The volume contains 25 articles, 24 of which have been published already, whereas the final one appears in print for the first time. The articles revolve around a range of topics but can be divided into four groups: eleven focus on Plato, mainly on the early or the middle dialogues, three on Marcus Aurelius and three on the Presocratics. The fourth group is heterogeneous and includes articles on Cleanthes, Aristophanes, the figure of Prometheus, and the notions of science, medicine, human existence and cosmos in the Greek world. As D. remarks in the introduction, the topics and the characteristics of these articles reflect the interests he has entertained during the course of his academic career. The three articles on Marcus Aurelius are the result of an interest in this author that D. was already developing during his dissertation and that led him to edit a critical edition of the Meditations (printed in 1987 in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana series and reprinted in 2012).

In ‘Literarische Fiktion – Funktion von Literatur. Zum “Lysiastext” in Platons Phaidros’ D. uses the tools of philology to argue that the speech Phaedrus reads aloud in the dialogue is Plato's own creation. The difficulty of establishing the dramatic date of the dialogue is taken by him as a clear indication of the fictional character of the conversation between Socrates and Phaedrus. If the dialogue is not the factual report of a historic event but a literary product, it is plausible to find in it allusions to other literary works. D. proposes therefore to read the Lysias speech, and the Phaedrus more generally, as a piece of writing in which Plato engages in a dialogue with the leaders of the competing rhetoric schools, especially Isocrates and Alcidamas. Following this line, D. suggests that the popularity of erôs as a topic through which rhetoricians displayed their skills provides an answer to the long-debated question on the unity of the Phaedrus: a dialogue that contains a discussion of rhetoric and an evaluation of the benefits of writing can include three speeches on love precisely because love was one of the topics preferred by rhetoricians, as is already shown by Gorgias' Encomium of Helen. The interpretation of the Lysias speech offered in this article was innovative when this article was first published (1986) but it does not appear very original at the current stage of the debate.

‘“Ordentlich sein” und “das Eigene tun”. Platons philosophischer Umgang mit der Alltagssprache’ is an investigation into the origin of Plato's technical language. D.'s thesis is that some of the basic expressions of Plato's philosophical vocabulary are derived from everyday language. Moving from the analysis of some passages from the Gorgias, the Meno and the Symposium, in the first part of the article he shows that Plato modifies and further specifies the ordinary colloquial meaning of epithumein and boulesthai. In the second, D. traces the semantic modification that the expressions kosmios and do what belongs to one undergo when they are used in Plato's moral philosophy. If nowadays not many scholars would agree with D. that Aristophanes' comedies or Lysias' and Isocrates' orations offer a good example of the language commonly spoken in fifth- and fourth-century Athens (p. 386), his results remain very valuable in that they suggest a plausible hypothesis of how Plato created a technical vocabulary using non-technical words.

In ‘Lohnt es sich für die Menschen zu leiden? Der Mythos von Prometheus und einige seiner Deutungen’ D. analyses what the mythical figure of Prometheus has symbolised at different moments of European cultural history. If the Titan that steals the fire from Zeus and gives it to the men is greeted as the founder of civilisation by Hesiod and Aeschylus, early Christian writers tend to detect a tension between Prometheus' civilising influence and the creation activity of the Christian god. After a brief analysis of the portrayal of Prometheus in one of Goethe's poems, D. shifts his attention to the reception of this figure in the last century. At this stage he first explores the pessimistic reinterpretations given of Prometheus in the fields of psychology, psychoanalysis and pedagogy by Bürger, Bachelard and Siebert. He then contrasts them with the optimistic image observable in Camus' Prométhée aux Enfers. Finally, D. offers a brief survey of how Prometheus is revisited by some post-war writers from different countries. While the space dedicated to each of the authors treated is in some cases very short, the article has the merit of drawing attention to some otherwise little known reinterpretations of the significance of Prometheus.

‘Marc Aurel. Die Einheit der Philosophie und die Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis’ offers an introduction to Marcus Aurelius' philosophy. In line with the expectations formed in the title, D. seeks to emphasise the link among the three disciplines of the Stoic philosophical school. For this purpose he shows first the link between physics and ethics and then the link between them and logic. The underlining reason for the Stoics to establish a link between these three disciplines is, as he stresses, that this systematisation reflects the Stoic notion of a unitary cosmos. A second aspect that he emphasises is the almost private character of the Meditations. According to D. this becomes apparent in two ways. Several passages mention people to whom Marcus Aurelius feels indebted for their teaching; many of the maxims have the structure of a syllogism, the conclusion of which is an imperative exhorting the writer himself to act in accordance with it. The article gives a general presentation of the Meditations and its clarity and plain style render it pleasurable reading, especially for non-specialists.

Previously unpublished, ‘Wer weiß, was gerecht ist, ist gerecht and tut das Gerechte’ concludes this collection. Far exceeding the other articles in length (it is 85 pages long), this article focuses on the notion of Socratic Intellectualism and the modifications it undergoes in some of Plato's early and middle dialogues. D.'s basic assumption is that Platonic dialogues are fictional and their characters, including Socrates, modify their behaviour and attitude in accordance with the framework in which they act. Consideration of the ‘Rahmbedingungen’ (p. 479) is thus key to understanding why Socrates holds different positions in different dialogues. D. substantiates his claim by comparing the Gorgias with the Hippias Minor. In the former dialogue Socrates compels Gorgias to admit in front of a large audience that the rhetorician needs both to be a just man and to want to do just things. In the Hippias Minor, when the discussion takes place in the presence of only two interlocutors, both well-versed in philosophy, Socrates adopts a very different position and argues that the morally good man can also commit injustice voluntarily. Having showed that in the Gorgias and in the Hippias Minor Socrates adopts very different stances on ethical problems, D. proceeds to analyse the relation between virtue and wisdom in other early and middle dialogues, including the Charmides, the Republic, the Protagoras and the Laches. Despite the plain style of D.'s writing this article is not always easy to read. The transition from one argument to another is not always smooth and is often rendered more difficult by the insertion of long plot summaries. D.'s investigation focuses on an interesting subject but seems overly broad in scope. While investigating how Socrates modifies his notion of ethical intellectualism depending on dialogue-internal constraints could have yielded very fruitful results, consideration of a more restricted number of dialogues would have benefited clarity and thoroughness of analysis.

As usual for a collection of selected papers, this volume mainly comprises previously published articles. The time passed from their first publication renders some of D.'s articles less relevant to the contemporary debate. Other articles, especially the two on the interpretations of Prometheus, contain valuable contributions to current research.