mimesis

Curated Articles

Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited—with special reference to the “newest Sappho”

[[A preliminary version, originally published in Classical Inquiries 2015.10.01, of a chapter published in 2019: Lyric Genre, ed. Leslie Kurke, Margaret Foster, Naomi Weiss.]] Introduction §1. This essay is the third part of a tripartite project. The first part, “Genre and Occasion,” was published in ΜΗΤΙΣ (1994), and the second part, “Transmission of Archaic Greek Sympotic Songs: From Lesbos to Alexandria,” was published ten years later in Critical Inquiry… Read more

Curated Articles

Copies and Models in Horace Odes 4.1 and 4.2

[The printed version of this essay was published over 20 years ago in Classical World 87 (1994) 415–426. The online version, as presented here in 2015, replicates almost word for word the content of the original version, indicating the original pagination by way of braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{415|416}” indicates where p. 415 of the printed version ends and p. 416 begins. In this online version, I add… Read more

Curated Articles

The Delian Maidens and their Relevance to Choral Mimesis in Classical Drama

[Originally published as Chapter 10 in Choral Mediations in Greek Tragedy, ed. R. Gagné and M. G. Hopman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 227-256. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{227|228}” indicates where p. 227 of the printed version ends and p. 228 begins.] Introduction My focus is on the Delian Maidens, as represented in the… Read more

Curated Articles

Foreword to Mothers in Mourning, by Nicole Loraux. Trans. Corinne Pache. Cornell University Press, 1998.

[In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{ix|x}” indicates where p. ix of the printed version ends and p. x begins.] In the poetics of classical Athenian tragedy, it is conventional for a woman to react to the death of a loved one by singing a song of lamentation. The representations of these mythical laments as performed… Read more

Curated Articles

A second look at the poetics of re-enactment in Ode 13 of Bacchylides

[[Originally printed 2011 in Archaic and Classical Choral Song: Performance, Politics and Dissemination (ed. L. Athanassaki and E. L. Bowie) 173-206. Berlin. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {173|174} marks where p. 173 stops and p. 174 begins.]] [1] Introduction Ode 13 of Bacchylides celebrated the victory of Pytheas of Aegina in the athletic… Read more

Curated Articles

Genre and Occasion

[[This article was first published in 1994 in Mètis: Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens 9–10:11–25. In this online version, the original pagination will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{11|12}” indicates where p. 11 of the original article ends and p. 12 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made in previous scholarship to the original printed version of this… Read more

Curated Articles

Transmission of Archaic Greek Sympotic Songs: From Lesbos to Alexandria

[[This essay was originally published in 2004 in Critical Inquiry 31:26–48. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{26|27}” indicates where p. 26 of the printed version ends and p. 27 begins.]] This inquiry centers on the transmission of sympotic songs attributed to Alcaeus of Mytilene, a city on the island of Lesbos. The starting point of… Read more

CHS Learning Module

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

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