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BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS
imprecise. Rendering 8pia!-l[3ov as "contumely" at 31.5 gives it an otherwise
undocumented sense while foregoing the entirely appropriate
and amply attested (albeit not by LSJ) "revelation," "disclosure." Why
"Didymoi" at 33.21 for what is consistently and correctly "Didyma" in
the commentary? The phrase "colonized in passing" parlays awkward
Greek (36.6-7) into more awkward Englis . At 37.II the sequence
"Europe, whence the myth of Europa has come to the Greeks" conceals
the true antecedent of the Greek relative, At 37.18 the logic of the narrative
favours something like "were losing" over "were defeated" for
!iTTwVTal. Is "aulas" a helpful rendering of aVAOV at 38.10 even in default
of any precise English term for the instrument? At 40.12 EKOIJcIOV
suggests something less passive than "acquiescence." The context favours
"founders" or "colonists" over Bl'own's "inhabitants" for
oiKJiTopacat 41.13.
Paradoxically perhaps, a Commentary on this minor work is a demanding
undertaking, in effect fifty different projects, each with its
unique mix of literary, linguistic, mythic, historical and religious ingredients.
Brown braves the tangles with inco sistent success. Sometimes
he allows his researches to lead him to observations in excess of what is
helpful or relevant. While commenting on the foundation legend of
Olynthus, for example, he expatiates on the city's Classical and Hellenistic
history and archaeology. Though foundation legends are usually
retro-fictions explicable by later history, Brown draws no connection
here and none is self-evident. Elsewhere the notes on Sithon and Pallene
contain a disquisition on chariot warfare in the Iliad, although Konon's
story has nothing to do with chariots or with the Iliad. Here Parthenius'
version of the story is a tenuous link, for it has a chariot race, though no
discernible connection to the Iliad. At other times Brown conspicuously
neglects the relevant. His treatment of Olynthian history contrasts with
that of the Rhodian legend featuring a founder named Althaimenes, an
obvious retrojection of the historical Althaimenids, on whom, however,
Brown has not a word. In at least one instance marginally relevant material
is introduced while more obviously pertinent data are neglected.
Noting Konon's anomalous and toponymically inappropriate localizing
of the story of Heracles and Syleus' daughter beneath Pelion in Thessaly,
Brown overlooks the possibility (br ached by others) that the
story is conflated with its doublet (Heracks and Amyntor's daughter)
localized, precisely, near Pelion in Thessaly. He diverges instead to
more tenuous analogies between the stories of Heracles and Syleus's
daughter and Demophon and Phyllis.
The Commentary also has puzzling linguistic or stylistic entries such
as that at 6.8-g. "Casaubon proposed ETI l-laAAOV for MSS hrl !-laAAOV.
Although a Greek of Imperial age [sic] would have written ETI !-laAAOV