The ancient Greeks’ concept of “the hero” was very different from what we understand by the term today, Gregory Nagy argues—and it is only through analyzing their historical contexts that we can truly understand Achilles, Odysseus, Oedipus, and Herakles. In Greek tradition, a hero was a human, male or female, of the… Read more
Brandeis University [This work was originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry, eds. Franco Montanari, Antonios Rengakos, Christos Tsagalis, pp.197-220. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2012.] My point of departure is the scholarly work of my late friend and colleague, Steven Lowenstam. His… Read more
[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… Read more
Description of Greece: A Pausanias Reader, Scrolls 1–10 Translation based on the original rendering by W. H. S. Jones, 1918 (Scroll 2 with H.A. Ormerod), containing some of the footnotes of Jones.The translation is edited, with revisions, by Gregory Nagy [*]… Read more
Bibliographical Abbreviations ABV = Beazley, J. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters. Oxford. BA = Nagy, G. 1999. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Rev. ed. with new intro. Baltimore (available online). DELG = Chantraine, P. 2009. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire… Read more
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… Read more
[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… Read more
Poetry of Sappho Translated by Gregory Nagy Sappho 1 (“Prayer to Aphrodite”) 1 You with pattern-woven flowers, immortal Aphrodite, 2 child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I implore you, 3 do not devastate with aches and sorrows, 4 Mistress, my heart! 5 But… Read more
[This article was originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry (eds. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis) 165–173 (Walter de Gruyter, 2011).] In this paper I wish to suggest some of the possibilities offered by a new approach to interpreting Iliad 10, the so-called Doloneia. I… Read more
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… Read more
