Archive

A Letter from Dale Sinos

back Dear Greg, Happy birthday and best wishes as you reach an august age. I am not so far behind you in years and so we can remember a few highlights of a couple of young men in Baltimore in the mid-Seventies. I was lucky enough to have you as my dissertation director at Johns Hopkins during your relatively short time there. It was not every director who would… Read more

From Greek Lyric to Rap Song: A New Swiss Sappho? (An Impertinent Comparison)

back Claude Calame, Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales; translation by James Kierstead, Stanford University Comparative analysis has always been one of the foundation stones of cultural and social anthropology, of both historical and synchronic approaches. During the eighteenth century, encounters between missionaries and “savages” in the New World prompted European scholars to embark upon the comparative analysis of the customs of the classical Athenians. Grounding this comparative… Read more

Speech Genres in the Twelfth-Century Latin Historical Epics of Italy

back Henry Bayerle, Oxford College of Emory University 1. Speech Genres and Rhetorical Analysis The purpose of this paper is to describe the speeches of Medieval Latin historical epic in terms of speech genre. Generic expectations informed the reading and writing of poetry in Antiquity, as Francis Cairns illustrated in 1972 in his Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry. Shared knowledge provided ancient readers a system of logical… Read more

Can You Take the Hellenic out of the Panhellenic? The Case of Zhou China

back Alexander J. Beecroft, University of South Carolina Like many teaching fellows in “The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization” before and after me, I recall discussing with my students one of the key phenomena which Gregory Nagy elucidates for his students, and for his scholarly readers: the phenomenon of Panhellenic culture, where that strange assemblage of democracies and tyrannies, oligarchies and monarchies that is the Archaic and… Read more

“An Athenian in the American Civil War”: Looking Back on The Tyrant Slayers, A Memoir and Reflection after 37 Years

back Michael W. Taylor How much of the fatal policy of states, and of the miseries and degradations of social man, have been occasioned by the false notions of honor inspired by the works of Homer, it is not easy to ascertain … My veneration for his genius is equal to that of his most idolatrous readers; but my reflections on the history of human errors have forced upon… Read more

A Note on Memory and Reciprocity in Homer’s Odyssey

back Anita Nikkanen [1] In this paper I explore the role of memory in Homeric epic in social contexts and, in particular, in reciprocity. [2] I focus on the Odyssey. Through analyzing the occurrences of mimnēskomai, ‘remember’, and other derivatives from the root mnē– in their contexts, I show that memory functions as an important principle in the maintenance… Read more

Philology

back Lizzie Nagy Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of this headline. And do it quickly please, I’m past Lenny’s deadline. With apologies, and without much skill, An ode to my father-in-law, F-I-L, or Phil. I love bumping into him, always hope he’ll cross my path, How many does he cheer each day? Just do the math! By some luck, a… Read more

The Aiakidai, the Herald-less War, and Salamis

back Thomas Figueira It is tempting to justify this contribution in honor of Greg Nagy by invoking his interest in the Aiakidai, to whose appearance in several important literary contexts he has adverted in various works [1] and to whose Urvater, Aiakos, he has in some considerable part devoted a recent study. [2] That would perhaps overplay my topic,… Read more

Donum natalicium digitaliter confectum Gregorio Nagy septuagenario a discipulis collegis familiaribus oblatum – ToC

Donum natalicium digitaliter confectum Gregorio Nagy septuagenario a discipulis collegis familiaribus oblatum A virtual birthday gift presented to Gregory Nagy on turning seventy by his students, colleagues, and friends Acknowledgments The editorial team wishes to thank all the contributors for their hard work and patience over the five years that this project developed and matured. Over that time, we have had substantive assistance from many individuals, to the extent… Read more