The German scholar Hermann Usener (1834–1905) made an important contribution to nineteenth-century scholarship in the fields of philology and comparative religion. In order to recreate a picture of the religions of the Greco-Roman world he drew on elements from the fields of ethnology, phenomenology and hermeneutics. This four-volume collection of essays and reviews was published posthumously in 1912–1914. Volume 1 (1912) focuses on Greek philosophy and rhetoric, addressing such diverse topics as Theophrastus' books on the law, Epicurean sayings and ancient verse. It also includes contributions on Greek grammar and textual criticism, as well as reviews by Usener of publications by his contemporaries which provide fascinating insights into the lively intellectual debates of his time.
