How old is our Iliad? Casey Dué explores this complex question in the following CHS Essentials video, recorded in October 2015. Dué’s analysis includes a discussion of the Shield of Achilles as described in Iliad scroll 18. She also considers evidence from Bronze Age, miniature frescoes from Thera, Greece. This discussion draws on evidence presented in “A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry,”… Read more
Featured research on The Brothers Song and “Sappho’s sisterly identity” “What would be so delightful about songs expressing an aristocratic woman’s tormented feelings about a brother who squandered his family’s wealth on a courtesan in Egypt?” In an attempt to answer this question, Gregory Nagy comments on the “mixed feelings” of a sister on his essay “A Poetics of Sisterly Affect in the Brothers Song… Read more
Featured research on The Brothers Song and “Sappho’s sisterly identity” “What would be so delightful about songs expressing an aristocratic woman’s tormented feelings about a brother who squandered his family’s wealth on a courtesan in Egypt?” In an attempt to answer this question, Gregory Nagy comments on the “mixed feelings” of a sister on his essay “A Poetics of Sisterly Affect in the Brothers Song and in… Read more
Το Κέντρο Ελληνικών Σπουδών (Ελλάδος), Πανεπιστήμιο Harvard και η Ερευνητική ομάδα Groningen Commentaries on Apuleius, συνδιοργανώνουν την ακόλουθη ημερίδα: Ο Απουλήιος στο Ναύπλιο Επίσημη παρουσίαση δύο πρόσφατων εκδόσεων για το έργο του Απουλήιου Παρασκευή, 16 Οκτωβρίου, 10:00 π.μ. Κέντρο Ελληνικών Σπουδών Πανεπιστημίου Harvard, Αίθουσα Διαλέξεων «Οικογενείας Νίκου Μαζαράκη» Πλατεία Φιλελλήνων και οδός Όθωνος, Ναύπλιο Επι τη ευκαιρία της πρόσφατης έκδοσης δύο σημαντικών τόμων για το αρχαίο… Read more
The Center For Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce the online publication of spring fellow Madalina Dana’s paper, “Connecting People: Mobility and Networks in the Corpus of Greek Private Letters,” which was presented at the 2015 Fellows Research Symposium. See the abstract below. To read the full article, visit the Center for Hellenic Studies Research Bulletin. Abstract The goal of this article is primarily to highlight the… Read more
In this week’s featured CHS Essentials video, Greg Nagy talks about the body of poetry. The word ‘body’ is very important in its use, in that it conveys something that is not just systematic but is also alive; just like oral poetry. Oral poetry comes alive in performance. How does the word ‘kuklos’ or cycle in modern English connect to oral poetics? Watch our featured video to find out:… Read more
In this week’s featured CHS Essentials video, Greg Nagy talks about the body of poetry. The word ‘body’ is very important in its use, in that it conveys something that is not just systematic but is also alive; just like oral poetry. Oral poetry comes alive in performance. How does the word ‘kuklos’ or cycle in modern English connect to oral poetics? Watch our featured video to find out: Professor Nagy… Read more
"What happens if the occasion for performing a given genre of song becomes obsolete?" Gregory Nagy considers this question in his recent article on Classical Inquiries: "Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited—with special reference to the 'newest Sappho'.” (2015.10.1) Drawing on the songs of Sappho and the modern lyrics of Lesley Gore, Nagy argues that genre can compensate for, and even absolutize, the occasion of performance. For Nagy, the occasion of choral performance is the mimesis of emotions by way of song and dance. "The emotions themselves are not the occasion." Read more
