The present volume is the seventh in a series deriving from the biennial Edinburgh Leventis Conference in Greek. The conference and the visiting research professorship with which it is associated are generously funded by a grant from the A. G. Leventis Foundation. Since 1999 this grant has given the Edinburgh Classics department the enviable luxury of being able to invite, every two years, one of the world's leading Hellenists to spend a semester in Edinburgh. The main event and principal public face of the Leventis Professor's tenure is of course the conference, devised and organised by the Professor on a theme of his or her choice, but each Professor has also made a very substantial contribution to the intellectual life of the department, especially through public lectures and seminars for students and colleagues. The seventh A. G. Leventis Professor in Greek, Ruth Scodel (D. R. Shackleton Bailey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Latin, University of Michigan), was no exception: throughout her stay Ruth played a full part in the department's academic and social activities. For her part, she is honoured to have served as the Leventis Professor, and was impressed by the engagement of her students and endlessly charmed by the city of Edinburgh.