Book Review| February 01 2016 Review: At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides' Hieroi Logoi, by Janet Downie Janet Downie, At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi LogoiNew York: Oxford University Press, 2013. pp. 1–223. ISBN 9780199924875 Raffaella Cribiore Raffaella Cribiore New York Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Rhetorica (2016) 34 (1): 106–108. https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.2016.34.1.106 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Raffaella Cribiore; Review: At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides' Hieroi Logoi, by Janet Downie. Rhetorica 1 February 2016; 34 (1): 106–108. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.2016.34.1.106 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentRhetorica Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2016 by The International Society for the History of Rhetoric. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints.2016 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Reviews Janet Downie, At the Limits ofArt: A Literary Study ofAelius Aristides' Hieroi Logoi New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. pp. 1-223. ISBN 9780199924875 In this book Janet Downie displays an expert and intimate understand­ ing of Aelius Aristides, the eccentric second-century rhetor from Asia Minor. She focuses in particular on his Hieroi logoi (HL) and the relationship between religion and rhetoric. In his concern with the divine, Aristides pushed the rhetoric of religion to its limits. Asclepius was his inspiration, his teacher, and, to some degree, his co-author, and was at the center of the HL, which Aristides considered the fulfillment of his obligation to this god. Yet the real protagonist of the work is Aristides with his failing body, his dreams, his cures, his performances, and his powerful self-assertion. Downie argues that Aristides' purpose is rhetorical, and he uses his narrative of divine healing to create a portrait of himself as a professional rhetor. Whether Aristides succeeded in this purpose, and was able to commu­ nicate his vision to his audience is a question which persists throughout the book, but, basically, cannot be solved. No reaction from Aristides' contempo­ rary audience has been preserved. It is puzzling that in his Lives ofthe Sophists Philostratus recognized the rhetor's craft but did not mention the religious character of his rhetoric, ignored the presence of Asclepius, and dismissed Aristides' talent because of his lack of improvisation. Apart from Libanius and some of his friends in the fourth century, later reception of Aristides and the HL was decidedly cool, and, in the nineteenth and twentieth centu­ ries, utterly disdainful. Downie attributes this to the fact that the HL were not read in conjunction with the rest of Aristides' work. It is uncertain whether she is right, or if generations of readers simply considered the work too eccentric and odd. A merit of Downie's book, in any case, is that it puts the HL in dialogue with all Aristides' writings, his orations and Hymns in particular, so that the whole of this challenging author is illuminated. One of the difficulties in approaching the HL as a coherent literary work is the discontinuity in its style. Book 1 is in diary form, and books 2-5 proceed thematically and have narrative aims. With great literary sensibility, Downie shows that the different styles derive from various and deliberate layers of composition intended to throw into high relief the combination of the divine voice with the human voice. Aristides' dreams are many and so vivid that Rhetorica, Vol. XXXIV, Issue 1, pp. 106-118. ISSN: 0734-8584, electronic ISSN: 1533-8541. © 2016 by The International Society for the History of Rhetoric. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: 10.1525/rh.20l6.34.l.l0b. Reviews 107 they make an impact on the reader. Discontinuity is typical of dreams and Downie links the unique language of dreams to Aristides' desire to suggest dreaming as a cognitiv e process. This reviewer does wish that Downie had taken briefly into account the dreams of the sons of Glaukias in Ptolemaic Memphis who lived and slept in the temple of Sarapis. Their words and expressions on papyri were those of common people and so they could have prov ided a useful comparison. Undoubtedly' the most disconcerting parts of the HL are those in which the author appears to further weaken his body by endless vomiting or dipping in frigid waters. Aristides knew7 contemporary medicine and the medical tradi­ tion and sometimes first consulted doctors who appear as rivals of Asclepius who triumphs at the end. Downie rightly remarks that this is the first instance in which an author revealed the illnesses and cures he personally experienced. Yet, we can surmise that these passages were the most repulsive to his contemporaries and may hav e been the cause of their disregard of the whole work. While Aristides sometimes is a patient passive in the hands of his doc­ tors and Asclepius, at times he has...