Recently in the pages of The Classical Quarterly Mathias Hanses convincingly demonstrated the existence of a fourth occurrence of the programmatic adjective λεπτός in Aratus, Phaen. 783–7. This new example occurs in the form of a diagonal acrostic alongside the known ‘gamma-acrostic’ and the occurrence of the same form of the adjective in line 784. Jerzy Danielewicz has now proposed yet a fifth instance of λεπτή in the form of an acronym spread over two lines and meant to be read (...) anticlockwise. (shrink)

I argue that the tragic allusions in Chariton, Callirhoe 2.9.3 (to Euripides, Medea ) and 3.8.8 (to Sophocles, Ajax 550-51), are to be read in combination with a hitherto unnoticed verbatim citation of a portion of Euripides, Heracles 1307-8 at Chariton 3.10.6. These three allusions occur in speeches by the novel's heroine and have a more or less obvious connection to the surrounding context and thereby lend a clearly tragic tone to Callirhoe's situation. Both individually and taken together, however, they (...) have deeper resonances and introduce complex thematic interplay among child-murder, suicide, heroism, and redemption. (shrink)