Through the generosity of the Leventis Foundation the Department of Classics at Edinburgh University was able in the session 1998–9 to initiate a biennial Visiting Research Professorship in Greek. The first holder was Professor Brian A. Sparkes.

Under the terms of the endowment it was laid down that a conference was to be arranged during the residence of each Visiting Professor. The subject chosen for the first conference was ‘Word and Image in Ancient Greece’ and this was held in Old College, the University of Edinburgh, on 5 and 6 March 1999 (see pp. 247–8). The present volume comprises the reworked papers delivered at the conference in the order and under the headings into which the four sessions of the conference were divided. We are grateful to the speakers for the speed with which they were willing to translate their spoken words into written texts.

Thanks are owed to the many helpers (lecturers, postgraduates and undergraduates) who assisted on the two days of the conference. For the present publication the Department of Classics and the editors are grateful once more to the Leventis Foundation for their generous subvention. We also owe a particular debt of gratitude to the commissioning editor, John Davey, to James Dale of Edinburgh University Press, to our efficient copy-editor, Fiona Sewell, and to Barbara Hird, indexer, as also to our anonymous adviser.

As usual, it has proved impossible to be consistent with the spelling of Greek proper names throughout the various chapters. However, we have striven for consistency within each individual contribution.

Acknowledgement for individual help and for the provision of illustrations is given in the list of illustrations (pp. ix–xi) and in the separate chapters. We also wish to record our thanks to Andy Vowles, of the Cartographic Unit at the University of Southampton, for his expert advice on the prints.