Formularity, or the poet’s reliance on prefabricated linguistic features in the composition of his verses, has been the most debated feature of Oral-Formulaic Theory. This chapter reviews the history of Homeric formularity (Part 1), while introducing new key insights from the fields of linguistics (esp. usage-based linguistics, corpus linguistics, and language acquisition studies) and the cognitive sciences (Parts 2-5). Parts 2-3 argue that formularity is a general feature of human language and cognition. Homer’s formularity is quantitatively notable, however, in that it involves sequences that are particularly long when compared to repeated sequences in corpora of both contemporary written or spoken English and ancient prose and hexameter authors. This is interpreted as a sign of Homer’s extreme mastery of his medium, which was arguably necessitated by the oral-improvisational nature of the task. Part 4 develops a new theory of Homeric formularity, borrowing insights from connectionism, lexical priming, and construction grammar, and introduces fine-grained distinctions between conceptual associations, collocations, constructions, metrical constructions and structural formulas.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation (approximating English iambics) of the sophisticated poem, preserved in its entirety under the title Oikoumenes periegesis (Guided Tour of the Inhabited World), which was written in skilful Homeric hexameters by Dionysios of Alexandria between AD 130 and 138. The chapter introduction establishes the date of the work, which includes a tribute to Hadrian’s companion Antinoös, and its relationship to other possible works by Dionysios. Its sources may include Strabo, though it is difficult to sift Strabo’s geography from that of his sources. The poem—Hesiodic in conception, Homeric in language, with many echoes of hellenistic poets—is mostly framed in terms of west–east movement, with a north–south progression within each part of the oikoumene. It remained popular in literate society between the 4th century and the late Middle Ages, being translated into Latin twice, copied frequently, annotated intensively, and printed in Greek as early as 1512. The translation replicates the acrostics within the poem, including a fourth one newly discovered.

Exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy increases the risk of which of the following?

This chapter introduces our stress response system and how it works in the sprints of life. Under the best of circumstances and when we are in the pink of health, our stress response system functions like a finely conducted orchestra, and we hardly notice what a marvel of orchestration we live by. Herbert Benson’s studies in the 1970’s of the physiology of transcendental meditation paved the way for the Mind Body Institute and others to practice approaches retraining dysregulated stress responses. A discussion of the distinguishing features of our stress response system leads the concept of allostasis or the cumulative burden of stressors across a lifetime—a measure of the wear and tear of life.

This chapter presents a new annotated translation (in loose English iambic pentameters) of the two surviving passages of a didactic poem by one Dionysios son of Kalliphon (early to mid-1st century BC), describing mainland Greece and the Aegean in coastal sequence. The chapter introduction evaluates the evidence for the poem’s date, the Stoic influences upon it, and its debts to Artemidoros and Apollodoros; and offers new prosopographical evidence suggesting that the poet was born into intellectual circles at Athens. The work–perhaps a private tribute to an Old Greece that was being overwhelmed by Roman power–left no discernible legacy and has excited surprisingly little scholarly interest. The translation replicates the acrostic that identifies the author’s name.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the philosophical treatise Peri kosmou (often known by the Latin title De mundo), written in approximately the 1st century AD (a much-disputed date) and preserved among the works of Aristotle. The chapter introduction emphasizes the literary polish of the work, and the remarkable way in which it draws accurately upon a late hellenistic understanding of geography, the earth sciences, and cosmology in order to sustain its open-minded, but fundamentally Aristotelian and anti-Stoic, theological position and stimulate readers to immerse themselves more deeply in its philosophy.

This chapter concerns the use of manual gestures in human–computer interaction (HCI) and user experience research (UX research). Our goal is to empower gesture researchers to conduct meaningful research in these fields. We therefore give special focus to the similarities and differences between HCI research, UX research, and gesture studies when it comes to theoretical framework, relevant research questions, empirical methods, and use cases, i.e. the contexts in which gesture control can be used. As part of this, we touch on the role of various gesture-detecting technologies in conducting this kind of research. The chapter ends with our suggestions for the opportunities gesture researchers have to extend this body of knowledge and add value to the implementation and instantiation of systems with gesture control.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments (mostly from Pliny the Elder) of various works by Augustus’ client king Juba II of Mauretania (active c.27 BC–AD 23/4), selected with a focus on geographical material. This is the first such collection of his geographical writings. The chapter introduction emphasizes his links with the former Ptolemaic dynasty through his queen, Kleopatra Selene (daughter of Mark Antony and Kleopatra VII), links which the royal couple kept up through iconography and patronage within their kingdom. Juba’s outstanding literary output can be seen as another reflection of this connexion, aimed at integrating Mauretania into the Greco-Roman cultural sphere and conferring distinction upon the kingdom. His geographical writing embodied travels and researches extending as far as Egypt and western Asia, and was based on a close appreciation of earlier writers including Agatharchides (Chapter 15 of this volume). His wide-ranging cultural and scientific interests are well represented in the extracts, particular highlights being the course of the Nile (believed to have its source within Mauretania), the fauna of the Canary Islands, and the discovery and naming of the plant family Euphorbiaceae, the spurges. A new map illustrates the range of Juba’s geographical interests, spanning the whole longitudinal range of the Roman empire south of the Mediterranean.