New Themes and Styles in Greek Literature, A Title Revisited Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford Some years ago I published a paper with the title ‘New Themes and Styles in Greek Literature, 7th and 8th Centuries’. [1] Readers commented in response that some of the characteristic literary types I pointed to were not in fact new; for example, dialogues, questions and… Read more
The Dynamic Reception of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the Sixth Century: Greek, Syriac, and Latin Adam H. Becker, New York Univesity The dynamism of Greek literature in late antiquity is evident in its broad and at times rapid dissemination into Latin and the multiple new literary languages that came into being concomitant with, and often under the influence of, Christianization. [1]… Read more
Apollonius of Tyana in Late Antiquity Christopher P. Jones, Harvard University Apollonius of Tyana, the itinerant Pythagorean of the first century, exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of later centuries. The fullest expression of this is to be found in the biography of him that Philostratus of Athens wrote approximately in the 220’s CE. Philostratus’ Life is in part a symptom and in part a… Read more
Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica as Literary Experiment Aaron P. Johnson, University of Texas, Austin I Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica is a masterful work that defies easy categorization. Written between 314 and 324, soon after Eusebius had become bishop of the metropolis of Caesarea in Palestine, its fifteen books offered a sustained critique of Greek thought by the formidably erudite librarian and scholar. [1]… Read more
Instruction by Question and Answer: The Case of Late Antique and Byzantine Erotapokriseis Yannis Papadoyannakis, University of Birmingham In this contribution I would like to discuss and problematize the literary process of instruction by question and answer. This process is integral to a very little-studied body of literature, that of the question-and-answer or otherwise known as erotapokriseis in late antiquity but also to the literary form… Read more
Rhetorical and Theatrical Fictions in Chorikios of Gaza Ruth Webb, Birkbeck, University of London; Université de Paris X–Nanterre The surviving works of Chorikios of Gaza encompass the main genres of post-classical Greek rhetoric. He is probably best known for his panegyrical descriptions of two churches in Gaza containing some of the most prominent early examples of the ekphrasis of church buildings. [1]… Read more
Writers and Audiences in the Early Sixth Century Elizabeth Jeffreys, Exeter College, Oxford This paper takes as its starting point three passages that have to do with Helen of Troy and her seducer Paris: Ἐν δέ τοῖς χρόνοις τοῦ Δαβίδ ἐβασίλευσεν τοῦ Ἰλίου, ἤτοι τῆς Φρυγῶν χώρας, Πρίαμος, ὑιὸς Λαομέδοντος, ἐν δὲ τῇ αὐτοῦ βασιλείᾳ τότε καὶ τὸ Ἵλιον καὶ τὸ Δάρδανον καὶ ἡ Τροία… Read more
The Hellenistic Epyllion and Its Descendants Adrian Hollis, Keble College, Oxford In a volume dedicated to the Greek literature of late antiquity and the early Byzantine period it may seem strange to start this contribution from Alexandria in the third century BC. Yet many have sensed a certain community of spirit between Alexandria and Constantinople, and my purpose here is to trace one of the most… Read more
Part Two. A preclassical Homer from the Bronze Age A working definition of the Bronze Age II§1 Just as I redefined the Dark Age in Homeric terms as a transitional phase leading up to a notionally terminal phase of Homer the Classic, I now redefine the Bronze Age as the corresponding initial phase. In Homeric terms, this initial phase of Homer the Preclassic is marked… Read more
Chapter Six: Variations on a theme of Homer II 6ⓢ1. Rival datings of Homer II§6 In the Life of Homer traditions we find explicit references to the dating of Homer, linked directly to the dating of the Trojan War. In Vita 3a (25–44), which draws upon Book 3 of Aristotle’s Poetics as its source (F 76 ed. Rose), it is said that Homer was conceived… Read more
