Elizabeth Carney is justifiably renowned for having brought royal women to the forefront of scholarship on the Hellenistic period through her decades of erudite contributions in various dynastic contexts. Perhaps her most enduring contribution, however, is a deeper methodological approach which has shifted the scholarly gaze away from rigid institutions and towards personal relationships as a causative factor in the period. This Festschrift edited by Monica D’Agostini, Edward M. Anson and Frances Pownall is at once a worthy tribute to an eminent scholar and a compelling indication of just how lucrative analysis of interpersonal relationships is to the study of the Hellenistic period and beyond.

The editors have assembled an impressive group of contributors into a volume that is broad in its subject matter but consistent in its analytical approach. The introduction provides a fitting gratiarum actio while also making patently clear the benefits of considering personal relationships and affective bonds given the nature of Greek society. The oikos provides the organizational framework for the contributions that follow, which are divided into the ‘restricted’ oikos of the immediate family and the ‘extended’ oikos of extra-familial relationships that together characterize the Hellenistic court.

Familial affection and kingship are the ties that bind the first section of four chapters, in which D’Agostini’s contribution stands out for examining how Alexander built upon the relationships with his sisters that had been fostered by his mother to shore up his own family’s claim to authority while forming an ‘inner circle inside the basileia’ (32). It is certainly fitting to see the same questions that Ann-Catrin Harders’ Suavissima Soror (Munich 2008) posed about the Roman Republic brought to the Hellenistic palace. The subsequent memory of close interpersonal relationships is considered by Sulochana Asirvatham’s intriguing case study of Lanice, wet nurse of Alexander the Great, and her children who are the subject of two highly divergent ancient traditions.

The sheer variety of relationships that can be classed as within the ‘restricted oikos’ is evident in the other subsections to Part Iof the volume: marriages and family, and affection for animals. Sabine Müller’s chapter on ‘Barsine, Antigone, and the Macedonian War’ is a superb examination of how personal or clan relationships can weave among satrapal houses, officials, royal courts, civic communities and individual actors, as well as how the fate of these two captive women relates to the contemporary Macedonian sociopolitical background. Franca Landucci’s contribution on the family of Antipater highlights how fluid the divide between certain elite and royal families can be. Sheila Ager argues for the generally harmonious character of mother-daughter relationships in the royal families of the period through an examination of the lurid exceptions that prove the rule, mostly found in Justin’s epitome of Trogus.

Part II of the volume focuses on the theme of friendship within and beyond the oikos, and again the sheer diversity of affective bonds and personal relationships at play in these arenas is striking. Joseph Roisman notes that labelling someone as a ‘friend’ of Alexander can be something of a nebulous and misleading label meaning anything from a loose and intermittent association to a long-lasting confidant. The implicit power imbalance in ‘royal’ friendships and its complexity in the court are critical points here. Howe picks up this thread with a refreshing re-examination of Harpalus as an ambitious (but loyal) friend of Alexander who earned the ire of Athens. The personal relationships formed by the Alexander with the army and the court, both of which we would usually consider as ‘institutions’, are the subject of Anson’s reconsideration of the epigoni (Alexander’s units of eastern troops) and Pownall’s analysis of intellectuals at his court. The editors are to be commended for including a brief conclusion which unites the wide-ranging contributions of the volume by focusing on the headings of marriage, friendship and rivalry, and this along with their introduction neatly bookends the volume.

There is precious little to criticize here. The editing and typesetting are excellent, the volume as an integral piece of scholarship and a Festschrift is clearly the product of deep thought and reflection. Alexander perhaps figures too prominently as an implied paradigm when his court is in many ways exceptional, and perhaps how personal bonds were mediated through institutions such as proxenia (guest-friendship) or theōria (sacred embassies) could have been considered, but these are very minor points. The volume inspires as many questions as it provides answers but this is surely the sign of good scholarship, while its publication itself is a poignant testament to the endurance of interpersonal relationships among scholars even in the midst of the pandemic.