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The introduction of the dissertation addresses the place of the Aspis in the context of Menandrean comedy, the plot characters, the role of the divine agent, the reference to, and role of, Attic law, the sources of the text, the title of the play and the date of its composition. Special attention is paid to the portrayal of the cunning slave (Daos), whose literary character is unique in Greek New Comedy, and also to the new information the play provides about Attic law, especially inheritance law. The commentary following the introduction is based on a reexamination of the relevant papyri. The notes review Menander's place and achievement in the evolving tradition of Greek comedy, his techniques of characterization, his use of other literary genres, especially tragedy and philosophy, and his influence on Hellenistic and Latin literature, in particular Latin Comedy. Throughout the dissertation, particular emphasis is laid on Menander's language. I compare Aspis' language with that of comedy, tragedy, prose and the contemporary colloquial speech. Moreover, I explore the relationship of Menander's language to both Attic and the koine, a relationship which is of particular interest since the only comprehensive study of the problem dates back to 1913 (D.B. Durham The Vocabulary of Menander, Considered in Its Relationship to the Koine. Princeton).

This dissertation is a Commentary on Solon's Poems (elegiacs and tetrameters; the iambic trimeters, though taken into consideration for the examination of the rest of the poems, are not given a detailed commentary). Solon's poetry is studied mainly from a literary point of view; it is compared with the language and vocabulary of his predecessors Homer, Hesiod, and the other lyric poets of his age. The study attests the influence of Solon's language, content, motives, and ethical / political ideas on his lyric successors, on Aristophanes and the tragedians (above all Euripides who specifically appears to share the ideology of the polls and the heightened consciousness about civic affairs which emerged in the Athenian community under Solon) as well as the coincidence between Solon's ethical statements and the topoi of the language of the inscriptions. This is not a historical Commentary; the connections of Solon's poetry with his Laws as well as with the historical situation of his time and the reforms he sponsored are taken into consideration only when they are useful and rewarding in the answers they provide for the interpretation of the Solonian poetry. The emphasis of this work is on Solon's poetry as a work of Literature and on Solon's poetic achievements. The close examination of his poems reveals his creativity, his artistry together with his view of the process of poetic composition as technical making and his focus on his craftsmanship as a tool for his profession as a politician and as a statesman.

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This thesis examines the presentation of incest in selected texts in the Metamorphoses of Ovid and in the tragedies Phaedra and Oedipus Rex of Seneca. Previous scholarship has discussed incest in Roman literature from various perspectives, especially those of social history and literary criticism. This work offers for the first time a detailed study of the incest episodes in Ovid and Seneca, taken as a distinct group, and discusses questions relating to the main general themes, and, especially, the psychological and ethical dimensions of incest. It examines these topics through a close reading of key passages from the texts, taken in the context of the overall character of these literary works as well the broader context of Roman thinking about incest. The thesis identifies shared features in the treatment of incest in Ovid and Seneca as well as defining salient differences between them in these respects. It also considers whether there is anything distinctive in the presentation of incest in these authors when compared to the presentation of intense and problematic passions in these authors. The discussion brings out certain general features of incest in Ovid and Seneca and places these features in the broader context of ancient thinking about incest in Roman culture. The discussion highlights the fact that incest is seen by Ovid and Seneca as a type of erotic passion; this is partly linked with the importance given by these authors to the psychological and ethical dimensions of incest. Both Ovid and Seneca focus especially on exploring and trying to explain the nature of the psychological motivation to commit incest. This study also highlights salient differences between Ovid and Seneca in their interpretation of incest and explains these by reference to possible literary or philosophical influences and the distinctive poetic and intellectual projects of Ovid and Seneca. The most important point of difference between Seneca and Ovid in their treatment of incest consists in their approach to the moral status of incest. Seneca's presentation is strongly moralistic (though combined with a profound interest in the psychological roots of incest), while Ovid's approach is usually sympathetic to the incestuous lovers and is sometimes subversive of conventional ethics, especially through its treatment of the manipulation of names

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This dissertation explores Aischylos' telling of myths from the Trojan cycle. Aischylos worked extensively on the story of the Trojan War in his lost corpus. He came across the stories in epic songs and brought them from epos to theatre, some of them for the first time. However, although his material came primarily from the Epic Cycle, he also drew on other sources such as Hesiod, lyric poetry and early tragedy. His reception of the stories was not passive. Aischylos endorsed but also adapted and sometimes rejected elements that he found in the earlier tradition and by doing so he reshaped many of the stories. Though the texts are long since lost, we can still detect many innovations in Aischylos' treatment of the Trojan war. The new elements that he inserted have various functions and objectives. Some may have served to minimise the distance between the mythical world of epos and that of his contemporary audience, with adjustments to the myth to make it conform to the value system of his own era and reflect ideas, social structures and politics of fifth century Athens. Some changes are meant to increase the tension in the stories and make them more shocking in order to generate stronger feelings among the audience. Passion, pain and loss were magnified to serve the purposes of the poet where needed. Aischylos' creative re-writing of one of the greatest and most famous stories in antiquity made an impression on fifth century Athens, as its reception in literature and art in general suggests. His impact on subsequent tragedy in particular, both Greek and Latin, is evident though individual poets reacted in different ways to his work, his influence could not be ignored.

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