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Roisman ( H.M. ) (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy. Volume I: A-F, Volume II: G-R, Volume III: S-Z . Pp. lxiv + 1716, ills, map. Malden, MA and Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell , 2014. Cased, £350, [euro]450, US$595. ISBN: 978-1-4443-3592-7 .
Reviews
This monumental work, containing 819 entries by 167 contributors on a wide variety of topics connected with Greek tragedy, from 'Abae' to 'Zenodotus', will provide a useful resource for anybody working on tragedy at whatever level. From start to finish, the project took four years (p. lvii); the editor deserves considerable respect for her expeditiousness, as well as deep gratitude for the high quality of the book.
The prefatory matter contains an alphabetical list of entries (which provides a useful overview of the contents), brief notes on contributors, a short preface and acknowledgements, an alphabetical list of extant tragedies, and a list of abbreviations. The encyclopedia entries take up the next 1,489 pages; the work concludes with over 130 pages of bibliography, and finally an index of over 100 pages. Yet full bibliographical details of the items cited under any individual lemma are given at the end of that entry, which seems to render a concluding bibliography unnecessary; its elimination might have allowed a reduction in the book's enormous price.
Perhaps the single most useful aspect of this book is its numerous entries on topics that do not immediately come to mind when one thinks of Greek tragedy. Probably no one has ever wished to look up 'Eavesdropping' in an encyclopedia devoted to this subject, but anyone who, during the search for something else, encounters S. Mills's excellent article on this subject, will not be disappointed. The same could be said for other fascinating topics, such as 'Hair/baldness' (L. Llewellyn-Jones), 'Joy and Happiness' (D. Konstan), 'Metals' (E. Griffiths), 'Profit' (L. Battezzato) and 'Wandering (and Travel)' (A. Tzanetou). Such entries enliven the work and ensure that browsing the volumes is both pleasurable and instructive; they may even suggest new topics of research for scholars, or dissertation subjects for students. Yet the book...