The Center for Hellenic Studies

Gregory Nagy

Books by this author

Articles by this author

Orality and Literacy (Persian translation)

Gregory Nagy Translated into Persian by Farnoosh Shamsian [[This article was first published in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric (ed. T. O. Sloane; Oxford 2001) 532-538. It is currently available in English here: https://chs.harvard.edu/curated-article/gregory-nagy-orality-and-literacy/.]] شفاهیّت و کتبیّت گرگوری ناژ برگردان فارسی: فرنوش شمسیان مفهوم شفاهیّت [1] از توصیف قو‌م‌شناسانه‌ی شعر شفاهی [2]…

Herodotus on queens and courtesans of Egypt

[This essay was originally published in Herodotus: Narrator, Scientist, Historian , ed. Ewen Bowie, 109–122. Trends in Classics 59. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018. It is published here with permission of de Gruyter. In this online edition, the original page numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{109|110}” indicates where p. 109 of…

Oral Traditions, Written Texts, and Questions of Authorship

[Originally published in The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion, ed. Marco Fantuzzi and Christos Tsagalis, 59-77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. In this online version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, {69|70} indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These…

A ritualized rethinking of what it meant to be ‘European’ for ancient Greeks of the post-heroic age: evidence from the Heroikos of Philostratus

[[This essay was originally published in 2019 as chapter 12 of Thinking the Greeks: A Volume in Honour of James M. Redfield, eds. Bruce M. King and Lillian Doherty, 173–187. It has been made available by permission of Routledge Publishers. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example,…

Poetics of Fragmentation in the Athyr Poem of C. P. Cavafy

[Originally published in Imagination and Logos: Essays on C. P. Cavafy (ed. Panagiotis Roilos) 265-272. Cambridge, MA 2010. The original pagination of the article will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{265|266}” indicates where p. 265 of the printed article ends and p. 266 begins.] Ἐν τῷ μη[νὶ] Ἀθύρ [[1]]…

Different ways of expressing the idea of historiā in the prose of Herodotus and Thucydides

[This is an early draft of an article eventually published in Pushing the Boundaries of Historia, ed. Mary C. English and Lee Fratantuono, Routledge 2018, pp. 7–12. It appears here by permission of the editors. The page-breaks of the printed version will be indicated within braces: for example, “{7|8}” indicates where page 7 stops and page 8 begins.] The point of…

Review of Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer (London: Allen Lane, 2008)

[This article is a draft of a review later published in Journal of Hellenic Studies 131 (2011) 166–169 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426911000127). Page numbers for that publication have been added in curly brackets. For instance, {166|167} indicates the break between pages 166 and 167.] For the author (hereafter LF), the ‘epic age of Homer’ is the 8th c. (here and…

A Sampling of Comments on the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey

Editors: Elizabeth Gipson, Angelia Hanhardt (2016–2021), and Keith DeStone Web producer: Noel Spencer Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins Jump to: Iliad Rhapsody 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,…

Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited—with special reference to the “newest Sappho”

[[A preliminary version, originally published in Classical Inquiries 2015.10.01, of a chapter published in 2019: Lyric Genre, ed. Leslie Kurke, Margaret Foster, Naomi Weiss.]] Introduction §1. This essay is the third part of a tripartite project. The first part, “Genre and Occasion,” was published in ΜΗΤΙΣ (1994), and the second part, “Transmission of Archaic Greek Sympotic Songs: From Lesbos…

Observations on Greek dialects in the late second millennium BCE

[This text is the English-language version of a lecture I delivered 2011.04.06 on the occasion of my induction as a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens. The lecture was then published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Athens in 2011, Volume 86 Second Issue (2011) pages 81–96. It is republished here with the permission of the Academy. The…

Diachronic Homer and a Cretan Odyssey

2017.06.10 [The online version of this presentation as published here on the website of the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Nagy.Diachronic_Homer_and_a_Cretan_Odyssey.2017, replicates the contents of another online version as published in Oral Tradition 31/1 (2017) 3–50. The proper URL citation for that version is  http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/31i/nagy. I am most grateful to the Editor of Oral Tradition for giving permission…

The idea of an archetype in texts stemming from the empire founded by Cyrus

[This article was originally published as Chapter 14 of The Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Studies in Honour of Anthony Snodgrass, edited by John Bintliff and Keith Rutter, 337–357, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. It appears here 6 months after the print publication by agreement with University of Edinburgh Press.] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version…

Hymnic Elements in Empedocles

[A French-language version of this essay was printed in Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 24 (2006), 51–62. In this online English-language version, the page-breaks in the printed French-language version are indicated within curly brackets “{…|…}”.] The language of Homeric poetry has often been used to help solve problems in interpreting the poetic language of Empedocles. Conversely, the language of Empedocles may…

Herodotus and the Logioi of the Persians

[This essay was originally published in No Tapping around Philology: A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.’s 70th Birthday (ed. A. Korangy and D. J. Sheffield) 185–191. Wiesbaden 2014. In this online edition, the original page numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{185|186}” indicates where p. 185 of the…

Things said and not said in a ritual text: Iguvine Tables Ib 10-16 / VIb 48-53

[A printed version of this article appears in Miscellanea Indogermanica: Festschrift für José Luis García Ramón zum 65. Geburtstag (ed. I. Hajnal, D. Kölligan, and K. Zipser) 509–549. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 154. Innsbruck, 2017. The online version of 2016.02.08 has been published with the kind permission of the editors. The page-breaks of the printed version will be indicated within braces:…

Homeric Echoes in Posidippus

[Originally published in 2004 as chapter 5, pp. 57–64, of Labored in Papyrus Leaves: Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309), edited by B. Acosta-Hughes, E. Kosmetatou, and M. Baumbach. Hellenic Studies 2. Center for Hellenic Studies, 2004. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and…

Copies and Models in Horace Odes 4.1 and 4.2

[The printed version of this essay was published over 20 years ago in Classical World 87 (1994) 415–426. The online version, as presented here in 2015, replicates almost word for word the content of the original version, indicating the original pagination by way of braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{415|416}” indicates where p. 415 of the printed version ends…

Alcaeus in Sacred Space

[The printed version of this article was published in Tradizione e innovazione nella cultura greca da Omero all’ età ellenistica: Scritti in onore di Bruno Gentili (ed. R. Pretagostini) vol. 1, 221–225. Rome 1993. The original pagination of the printed version will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{221|230}” indicates where…

A poetics of sisterly affect in the Brothers Song and in other songs of Sappho

[The online version of my essay as published here, dated 2015.09.08, matches a printed version published in The Newest Sappho (P. Obbink and P. GC Inv. 105, frs. 1-5), edited by Anton Bierl and André Lardinois, Leiden: Brill, 2016. I am grateful to the editors of that volume for securing permission from Brill for me to present this online version, which…

Language and Meter

[This essay is an online second edition of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 25 in A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (ed. E. J. Bakker; Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World 2010) 370-387. In this online second edition, the original page-numbers of the first edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{371|372}”…

Homeric Poetry and Problems of Multiformity: The ‘Panathenaic Bottleneck’

[This article was originally published in Classical Philology 96(2):109–119 (2001).] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the…

A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai

2015.03.01 Introduction The original version of this article, Nagy 1994-1995, “A Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai” (Nagy 1994-1995), was published in Minos 29-30 (1994-1995) 171-175. The new online version published here, Nagy 2015, is a second edition, and that is why it has a new title: “A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai.” Part I replicates…

The fire ritual of the Iguvine Tables: Facing a central problem in the study of ritual language

[Originally published 2007 in Classical World 100:151–157, 10.1353/clw.2007.0017. Second edition, published online 2015.] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made…

Review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen

Harvard University [This review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab; The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2011. 440 S. 16 Abb. Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 8 vol. 4.) appeared in Gnomon 86 (2014) 97-101. The original pagination of the review will be indicated in this electronic…

The meaning of homoios (ὁμοῖος) in verse 27 of the Hesiodic Theogony and elsewhere

[Originally printed in Allusion, Authority, and Truth: Critical Perspectives on Greek Poetic and Rhetorical Praxis (ed. Phillip Mitsis and Christos Tsagalis; Trends in Classics vol. 7; Berlin and New York 2010) 153-167. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {153|154} marks where p. 153 stops and p. 154 begins.] 01)  …

Convergences and divergences between god and hero in the Mnesiepes Inscription of Paros

[[This article was first published in 2008 in Archilochus and his Age II (ed. D. Katsonopoulou, I. Petropoulos, S. Katsarou) 259-265. The original pagination of the article will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{259|260}” indicates where p. 259 of the printed article ends and p. 260 begins.]] In his…

The Delian Maidens and their Relevance to Choral Mimesis in Classical Drama

[Originally published as Chapter 10 in Choral Mediations in Greek Tragedy, ed. R. Gagné and M. G. Hopman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 227-256. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{227|228}” indicates where p. 227 of the printed version ends and p. 228 begins.] Introduction My…

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…

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…

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…

Virgil’s verse invitus, regina … and its poetic antecedents

[[This is an electronic version of an article originally published in More modoque: Die Wurzeln der europäischen Kultur und deren Rezeption im Orient und Okzident. Festschrift für Miklós Maróth zum siebzigsten Geburtstag (ed. P. Fodor, Gy. Mayer, M. Monostori, K. Szovák, L. Takács) 155–165. Budapest 2013. The original page-numbers of the printed version will be indicated within braces (“{” and…

A second look at the poetics of re-enactment in Ode 13 of Bacchylides

[[Originally printed 2011 in Archaic and Classical Choral Song: Performance, Politics and Dissemination (ed. L. Athanassaki and E. L. Bowie) 173-206. Berlin. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {173|174} marks where p. 173 stops and p. 174 begins.]] [1] Introduction Ode 13 of Bacchylides…

The earliest phases in the reception of the Homeric Hymns

This is an electronic version of the printed version published 2011 in The Homeric Hymns: Interpretative Essays (edited by Andrew Faulkner) 280-333, Oxford University Press. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within braces in this electronic version: for example, {280|281} marks where p. 280 stops and p. 281 begins. Introduction It has been argued that Hesiodic poetry, like…

Achilles and Patroklos as Models for the Twinning of Identity

[Forthcoming in Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology, edited by Kimberley C. Patton (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).] Twinning in myth is a way to think about identity. As Douglas Frame shows in his essay, which is a twin to this one, mythical twins share one identity, but this identity is differentatiated. [1]…

Reading Greek Poetry Aloud: Evidence from the Bacchylides Papyri

[This essay was originally published in 2000 in Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 64:7–28. The page numbers of the original publication have been placed within braces ‘{ }’, so that {7|8} indicates the page break between p. 7 and p. 8.] Ancient scholarship on the songs of Bacchylides, as revealed by the visual formatting of these songs in papyri, reveals…

Genre and Occasion

[[This article was first published in 1994 in Mètis: Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens 9–10:11–25. In this online version, the original pagination will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{11|12}” indicates where p. 11 of the original article ends and p. 12 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made…

The ‘New Sappho’ Reconsidered in the Light of the Athenian Reception of Sappho

[[This article was originally published as chapter 13 (= pp. 176-199) in E. Greene and M. Skinner, eds., 2010, The New Sappho on Old Age: Textual and Philosophical Issues (Washington DC and Cambridge MA). It also appears in the online journal Classics@ Volume 4, edited by Ellen Greene and Marilyn Skinner. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the
…

Transmission of Archaic Greek Sympotic Songs: From Lesbos to Alexandria

[[This essay was originally published in 2004 in Critical Inquiry 31:26–48. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{26|27}” indicates where p. 26 of the printed version ends and p. 27 begins.]] This inquiry centers on the transmission of sympotic songs attributed to Alcaeus of Mytilene, a…

Poetics of Repetition in Homer

[[This article was originally published in 2004 in Greek Ritual Poetics (ed. D. Yatromanolakis and P. Roilos) 139–148. Hellenic Studies 3. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{139|140}” indicates where p. 139 of the printed version ends and p. 140 begins.]]…

The Aeolic Component of Homeric Diction

Published 2011 in Proceedings of the 22nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference (ed. S. W. Jamison, H.C. Melchert, B. Vine) 133–179. Bremen: Ute Hempen Verlag. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{133|134}” indicates where p. 133 of the printed version ends and p. 134 begins. Introduction Milman…

The Homer Multitext Project

[This paper was originally published in Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come. Proceedings of the Mellon Foundation Online Humanities Conference at the University of Virginia March 26-28, 2010, edited by Jerome McGann with Andrew Stauffer, Dana Wheeles, and Michael Pickard, pp. 87-112. Rice University Press 2010.] Introduction The Homer Multitext project is published by the Center for…

The Library of Pergamon as a Classical Model

[[Originally published as Nagy, G. 1998. “The Library of Pergamon as a Classical Model.” In Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods (ed. H. Koester) 185–232. Harvard Theological Studies 46. This online edition (2011) contains slight modifications, which do not affect the content. The original page-breaks are indicated within brackets containing the original page-numbers: for example, “the Library {185|186} at the Mouseion”…

Classics@9: Gregory Nagy, Diachrony and the Case of Aesop

Diachrony and the Case of Aesop Gregory Nagy [Also published in print in Diachrony: Diachronic Studies of Ancient Greek Literature and Culture, 2015, ed. José M. González, pp. 233–290. Pagination is herein represented by “{…|…},” indicating where one page ends and another begins. This online version is longer than the printed version due to the fact that, in the printed version,…

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…

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…

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…

Reading Bakhtin Reading the Classics: An Epic Fate for Conveyors of the Heroic Past

[[Originally published in Bakhtin and the Classics, ed. R. B. Branham (Evanston IL 2002) 71-96. (The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {71|72} marks where p. 71 stops and p. 72 begins.)]] In the title of my essay, there is no punctuation between reading Bakhtin and reading the Classics because there…

On Dialectal Anomalies in Pylian Texts

This text, “Nagy 1968,” was originally published as an article in the Atti e memorie del 1o congresso internazionale di micenologia, v. 2 (= Incunabula Graeca 25[2]; 1968), 663–679. In this online version, the original page-numbers of Nagy 1968 will be indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{667 | 668}” indicates where p. 667 of the original article…

The Subjectivity of Fear as Reflected in Ancient Greek Wording

This essay was originally published in Dialogues 5 (2010) 29–45. In this on-line version, the original page-numbers of Nagy 2010 will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{29 | 30}” indicates where p. 29 of the original printed version of the essay ends and p. 30 begins. [1] Introduction In the first…

Epic

[[This essay is a 2010 online version of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 1 in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, ed. Richard Eldridge (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) 19-44. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{19|20}” indicates where p. 19 of…

Performance and Text in Ancient Greece

[[This essay is an expanded online version (2010) of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 34 in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies, ed. G. Boys-Stones, B. Graziosi, P. Vasunia (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) 417-431. In this expanded version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{417|418}” indicates…

Orality and Literacy

[First published in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric (ed. T. O. Sloane; Oxford 2001) 532-538. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{532|533}” indicates where p. 532 of the printed version ends and p. 533 begins.] The concept of orality stems from ethnographic descriptions of oral poetry in particular and…

Review (part I) of M. L. West’s Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford 2007)

[This review was first published in Indo-European Studies Bulletin 13 (2008) 60–65.] West’s book is most useful for researchers in the Classics and in Indo-European studies. I have produced two different and mutually complementary reviews of it, one for Classicists and one for Indo-Europeanists, with the collegial permission of the book-review editors of Classical Review and Indo-European Studies Bulletin. In…

Hesiod and the Ancient Biographical Traditions

[[This essay is an online version of an original printed version that appeared in The Brill Companion to Hesiod, ed. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and Ch. Tsagalis (Leiden 2009) 271–311. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{271|272}” indicates where p. 271 of the printed version ends…

The Fragmentary Muse and the Poetics of Refraction in Sappho, Sophocles, Offenbach

[[This essay originally appeared in 2009 in Theater des Fragments: Performative Strategien im Theater zwischen Antike und Postmoderne (eds. A. Bierl, G. Siegmund, Ch. Meneghetti, C. Schuster) 69-102. In this expanded online edition, the page-numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the first edition ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be…

The Sign of the Hero: A Prologue to the Heroikos of Philostratus

Originally published in J. K. Berenson Maclean and E. B. Aitken, eds., Flavius Philostratus, Heroikos (Atlanta 2001) xv-xxxv. The original pagination,which was indicated in roman numerals, will be indicated in this electronic version by way of the corresponding arabic numerals within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{16|17}” indicates where p. xvi of the printed article ends and p. xvii…

Transformations of Choral Lyric Traditions in the Context of Athenian State Theater

This text was originally published as an article in Arion 3 (1994/5) 41–55. In this on-line version, the original page-numbers of Nagy 1994/5 will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{49 | 50}” indicates where p. 49 of the original article ends and p. 50 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look…

Lyric and Greek Myth

The printed version is published in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (ed. R. D. Woodard; Cambridge University Press 2007) 19–51. See also the companion piece, “Homer and Greek Myth,” pp. 52–82 of the same volume. For abbreviations like PH, HC, etc., see the Bibliography. (The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for…

Homer and Greek Myth

[The printed version is published in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (ed. R. D. Woodard; Cambridge University Press 2007) 52–82. See also the companion piece, “Lyric and Greek Myth,” pages 19–51 of the same volume. For abbreviations like PH, HC, etc., see the Bibliography. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for…

An Apobatic Moment for Achilles as Athlete at the Festival of the Panathenaia

[[First published in ΙΜΕΡΟΣ 5.1 (2005) 311-317.]] To refer to this essay, please cite it in this way: G. Nagy, “An Apobatic Moment for Achilles as Athlete at the Festival of the Panathenaia,” https://chs.harvard.edu/publications, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC, 2009 This presentation focuses on two Black Figure paintings, both dated around 510 BCE, that depict the athletic…

Did Sappho and Alcaeus Ever Meet? Symmetries of Myth and Ritual in Performing the Songs of Ancient Lesbos

[Revised and corrected second edition of an article that originally appeared in Literatur und Religion I. Wege zu einer mythisch–rituellen Poetik bei den Griechen (ed. A. Bierl, R. Lämmle, K. Wesselmann; Basiliensia – MythosEikonPoiesis, vol. 1.1) 211–269. Berlin / New York 2007. The original pagination of the article will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“…

The Epic Hero

To refer to this work, please cite it this way: Nagy, G. 2006. “The Epic Hero,” 2nd ed. (on-line version), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Nagy.The_Epic_Hero.2005. Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. The 1st ed. (printed version) of “The Epic Hero” appeared in 2005, A Companion to Ancient Epic (ed. J. M. Foley) 71-89. Oxford. In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version…

Theognis and Megara: A Poet’s Vision of his City

[[This article was originally published in 1985 by The Johns Hopkins University Press as Chapter 2 of Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis (ed. by T. Figueria and G. Nagy) 22-81. Baltimore. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{22|23}” indicates where p. 22 of the…