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Comments on Plutarch’s Essay On Isis and Osiris

[This “born digital” commentary has not yet appeared in print. This 6th edition is dated 08.28.2013. For previous editions, see the footnote.] [*] This compressed and selective commentary, with special reference to wording about the sōma ‘body’ of Osiris, features summaries, paraphrases, and quotations of Plutarch’s key formulations. I enclose within brackets ({}) my own interpretations wherever they concern matters that are not explicitly addressed… Read more

Curated Articles

Homer as Model for The Ancient Library: Metaphors of Corpus and Cosmos

§1. This essay treats the ancient library not so much as a place or institution but as an idea or concept – a Classical model, conveyed primarily by metaphors of comprehensiveness, completeness, and universality. Hence the words Corpus and Cosmos in my title. The focus is primarily on the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and secondarily on the Library of Pergamon in Asia Minor. I will argue that the Classical… Read more

Curated Articles

Foreword to Mothers in Mourning, by Nicole Loraux. Trans. Corinne Pache. Cornell University Press, 1998.

[In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{ix|x}” indicates where p. ix of the printed version ends and p. x begins.] In the poetics of classical Athenian tragedy, it is conventional for a woman to react to the death of a loved one by singing a song of lamentation. The representations of these mythical laments as performed… Read more

Curated Articles

Foreword to Born of the Earth: Myth and Politics in Athens, by Nicole Loraux. Trans. Selina Stewart. Cornell University Press, 2000.

[In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{vii|viii}” indicates where p. vii of the printed version ends and p. viii begins.] This new book by Nicole Loraux, Born of the Earth : Myth and Politics in Athens, [1] is a sequel to The Children of Athena: Athenian Ideas about Citizenship and the… Read more

Rudolph Hock, Introduction to the Snowden Annual Lecture Series

The Frank M. Snowden, Jr. Annual Lecture Series at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Rudolph Hock On November 21, 2003 Professor Snowden was honored at the White House as a recipient of the National Humanities Medal. The words with which he was introduced deserve repeating: “Frank M. Snowden, Jr., for a life of eminent scholarship, inspirational teaching, public service, and personal courage on behalf of civilization’s noblest ideals. A lion-hearted Classicist,… Read more

Curated Books

Der Begriff τέχνη bei Plato

Edited with a Foreword by Marco Romani Mistretta. Inaugural Dissertation for Doctorate submitted to the faculty of philosophy at Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel. Referent: Professor Werner Jaeger. Defended August 6, 1920; approved for printing December 2, 1922. Published here under a Creative Commons License 3.0. Read more

Curated Articles

Studies in the Epic Technique of Oral Verse-Making: I. Homer and Homeric Style

[This article was originally published in 1930 in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 41:73–148. The original page-numbers of the printed version will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{73|74}” indicates where p. 73 of the printed version ends and p. 74 begins.] 1. The plan of the study (p. 77). —2. The formula (p. 80). —3. The traditional formula (p. 84). —4. The formula outside Homer (p. Read more

Curated Articles

Signs of Hero Cult in Homeric Poetry

Originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry (ed. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis) 27–71. Trends in Classics Supplementary Volume 12. Berlin and Boston 2012. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {27|28} marks where p. 27 stops and p. 28 begins. Introduction to the main argument This essay centers on the ancient Greek practice… Read more