Ancient Greek Literature

‘Aeneas Tacticus between History and Sophistry: The Emergence of Military Handbook’

by Bogdan Burliga

[in:] The Children of Herodotus. Greek and Roman Historiography and Relates Genres, ed. J. Pigoń, Cambridge - Newcastle upon Tyne 2008, pp. 92-101

Hellenismo- Elapheboli

by Daphne Varenya

Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte des Liber de haeresibus des Johannes von Damaskus (um 650 - vor 754): Anmerkungen zur Edition B. Kotters.

by Ortwin Knorr

Byzantinische Zeitschrift 91 (1998) 59-69.

Homer and the Art of Overtaking

by Alex Purves

AJP (2011)

Danao e Licambe (Archil. fr. 305 W.2)

by Francesca D'Alfonso

published in 'Museum Helveticum' 64, 2007, 65-82.

In a passage of John Malalas' Chronography (48, 1-7 Th. = Archil. fr. 305 W.2) there is an allusion to a poem of... more In a passage of John Malalas' Chronography (48, 1-7 Th. = Archil. fr. 305 W.2) there is an allusion to a poem of Archilochus, in which the story of Danaus and his daughters is told, and especially the murder of Danaus by his son-in-law, Lyncaeus. This source has always been overlooked by scholars but, following the recent discovery of an Archilochus papyrus (P. Oxy. 69) showing that he used myth in his poems, probably with a paradigmatic function, it is worth taking it into careful consideration again. The myth of Danaus bears similarities to Archilochus’ biography, because in both there are a perjurer father and an unsuccessful marriage. Danaus is the perjurer father par excellence in the same way as Lycambes, who betrays his son-in-law and rejects the wedding, even after the oath (Archil. fr. 173 W.2). This affinity is reinforced by the common relation with the wolf, a treacherous and violent animal, both in Danaus' legend (he is the outsider wolf who attacks the inhabitants of Argos: Paus. 2, 19), and in Lycambes' name (a compound of lukos). Moreover, there are other resemblances between this myth and Archilochus' auto-biographical poems: firstly, the benevolent behaviour of one of Danaus' daughters (Hypermestra) agrees with the role of one of Lycambes' daughters, who is praised by Archilochus (frr. 196-196A W.2). Secondly, it is of particular interest that Malalas attributes a rare mythical version to Archilochus, according to which Danaus is killed by his son-in-law Lincaeus, because this variant mirrors the violent end of Lycambes and his daughters, who hang themselves following Archilochus’ insults.

Algunas reflexiones en torno a los estudios que tratan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega arcaica

by Guillermo González Campos

Este artículo presenta un recorrido por los diversos estudios que abordan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega... more Este artículo presenta un recorrido por los diversos estudios que abordan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega arcaica. El objetivo es develar cuáles son los principios fundamentales a partir de los cuáles se ha llevado a cabo el abordaje de la muerte en este periodo. Se concluye que la mayoría de los estudios se han centrado en aspectos culturales y formales. Es necesario, por lo tanto, realizar un acercamiento crítico que explique cómo se constituyó y fijó el sentido de la muerte en la Grecia arcaica.

Some reflections on studies about the theme of death in Greek literature

This article provides an overview of the various studies that deal with the topic of the death in ancient Greek literature. The aim is to show the fundamental principles that are used to tackling the death topic in this period. The paper concludes that most studies have focused on cultural and formal aspects; nevertheless, it is necessary a critical approach to explain how the sense of death in ancient Greece was formed and established.

Le sel chez les auteurs grecs et latins

by Cristina Carusi

in Sel, eau et forêt. D’hier à aujourd’hui, ed. by O. Weller, A. Dufraisse, P. Pétrequin, Besançon 2008: 353-364

«Το αποστομωτικό ερώτημα: Ένας τύπος γρίφου σε αρχαίες διηγήσεις», στο Π. Βαλαβάνης & Ι. Κ. Προμπονάς (επιμ.), Ευεργεσίη. Τόμος χαριστήριος στον Παναγιώτη Ι. Κοντό, Αθήνα 2006, 265-276. ["The Unanswerable Question: A Type of Riddle in Ancient Narratives", in P. Balabanis & I. K. Promponas (eds.), Euergesie. Festschrift for Panagiotis I. Kontos, Athens 2006, 265-276.]

by Ioannis Konstantakos

"Conditions of Playwriting and the Comic Dramatist's Craft in the Fourth Century", Logeion 1 (2011).

by Ioannis Konstantakos

The first volume of Logeion is now online. For my article in PDF see here:

http://www.logeion.upatras.gr/images/Konstantakos_2011.pdf


The volume will soon appear in print as well.

The early fourth century was a period of determinative transformations for Greek comedy. Aristophanes’ last extant... more The early fourth century was a period of determinative transformations for Greek comedy. Aristophanes’ last extant plays (Ecclesiazusae, Wealth) seem old-fashioned, still clinging to the modes of Old Comedy while contemporary comic drama was moving towards new directions (mythological burlesque, domestic comedy of stock characters and recurring plots). In his two final plays, Kokalos and Aiolosikon, Aristophanes acceded to the new tendencies, taking up myth burlesque and introducing love-affairs and recognitions. The most influential factor conditioning the form of comic drama in the fourth century was the diffusion of Athenian comedy in the entire Hellenic world (“pan-Hellenization”). This is attested by archaeological finds (South-Italian vases illustrating Attic comedies, widely diffused terracottas of stock comic personages, festival inscriptions of various cities), as well as by literary authors referring to theatrical events in the Macedonian court and elsewhere. The huge productivity of the major fourth-century comic poets is explained as a response to an equally great demand for plays posed by cities and festivals all around Greece. The comic poets became professionals that earned their living from the theatre. The decline of political mockery in fourth-century comedy was largely a result of this new reality. Full-scale political plays became extremely rare: the last specimens are concentrated in the time of the Macedonian expansion, which sparked off a serious political crisis in Athens and reinvigorated to some extent political playwriting. Otherwise, the references to political figures and affairs are only incidental jokes inserted in comedies with entirely different plot (e.g. myth burlesques or domestic plays), in order to give topicality to the script. The comic playwrights knew that their plays had to appeal to broader, pan-Hellenic audiences; a comedy concentrating on Athenian political affairs would have no chance of such broader success. Similarly, the decline of choral parts is connected with the new conditions of travelling troupes performing their repertoire in various cities. These troupes usually did not carry along their own chorus but expected to collaborate with a chorus locally provided by each festival. The time available for rehearsal of these choruses with the actors would have been very limited. This led to a drastic restriction of choral parts, eventually reducing them to mere interludes.

Review of Dignas and Trampedach, Practitioners of the Divine

by Paraskevi Martzavou

Space in Archaic Greek Lyric: City, Countryside and Sea

by Jo Heirman

Forthcoming Dissertation, to be published by Amsterdam University Press

My central research question concerns the role space has in archaic Greek lyric poetry (7th-5th C.B.C.). Therefore, a... more My central research question concerns the role space has in archaic Greek lyric poetry (7th-5th C.B.C.). Therefore, a theoretical framework inspired by narratology, phenomenology and metaphor theory is developed in the first chapter. Generally speaking, I distinguish between a role as setting or frame and a symbolic role (symbolic associations and metaphor, including personification). This theoretical framework is applied in three subsequent chapters on the city (chapter two), the countryside (chapter three) and the sea (chapter four), in which I offer detailed readings of 32 lyric poems. I argue that space predominantly has a symbolic role: the city is a political and an erotic metaphor, the countryside has erotic associations, and the sea has associations with danger. In an epilogue I attempt to bring the symbolic role of space in connection with the performance context of the symposium, in which these poems were performed: city metaphors are connected with sympotic plays of 'guessing', the erotic symbolism of the countryside reveals a projection of the erotic fantasies of the sympotic group, and the symbolism of danger of the sea serves to reinforce the cohesion of the sympotic group.

The Interpretation of Iliad 6.145–9 and the Sympotic Contribution to Rhetoric

by Hayden Pelliccia

Polyaenus in Context: The Strategica and Greek Identity in the Second Sophistic Age

by James Morton

Undergraduate thesis, published in K. Brodersen (Ed.), 'Polyainos. Neue studien', Berlin (2010).

http://verlag-antike.de/va/titel/978-3-938032-39-8/

Plutarch's Themistocles and Camillus

by Timothy Duff

'Plutarch's Themistocles and Camillus'. In N. Humble, ed., Plutarch's Lives: parallelism and purpose (Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, 2010), pp. 45-86.

This paper assumes that Plutarch's Lives of Themistocles and Camillus deserve consideration as a single, literary... more This paper assumes that Plutarch's Lives of Themistocles and Camillus deserve consideration as a single, literary text. It also assumes that this text, like all Plutarch's Lives, should be seen as a sophisticated product of the late late first- and early second-century Greek world, and that it therefore has much to tell about the mentality of the society from which it emerged and for which it was written. The focus of this study is not the accuracy or reliability of Plutarch's narrative; nor is it an attempt to compare Plutarch's narrative with his sources in the two Lives. Rather it attempts to assess the way in which the Themistocles - Camillus would have been approached and understood by its original readers. A particular contention is that a reading of the Themistocles - Camillus together, as a single text, and in that order, can reveal its themes and concerns in ways which are not apparent, or not so apparent, from a reading of each Life separately.



© Copyright Timothy Duff 2010. All rights reserved.

Inscribing Lyric 1.: Epigrams on Lyric Poets of the Alexandrian Canon, in A Companion to Hellenistic Epigram, down to Philip, ed. by Peter Bing and Jon Bruss, Leiden: Brill 2006, 429-454

by Silvia Barbantani

Co-authored with B. Acosta-Hughes

Considerazioni sull’ortografia dei poemi di P.Lit.Goodspeed 2 e sulla loro destinazione, in Aegyptus 86 (2006), 3-33

by Silvia Barbantani

Su P.Lit.Goodspeed 2 sono stati copiati, nel II-III sec. d.C., poemi identificabili come inni a divinità del pantheon... more Su P.Lit.Goodspeed 2 sono stati copiati, nel II-III sec. d.C., poemi identificabili come inni a divinità del pantheon tolemaico. Si prendono qui in esame le peculiarità paleografiche ed ortografiche del papiro (doppio iota, raddoppiamento di consonanti prima di un’occlusiva sorda, raddoppiamento di sigma, occlusive sorde rinforzanti la corrispondente occlusiva aspirata); il suo possibile Fundort (Hermupolis?); il contesto performativo degli inni. In appendice, un repertorio di altre antologie di inni su papiro.