sometimes with their neighbors, sometimes with their guests. Though Neoptolomus and Nivek have given up the search for the phallos, because of their friends’ interest in that object they are almost as greatly plagued by its possible existence — or non-existence — as they were before. The novel concludes when Neoptolomus's rich Roman patron dies, and Neoptolomus and Nivek return to Syracuse to take over Neoptolmus's late father's lands, using some of the money that his patron has left him. Meanwhile, Neoptolomus has generously sponsored a young goatherd, Cronin, with a commission in the army, as Neoptolomus himself had been sponsored in his youth; and Nivek has just invited a sexually interesting farm worker, Aronk, to come and work for them — because he realizes that Neoptolomus finds him attractive. In a scene in which the two men embrace in an acceptance of the cyclic, yet unpredictable, nature of life, the novel proper ends. The commentary from the triptych of the editor and his friends, however, goes on. In another footnote Binky points out Pederson's tendency in his synopsis to downplay any racial tensions dramatized in the book. Phyllis has the last say, pointing out in her final note an equally misogynistic streak in Pederson's selection of the materials he has included (and, even more so, left out), so that the final word we read in the text is her accusation against Pedarson of subjecting his version of the book to a certain order of "castration". Publication history The original 2004 edition of Phallos was published by small press Bamberger Books. The 2013 "enhanced and revised edition," published by Wesleyan University Press, was edited by Robert Reid-Pharr and includes scholarly essays by the editor, Steven Shaviro, Kenneth James, and Darieck Scott. Reception In Literary Hub, Ian Dreiblatt recommends Phallos on a list of modern fictional works on the ancient world, praising Delany's use of "polyphonic form to exhilarating effect, foreshortening the distances between ancient character and modern reader while meditating on pursuit, mystique, textuality, and, indeed, dick." Sources References 2004 American novels 2004 fantasy novels American novellas Novels by Samuel Delany Novels with gay themes 2000s LGBT novels 2004 LGBT-related literary works