Greek Literature

摘要

Why not assemble two dozen papers on unrelated topics into an eye-wateringlynexpensive book? Several good reasons spring to mind, but they cannot withstand thencombination of a distinguished scholar, a significant birthday, and a punning title.nMartin West’s distinction is unsurpassed, and his name is a gift to editorial punning.1nBut his exceptional range exacerbates the risk of hodge-podgery endemic to the genren(so far as I know, there is still no Festschrift named Sparagmata, the mordantlynapposite title once suggested by W. J. Slater). Hesperos contains some excellent work (Inespecially admired Pelling’s treatment of Plutarch on Sophocles on his own devel-nopment). But an assemblage of useful papers is not necessarily a useful volume.nWouldn’t distinguished scholars be more fittingly honoured by the dedication ofnthings that have some independent rationale?