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Homeric Questions

The “Homeric Question” has vexed Classicists for generations. Was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey a single individual who created the poems at a particular moment in history? Or does the name “Homer” hide the shaping influence of the epic tradition during a long period of oral composition and transmission? In this innovative investigation, Gregory Nagy applies the insights of comparative linguistics and anthropology to offer a new historical model for understanding… Read more

Curated Articles

The Idea of the Library as a Classical Model for European Culture

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. [1] 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 model represented by these libraries is a… Read more

Curated Articles

Ancient Greek Elegy

[[This essay is an online version of an original printed version that appeared in The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, ed. Karen Weisman (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010) 13-45. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{13|14}” indicates where p. 13 of the printed version ends and p. 14 begins.]] The word elegy comes from the ancient… Read more

Curated Books

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ: ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΑΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΔΥΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΥΣ ΑΙΩΝΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΑΒΟΚΡΑΤΙΑΣ (Ζ’ & Η’)

This thesis covers Greek literature (“Letters”) in the eastern provinces of Byzantium during the first two centuries of Arab rule (the 7th and 8th centuries). In it, the author aims to project the true value of this literary production, which he sees as underestimated, through its comparison to that of the ancient Greeks. The author attempts to provide evidence that Greek literature and opportunities for its study were still prevalent,… Read more

Curated Articles

The Plot of Zeus

[This article first appeared in French as “L’intrigue de Zeus,” in Europe 79 (no. 865, May 2001), 120-158. In this online version, the original page-numbers will be indicated within brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{51 | 52}” indicates where p. 51 of the original article ends and p. 52 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made in previous scholarship to the… Read more

Curated Articles

Greek Literature: Introductions and Suggested Bibliographies

Greek Literature 9 volumes, edited by Gregory Nagy and published in print 2001 by Routledge. What follows here is the series introduction and the nine introductions, one for each volume, published 2000 by the Center for Hellenic Studies in electronic form Introduction to the Series This nine-volume set is a collection of writings by experts in ancient… Read more