This volume has its origins in the conference
It is appropriate that both the conference and the Festschrift resulting from it should revolve around the theme of friendship (philia). The two honorands exemplify brilliant, ground-breaking scholarship combined with true humanity and generosity. They also represent a shining example of lasting philia in the often harsh world of academic scholarship. Over the past four decades, Chris Carey and Michael J. Edwards have opened new scholarly paths and achieved internationally recognized academic excellence and have also nurtured early career scholars and forged extensive networks of scholarship and philia that span Europe, the Americas, and the Far East.
Most of the contributors to this volume have cherished their own bonds of philia with the honorands and wish to maintain their relationship through ‘gift-giving’, that is, by contributing a chapter to the present volume as a small token of philia. In an unusual gesture, the honorands, too, have generously contributed chapters of their own.
The four co-editors wish to express their gratitude to all contributors for their patience and excellent co-operation through the lengthy gestation period of this volume. Some delays were inevitably caused by the pandemic. We are very grateful to Brill’s Editorial Board for embracing this volume, to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions and to our editor, Giulia Moriconi, for her advice and support at different stages of this project. We also wish to thank the copy-editor, Millie Gall, for her contribution to the completion of this project.
We have been very privileged to have worked closely with the honorands at different stages of our academic careers and have benefited enormously from their wisdom, scholarship, generosity, and friendship. We are pleased to be able to offer this collective labour of philia to Chris and Mike as a small token of appreciation, gratitude, and affection.
Athanasios Efstathiou, Jakub Filonik, Christos Kremmydas, and Eleni Volonaki
January 2023