Take a minute to explore the highlights of 2018 at the CHS!
This past year has been filled with online discussions, publications from the CHS and partnering institutions, events and activities, and so on!
Featured Publications from the CHS and Partnering Institutions
Books and Articles
Ronald Blankenborg, Rhythm without Beat: Prosodically Motivated Grammarisation in Homer.
Gregory Crane, “Individual Developments and Systemic Change in Philology.”
Beate Dignas, and Kai Trampedach, eds., Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus.
Pernille Hermann, Stephen A. Mitchell, Jens Peter Schjødt, eds., with Amber J. Rose, Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives.
Hélène Monsacré, The Tears of Achilles.
Gregory Nagy, “Poetics of Fragmentation in the Athyr Poem of C. P. Cavafy.”
Hanna Eilittä Psychas, Women Weaving the World: Text and Textile in the Kalevala and Beyond.
Gísli Sigurðsson, The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method.
Robert T. Teske, The Origins of the Goddess Ariadne.
Aida Vidan, Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women.
Roger D. Woodard, “Further Thoughts on Linear B po-re-na, po-re-si, and po-re-no-“.
Primary Texts
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
As part of its mission of bringing together a variety of research interests centered on Hellenic civilization and sharing them with a wider audience, the Center for Hellenic Studies publishes books, journals, proceedings of colloquia, discussions, databases, lectures, and other materials, on a regular basis throughout the year.
Classical Inquiries, the rapid-publication project devoted to sharing some of the latest thinking on the ancient world, has added over fifty entries this year.
Six papers have been added to FirstDrafts@Classics@, a space for pre-publication, where scholars at any stage of career can share their research even before it goes through a formal publication process.
Volume 6, Issue 1 of the CHS Research Bulletin contains project reports submitted by the fellows who conducted research at the Center for Hellenic Studies during the 2017-18 academic year.
CHS in Greece and beyond Greece
In 2018 the CHS in Greece completed ten years of operation. Over these years, the Center in Nafplio has been transformed from a CHS branch office of classics-oriented academic support to an interdisciplinary hub for Harvard University abroad, achieving a unique intellectual and cultural profile and fostering collaboration between scholars, students, and researchers worldwide.
Its driving force and mission are fueled by the heritage of the Greek civilization. The CHS GR continues its dynamic course, with a vision of a new Ecology of Civilization, as described on the Center’s anniversary webpage by the Directors of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC and Greece. Let the numbers speak for themselves, as you explore the breadth of CHS engagement with the Harvard community, as well as the Greek and international educational community.
Black Classicists Exhibition at the Center in Washington DC
Fifteen Portraits | March 1, 2018 – Spring 2019
This exhibition celebrates the important role of African Americans in the field of Classics and provides a unique opportunity to reflect upon the purpose of higher education and its place in the struggle for equality and human enrichment. The study of Greek and Latin was the curricular foundation of education for many centuries, both in the US and abroad. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, people of African descent, hungry for the “bread of knowledge,” also wanted to learn Greek and Latin. Many institutions responded to this need; nearby Howard University played a key role and from its inception offered a range of classes that enabled African American students to study ancient languages.
The African American men and women featured in this exhibition, on display at CHS through spring 2019, taught Greek and Latin at the college or university level and made groundbreaking achievements in education. Their academic accomplishments bolstered a new tradition of black intellectualism and resulted in greater opportunities for future generations of African Americans.
Kosmos Society online Open House discussions
Ever since the creation of the Kosmos Society: Online Community for Classical Studies, it has sought to provide a friendly, safe, and stimulating environment for community members to engage with others who share their passion for close reading and the ancient Greek world. One of the long-established community activities is the Open House, where community members across different continents and backgrounds connect with visiting scholars in real-time online discussions to ask questions and contribute to an ongoing dialogue. In 2018, Open House discussions have featured the following:
- The Legacy of Minos, with Gloria F. Pinney
- Late Bronze Age burials at Mycenae and what they tell us, with Heleni Palaiologou
- Pindar’s Poetics of Homecoming, with Maša Ćulumović
- The Free First Thousand Years of Greek, with Leonard Muellner
- Song of Moses, Song of Deuteronomy, with Keith Stone
- Theognis, earwax and the end of the Lelantine War, with Natasha Bershadsky
- Chalcidian regionality between Sithonia and Pallene, with Maria G. Xanthou
- Sparta and its continuing myth, with Paul Cartledge
- Exchanges in the Odyssey‘s Underworld, with Nancy Felson, Laura Slatkin, and Maša Ćulumović
- Achilles and Aeneas ‘beyond fate’: An exploration of Iliad 20 and the Multiformity of the Iliad, with Casey Dué
- “Beautiful Bodies or Beautiful Minds: Disability Studies in Homer,” with Joel Christensen
- Heroine cult and tragedy, with Richard P. Martin
- The Arrhēphoroi as understood by Pausanias, with Gregory Nagy
- Re-Re-Counting Plato: This Time with More Data, with Thomas Köntges
- Metopes at Thermon, Temple C, with Kathryn R. Topper
- Love Wishes, with Yiannis Petropoulos
- Xerxes’ desire of Thessalian heights & Tempe gorge, with Maria G. Xanthou
- Thucydides on Early Greece and the Trojan War, with Jeffrey Rusten
The Ancient Greek Hero, the edX/HarvardX MOOC (massive open online course) directed by Gregory Nagy, which is also known as HeroesX, and the starting point for Kosmos Society, starts on January 10, 2019, so enroll now!
On behalf of the entire CHS team we wish you a Happy New Year full of joy and prosperity!
