Recensione a: B. Putz, The Symposium and Komos in Aristophanes, Warminster, Aris & Phillips 2007.

The book under review is the final result of a series of editorial phases. First, there was a Ph.D. thesis written between 1997 and 2000 at the University of St. Andrews under the supervision of Stephen Halliwell; the thesis was then revised and published in 2003 by Metzler in the series Drama: Beitraegen zum antiken Drama und seiner Rezeption. In 2007 that book underwent another revision and gave birth to a second, ultimate edition. The purpose of the book is made clear in the Introduction. The author has looked at the symposium and komos in Greek comedy (mainly Aristophanes, but also a good number of relevant comic fragments have been taken into exam) from two viewpoints: she has considered the use of these forms of celebration either to help shape the plot of a play or to depict some characters, and has discussed the information found in comedy on some practical sympotic matters. As to the two moments taken into consideration by the author, the first was the formal drinking-party which usually took place after a “deipnon”; the second was the procession of revellers which usually took place after a symposium. Although it is usually quite difficult to define and divide these moments, the author gives them two different and separate treatments.