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Visiting scholar at CHS | Edmund Richardson, Lecturer at Durham University

October 19-25, 2015 This week, Dr. Edmund Richardson, lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, will be staying at the CHS and using the library. Currently, Richardson is working on completing his second monograph, Alexandrias: Misdirection and the Making of History. Using 19th and 20th century source work on Alexander the Great and the cities he founded during his career, from Egypt to Afghanistan, Richardson argues that narratives,… Read more

News, Publications

Now Available Online | Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Languages of Barbarians

Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Languages of Barbarians, by Rosaria Vignolo Munson The CHS team is very pleased to announce the online publication of Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Languages of Barbarians, by Rosaria Vignolo Munson on the CHS website. (available for purchase in print through Harvard University Press). In Greek thought, barbaroi are utterers of unintelligible or inarticulate sounds. What importance does the text of Herodotus’s Histories attribute to… Read more

News, Publications

Ritual Music and Deified Instruments in the Bronze Age Near East

The cognitive interface between musician and god, instrument and player Kinyras, in Greco-Roman sources, is the central culture-hero of early Cyprus: legendary king, metallurge, Agamemnon’s (faithless) ally, Aphrodite’s priest, father of Myrrha and Adonis, rival of Apollo, ancestor of the Paphian priest-kings (and much more). Kinyras increased in depth and complexity with the demonstration in 1968 that Kinnaru—the divinized temple-lyre—was venerated at Ugarit, an important Late Bronze Age city just… Read more

News, Programs & Events News

CHS Open House: ‘Epos and Eris: Composition, Competition and the ‘Domestication’ of Strife’ with Joel Christensen

We are pleased to welcome back Joel Christensen (University of Texas, San Antonio) for our next CHS Open House discussion, on Thursday, October 22 at 11 a.m. EDT, when we will be talking about ‘Epos and Eris: Composition, Competition and the ‘Domestication’ of Strife’ which was originally given as a keynote talk at the 2015 Heartland Graduate Workshop in Ancient Studies. To prepare for the discussion, participants might like to read… Read more

News, Publications

Available Online l Contextualizing Digital Data as Scholarship in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology by Eric Kansa

The Center For Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce the online publication of spring fellow Eric Kansa’s paper, “Contextualizing Digital Data as Scholarship in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology,” 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 Though digital data is assuming increasing importance in archaeological research, it still plays… Read more

News, Publications

Short Writings Volume III | “A poetics of sisterly affect in the Brothers Song and in other songs of Sappho,” by Gregory Nagy

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

News

Ο Απουλήιος στο Ναύπλιο: Επίσημη παρουσίαση δύο πρόσφατων εκδόσεων για το έργο του Απουλήιου

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

News, Publications

Available Online l Connecting People: Mobility and Networks in the Corpus of Greek Private Letters by Madalina Dana

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

CHS Learning Module, News

CHS Essentials | Oral Poetics

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

CHS Learning Module, News

Classical Inquiries | “Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited,” by Gregory Nagy

"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