I wrote most of this book over the past seven summers. Each fall I have returned to classes, where the tolerant smiles and glazed eyes of my freshmen students quickly reminded me that the relevance of the Greeks can easily be lost on the uninitiated – and the scholar. I am fortunate to have spent my academic life teaching bright undergraduates who, with a little coaxing (okay – sometimes with a lot of coaxing), have often joined me in exploring these ancient texts. I thank them.

More pragmatically, I am grateful to two classical journals for permission to publish here revised versions of previously published articles. Part of Chapter 2 appeared as “Telemachus pepnumenos: Growing into an epithet,” in Mnemosyne 54 (2001) 129–57. Chapter 5 is largely based on “Disentangling the beast: Humans and other animals in Aeschylus' Oresteia,” in JHS 119 (1999) 17–47. The editors and anonymous referees involved in these publications were extremely helpful. Santa Clara University generously awarded two of my students summer grants to check references and help create the index. I am much indebted to the University and especially to Tom Garvey and Christine Lechelt.

Several colleagues and friends have offered perceptive insights on individual chapters: Walter Englert, Michelle McKenna, Helen Moritz, William Prior, and Gail Blumberg. Nora Chapman, Mark Edwards, and Victor Hanson read the entire manuscript when it was still a rather unattractive adolescent. Lisa Adams loaned her acumen and acute editorial eye to the penultimate draft.