Enigmas make for compelling puzzles because they inspire hope that fresh insights may be found through revisiting an enduring problem from a unique angle or engaging with diverse perspectives. This introduction briefly discusses the theme of 'enigmas' and their prominence across different disciplines and throughout time. Enigmas resonate with the processes and methodologies of research practices across the arts, sciences, and humanities, as is clear from the range of topics covered in the volume's eight chapters. Each of the chapters then receives a short introduction detailing the author's topic and main argument. Although some enigmas can, at first glance, seem to pose insurmountable challenges to humanity, the overall impression provided by this volume is one of hope. Even problems which initially appear overwhelming can be scrutinised, interpreted, and ultimately resolved.

The shape and form of boundary walls around and within Greek sanctuaries, and the impact those boundaries had on the experience of the ritual happening within, have attracted little scholarly attention, especially in comparison to work on the powerful impacts of other elements of sanctuary architecture, and architecture more widely. This article, using the case study of the high temenos walls and those of the Telesterion temple structure of the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, explores the active impact these walls had on particularly the sight- and sound-scapes engaged with by participants. As such it argues for the crucial importance of these walls at Eleusis in creating the intensity, emotion, power, and conviction of the ritual experience of the Mysteries for participants.

This concluding chapter discusses the similarities and differences between the Little Panathenaia and the Great Panathenaia and the consequences for the identities created at them. The Little Panathenaia was an inclusive, local event focused on the residents of the city, while the penteteric festivities were international and exclusive; consequently, creating the community of ‘all the Athenians’ played an important role only in the Great Panathenaia. At the annual festival, in contrast, the emphasis was on constructing identities for the residents within the context of the city and especially as members of various different groups and subgroups. The chapter then compares the Panathenaia to other festivals in Athens and Attica. It shows that the Panathenaia was not typical of the city’s festivities, but, in both forms, it was set apart from other celebrations by its size, its inclusivity and, in the case of the Great Panathenaia, its international character. The dynamics identified here cannot be used as a paradigm for understanding the politics of a major festival organised by the city. Each celebration must be understood on its own terms and situated within its larger context.

Clement’s theme of hiddenness is connected with mystery imagery, which was a widespread topos for imagining many kinds of ‘initiation’, not only in religion and philosophy but also in more text-based arts of reading, writing and rhetoric. Clement worked creatively with this imagery to compose a mystagogical curriculum in hidden listening, where miscellanism became important at the higher stages. He shapes his three works sequentially as a programme that trains Christians to listen in a hidden way, and ultimately equips them to miscellanise better than any heretics. In the Stromateis, he engages in contemporary controversies that have sparked debate about how to miscellanise well. For Clement, miscellanism will ultimately be judged by sensitivity to the nous or telos of Scripture; this depends on a person's doctrine of God, but also on her own ethical behaviour, which conditions her possibility of knowing God and on her prayerfulness and application, for only in love and gratitude towards the Creator and in the labour of gathering passages from Scripture, is it possible truly to miscellanise well, learning the mysteries from God himself.

Dialogue gospels are part of the wider network of texts and traditions that shaped early Christianity. This chapter offers examples of thematic and linguistic connections between the dialogue gospels and texts that came to be incorporated in the New Testament. These examples include the Johannine Farewell Discourse as a possible inspiration for the genre as well as specific links between John 13.31-17.1 and its non-canonical counterparts; links between the canonical resurrection appearances and dialogue gospels; and the Pauline influence, specifically the emphasis on the risen Jesus and the construal of the makeup of the cosmos. Common concerns include Jesus’ departure and its consequences, the nature of his resurrection, and how to overcome hostile cosmic beings that inhabit the space between heaven and earth. The chapter then looks at the shared themes of parables, mysteries and the question of who is worthy of receiving Jesus’ teachings. This wide-ranging demonstration of intertextual connections draws attention to the proximity of dialogue gospels and certain New Testament texts.

Chapter 1 looks at previous scholarly work on ‘dialogue gospels’ and offers a new group of 13 early Christian texts in which Jesus engages in dialogue with his disciples, answering their questions on the eve of his departure. Earlier classifications of dialogue gospels have varied widely, resulting in divergence regarding both what to call the genre and which texts are to be included in it. To construct a genre for the purpose of comparison, I argue for an inclusive and open understanding of genre. The 13 chosen texts demonstrate that the dialogue gospel form is not intrinsically linked to ‘gnosticism’ or any specific theology; that the narrative frame of the text and the dialogue are normally not two separate entities later glued together; and that the dialogical form is a fitting vehicle for eschatological revelation. This is followed by a preliminary comparative survey of main themes found within dialogue gospels: the saviour and eschatology. Dialogue gospels are comparable in that each is attentive to eschatological revelation, yet the revelations themselves are divergent. The overlaps and connections within these revelations demonstrate how problematic it is to taxonomize these texts into particular theological groups.