Concepts of the Hero in Greek Civilization, Video Proseminar on Hesiod Kevin McGrath, Gregory Nagy, and the Heroes Teaching Fellows discuss Hesiod as a bridge between the world of Homer and the polis of ancient Greek drama. Laura Slatkin, “Measuring Authority, Authoritative Measures: Hesiod’s Works and Days” in The Power of Thetis and Selected Essays. Slatkin shows that in early Greek thought and poetics, both values and… Read more
Anyone can browse and cite images from manuscripts in the Homer Multitext Library, including the manuscripts known as the Venetus A, the Venetus B, and U4. First open the Manuscript Browser, currently found at https://chs75.chs.harvard.edu/manuscripts/index.html?ms=msA. You can always find a link to the browser on the CHS homepage (chs.harvard.edu). To go to and compare a particular passage of the Iliad in multiple manuscripts Enter the… Read more
Graeme Bird and a student from Gordon College examine an 1800-year-old Homeric papyrus.Photo Credit: Cyndi McMahon, Gordon College "True improvisation has nothing really to do with “making stuff up on the spot”; rather it is the creative and inspired weaving together of previously rehearsed material…" --Graeme Bird We recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with professor, musician, and CHS author Graeme D. Bird about his work on ancient Homeric papyri, jazz improvisation, and the surprising intersections between the two. Read more
In early August, the co-editors of the Homer Multitext Project, Casey Dué (University of Houston) and Mary Ebbott (College of the Holy Cross), were awarded a prestigious NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations grant for over $275,000 to publish a diplomatic edition of the Venetus A. Read more
The Center for Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce that the online edition of Laura Slatkin’s The Power of Thetis and Selected Essays is now available on the CHS website (chs.harvard.edu). This influential and widely admired book explores the superficially minor role of Thetis in the Iliad. Slatkin uncovers alternative traditions about the power of Thetis and shows how an awareness of those myths brings a far greater… Read more
We are pleased to feature the following publications and resources that highlight ancient Greek song culture and ritual contexts. Online Publications Read more
The Homer Multitext: On-line publication of Homer Multitext related scholarship. HMT Editor Casey Dué highlights several resources on the CHS website including Gregory Nagy’s Homer the Classic and Homer the Preclassic. Read more
Stephanie Lindeborg We recently had the opportunity to interview Stephanie Lindeborg, a senior at Holy Cross and an undergraduate researcher working with Prof. Mary Ebbott and Prof. Neel Smith on the Homer Multitext project. [Read our companion interview with Mary Ebbott.] Stephanie shared her thoughts about working with treasured primary resources such as the Venetus A, the joys of discovery, and the unique experience of working on the Homer Multitext. You can also read about this young scholar's research in her guest post on the Homer Multitext blog, where she discusses her investigation of marginal notes in red ink in the first few folios of the Venetus A, Read more
Stephanie Lindeborg We recently had the opportunity to interview Stephanie Lindeborg, a senior at Holy Cross and an undergraduate researcher working with Prof. Mary Ebbott and Prof. Neel Smith on the Homer Multitext project. [Read our companion interview with Mary Ebbott.] Stephanie shared her thoughts about working with treasured primary resources such as the Venetus A, the joys of discovery, and the unique experience of working on the Homer Multitext. You can also read about this young scholar's research in her guest post on the Homer Multitext blog, where she discusses her investigation of marginal notes in red ink in the first few folios of the Venetus A, Read more
We are pleased to feature the following publications and resources that highlight multitextuality and digital publication. Online Publications Casey Dué and Mary Ebbott, Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush: A Multitext Edition with Essays and Commentary Dué and Ebbott confront deeply entrenched ideas about the Doloneia. Ignoring or only barely acknowledging Iliad 10 is a strategy employed by many scholars, who likely feel they must ignore it so as not to incur the charge of making arguments about Homer based on an “interpolated,” “un-Homeric,” or otherwise problematic text. Nevertheless, the authors feel that there is an entirely different way of treating this book. Rather than dismiss it as “un-Homeric” or pass over it in silence, they propose to show that Iliad 10 offers us unique insight into such important topics as the process of composition-in-performance, the traditional themes of Archaic Greek epic, the nature of the hero, and the creativity and artistry of the oral traditional language. Read more
