Alexandra Trachsel – författare

Ancient scholarship had many faces, but most have faded away over time. Demetrios of Scepsis is one of the more shadowy of these lost figures, best known for his commentary on the Trojan Catalogue in Book 2 of the Iliad. Alexandra Trachsel’s work represents the first treatment dedicated to Demetrios of Scepsis in over a century. Because of the incomplete transmission of Demetrios’s work, Trachsel necessarily focuses on the way later readers understood the ancient author’s engagement with the Homeric text. Indeed, modern scholars have access to Demetrios’s analysis of the Trojan Catalogue only through their readings.Trachsel’s work offers a thorough analysis of the ancient and modern reactions to Demetrios’s research into the Homeric text and the Trojan landscape, and it revisits the ongoing debate about the setting for Homer’s Trojan poem. Trachsel also provides new evidence about the impressively wide range of other topics Demetrios’s work may have contained.

Claudius Aelianus, also known as Aelian (circa 175-235 AD), was a Roman intellectual and writer of the Severan period who wrote his works in Greek, drawing on the rich treasure trove of quotations from classical literature. His collections of animal stories (?e?? ???? ?d??t?t??, De natura animalium) and the ??????? ?st???a (Varia Historia, which is considered to have given ancient miscellany its name) are more than mere compilations: Aelian himself saw the careful selection and artful presentation of his quotations as a genuine literary achievement. This collection of essays reflects the growing research interest in Aelian and present a comprehensive picture of Aelian's use of quotation as a rhetorical device and the wider richness of his literary practices. The volume is aimed at researchers and those interested in learning more about this fascinating author and his work.