K. complements the ever-growing bibliography on ekphrasis in ancient literature by applying a combination of a narratological methodology and philological skill to determine the degree to which a group of Archaic and Hellenistic epic ekphrases possess narrativity and ‘descriptivity’. These passages are The Shield of Achilles (Homer, Iliad 18.478–608); The Shield of Heracles (Hesiod, Scutum 139–320); The Goatherd's Cup (Theocritus, Idylls 1.27–60); Jason's Cloak (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.721–68); and Europa's Basket (Moschus, Europa 37–62). The book starts with two introductory chapters on scene-setting and methodological explanation, followed by Chapters 3–7 each focusing on one of the five case studies.
In the introduction K. positions his work among the broad body of scholarship on classical ekphrases and defines ‘ekphrasis’, ‘narrativity’ and ‘descriptivity’. K. uses the narrow, modern definition of ekphrasis over the ancient, broad definition of ekphrasis: ‘ekphrasis is the verbal representation of visual representation’ (p. 4), devised by J.A.W. Heffernan (Museum of Words: the Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery [1993], p. 3). K. uses this to specify the rationale for his case studies: he specifically chose ekphrases of objects that themselves bear figural representations. K. gives little rationale for his favouring of the narrow definition over the broad, especially in light of the ancient origin of the broad definition and his characterisation of the definitions as ‘one [the ancient] of the how versus the what [the modern]’ (p. 3), which seems at odds with the aim of his study: to find out ‘the way an object with a narrative depicted on it is represented in a text’ (p. 39). He also makes the argument to refuse the dichotomy that scholarship has built up between texts that are ‘descriptions’ and those that are ‘narratives’, instead arguing that ekphrases may have varying degrees of narrativity and ‘descriptivity’. However, in arguing for separate sliding scales for ‘descriptivity’ and narrativity, K. implicitly defines and reinforces ideas of narrative or descriptive purity that are not apparent in the ancient material, and D. Fowler's ‘Narrate and Describe: the Problem of Ekphrasis’, JRS 81 (1991), 25–35, argued against to great success.
Chapter 2 comprises a description of K.’s methodology, his two test cases and a rationale for his choice of case studies. The methodology is by far the most valuable element of this work: in particular, his distinction between the text and the image in his analysis. This allows him to make important distinctions between the text presented and the possible image of which the text is an ekphrasis. Importantly, he is able to differentiate between what was possibly represented explicitly and implicitly by the image: those things that it is possible to visually represent (bodies, objects, settings) and those that the narrator of the ekphrasis must be inferring during the viewing process (emotions, sound, movement). The methodology uses the tenses of verbs as evidence to determine the occurrence of descriptive or narrative passages within each ekphrasis. The test cases are used to debunk pre-existing assumptions within scholarship that certain texts are entirely descriptive (harbour of Phorcys and cave of the Nymphs, Od. 13.96–112) and also to measure more empirically the degree to which a text that has been considered a mix of narration and description exhibits each (Agamemnon's arming scene, Il. 11.15–46).
The subsequent five chapters take each of the case studies in chronological order. These chapters have the same structure (which I will outline here in order to focus on the specifics of each chapter below): ‘Introduction’ with minimal interaction with secondary scholarship; optional ‘State of the Art’ (a brief overview of existing scholarship on the topic); ‘Text and Translation’; an ‘Overview of Tenses’ as a tool with which to diagnose the presence of the descriptive or diegetic discourse modes; ‘Preliminaries’ to cover issues specific to a particular case study (such as Europa's Basket being the only image on a ‘woman's object’); optional section on the surrounding lines; subsections of the ekphrasis are analysed for their ‘descriptivity’ and/or narrativity of text and image in turn, with reference to the tenses of the verbs; ‘Conclusion’, where an overall degree of narrativity/‘descriptivity’ is identified for the whole ekphrasis; a ‘Visualizing’ section, where K. discusses how possible it is to visualise the subject of the ekphrasis, with reference (normally via secondary bibliography) to contemporary visual culture.
Chapter 3 on the Shield of Achilles has particular strengths in its incorporation of material culture studies, particularly contemporary depictions of narrative, though this chapter and the following ones do exhibit an overreliance on M.D. Stansbury-O'Donnell, Pictorial Narrative in Ancient Greek Art (1999). The validity of including a section in each chapter on visualising a fictional artefact should be somewhat questioned, for it risks oversimplifying the relationship(s) that ekphrases have with their subject and real objects. This discussion could have been theoretically bolstered with reference to W.J.T Mitchell, Picture Theory (1994), pp. 152–8, which, though present in the bibliography, is absent in all these sections.
Chapter 4 on the Shield of Heracles shows particularly well the tension between the opus ipsum (subject of the ekphrasis) and the res ipsae (the scenes and characters depicted on the object). This is particularly valuable due to K.’s differentiation between what could have actually been depicted in an image, and what is inferred by the fictional viewer/narrator of the ekphrasis (pp. 152–6).
Chapter 5 on the Goatherd's Cup shows the importance of the bucolic work that surrounds the ekphrasis, and is well grounded in its context within the Hellenistic era. The acknowledgement of genre also allows K. to engage with issues surrounding the narrator's voice in the ekphrasis – namely, from whose perspective this ekphrasis is being told, the goatherd's or Theocritus’? This topic warrants further discussion.
Chapter 6 on Jason's Cloak features contrast between the respective styles of ekphrasis in K.’s Archaic and Hellenistic case studies, for the first time in the book treating these varying creations in their dramatically different literary contexts. Yet this aspect receives little attention and is minimally expanded in the book's conclusion. One example of an opportunity missed for contrast between these two is the depiction of Aphrodite holding Ares’ shield (pp. 222–4) on the cloak; this opens up the discussion of the inversion of the shield as a subject of ekphrasis, transferred from a martial use in Homer and Hesiod to one of toilette in Apollonius.
Chapter 7 on Europa's Basket deals with possible intertextualities and adaptation of scenes from the literary canon to a greater degree than previous sections, especially in light of the focus on ‘women's objects’ and their use in other ekphrastic passages. Similarly, K.’s addressing of the language of thauma (pp. 241–2) is enlightening in this context, if somewhat belated in the book as a whole. When discussing the visualisation of the basket (pp. 243–6), much of K.’s interpretation is based on the size of the object, even though he admits that this is completely unverifiable.
This book is very useful for those already well acquainted with the associated bibliography on ekphrasis who wish to gain a specifically narratological or linguistic approach to the subject. That being said, given that the book consists of five structurally identical chapters on different case studies, it proves difficult to read on account of the repetitive form and also allows K. to glide over the comparative or thematic analysis of the case studies. The book is sparse in regard to its contextualisation of each ekphrasis within the wider work, the author's oeuvre or the contemporary culture of which it was a part, often using footnotes of only one scholar to represent areas of scholarship.
