7/30/2019 REVIEW Bookidis - Demeter and Kore in the Ancient Corinth

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Demeter and Persephone in Ancient Corinth by N. Bookidis; R. S. Stroud

Review by: R. G. OsborneThe Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 38, No. 1 (1988), p. 175Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3066008 .

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7/30/2019 REVIEW Bookidis - Demeter and Kore in the Ancient Corinth

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THE CLASSICAL REVIEWHE CLASSICAL REVIEWHE CLASSICAL REVIEWin the thirteenth century may have prompted the construction of a house on the summit of thehill but this was soon abandoned. The 'other Pylos' was never reoccupied.Universityof Liverpool CHRISTOPHER MEE

N. BOOKIDIS, R. S. STROUD: Demeter and Persephone in AncientCorinth. (American Excavations in Old Corinth, Corinth Notes, 2.)Pp. 32; 1 map, 2 site plans, 1drawing and 32 photographs. Princeton,New Jersey: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1987.Paper, $3.This little booklet, uniform with the Athenian Agora Picture Book series, elegantly describes, inwords and pictures, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on the lower slopes of Acrocorinth.After a general introduction which introduces the reader to Acrocorinth and to the goddessDemeter, there follow sections on the History of the Site and on The Cult. The most strikingdiscoveries of excavations which have taken up some 200 sides of preliminary reports inHesperia and still await final publication are all present here, the knowledge of the twoarchaeologists chiefly responsible for the digging sweetly distilled.There are clearly limits to what can be done in just 30 pages, but it is perhaps regrettablethatthe authors decided to present the information in a purely descriptive way, glossing over theproblems posed by the finds and slipping without warning from relating the facts to relatingpurely hypothetical interpretations. It does a disservice to the young, into whose hands it is tobe hoped that this booklet finds its way, to assume that they cannot appreciate and assessargument, and it does a disservice to the archaeological fraternityto present their interests in thissomewhat antiquarian form.Information relating to Eleusis, a vase from Apulia, and a terracotta plaque from Lokroi inSouth Italy are all used here to illustrate Demeter at Corinth; but one of the most fascinatingquestions raised by these excavations has been the question of comparability. Both in its formand in its offerings this sanctuary is very different from Demeter's sanctuary at Eleusis: whatmade it different? How regionalised was the worship of particular deities in ancient Greece?How did practices, even in the same place, vary over time? These are questions which need tobe brought into the open, but which are suppressed in the rather static picture of the cultpresented here.Magdalen College, Oxford R. G. OSBORNE

K. JEPPESEN, A. LUTTRELL: The Maussolleion at Halikarnassos.'Reports of the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Bodrum,Vol. 2:The WrittenSourcesand theirArchaeological Background Part 1: TheAncient Greek and Latin Writers [Jeppesen]; Part 2: The Later Historyof the Maussolleion and its Utilization in the Hospitaller Castle atBodrum [Luttrell]). (Jutland Archaeological Society Publications,15.2.) Pp. 222; 16 figures, 41 plates. Distributed through AarhusUniversity Press, 1986.Part 1 of this book is subtitled 'The Ancient Greek and Latin Writers' (it has virtually nothingin common with the excellent Part 2 by Luttrell, on which more at the end of this notice). Thereader should be warned straightaway not to expect anything on the lines of Wycherley'sAthenian Agora vol. iii, a more or less impartial marshalling of the non-archaeologicaltestimonia about an archaeological site, with readings and interpretationsto which only a crankcould take exception. The present work is extremely strange. It is beautifully produced, exceptthat the only sigma available seems to have been a, so that we get e.g. 'AALKapvaaaoa (sic). Noexpense has been too great: there are photographic facsimiles of the relevant bits of all 58 of thePliny MSS. discussed.Professor Jeppesen is a distinguished archaeologist, but this work, destined to appear in a0009-840X/88 $3.00 ? Oxford University Press 1988

in the thirteenth century may have prompted the construction of a house on the summit of thehill but this was soon abandoned. The 'other Pylos' was never reoccupied.Universityof Liverpool CHRISTOPHER MEE

N. BOOKIDIS, R. S. STROUD: Demeter and Persephone in AncientCorinth. (American Excavations in Old Corinth, Corinth Notes, 2.)Pp. 32; 1 map, 2 site plans, 1drawing and 32 photographs. Princeton,New Jersey: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1987.Paper, $3.This little booklet, uniform with the Athenian Agora Picture Book series, elegantly describes, inwords and pictures, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on the lower slopes of Acrocorinth.After a general introduction which introduces the reader to Acrocorinth and to the goddessDemeter, there follow sections on the History of the Site and on The Cult. The most strikingdiscoveries of excavations which have taken up some 200 sides of preliminary reports inHesperia and still await final publication are all present here, the knowledge of the twoarchaeologists chiefly responsible for the digging sweetly distilled.There are clearly limits to what can be done in just 30 pages, but it is perhaps regrettablethatthe authors decided to present the information in a purely descriptive way, glossing over theproblems posed by the finds and slipping without warning from relating the facts to relatingpurely hypothetical interpretations. It does a disservice to the young, into whose hands it is tobe hoped that this booklet finds its way, to assume that they cannot appreciate and assessargument, and it does a disservice to the archaeological fraternityto present their interests in thissomewhat antiquarian form.Information relating to Eleusis, a vase from Apulia, and a terracotta plaque from Lokroi inSouth Italy are all used here to illustrate Demeter at Corinth; but one of the most fascinatingquestions raised by these excavations has been the question of comparability. Both in its formand in its offerings this sanctuary is very different from Demeter's sanctuary at Eleusis: whatmade it different? How regionalised was the worship of particular deities in ancient Greece?How did practices, even in the same place, vary over time? These are questions which need tobe brought into the open, but which are suppressed in the rather static picture of the cultpresented here.Magdalen College, Oxford R. G. OSBORNE

K. JEPPESEN, A. LUTTRELL: The Maussolleion at Halikarnassos.'Reports of the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Bodrum,Vol. 2:The WrittenSourcesand theirArchaeological Background Part 1: TheAncient Greek and Latin Writers [Jeppesen]; Part 2: The Later Historyof the Maussolleion and its Utilization in the Hospitaller Castle atBodrum [Luttrell]). (Jutland Archaeological Society Publications,15.2.) Pp. 222; 16 figures, 41 plates. Distributed through AarhusUniversity Press, 1986.Part 1 of this book is subtitled 'The Ancient Greek and Latin Writers' (it has virtually nothingin common with the excellent Part 2 by Luttrell, on which more at the end of this notice). Thereader should be warned straightaway not to expect anything on the lines of Wycherley'sAthenian Agora vol. iii, a more or less impartial marshalling of the non-archaeologicaltestimonia about an archaeological site, with readings and interpretationsto which only a crankcould take exception. The present work is extremely strange. It is beautifully produced, exceptthat the only sigma available seems to have been a, so that we get e.g. 'AALKapvaaaoa (sic). Noexpense has been too great: there are photographic facsimiles of the relevant bits of all 58 of thePliny MSS. discussed.Professor Jeppesen is a distinguished archaeologist, but this work, destined to appear in a0009-840X/88 $3.00 ? Oxford University Press 1988

in the thirteenth century may have prompted the construction of a house on the summit of thehill but this was soon abandoned. The 'other Pylos' was never reoccupied.Universityof Liverpool CHRISTOPHER MEE

N. BOOKIDIS, R. S. STROUD: Demeter and Persephone in AncientCorinth. (American Excavations in Old Corinth, Corinth Notes, 2.)Pp. 32; 1 map, 2 site plans, 1drawing and 32 photographs. Princeton,New Jersey: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1987.Paper, $3.This little booklet, uniform with the Athenian Agora Picture Book series, elegantly describes, inwords and pictures, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on the lower slopes of Acrocorinth.After a general introduction which introduces the reader to Acrocorinth and to the goddessDemeter, there follow sections on the History of the Site and on The Cult. The most strikingdiscoveries of excavations which have taken up some 200 sides of preliminary reports inHesperia and still await final publication are all present here, the knowledge of the twoarchaeologists chiefly responsible for the digging sweetly distilled.There are clearly limits to what can be done in just 30 pages, but it is perhaps regrettablethatthe authors decided to present the information in a purely descriptive way, glossing over theproblems posed by the finds and slipping without warning from relating the facts to relatingpurely hypothetical interpretations. It does a disservice to the young, into whose hands it is tobe hoped that this booklet finds its way, to assume that they cannot appreciate and assessargument, and it does a disservice to the archaeological fraternityto present their interests in thissomewhat antiquarian form.Information relating to Eleusis, a vase from Apulia, and a terracotta plaque from Lokroi inSouth Italy are all used here to illustrate Demeter at Corinth; but one of the most fascinatingquestions raised by these excavations has been the question of comparability. Both in its formand in its offerings this sanctuary is very different from Demeter's sanctuary at Eleusis: whatmade it different? How regionalised was the worship of particular deities in ancient Greece?How did practices, even in the same place, vary over time? These are questions which need tobe brought into the open, but which are suppressed in the rather static picture of the cultpresented here.Magdalen College, Oxford R. G. OSBORNE

K. JEPPESEN, A. LUTTRELL: The Maussolleion at Halikarnassos.'Reports of the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Bodrum,Vol. 2:The WrittenSourcesand theirArchaeological Background Part 1: TheAncient Greek and Latin Writers [Jeppesen]; Part 2: The Later Historyof the Maussolleion and its Utilization in the Hospitaller Castle atBodrum [Luttrell]). (Jutland Archaeological Society Publications,15.2.) Pp. 222; 16 figures, 41 plates. Distributed through AarhusUniversity Press, 1986.Part 1 of this book is subtitled 'The Ancient Greek and Latin Writers' (it has virtually nothingin common with the excellent Part 2 by Luttrell, on which more at the end of this notice). Thereader should be warned straightaway not to expect anything on the lines of Wycherley'sAthenian Agora vol. iii, a more or less impartial marshalling of the non-archaeologicaltestimonia about an archaeological site, with readings and interpretationsto which only a crankcould take exception. The present work is extremely strange. It is beautifully produced, exceptthat the only sigma available seems to have been a, so that we get e.g. 'AALKapvaaaoa (sic). Noexpense has been too great: there are photographic facsimiles of the relevant bits of all 58 of thePliny MSS. discussed.Professor Jeppesen is a distinguished archaeologist, but this work, destined to appear in a0009-840X/88 $3.00 ? Oxford University Press 1988

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