Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology

An encyclopedic A-to-Z guide, this beautifully illustrated volume offers hundreds of rich, fascinating definitions of 700 major and minor characters, creatures, and places of classical mythology.

Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Delaware, this brilliant reference offers clear explanations of every character and locale, and captures the essence of these timeless tales.

From the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, to the heroes of the Trojan War, to the nymphs, monsters, and other mythical creatures that populate these ancient stories, Giesecke recounts, with clarity and energy, the details of more than 700 characters and places. Each definition includes cross-references to related characters, locations, and myths, as well their equivalent in Roman mythology and cult.

In addition to being an important stand-alone work, Classical Mythology A-to-Z is also written, designed, and illustrated to serve as an essential companion to the bestselling illustrated 75th-anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, including 10 full-color plates and 2-color illustration throughout by artist Jim Tierney.

Egy jól ismert mitikus elbeszélés arról tudósít, hogy Arión, miután egy szicíliai turnén sok pénzt keresett, hajón Korinthosz fele tartott. A hajósok szemet vetettek az énekes vagyonára, őt magát foglyul ejtették és arra utasították, hogy ugorjék a tengerbe. Arión teljes díszben, kitharáján kísérve előadta utolsó műsorszámát, majd hangszerével a kezében a tengerbe ugrott. Az énekest egy arra úszó delfin a hátára vette és a Tainarion-fokig vitte. A történet először Hérodotosznál fordul elő, utóbb Ovidiusnál is megjelenik. Hérodotosz a teljes történetet elbeszéli, a korinthoszi hajóúttól az Ariónt elrabló hajósokkal való szembesítésig. Egy több részletében is hasonló csodálatos történetről olvashatunk a dionűszoszi Homérosz-himnuszban. Néhány részlettől eltekintve ez utóbbival azonos a Kr. e. 6. századi athéni vázafestő, Exékiász külixének belsején a tengeren hajózó Dionűszoszt ábrázoló kép. Előadásomban a három ábrázolást hasonlítom össze.

El presente artículo ofrece al lector el conocimiento y el análisis de aquellas tradiciones elaboradas por diversos autores griegos sobre la fundación de Roma que, por diferentes motivos que también serán abordados, fueron desestimadas en el proceso que condujo a la confección final del mito que tiene lugar en época augústea.

Employing an anthropological perspective, I will focus on the idea of oblivion and its representation in Latin literature. Loss of memory 'creeps' into the human mind and is reflected in physical places. In fact, oblivion takes many metaphorical shapes: an interrupted sentence, an empty landscape, an unfinished town, an incomplete embroidery.

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary.

Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.

Without science, there had been difficulties in understanding the universe, nature, life, and humans and how they originated or created. Societies had tried to explain such cosmic phenomena by developing unique mythological stories.

In this study, the belief systems of ancient societies which settled on Anatolia and Aegean region, were discussed in general terms. The methods which they followed in order to explain the facts that govern the cosmos were defined.

The power struggle amongst the gods and their cosmic domination was explained; characterised by the gods of Ancient Greek myths Uranos, Kronos and Zeus, who seised power by overthrowing each other. The significance that had been put upon these gods was interpreted. To better understand the viewpoint of ancient societies, the Mesopotamian and Anatolian gods of Anu, Kumarbi and Teshub were analysed. The myths of these gods were examined comparatively.

This paper examines the evidence for the obscure Attic goddess Δάειρα / Δαῖρα who received cult in some Attic demes in an Eleusinian context. It is argued that this deity originally had nothing to do with Persephone, Demeter, Aphrodite, Hecate, or Harmonia with whom she is identified in some sources; instead, due prominence is given to the earliest mythographical sources according to which Daeira was an Oceanid (Pherecydes fr. 45 Fowler; Paus. 1.38.7) and a “watery substance”, ἡ ὑγρὰ οὐσία (Aelius Dionysius δ 1 Erbse  = BNJ² 368 F 1). Based on these testimonia, the name Δάειρα / Δαῖρα is etymologized as “the Lady of the Waters”: *δά ϝειρα ‘having δα-’ from PIE *deh₂- ‘water’ (Iranian *dānu- ‘river’), fully parallel to the name of Poseidon (*potei̯ dās ‘the Lord of the Waters’ > Ποτ(ε)ιδᾶς).

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

A Modern Greek translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" Book 8, made in 1994, containing the following mythological episodes: Minos & Scylla, Theseus & Ariadne, Daedalus & Icarus, The Death of Talos/Perdix, The Calydonian Boar Hunt, The Death of Meleager, Meleagrides, Perimele, Echinades, Philemon & Baucis, Erysichthon, Mnestra.

It is known that Polyxena, the daughter of Priamos who was the king of Troia and of queen Hecuba, was sacrificed on the command of Achilleus after Troian wars. This pathetic story, with its some different versions, took place in the narrations of antique writers who narrated Troian wars. The early sources about the story tell the forcible sacrifice of Polyxena in a tragic way. On the other hand, the late period writers converted the death of Polyxena into a love story and presented it as the marriage of Polyxena with Achilleus. The marriage and love version of the relationship between Polyxena and Achilleus may be seen until the Hellenistic period. When we examine the descriptions about the sacrifice of Polyxena on archaeological materials, we see that vase painters are loyal to antique texts. However, the source of sacrifice schema isn't known on Tyrrhenian amphora, protoattic crater and Polyxena Sarcophagus among these works. It is possible to determine the identifications of the figures that we see in similar schemas on these three works through Tyrrhenian amphora. Nevertheless, these names aren't seen in the narrations of the writers who told about the sacrifice of Polyxena. Thus it seems conceivable to search for the source of mentioned schema in the lost texts of Homeros.

The article provides a secular-critical investigation of the proposal that the the New Testament Gospel narratives were composed and read as authentic histories of ontological events in time and space. The essay draws conclusions, as a matter of heuristic, by way of critical engagement with M. David Litwa's recent, little-known monograph on the topic.

Like many kinds of popular entertainment, the opera of seventeenth-century Venice relied heavily on formulae. From the lamenting queen to the comic servant, creators had numerous stock characters and plot elements to draw upon, recombine, and vary almost endlessly. However, the genre’s daring treatment of sexuality often overshadows a significant stock character-trait: sworn chastity, the rejection not only of one specific courtship, but of sexual (and usually romantic) intimacy in general.

Characters that assert such convictions (particularly women, and most such assertors are female in these operas) stand firmly apart from societal norms. Yet, far from embodying a monolithic stereotype, these characters offer a wide range of perspectives on desire, charting diverse courses through their respective music-dramas as they attempt to reconcile their vow with the pressures of a world (and sometimes a person) that seeks to invalidate them.

This paper surveys some of the character-type’s most prominent incarnations, many of whom separate sex not only from romance but also from sensuous pleasure (partnered and otherwise), validating non-standard relationships in a manner strikingly evocative of twenty-first century asexual discourse. It examines both the origins and outcomes of such convictions, from necessity to fear to genuine disinterest, and from empoweringly happy to disturbingly ‘corrective’ and cautionary endings. And it interrogates the numerous ways in which the characters themselves portray their convictions, from the identity crisis faced by Diana upon realizing that she has fallen in love, to Penelope’s carefully cultivated (yet not necessarily dissembled) image as a perpetually mourning widow.

Trajan’s Arch in Benevento still holds many mysteries. I suggest a new interpretation of the female figure standing on the keystones of the Arch. Notwithstanding other considerations the predominant position itself demonstrates the importance bestowed on the force or divinity placed on top of each keystone, overlooking all the other images sculpted on the panels. It is almost certainly Nemesis, the Greek goddess of justice who had been imported into Rome to represent imperial justice and had specific ties to Trajan, the ‘just’ ruler.

This is a more elaboret and developped version of the first paper published in Polish : M.T. Olszewski, Uwagi na temat mosaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr), Menander XLII, 9-10, 1987, pp. 421-438 (translated to English : The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), see on academia.edu

The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; ; 3. Apollo and Marsyas; 4. The Dionysian thiasos; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
see also a new article: M.T.Olszewski, The iconographic programme of the Cyprus mosaic from the House of Aion reinterpreted as an anti-Christian polemic, in: Et in Arcadia Ego. Studia memoriae professoris Thomae Mikocki dicata, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2013, pp. 207-239, Pls 74-86.

How could we manage the Orpheus’ heritage? How to handle a voice that charms the wild beasts and the gods, moving the rocks and silencing the mermaids?
Apparently it’s easy: it’s enough turning back to look and deal with one’s own Eurydice. But the path is more mysterious and fraught with pitfalls than one could imagine.
This short summary about the birth of opera and the development of artistic voice through the centuries and history of music is described throughout half-serious reflections of a modern ”grandchild of Orpheus”. It begins from the ‘glottal stop’, that is the origin of the voice (and many other things), following through the multifaceted phases of the challenges and trials every singer has to experience to become an artist, and therefore deserving the heritage of the most famous singer of mythology.

The mosaic from Sheikh Zuweid on the western coast of North Sinai, discovered in 1913, as well as the mosaic brought to light in 1919 at Vinon near Aix-en-Provence in southern France had to wait until the end of the 20th century for scholarly studies to focus again on their iconography, but also their iconological program. It is the reading of this program that one can truly call sensational. The mosaic from Sinai consists of three panels: Hippolytus and Phaedra, a Dionysian cortege and an inscription surrounded with motifs referring to the fauna and flora of a Nilotic landscape as well as to iconography of the seasons of Spring and Fall. The mosaic from Vinon also consists of three pictures: Dionysus offering Ikarios the grapevine, the Three Graces and a panel depicting a voracious goat defiling the gift of Dionysus. Inscriptions accompany both the mosaics, in Latin at Sheikh Zued and in Greek at Vinon.
Numerous apotropaic symbols and inscriptions are known, but never before has a mythological picture been interpreted as apotropaic. The latest research has shown that the owners of the respective estates had chosen mythological themes in order to protect them and their property from the Evil Eye and Hatred. Dionysian motifs are associated with the putative function of the rooms, where banquets with music and dancing must have been held, and wine must have flowed in abundance. The allusion to the abundance of the Nile was meant to ensure the prosperity and wealth of the house, in similarity to the Dionysian motifs as a matter of fact. Dionysus, Heracles and Venus were patrons of the houses. The interpretation of the two mosaics takes advantage of studies in the field of the history of mentality of the communities standing on the threshold of post-classical times. At the same time, it constitutes a huge step forward in the understanding of this category of finds. The two mosaics confirm what Artemidoros of Daldis (2nd century AD) had to say about the status of pictures: that they could be synonymous in meaning (see: M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880).
See also: M.T. Olszewski, La mosaïque de style naïf de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï, Archeologia (Warsaw) 53, 2002, pp. 45–61, pls III+VI; M.T. Olszewski, Mauvais œil et protection contre l'envie dans la mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï (IV-Ve siècle), in: Paunier, D., Schmidt, Ch (ed. by), la Mosaïque gréco-romaine VIII. Actes du  VIIIe Colloque international de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Lausanne 1997 (2001), pp. 276-301.

La célèbre mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède, situé au nord-ouest du Sinaï, ainsi que celle de Vinon dans la Gaule Narbonaise ont été découvertes dans les années dix du XXe siècle. Depuis leurs mises à jour jusqu’à la fin du siècle dernier, elles devaient attendre deux réexamens scientifiques qui ont apportés une analyse iconographique plus complète ainsi que deux nouvelles lectures iconologiques que l’on peut sans doute considerer comme sensationelles !
La mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède est composée de trois tableaux superposés. Deux panneaux représentent des scenes mythologiques: procession dionysiaque et Hippolyte et Phèdre. La troisième image comporte une inscription de bienvenue bordée au-dessus et au-dessous d’animaux et de plantes; une allusion aux scènes nilotiques et à la symbolique printanière et automnale.
La mosaïque de Vinon est également composée de trois tableaux qui sont cependant juxtaposés. Ils représentent, au centre, les trois Grâces et deux scènes à caractère dionysiaques. Celle de gauche représente le don de la vigne (grappes de raisins) par Dionysos à Icarios et celle de droite, le sacrilège de la vigne par un bouc. Les deux mosaïques sont accompagnées par des inscriptions en grec et latin. Elles sont datées à la première moitié du Ve siècle.
On connais plusieurs inscriptions, images et symboles de caractère apothropaïque. C’est pourtant la première fois que des images mythologiques ont dévoilées aux chercheurs leurs sens prophylactique et apotropaïque. Les propriétaires de ces deux résidences ornées de belles mosaïques ont choisis ces thèmes mythologiques pour protéger et écarter le Mauvais Œil et l’Envie. Les sujets dionysiaques dans les salles à manger évoquent probablement des fêtes joyeuses arrosées de vin où la danse et la musique constituaient des éléments essentiels. Par contre, l’abondance nilotique évoquait sans doute le bonheur et l’opulence des dons de la Nature sur les tables de la maison; cette signification concernait certainement aussi les scènes dionysiaques. Les maisons ont été protégées par Dionysos, Héraclès et Vénus.
Pour interpréter ces deux œuvres, les auteurs ont utilisé des recherches sur “l’histoire de la mentalité” des sociétés administrées par les Romains. La lecture de ces deux mosaïques confirme ce que l’on vient de découvrir en étudiant le célèbre texte d’Artémidore de Daldis (IIe siècle) sur les images synonimiques (cf. M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880).
Voir M.T. Olszewski, La mosaïque de style naïf de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï, Archeologia (Warsaw) 53, 2002, pp. 45–61, pls III+VI; M.T. Olszewski, Mauvais œil et protection contre l'envie dans la mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï (IV-Ve siècle), in: Paunier, D., Schmidt, Ch (ed. by), la Mosaïque gréco-romaine VIII. Actes du  VIIIe Colloque international de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Lausanne 1997 (2001), pp. 276-301.

This article critically reexamines the origin of the name Palestine. The earliest occurrence of this name in a Greek text is in the mid-fifth century B.c., Histories of Herodotus, where it is applied to the area of the Levant between Phoenicia and Egypt.  Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century A.D., explicitly links this name to the land of the Philistines and modern consensus agrees with him. Yet, some 300 years earlier, the translators of the Greek Septuagint version of the Pentateuch chose Philistieim rather than Palaistinoi to describe the Philistines. In the earliest Classical literature references to Palestine generally applied to the Land of Israel in the wider sense. A reappraisal of this question has given rise to the proposition that the name Palestine, in its Greek form Palaistine, was both a transliteration of a word used to describe the land of the Philistines and, at the same time, a literal translation of the name Israel. This dual interpretation reconciles apparent contradictions in early definitions of the name Palaistine and is compatible with the Greeks' penchant for punning, especially on place names.

A very important inscription dated to the IInd century A.D. was found in Arycanda, recording the Athena Temple and the cult. From this inscription, it is evident that one of the temples dated to the Imperial period in the city may belong to Athena. These temples were excavated; the Sebasteion, the Theater Temple, the Traianeum, the Podium Temple and the Great Basilica. It is known that two of these temples were dedicated to the emperors from the inscriptions, the Traianeum and Sebasteion. The Theater Temple, the Podium Temple, and the Great Basilica have not as yet been identified as to which emperor and/or god they were dedicated. For this reason, some suggestions are offered concerning the identification of the Temple of Athena at Arycanda, taking into account the architecture of the temples and the inscriptions.

Caius Iulius Solinus, Latin grammarian and compiler from the third century AD, wrote a curious sentence in his work Collectanea rerum memorabilium or Pol-yhistor. Solinus in 2.51 called the Liburni, indigenous group that inhabited part of the northeastern coast of the Adriatic – " Asiatic people " (… per Liburnos, quae gens Asiatica est). The scholarship never took this statement seriously as its historical inaccuracy is beyond any doubt in both written and material evidence. However, the very same historical inaccuracy prevented a more substantial analysis of this statement in the scholarship, making it just one of (quite a) few of Solinus' bizarre statements. The paper will use available written sources to explore the reasoning behind this statement. The analysis will show that Solinus was not inventing fairy tales but was utilizing existing Graeco-Roman ethnographic 'knowledge' about this part of the world, and the Liburni in particular. This 'knowledge' was in its essence inter-textual and orientalizing, combining descriptive literary techniques and information gathered through different phases of cultural contact with indigenous population in order to construct a 'barbarian other'. The statement about Asian origins of the Liburni does not have factual accuracy but is still extremely useful as it reveals insight into some of the ways indigenous communities from the eastern Adriatic coast were perceived by the ancient Greek and Roman intellectual elite.

The book is available to order from: https://reichert-verlag.de/schlagworte/altaegyptischer_stil_schlagwort/9783954902439_ancient_engraved_gems_in_the_national_museum_in_krakow-detail

This book is a catalogue raisonée of a rich collection of ancient engraved gems housed in the National Museum in Krakow. It offers a thorough insight into ancient glyptic art through the considerable range of almost 780 so far unpublished objects – cameos, intaglios, scarabs and finger rings of various styles, workmanship and cultural circles: Egyptian, Near Eastern, Minoan, Greek, Etruscan, Italic, Roman, Sassanian and early Christian, dated from the second millennium BC to the seventh century AD.

Many pieces in this cabinet are notable not only for their top quality in terms of craftsmanship and design, but also for the materials used and engravings involving complex iconography illustrating religious beliefs, political allegiances, needs and desires that ancient people wished to be fulfill, fears, dangers and terrors from which they sought protection and even their daily occupations. The collection provides with a fascinating gallery of portrait studies presenting Hellenistic rulers and their queens, Roman emperors and members of their families as well as some private individuals. Some specimens are exceptional and unparalleled like the onyx cameo portraying Drusus Maior, likely executed by the hand of Eutyches, son of famous Dioscurides (cover) or a tiny but remarkably cut emerald cameo with a laureate portrait bust of Livia Drusilla as goddess Venus. Some objects have been preserved in their original settings (gold, silver, bronze, iron rings), which contributes to the study of ancient gems’ chronology and indicate their users, while others have been later re-set into eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors’ rings and sometimes more elaborated mounts. There are also pieces discoloured due to contact with considerable heat, which may suggest them to have been burnt with other personal objects on the funeral pyres and later deposited in burials. Noteworthy is the number of Greek and Latin inscriptions appearing on intaglios and cameos forming this cabinet. They span from owners’ names to the subtle messages communicated between lovers and invocations to the God.

Each gem is thoroughly analysed, described and exhaustively commented as to the device it bears, chronology and possible workshop attribution. A vast number of parallel objects is referenced too. This combined with provenance study presented in the first part of the book enabled to establish where a number of intaglios and cameos were manufactured, including almost 140 objects most likely to origin from the most important Roman workshop located in Aquileia. It ought to be singled out that many gems in this volume once constituted a part of distinguished collections formed by such personalities as Tobias von Biehler, Alessandro Gregorio Capponi, Auguste le Carpentier, Alessandro Castellani, Comte de Caylus, Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidoff, Baron Albert de Hirsch, Jean François Leturcq, Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen, Dr. George Frederick Nott, Benedetto Pistrucci, James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier), Paul von Praun, Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, Jacques Meffre Rouzan, Philipp von Stosch, Antonio Maria Zanetti and many more. They seemed lost for more than 130 years, but now have been brought back and are accessible to everyone. Consequently, the volume presents three intriguing stories of collectors whose donations contributed to the Krakow assemblage. They not only provide the reader with a sort of background for the objects discussed further, but also illustrate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collecting practices and the art market for engraved gemstones, contributing to our knowledge of the history of scholarship and collecting. In summary, this book is intended to be useful not only for scholars interested in gems, but also those who study the history of the art market and collecting as well as all the enthusiasts of Classical art and archaeology.