This text first considers the character of Penelope from the Odyssey as the object of male gazes and as a subject acting from her own desire, and then it develops the notion of “possible plots” as structures in the poem that co-exist with the plots Penelope actually plays out. Read more
In Her Own Words: The Life and Poetry of Aelia Eudocia is the first full-length study to examine Eudocia’s writings as a unified whole and to situate them within their wider fifth-century literary, social, and religious contexts. Responsible for over 3,000 lines of extant poetry, Eudocia is one of the… Read more
[This essay was originally published in Herodotus: Narrator, Scientist, Historian , ed. Ewen Bowie, 109–122. Trends in Classics 59. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018. It is published here with permission of de Gruyter. In this online edition, the original page numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{”… Read more
Second, online edition (2018) of a thesis presented to the Department of Comparative Literature and the Committee on Degrees in Theater, Dance, & Media in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 7, 2017. Read more
Bosnian traditional ballads have intrigued many by their beauty and eloquence, from Goethe’s poetic interest in them in the eighteenth century to the work of twentieth-century scholars such as Milman Parry and Albert Lord. These songs are now available to the English reader in a bilingual edition offering a selection… Read more
New and revised edition, translated by Derek Collins and Janice Orion In this groundbreaking work, Claude Calame argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Using semiotic and anthropologic… Read more
Casey Dué examines the figure of Briseis, the concubine of Achilles in the Iliad, as an example of the traditional artistry enabled by a complex and self-contained oral poetic system. Briseis’ lament for Patroclus in Iliad 19 hints at her role in the larger epic tradition. Dué argues that Briseis’ role… Read more
Warrior, hero, super-male—Achilles, by the protocols of Western culture, should never cry. And yet Homeric epic if full of his tears and those of his companions at Troy. This path-blazing study by Hélène Monsacré shows how later ideals of stoically inexpressive manhood run contrary to the poetic vision presented in… Read more
This book offers the first interdisciplinary and in-depth study of the cultural practices and ideological paradigms that conditioned the politics of the “reading” of Sappho’s songs in the early and most pivotal stages of her reception. In this wide-ranging synthesis, Dimitrios Yatromanolakis investigates visual representations and ancient texts in their… Read more
