News

News, Publications

Focused on System Thinking

We are pleased to feature the following publications and resources that use controlled and innovative perspectives to explore the ancient Greek mytho-poetic tradition as a rich, interconnected system. Taken together, these complimentary works offer a rich and proven critical framework for studying the various layers of meaning in Greek poetry. "Moonrise," oil on canvas, by American artist Frederic Edwin Church, 1889. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California. Frederic Edwin Church [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Online Publications Leonard Muellner, Classics@ Vol. 3, "Discovery Procedures and Principles for Homeric Research" Working from Benveniste's idea that the study of Homeric vocabulary is still in its infancy, Muellner describes a way to do research on Homer and then shows how to work inductively, rebuilding the categories of thought and expression from within the epic world. Milman Parry, L'epithète traditionelle dans Homère: Essai sur un problème de style homérique We are especially pleased to publish a digital edition of Milman Parry's doctoral dissertation published in 1928 by Société d'éditions "Les belles lettres" on the use of traditional epithets in Homeric epic. Richard Martin, The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Martin's central conclusion is that the Iliad takes shape as a poetic composition in precisely the same "speaking culture" that we see foregrounded in the stylized words of the poem's heroic speakers, especially those speeches designated as muthos, a word the author redefines as "authoritative speech-act." Read more

News, Publications

Q&A with Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

We are pleased to share the following interview with Scott Fitzgerald Johnson. Johnson is the author or coauthor of several works on late antiquity and the cult of saints including the newly released Miracle Tales from Byzantium. This volume, which is part of the recently launched Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series, includes Johnson’s English translation of the fifth-century Miracles of Saint Thekla (alongside two Byzantine miracle collections translated by Dr. Alice-Mary Talbot). He is also the author of The Life and Miracles of Thekla, A Literary Study published by CHS and available in print via HUP. This busy scholar recently took the time to speak with us about his research, the relationship between ancient Greek hero cult and the early Christian cult of saints, and the “less acknowledged trends in Late Antiquity.” CHS: You've now published two works dealing with Thekla. Who is this saint and what drew you to study and translate the literature associated with her cult? SFJ: Thekla is a legendary female companion of St. Paul during his travels in Asia Minor (50s CE). I say legendary because there is no contemporary historical evidence for her life. Her fame arose during the late second century, as shown by a famous piece of Christian apocrypha called the Acts of Paul and Thekla (c.180 CE). The fifth-century Life and Miracles of Thekla rewrites this original Acts of Paul and Thekla into a high Greek style and adds a new text of forty-six miracles contemporary to the fifth-century that Thekla worked posthumously. I was attracted to this work because it encapsulates to me what was happening to literature in eastern Late Antiquity: Greek writers were looking back for inspiration to classical and early Christian models, but were also engaging new forms of literature like the saint's life and the miracle collection. It was for me the best of both worlds, classical/early Christian and late antique/Byzantine. My translation of the Miracles half of this text is available in the new Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series (the "medieval Loeb"). I worked with Alice-Mary Talbot, former director of Byzantine studies at Dumbarton Oaks, who translated two later miracle collections (Pege and Gregory Palamas). All three translations (with accompanying Greek text) appear together in Miracle Tales from Byzantium. Read more

News, Publications

Rethinking Classical Education

We are pleased to highlight the following publications and resources which offer fresh perspectives on the theme of classical education in all its multiforms. To access these resources and more, visit CHS online at chs.harvard.edu. Image: detail from The School of Athens, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, by Raphael [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.  Online Publications Leonard Muellner, Classics@ Vol. 3, "Discovery Procedures and Principles for Homeric Research" Working from Benveniste's idea that the study of Homeric vocabulary is still in its infancy, Muellner describes a way to do research on Homer and then shows how to work inductively, rebuilding the categories of thought and expression from within the epic world. Claude Calame, Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece Calame's ground-breaking work argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Read more

News, Publications

Gregory Nagy’s Short Writings, Vol. 1 & 2

New in Online Publications Gregory Nagy is a renowned authority in the field of Homeric and related Greek studies and has written almost one hundred articles and reviews. In Short Writings, Volumes 1 and 2, we have collected together in digital form almost thirty of his most influential works. Many of these articles have been expanded or updated since their original publication. See below for contents and details. The links provided lead directly to the full text on the CHS website. Short Writings, Volume 1 "The Aeolic Component in Homeric Diction." Expanded online edition of an article originally published in 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. Copyright, Ute Hempen Verlag. "'Dream of a Shade': Refractions of Epic Vision in Pindar’s Pythian 8 and Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes." 2012 online version of an article that originally appeared in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000) 97–118. Published here by permission of Harvard University Press. Copyright, Harvard University Press. "Epic." 2010 online version of an essay that originally appeared as Chapter 1 of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature (ed. R. Eldridge; Oxford 2009) 19-44. Copyright, Oxford University Press. Read more

News, Publications

Q&A with Anna Bonifazi

We recently had a chance to talk with Anna Bonifazi about her research, Homeric diction, and her new book, Homer's Verisicolored Fabric: The Evocative Power of Ancient Greek Epic Wordmaking. CHS: Your book examines two main subjects: 1) the pronominalization of Odysseus as ἐκεῖνος and as αὐτός 2) the treatment of particles and adverbs deriving from αὐ- and from αὐτός with a focus on the notion of discourse markers. Why was it important to consider these two subjects together? Bonifazi: There is a specific and a general reason. The specific one is that the au- adverbs I discuss and autos share some discourse functions (which supports the hypothesis that autos derives from *au-, by the way); sometimes grammatical distinctions do not help identifying cognate significances. The general reason is that both groups of words are particularly sensitive to the context of their utterance; far from having a stable (univocal) meaning, they contribute, together with their verbal environs, to signal different communicative intentions, a situation which prompts purposive rather than mechanical usages. Read more