The Greek Epic Cycle and its Reception
In the Arts, Literature, Vase-Painting, Theatre, Film, and Video Games (in Antiquity, as well as in the Contemporary World)
Time: 8:00am–3:30pm EDT
Kyklos is a program devoted to new and developing scholarship concerning the Greek Epic Cycle. Its primary purpose is to foster a new generation of classical scholars by offering them, at an early stage in their academic careers, an opportunity to test their ideas in an international environment.
The program consists of graduate students, under the supervision of scholars from their home institutions, and early career scholars, producing essays, notes, or comments on aspects of the corpus of the Greek Epic Cycle, including its interface with other genres and disciplines. Once a year the Center for Hellenic Studies hosts an online conference, during which students, and early career scholars, are joined to present their work. The participation of supervisors as discussants to each student’s paper creates a dynamic, intergenerational dialogue.
Abstracts
Schedule
In Antiquity
8:00–9:00am EDT: Literature
Chair: Professor Yoshinori Sano (International Christian University, Tokyo)
- “To Make a Wooden Horse”, Ioannis Doukas (NUI Galway, Ireland)
- “From Troy to Colchis: the ‘Argonautic Cycle’ of Apollonius Rhodius,” Manos Tsakiris (University of Edinburgh)
9:00–9:30am EDT: Vase Painting
Chair: Dr. Naoko Yamagata (The Open University of the UK)
- The reception of the Trojan cycle in Greek vase-painting: the case of Sosias’ cup, Isabella Nova (Università Cattolica di Milano)
9:30–10:00am EDT: History
Chair: Dr. Naoko Yamagata (The Open University of the UK)
- Akamas at Synnada, Christos Aristopoulos (University of Cyprus)
10:00–10:15am EDT: Break
In the Contemporary World
10:15–10:45am EDT: Video games
Chair: Professor Gregory Nagy (Harvard University)
- From oral tradition to video games: Epic poetry in the realm of player-led digital story-telling, Thanos Makris, King’s College London
Keynote Address
10:45–11:00am EDT
Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, and Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies will address the members of the Kyklos 2021 Project Online Conference
11:00–11:30am EDT: Break
In the Contemporary World (continued)
11:30am–12:30pm EDT: Literature
Chairs: Assistant Professor Justin Arft (The University of Tennessee at Knoxville), Associate Professor Efimia Karakantza (University of Patras)
- The epic cycle in Ismail Kadare’s Agamemnon’s Daughter and The Successor, Blaž Zabel (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
- Christos’ Chomenidis’ use of Proclus’ summaries in his novel “Ο βασιλιάς της” (“Her King”), Vasiliki Avramidi (Università di Bologna)
12:30–1:00pm EDT: Break
1:00–2:00pm EDT: Literature (continued)
Chairs: Assistant Professor Justin Arft (The University of Tennessee at Knoxville), Professor Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto)
- Reception of the Iliad and the Epic Cycle in postcolonial literature by João Guimarães Rosa: the Greek hero in the Brazilian backlands, Lorena Lopes da Costa (Federal University of Western Pará, Brazil)
- Retracing classical motifs: classical reception of the Greek Epic Cycle in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, Manolis Pagkalos (University of Groningen) and Manolis Spanakis (Department of Philology, University of Crete)
2:00–3:00pm EDT: Theatre and Film
Chair: Associate Professor Lynn Kozak (McGill University, Montreal)
- Achilles and the epic cycle in early modern Spanish theatre, Yoandy Cabrera Ortega (Assistant Professor of Classics and Spanish, Rockford University, IL)
- Men of constant comedy: the comic reception of the Odyssey(s) in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Loes Wolters (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
3:00–3:30pm EDT: Creative Writing
Chair: Professor Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto)
- Penthesilea, Tjaden Lotito (Western Colorado University in Gunnison)