PUBLICATIONS

Hellenic Studies Series

Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry

Amidst conflicting information and personal experiences, how can someone distinguish between truth and falsehood? Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry tackles this fundamental question through a study of five Hellenistic poems dated to the third and second centuries BCE: Aratus’s Phaenomena, Nicander’s Theriaca, Callimachus’s Aetia, Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica, and Lycophron’s Alexandra. Situating these poetic works in their intellectual and literary milieu, Kathleen Kidder applies the philosophic concept of the criterion of truth, arguing that each… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

A Monument More Lasting than Bronze: Classics in the University of Malawi, 1982–2019 

Formed in 1964, the year of independence, the University of Malawi promised more than the distant University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—founded 1952—ever could. A decade and a half later, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, by then Life President of the Republic of Malawi, let it be known to the University that a Department of Classics was to be established—teaching the history and languages of the ancient Mediterranean world at Zomba, on… Read more

Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature Series

Singers and Tales in the Twenty-First Century

Grounded in the intellectual legacies of two pioneering scholars of oral literature, Milman Parry (1902–1935) and Albert Lord (1912–1991), Singers and Tales in the Twenty-First Century gathers reflections on what the study of oral poetry might mean today across diverse poetic traditions, especially in light of ongoing global transformations that have dramatically reshaped and destabilized the very notion of tradition. This collection of essays spans disciplinary perspectives from Classics and comparative literature… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition

The Iliad reveals a traditional oral poetic style, but many researchers believe that the poem cannot be treated as solely a product of oral tradition. In The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition, Karol Zieliński argues that neither Homer’s unique artistry nor references to events known from other songs necessarily indicate the use of writing in its composition. The development of traditional oral cycles suggests that the Iliad is only one of many possible retellings of the… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Greek Media Discourse from Reconstitution of Democracy to Memorandums of Understanding: Transformations and Symbolisms

An examination of the changes in the language used by the media in Greece since the fall of the dictatorship, Greek Media Discourse demonstrates the way language provokes critical debate, questions the forces that shape a discourse, and leaves unanswered: How pedagogical can a public discourse be when it loses its democracy as a social good?… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond

This collaborative volume focuses on imagined geography and the relationships among power, knowledge, and space. A sequel to Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond shares with its predecessor a strong focus on the role of empire and ideas of space viewed in inter-regional and interdisciplinary terms. Both volumes bring together specialists on history, art history, literature, and theater studies, but the present… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Love in the Age of War: Soldiers in Menander

Love in the Age of War explores soldier characters in Menander’s situation comedies, the oldest of their kind. Menander came to dominate and define comedy for centuries, and a soldier served as the central character in many of his plays. This study reveals that these soldier characters are not the bragging buffoons that later became the stereotype in this brand of comedy, but challenging and complex men who struggle to find… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in Late Antiquity

The relationship between the soul and the body was a point of contentious debate among philosophers and theologians in late antiquity. Modern scholarship has inherited this legacy, but split the study of the relation of body and soul between the disciplines of philosophy and religion. Lovers of the Soul, Lovers of the Body integrates, with Plato and Aristotle in the background, philosophical and religious perspectives on the concepts of soul and… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Blemished Kings: Suitors in the Odyssey, Blame Poetics, and Irish Satire

Each of the suitors in the Odyssey is eager to become the king of Ithaca by marrying Penelope and disqualifying Telemachus from his rightful royal inheritance. Their words are contentious, censorious, and intent on marking Odysseus’ son as unfit for kingship. However, in keeping with other reversals in the Odyssey, it is the suitors who are shown to be unfit to rule. In Blemished Kings, Andrea Kouklanakis interprets the language of the suitors—their fighting words—as Homeric… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

The Purpled World: Marketing Haute Couture in the Aegean Bronze Age

During the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1500 BCE), the spread of woolen textiles triggered an increased demand for color. The dyes included those made from the labor-intensive processing of crocus stamens for saffron dye and even more costly dyes made from certain sea snails (the Muricidae/Murex). Minoan and Mycenaean textile producers (the palaces) operated mainly in the Black Sea region, rich in gold. “Purpled world” is Morris Silver’s term for this… Read more