudos. The 24-page ‘Index of Names and Subjects’ at the end of the book bespeaks the tremendous variety of topics covered by the various chapters. Even more striking is the volume’s coherent structure, a rare achievement in such compilations. Festschrifts are usually hotchpotches of uncoordinated contributions connected loosely with the honorand’s research career. This one begs to differ: it achieves unity, balance, even comprehensiveness to a significant extent. With only three exceptions (R. Rosen, J. Robson and G. Mastromarco, who tackle comic παρρησία and obscenity, both focal points of Henderson’s research), the chapters in the volume explore various forms of comic reception (to which Henderson’s editions and translations have also done great service). The book is divided into three, roughly even parts: (a) ancient comedy and receptions: 20 essays, 374 pages; (b) medieval, Renaissance and early modern receptions (up to the 18th century): 12 essays, 319 pages; and (c) modern receptions (19th–21st centuries): 18 essays, 363 pages. The authors are an amalgam of younger and established scholars, some of whom, uncommonly, feature twice (N.W. Slater, S. Beta). For the reader’s convenience, each essay is preceded by a substantial abstract and followed by a catalogue of works cited – which, in such volumes, is always preferable to a comprehensive bibliography in the end. The volume also includes numerous illustrations, a number of which is in colour (we are missing a comprehensive list of illustrations). The essays circle around two major thematic axes. The first, more limited one investigates comedy as the subject of reception, covering topics such as: comic poets rivalling each other (Z. Biles); Aristophanes alluding to Herodotus (H.-G. Nesselrath) or employing tropes of paraenetic poetry (M. Alonge); Menander engaging in dialogue with Euripides (A. Sommerstein); Terence adapting Menander (M. Fontaine); and Plautus conversing with his Greek and Roman models (E. Lefèvre, B. Dunsch). The second, much more far-reaching axis treats comedy as the object of reception in a multiplicity of other theatrical or non-theatrical genres, ancient as well as modern: from satire (S. Beta, K. Sidwell, I. Ruffell) to philosophical dialogue (C. Platter), the novel (N.W. Slater, S.D. Smith) and iconography (O. Taplin, N. W. Slater, S. Nervegna); and from medieval (L. Kendrick) to Renaissance (L. Radif, H. Casanova-Robin, J. Nassichuk, A. Scafuro) and early modern theatrical adaptations (F. Schironi, R. Miola, M. Goth, P. Ford, G. Manuwald, B. Garcia-Hernández et al., R. Tordoff) to 19th- and 20th-century translations in various languages (B. Greiner, M.L. Chirico, G. van Steen, B. van Zyl Smit, M. Gondicas, J.M. Walton). Chapters also explore the reception of Graeco-Roman comic plays in Italian comedy (F. Schironi), Shakespeare (A. Scafuro), Renaissance comedy (R. Miola) and Molière (P. Ford), in the sentimental plays of the 18th century (M. Goth) and in German ‘historical comedy’ (G. Manuwald). They also chart the various transformations of ancient comic works in Spanish literature from the 16th to the 20th century (B. Garcia-Hernández et al.), in modern theatre (D. Konstan, M. Kotzamani), as well as in musicals (S. Beta, T.J. Moore), in the cinema (M.M. Winkler) and on the radio (A. Wrigley). On top of its thematic diversity, the volume displays great geographical and chronological scope, as well. In terms of time span, the book 2 REVIEWS OF BOOKS ranges from fifth-century BC Athens to Republican Rome, from medieval to early modern times and from 19th-century Greece (G. van Steen) to 20th-century Italy (M. Treu), Germany (P. Möllendorf) and Britain (G. Ley), to modernday Israel (N. Yaari), African-American theatre (K.J. Wetmore) and the 21st-century American alternative stage (E. Scharffenberger). Similarly, the book’s conceptual geography ranges from Europe (Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Greece) to South Africa, and from the USA to Israel. Chapters on Asian and Latin American receptions, where many important comic receptions have been recorded, are not offered – still the volume comes as close as one gets to a comprehensive companion on ancient comedy and its receptions without actually being one. It is impossible even summarily to present, let alone to critique, the individual chapters in the limited space of this review. Suffice it to say, it is truly a shame that the prohibitive price of what is otherwise an impressively inclusive, must-have volume will inevitably confine it to (a few) academic libraries alone. ANTONIS K. PETRIDES Open University of Cyprus apetrides@ouc.ac.cy