To state that motifs, characters and stories from the Homeric epics have had a continuous afterlife in texts and arts from antiquity to today is to carry owls to Athens. However, despite – or because of? – this towering influence, studies that undertake a holistic analysis of the reception of Homer are comparatively scarce. Even more scarce are such studies that incorporate both text and iconography. M. has taken this Herculean task on her shoulders: in her recently published monograph – the nucleus of which constituted her ‘Habilitationsschrift’ in classical archaeology at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena – she has tackled the reception of the Odyssey in late antiquity in textual as well as (notably) in iconographic sources. The result of this enterprise is a heavy volume of 359 pages (‘heavy’ to be understood in a literal and a figurative sense), which, I trust, will become a standard work and will be read and used by Classics scholars of all sorts with great benefit.

Following a table of illustrations that lists the images reproduced in the book (53 in total, all black and white) and a brief preface, the background of the study, its methodological premises and the time frame considered are laid down in an introduction. M. assumes a relatively broad definition of the term ‘late antiquity’ (‘Spätantike’), lasting approximately from 300 to 650 ce (the comparatively late ‘ending’ is based on J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City [2001]). As the main focus of the study, M. defines ‘[die] Rezeption der Odyssee in der bildenden Kunst des dritten bis siebten Jahrhunderts’ and, more concretely, ‘[die]jenigen Episoden, die von Bildhauern, Mosaizisten, Töpfern und anderen in ihrem jeweiligen Medium dargestellt wurden’ (p. 10).

The research questions at the centre of the study are straightforward: M. wants to ask ‘Was wurde rezipiert, wie und warum genau in dieser Form?’ (p. 12). Regarding the subject of reception, late antiquity appears to have been highly selective by having focused on the most popular scenes from the Odyssey that have a high recognition factor (and four of which come from the Nostoi): Polyphemus, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla and three scenes from Odysseus’ homecoming (i.e. Eurycleia washing Odysseus’ feet, the dog Argos and the recognition between Odysseus and Penelope). Regarding the modes of reception, M. identifies four relevant areas: first, the diachronic transformation of motifs, characters and stories from the Homeric epics to late antiquity; second, the differences between literary and iconographic reception; third, generic and sociological distinctions (i.e. the influence a specific medium and its context of presentation have on how a figure or a scene is presented); and, finally, differences between the Latin West and the Greek East.

The subsequent chapters look at those five subjects of reception that have been identified as having been most prominent in late antiquity. Each chapter is structured in an analogous manner: a summary of the Homeric account, followed by a presentation of the textual sources of reception (whereby Greek and Latin are consistently treated as separate areas), leads to the main section, which consists of an in-depth discussion of the available iconographic sources from late antiquity. It is of course impossible to summarise all the hypotheses M. makes, and all the conclusions she draws, in the course of her profound analyses (let alone to remake her arguments). I therefore select those of her findings that struck me as most salient.

The undoubtedly best-known and most-depicted character from the Nostoi was the one-eyed giant Polyphemus (Chapter 2). His late antique reception shows considerable differences between East and West: ‘[die] griechischen Texte sind vielfältiger, komplexer und kenntnisreicher in Bezug auf das homerische Original als die lateinischen’ (p. 54). However, when it comes to the visual arts, the result is the other way round: iconographic depictions of Polyphemus seem to have appeared only in the Latin-speaking world, whereas in the Greek world, the focus stayed on the literary reception (and transformation) of this popular Odyssean figure.

Along similar lines, Circe (Chapter 3) retains the complexity of her character (inherited from the Odyssey) in Greek texts, while she becomes more constricted, and is viewed primarily in negative terms, by Latin authors. In iconography, what is most striking is the change of the relation between her and Odysseus: late antiquity ‘inszenierte . . . eine absolute Überlegenheit des Odysseus gegenüber Kirke’ and depicts Odysseus as one ‘dessen pure Präsenz Kirke auf die Knie zwingt’ (p. 83). A comparable trend oscillating between a positive and a negative assessment can be found in Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens (Chapter 4) – the positive evaluation having been associated with a pagan reading, whereas Christian interpretations tend to be more negative. This trend goes along with an increasing concretisation and sexualisation of the Sirens, who in the Odyssey lack any form of description.

Regarding Scylla (Chapter 5), M. argues that there are more shared features than differences between textual and iconographic modes of reception, the most eminent being that ‘In beiden Medien kann Skylla auch losgelöst vom Kontext der Odyssee auftreten’ (p. 147). In turn, scenes from Odysseus’ homecoming (Chapter 6, pp. 149–204) often move away from the Homeric model, as ‘flossen auch Traditionen ein, die außerhalb der Odyssee stehen oder diese konterkarieren’ (p. 203). What is even more astonishing, though, is the scarcity of the known visual material: M. emphasises repeatedly that as few as seven iconographic depictions relating to Odysseus’ return have been preserved – as opposed to 195 scenes from the Nostoi (pp. 174, 203). Here one may wonder whether this misproportion mirrors reality or whether the hazards of transmission may also have played a role.

After the five main chapters, the study is supplemented by a brief conclusion (Chapter 7) and several, extremely useful, appendices: first, a list of the most important late antique textual passages that relate to the episodes discussed, including the Greek or Latin original and a German translation; second, a catalogue of the relevant iconographic material; third, a brief statistical overview of the scenes analysed; fourth, a comprehensive bibliography; and, finally, the indexes. Thus, the book can also be used as a reference work for those who may not wish to read it from beginning to end. However, given the high quality and the wide scope of M.'s study, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in the reception of Homer do exactly this: read this book from beginning to end.