This one-semester seminar series investigates current research and methodologies in comparatism, a key issue in Classical Studies, both within the ancient Mediterranean and more broadly. Read more
A poetic botany? My research aims to answer three interrelated questions: What did the botanical knowledge of the archaic and the classical Greek era look like? How and why did it offer Greek authors of the time convenient ways of thinking (analogically) about other aspects or areas of experience and speculation, such as the body, kinship ties, or society? Ultimately, may all this help us understand how archaic and classical… Read more
“In the Iliad, the relationship of Mērionēs and Idomeneus plays a peripheral role as compared to the central relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. As we shall see, the behavior of Mērionēs and Idomeneus towards one another is a variation on the theme of the heroic relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. The Iliad also describes the relations of gods and men. The antagonism of Akhilleus and Apollo is set against the backdrop of gods… Read more
Michael Herzfeld (Harvard and Leiden Universities) on the role of hierarchy in modern democracies and their lien on ancient pasts. Read more
Translated by Gwenda-lin Grewal © 2006, 2018 ECHECRATES PHAEDO [1] {57a} ECHECRATES: You yourself, Phaedo, were you present with Socrates on that day on which he drank the poison [2] in the prison, or did you hear from someone else? PHAEDO: I myself, Echecrates. ECHECRATES: So then, what exactly is it the man said before his… Read more
General Editor: Gregory Nagy Executive Editors: Keith DeStone, Sarah Scott Production Manager, Center for Hellenic Studies: Noel Spencer Production Editor, HarvardX: Sarah Scott A collection of open-source English translations of Classical texts for use with the EdX course The Ancient Greek Hero. Download in other formats: epub, mobi, PDF. Read more
Despite the limitations of COVID-19, the CHS continues to recognize and support artists in all media whose work engages with ancient Greek culture. Over the next six months, the CHS will share profiles of the 2020-2021 cohort of CHS visiting artists. Matteo Tarasco is a theatre director who has extensively engaged with ancient Greece in his career. Among the most innovative and significant contributions is his investigation of myth from the female… Read more
Greek Poetry, Jewish Poets: Contextualizing Jewish Writings as Post-Classical Literature As a fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, I am working on a project entitled Greek Poetry, Jewish Poets: Contextualizing Jewish Writings as Post-Classical Literature. I focus on situating Jewish poetry in Greek both within the world of Hellenistic literature as well as within our understanding of Second Temple Judaism. The study of Jewish literature in Greek is a thoroughly… Read more
The Hellenistic Stoics defend a striking combination of claims within their physics, some of which appear to be in tension with others. First, they argue that only bodies can be causes, and all processes and conditions in the natural world result from bodies making contact with each other. However, they also maintain that an omnipresent God exists, and he crafts the world to be as good as possible. Thus, God… Read more
This book is about Salentine Greek—or simply Griko—a language of Greek origins transmitted orally from generation to generation in Salento, in the Apulian province of Lecce, the ‘heel’ of the boot of Italy. Its pool of speakers started shrinking after the contact that had once existed with Greece receded in the fifteenth century; interestingly, ever since the Italian linguist Giuseppe Morosi ‘discovered’ Griko in the middle of the nineteenth century, the… Read more
