Barry B. Powell, Halls-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is best known for his books Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge, 1991) and Classical Myth (Prentice-Hall, 1995; 2nd edition, 1997). He has also published articles on Greek poetry, especially Homer, the history of writing, and the origins of Greek myth, as well as doing research in Egyptian philology.Ian Morris is Professor of Classics at Stanford University. His research focuses on social and cultural history, and archaeological evidence. He has excavated extensively in Greece, and is the author of Burial and Ancient Society (1987) and Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (1992).

"...die Qualität der einzelnen Beiträge ist auf durchgehend hohem, fallweise höchstem Forschungsniveau ... für Einsteiger wie Fortgeschrittene gleicherweise hilfreich und instruktiv." – Stefan Hiller, in: Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft, 2002"This volume will certainly be useful, and in some areas indispensable." – R.B. Rutherford, in: The Classical Review, 1999