Relighting the Souls

Book excerpt: In the last ten years, there has been an enormous awakening of interest in Plutarch. This collection contains many stimulating and important articles from the Plutarch renaissance, especially on the interaction between divine and human worlds, and on expectations in the next life. But treated here are also a number of other challenging topics in classical Greek literature. Among them are the Near Eastern background of early Greek myth and literature, the decisive speech of Achilleus' mentor, Phoenix, in the Iliad, divine assimilations and ruler cult, the language of Menander's young men, the vision of God in Middle Platonism, blessed afterlife in the mysteries, Greek epiphanies and the Acts of the Apostles, and the revolt at Jerusalem against Antiochos Epiphanes in the light of similar cities under Hellenistic rule. Another book of Frederick E. Brenk: Clothed in Purple Light. (Franz Steiner 1998)