Vasileios Petrakos has made significant advances in Greek history and archaeology and stands as a strong advocate for the protection of Greek antiquities. To introduce this Festschrift, Kalogeropoulos outlines these distinctions, amongst others, with a fitting biographical account of Petrakos's life and contributions to the field to date, including a remarkable 20-page list of publications.

What then follows is a series of eighteen papers divided into three parts organised around Petrakos's major interests: ‘Epigraphy and Ancient History’, ‘Archaeology’ and ‘The History of Greek Archaeology’. The breadth of the volume is impressive, complementing the honorand's breadth of accomplishments. Chronologically, the material spans the Chalcolithic to the Roman periods as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century archival records. Attica unsurprisingly forms a major focus, including five out of six essays in Part 2, with Rhamnous (Petrakos's first visit, which the volume celebrates) appearing several times (in contributions by Tiverios, K. Fittschen, Kalogeropoulos, as comparandum in the essay by A. Chaniotis and as a starting point for C.B. Kritzas). The volume nevertheless achieves good geographical coverage, with chapters on the Carpatho-Balkan zone, ancient Macedonia, Aetolia, the Argolid, Aphrodisias, Samothrace, Eretria and Delphi, including sites where Petrakos spent several years. Thematically, the collection covers religious, domestic, funerary, social, architectural and material production contexts. Papers consequently draw on an admirably large range of sources: inscriptions, pottery production, vase painting, sculpture, architecture, topography, ancient literature, and drawings and diary entries of later travellers.

Another asset of the volume is its international character. The authors come from different countries producing a multilingual collection, with twelve chapters in English, three in French, three in German and two in modern Greek. There is also a strong emphasis on international cooperation. Part 3, in particular, celebrates the successes of partnerships between Greek and foreign archaeologists. This focus is welcome at a time when collaboration seems more crucial than ever to the success of the field, indeed reflecting Petrakos's own views against ‘archaeological nationalism’ and ‘“self-interested” individualism’ (p. liv).

As for the individual chapters, the approach and objectives of the essays vary enormously, from those that present a single body of data to those that more ambitiously combine different source material to address broader issues. The endorsement by the editors for more holistic methodological approaches, such as those favoured by Petrakos (p. v), is thus reflected in only some of the contributions.

Part 1 consists of nine essays loosely related to one another by the theme ‘Epigraphy and Ancient History’. Of these, some are largely descriptive: N. Kaltsas, for example, provides a commentary of a proxeny decree inscribed on a bronze plaque from the sanctuary of Elliniko at Molykreion, concluding from the form of the letters that it dates to the time of a certain general Dorimachos, most likely 219/18 bce. Other chapters essentially bring together bodies of data: Kritzas compiles phytonymic place names from fourth-century bce Argos, using literary and recent epigraphic evidence; D. Mulliez collates examples of private arbitration known from Delphi and attempts to nuance the procedures involved; D. Knoepfler brings together numerous epitaphs for non-Eretrians in Eretria. The paper, though essentially a dataset, also raises pertinent questions about the history of Eretria and the identity of peoples through geographical and historical interpretations of individual stelae. The number of Eretrian epitaphs has greatly increased since the honorand's publications in 1968 and 1974, as Knoepfler states, and there remains further scope to examine how the selection of inscriptions presented here fits into this broader corpus and enhances the current picture of foreigners in Eretria.

The most critically engaged chapters of the section are those that echo Petrakos's own intention as a scholar always ‘to clarify and resolve old problems before moving to new ones’ (p. xxxiv). As such, several authors reassess old material or rehash old debates. M.B. Hatzopoulos, for example, reconsiders a well-known passage from Thucydides (1.57.3–63). Rather than taking a purely philological perspective, he demonstrates the methodological value of combining historical geography and epigraphy to elucidate the events leading up to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. K. Clinton returns to Samothrace: he considers the special relationship between Samothrace and Athens, in part re-emphasising his previous comparative work on the Eleusinian and Samothracian mysteries, and on the nature of the preliminary myesis as a purification rite. The focus here is literary; regrettably, the archaeological evidence brought to light by ongoing American excavations receives only a cursory glance. Chaniotis revisits his own conclusions from 2004 and offers new interpretations of the honorific formula from Aphrodisias, ‘those who jointly built the city’, using archaeological and epigraphical evidence that has since come to light. He argues that this action was the organisation of an epidosis where citizens contributed to a subscription for city building, probably in the mid-second to early first century bce. By demonstrating how this action, represented through the honorific formula, contributed to the prestige of the citizens’ descendants many centuries later, this chapter raises important issues concerning the construction of social memory in Aphrodisias.

The remaining two chapters in Part 1 turn their attention to one of Petrakos's main interests – Hellenistic institutions of Athens – doing so through issues of gender (R. Parker) and foreign citizenship (M.J. Osborne). Parker sheds light on the religious experience of women in Hellenistic Athens, considering the visibility (and lack thereof) of women's religious activity in the available evidence, an approach that expertly combines evidence from archaeology, epigraphy, comedy and oratory. Typical of discussions of women in Greek religion, this is a traditionally Athenocentric study. However, Parker moves beyond overly simplistic gender-based correlations (priest for male god; priestess for goddess) – by no means a new observation, but an important one to reiterate –, instead considering how the choice of gender might relate to the specific nature of the cult and cult worship. The chapter, therefore, provides an understanding not only of the status of women in religion, but also more broadly of how different cults functioned in different ways. From women in Athens, to foreigners in Athens, Osborne reassesses the ‘conservative, if not idealizing, view’ (p. 159) that to be granted Athenian citizenship was rare and prestigious, reasserting his own position on an old debate that Athens became more open in its attitude towards new citizens in the late Hellenistic period. He uses the example of Menippos to demonstrate that citizenship was not always tied to a distinguished achievement (however we may define this) but, in this case, to Menippos’ role as a young theoros.

Part 2 consists of six essays focused on ‘Archaeology’, ranging from a technically detailed architectural account of a large Ionic capital found by Petrakos at Oropos (M. Korres) to a combination of literary and funerary evidence for mythical and ancestral cults (E. Greco). Again, the most thought-provoking contributions here are those that go beyond the descriptive. J. Maran disputes the claim that silver was not produced or used in the Aegean until the third millennium bce, arguing that reluctance to accept an earlier date stems from unhelpful diffusionist and evolutionist preconceptions. He examines an impressively large geographical area between the Carpathian Basin, the Balkans and the Iranian highlands and provides conclusive evidence of silver in the early fourth century, if not earlier. He astutely advocates for more multidirectional and dialogical models, which allows him to address some excellent questions on the development and dissemination of technology, on interaction, collaboration and adaptation of knowledge among interconnected societies, and on the presence of social inequalities. Meanwhile, Kalogeropoulos takes a ‘mesoscale’ approach in order to investigate cultural variation in Mycenaean Attica, a poorly known period of an otherwise well-documented region. This expands work carried out by Petrakos on Archaic to Roman Attica. The essay is an extensive and detailed comparative survey of 20 mesoregions and their archaeology from the Shaft Grave period onwards, which brings to light patterns and variations between different centres of power. Tiverios uses so-called Lenaia vases from the fifth century bce, as well as material brought to light by Petrakos, to understand the nature of the Lenaia festival in Rhamnous. Tiverios supports previous hypotheses that identify the Dionysiac festival depicted on the vases as the Lenaia. Specifically, he proposes that the festival involved a rite performed by female participants, possibly involving the purification of must. Tiverios's argument for the existence of two Lenaia, including one rustic, is convincing, while at the same time the chapter exposes the many possibilities of interpretation available for vase iconography. Finally, T. Stefanidou-Tiveriou wonders whether a sanctuary in ancient Myrrhinous, currently thought to have been of Artemis Kolainis, in fact belonged to Athena. She considers a marble relief (140–160 ce) from a fountain-house near the sanctuary depicting the myth of Philoctetes within its original context.

Part 3 is thematically the most cohesive section of the volume focusing on another of Petrakos's interests, the ‘History of Greek Archaeology’, through four essays: J.McK. Camp II describes the travels of Pomardi and Dodwell to Piraeus (Petrakos's birthplace) at a time when it was (uncharacteristically) one of the most deserted places in Greece; Fittschen presents some until now unpublished notebooks of Karl Otfried Müller (1840) about Marathon, Rhamnous and Oropos, as well as drawings by Friedrich Neise, also included here for the first time; J.L. Davis highlights the significance of the collaboration between Carl Wilhelm Blegen and Spyridon Marinatos; P. Ducrey shows how Petrakos's work has been influential and beneficial to Greek–Swiss collaborations. This section presents hitherto unpublished information and, more importantly, highlights the political and ethical factors involved in the study of Greek archaeology.

While the current organisation of the volume by evidence-type and chronology is logical in so far as the chapters are grouped by Petrakos's main areas of interest, thematically the collection (especially Parts 1 and 2) remains somewhat disjointed. Knoepfler's chapter on non-Eretrians in Eretria and Osborne's chapter on citizenship for non-Athenians would pair well, for example. Similarly, Tiverios and Parker on the ritual activities of women, as well as Clinton on the Samothracian mysteries have potential to speak well to one another. Attention to consistency of transliteration would further help to bring the book together as a whole, including with respect to the honorand's name, spelt Vasileios (front cover), Vassilios (e.g. p. 79) and Vasilis (e.g. p. 421). Despite the disconnect, the volume boasts a rich body of documentation and is generally well presented and well illustrated. The range of topics, periods and evidence means there will be something of interest to most scholars of Greek history and archaeology, and in particular those at postgraduate level or higher, as many chapters assume a certain level of prior knowledge. Overall, by focusing heavily on Petrakos's prominence in the field, the Festschrift both highlights the honorand's continuing influence in Hellenic studies and also brings to light the importance of expanding current work in new directions.