The Center for Hellenic Studies

Donum natalicium

Donum natalicium

The senses of an ending: myth, ritual, and poetic exodia in performance

back Richard P. Martin, Stanford University I like to think it fitting that I first met Gregory Nagy, some 40 years ago, at a puppet show. Fred Christie, then a Jesuit scholastic and graduate student at Harvard, had taken two of us, rather sceptical students of Greek from Boston College High School, to see Peter Arnott’s one-man miniature production of the Choephoroi, which turned out to be a mesmerizing performance. Read more

Donum natalicium

Steadfast in a Multiform Tradition: émpedos and asphalḗs in Homer and Beyond

back Claudia Filos Ἑλένης μὲν ταύτην ἄπιξιν παρὰ Πρωτέα ἔλεγον οἱ ἱρέες γενέσθαι. Δοκέει δέ μοι καὶ Ὅμηρος τὸν λόγον τοῦτον πυθέσθαι· ἀλλ’, οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως ἐς τὴν ἐποποιίην εὐπρεπὴς ἦν τῷ ἑτέρῳ τῷ περ ἐχρήσατο, [ἐς ὃ] μετῆκε αὐτόν. The priests say that this is the way Helen came to Proteus. And it seems to me that Homer was aware of this version of the story, but since… Read more

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Delphic Oracle Spreadsheet

back Lisa Raphals For Greg Nagy Greg, the debts I owe you I can only repay to my students and others. But please accept this tiny token as, not a pelanos, but a small token of thanks, birthday wishes, incredulity, and warm regards. Yours, Lisa Origin and Sources This spreadsheet was developed as a practical and heuristic research aid to demystify generalizations about Delphic oracles – “the decline of… Read more

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Typological Composition and Historia ex vaticinio: The Assyrian Prophecies of Isaiah and the Book of Judith

back Jed Wyrick, California State University, Chico, jwyrick(at)csuchico.edu Examinations of the process of text creation in antiquity often attempt to emphasize the original creative spark of the author in contrast to the voice of tradition. [1] The authorial ideal of creatio ex nihilo, widely utilized (at least until recently) to understand the creative process of modern writers and artists, lurks behind readings of ancient texts as… Read more

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Revisiting the Apostrophes to Patroclus in Iliad 16

back Emily Allen-Hornblower Apostrophes in Homeric poetry—those instances where the poet addresses a character directly in the vocative—are “embarrassing” for the reader and critic. [1] The apostrophe disrupts the flow of the third-person narrative by bringing the poet, performer, and audience in direct contact with one of the characters. To what end? [2] In the Iliad, the overwhelming majority… Read more

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Anna Stavrakopoulou, Selected Poems from the collection BABEL FOR TWO
ΕΠΙΛΟΓΗ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΣΥΛΛΟΓΗ ΒΑΒΕΛ ΓΙΑ ΔΥΟ

back Anna Stavrakopoulou, Translated by Julia Dubnoff Ἀννα Σταυρακοπούλου Athens 2011 Αθήνα 2011 Και μην ξεγελαστείς ποτέ/And don’t ever fool yourself και πιστέψεις ότι εσύ ήσουν/ Into believing that is was you που ενέπνευσες όλα αυτά/who inspired all this τα ποιήματα και πεζά./poetry and prose. Ο συνομιλητής μου υπήρξε/My partner in conversation has been εξίσου αποκύημα της φαντασίας μου./A figment of my imagination,… Read more

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A Magnificent Birthday Party in an Artful Pavilion: Lifestyle and Leadership in Euripides’ Ion (on and off stage)

back Lucia Athanassaki, University of Crete Γρηγόρι’, ὦ φίλε, σοὶ Λουκία συνήδομ’ ἑταίρωι ὀγδoίης δεκάδος δοῦσα τόδ’ ἀρχομένωι 0§1 Euripides’ Ion is a play about identity, citizenship and leadership. These interrelated issues, fiercely debated throughout the play, receive an authoritative answer from Athena who appears ex machina and proclaims Ion the son of Apollo and Creusa, rightful ruler of Athens, progenitor of the Ionians, and half-brother of the… Read more

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Performance

back Graeme Bird Dear Greg, A few words of explanation about the video, although I hope it can stand on its own. Needless to say, the video is a visual “transcript” of a performance that deals with performance, with all of its inherent spontaneity and unexpectedness (and a couple of goofy jokes!), but it also, I hope, conveys a sense of fun and creative energy. My young… Read more

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The Literary Value of the Homeric Work of G. Nagy

back Thomas R. Walsh [The following remarks are meant as a contribution to a gift. I set aside much scholarly apparatus in the interest of presenting hypotheses that are worth exploring. In that spirit, I begin anecdotally, and then continue with a discussion of Greg Nagy’s solution to the problem of the duals in Iliad 9. I add some elaboration on why I think the solution is primarily an… Read more