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L’áte dans l’Iliade (le cas Agamemnon)

Depto. de Letras Clássicas Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais [This article was originally published 1998/1999 in Classica 11/12: 271-280. It is published here by permission of the editors. In this online version, the original page numbers are indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{271|272}” indicates where p. 271 of the original article ends and p.

Le mythe iliadique de Bellérophon

Université Fédérale de Minas Gérais, Belo Horizonte (Brésil) EHESS, Paris [This essay was originally published in Gaia : revue interdisciplinaire sur la Grèce Archaïque, Numéro 1-2, 1997, pp. 41-66. It is published here by permission of the author.] Pour Nicole Loraux Deux traits distinguent ce mythe de ceux qui racontent la généalogie d’un héros. Le premier est sa longueur :…

Diomède et la détresse de Nestor

[UFMG] [This article was originally published in Phaos, volume 4, pp. 5-38 (2004). In this online version, the original page-numbers are indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{5|6}” indicates where p. 5 of the original article ends and p. 6 begins. ] Resumo: Os primeiros sinais explícitos na Ilíada do cumprimento da promessa de Zeus à Tétis –…

Space in Xenophon of Ephesus: Love, Dreams, and Dissemination

Basel [This article was originally published in German as “Räume im Anderen und der griechische Liebesroman des Xenophon von Ephesos. Träume?” in A. Loprieno (ed.), Mensch und Raum von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Munich and Leipzig: Saur 2006 (Colloquium Rauricum 9) 71–103 (with 2 further attachments at the end of the volume).] I. Space and the Novel […

Der neue Sappho-Papyrus aus Köln und Sapphos Erneuerung: Virtuelle Choralität, Eros, Tod, Orpheus und Musik

Ordinarius für Griechische Philologie, Universität Basel 1. Was ist neu an der Neuen Sappho? Im Jahre 2002 konnte die Universität Köln eine kleine Sammlung von 25 Papyri erwerben, die von einem privaten Sammler angeboten wurde. In der berühmten Kölner Papyrussammlung ging man sofort an die Konservierung und Entzifferung. Aus Mumienkartonage gelang es, aus mehren Fetzchen (Inv. Nr. 21351 und 21376)…

Snowden Lectures: Keith Bradley, The Bitter Chain of Slavery

‘The Bitter Chain of Slavery’: Reflections on Slavery in Ancient Rome Keith Bradley Towards the middle of the fifth century AD the Christian presbyter and moralist Salvian of Marseilles composed a highly polemical tract, On the Governance of God, in which he explained to the decadent Romans around him how it was that the destructive presence in their midst of…

Gli horoi rupestri dell’attica

CHS/DAI Joint Fellow La vexata quaestio dei confini demici Un interessante ed alquanto nutrito dibattito si è svolto ed è tuttora in corso nel tentativo di definire con maggior precisione quale fosse l’effettiva natura dei demi clistenici. L’opinione predominante è che, nel compiere la sua riorganizzazione politica dell’Attica, Clistene immaginò essenzialmente una divisione di tipo territoriale e di conseguenza creò…

Poetics of authorial, rhythmic, and gendered identities: The subject of discourse in Pindar’s Theban partheneion

École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Centre AnHiMA, Paris (translated by Sean Harrigan, Yale University) 1968: key-date in the development of the humanities among francophone scholars. In 1968 Roland Barthes publishes a brief essay on literary texts in modernity under the heading “la mort d’auteur.” In literature, in the act of writing, it is now “le langage qui parle,…

The Pygmies in the Cage: The Function of the Sublime in Longinus

[[This essay was originally published in Literary Study, Measurement, and the Sublime: Disciplinary Assessment (eds. D. Heiland and L. J. Rosenthal).]] In memory of Robert F. Goheen The editors of the volume have posed powerful questions, ones that go to the heart of the experience of reading and teaching literature. Are those experiences so “sublime” that they are beyond…

We Must Call the Classics before a Court of Shipwrecked Men

[[This essay was originally published in Classical World 104.4 (2011) 483–493.]] [1] ABSTRACT: What if we put to our texts the injunction of the Spanish intellectual Jose Ortega y Gasset—“We must call the classics before a court of shipwrecked men to answer certain peremptory questions with reference to real life”? The answer that emerges from…

Maneuvers in the Dark of Night: Iliad 10 in the Twenty-First Century

[This article was originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry (eds. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis) 165–173 (Walter de Gruyter, 2011).] In this paper I wish to suggest some of the possibilities offered by a new approach to interpreting Iliad 10, the so-called Doloneia. I have recently completed a series of essays and a commentary…

Anthropological Approaches

[Final draft of an essay by the same title published by Oxford University Press in The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture, edited by Clemente Marconi, 2015, 621-636.] §1. Anthropology has had an important role in studies of Greek and Roman art, albeit a role marked by such discontinuity and eclecticism that it does not lend itself…

Chronological Table: Archaic Megara, 800-500 B.C.

[This article was originally published in 1985 by The Johns Hopkins University Press as an appendix to Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis (ed. by T. Figueria and G. Nagy) 261–303. Baltimore. This version is updated from that made available at the Stoa Consortium. In it, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{“…

Theognidea and Megarian Society

[This article was originally published in 1985 by The Johns Hopkins University Press as Chapter 5 of Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis (ed. by T. Figueria and G. Nagy) 112–158. Baltimore. This version is updated from that made available at the Stoa Consortium. In it, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{”…

Achilles and Patroclus as Indo-European Twins: Homer’s Take

[Forthcoming in Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology, edited by Kimberley C. Patton (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).] There are two forms of the Indo-European twin myth relevant to the story of Patroclus and Achilles in the Iliad. In one the twins remain together, in the other they separate. The Greek Dioscuri remain together, and the…

Athena among the Phaeacians

Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC [This lecture was presented on April 29, 2015 at the Conference Room of the Athens Archaeological Society. It was sponsored by Center for Odyssean Studies and is made available here by their permission. Click here to download a PDF of the handout that was distributed at the lecture.] In Book 13 of the…

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Hero Cult in Apollonius Rhodius

[[This article was originally published in 2012 in Gods and Religion in Hellenistic Poetry (edited by M. A. Harder, R. F. Regtuit, and G. C. Wakker) 131-162, Peeters Publishers: Leuven. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within braces in this electronic version: for example, {131|132} marks where p. 131 ends and p. 132 begins.]] The divinity of heroes,…

Frank M. Snowden Jr. Annual Lecture Series – Home

To refer to this please cite it in this way : Rudolph Hock, Frank M. Snowden, Jr. Lectures, Howard University, Introduction, https://www-current.chs.harvard.edu/publications.sec/online_print_books.ssp/frank_m._snowden_jr./. Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. November, 2005 The Frank M. Snowden, Jr. Annual Lecture Series at Howard University, Washington, D.C. On November 21, 2003 Professor Snowden was honored at the White House as a recipient of…

Recycling Laertes’ Shroud: More on Orphism & Original Sin

The Web of Penelope ἡ δὲ δόλον τόνδ’ ἄλλον ἐνὶ φρεσὶ μερμήριξε· στησαμένη μέγαν ἱστὸν ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ὕφαινε, λεπτὸν καὶ περίμετρον· … ἔνθα καὶ ἠματίη μὲν ὑφαίνεσκεν μέγαν ἱστόν, νύκτας δ’ ἀλλύεσκεν, ἐπὴν δαΐδας παραθεῖτο. This was her latest masterpiece of guile: she set up a great loom in the royal halls and she…

The Greek Adjective Ἄσμενος: Its Etymology and History

Translated by Ioanna Papadopoulou [This article was originally published in French as “L’adjectif grec ἄσμενος : étymologie et histoire du mot,” in Hommage à Jacqueline de Romilly. L’empreinte de son oeuvre, eds. Marc Fumaroli, Jacques Jouanna, Monique Trédé, and Michel Zink. Actes de colloque (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres). Paris, 2014. The English translation is made available by permission of…

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A Structural Analysis of the Meleagros Myth

[[This paper, published here for the first time, is based on a report for a seminar directed by Gregory Nagy and held at the Johns Hopkins University in the fall semester of 1973.]] Claude Lévi-Strauss, in works like The Raw and the Cooked (1970), has shown that attempts to analyze the structure of a given myth using the themes of…

Grieving Achilles

Brandeis University [This work was originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry, eds. Franco Montanari, Antonios Rengakos, Christos Tsagalis, pp.197-220. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2012.] My point of departure is the scholarly work of my late friend and colleague, Steven Lowenstam. His book, As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in…

The Simile of the Cranes and Pygmies: A Study of Homeric Metaphor

Brandeis University [This essay was originally published in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 93 (1990), pp. 59–101. The original pagination is marked in brackets ‘{ }’, so, for example, the break between pages 59 and 60 will be as follows: {59|60}.] αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κόσμηθεν ἅμ’ ἡγεμόνεσσιν ἕκαστοι Τρῶες μὲν κλαγγῇ τ’ ἐνοπῇ τ’ ἴσαν, ὄρνιθες ὥς, ἠΰτε…

“Dream of a Shade”: Refractions of Epic Vision in Pindar’s Pythian 8 and Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes

[[This is an electronic version of an article that appeared in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000) 97–118. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{97|98}” indicates where p. 97 of the printed version ends and p. 98 begins.]] This essay explores the idea of epic…

Review of Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer (London: Allen Lane, 2008)

[This article is a draft of a review later published in Journal of Hellenic Studies 131 (2011) 166–169 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426911000127). Page numbers for that publication have been added in curly brackets. For instance, {166|167} indicates the break between pages 166 and 167.] For the author (hereafter LF), the ‘epic age of Homer’ is the 8th c. (here and…

The Aeolic Component of Homeric Diction

Published 2011 in Proceedings of the 22nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference (ed. S. W. Jamison, H.C. Melchert, B. Vine) 133–179. Bremen: Ute Hempen Verlag. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{133|134}” indicates where p. 133 of the printed version ends and p. 134 begins. Introduction Milman…

Signs of Hero Cult in Homeric Poetry

Originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry (ed. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis) 27–71. Trends in Classics Supplementary Volume 12. Berlin and Boston 2012. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {27|28} marks where p. 27 stops and p. 28 begins. Introduction to the…

Review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen

Harvard University [This review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab; The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2011. 440 S. 16 Abb. Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 8 vol. 4.) appeared in Gnomon 86 (2014) 97-101. The original pagination of the review will be indicated in this electronic…

Reading Greek Poetry Aloud: Evidence from the Bacchylides Papyri

[This essay was originally published in 2000 in Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 64:7–28. The page numbers of the original publication have been placed within braces ‘{ }’, so that {7|8} indicates the page break between p. 7 and p. 8.] Ancient scholarship on the songs of Bacchylides, as revealed by the visual formatting of these songs in papyri, reveals…

Review (part I) of M. L. West’s Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford 2007)

[This review was first published in Indo-European Studies Bulletin 13 (2008) 60–65.] West’s book is most useful for researchers in the Classics and in Indo-European studies. I have produced two different and mutually complementary reviews of it, one for Classicists and one for Indo-Europeanists, with the collegial permission of the book-review editors of Classical Review and Indo-European Studies Bulletin. In…

The earliest phases in the reception of the Homeric Hymns

This is an electronic version of the printed version published 2011 in The Homeric Hymns: Interpretative Essays (edited by Andrew Faulkner) 280-333, Oxford University Press. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within braces in this electronic version: for example, {280|281} marks where p. 280 stops and p. 281 begins. Introduction It has been argued that Hesiodic poetry, like…

Poetics of Repetition in Homer

[[This article was originally published in 2004 in Greek Ritual Poetics (ed. D. Yatromanolakis and P. Roilos) 139–148. Hellenic Studies 3. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{139|140}” indicates where p. 139 of the printed version ends and p. 140 begins.]]…

Poetics of Fragmentation in the Athyr Poem of C. P. Cavafy

[Originally published in Imagination and Logos: Essays on C. P. Cavafy (ed. Panagiotis Roilos) 265-272. Cambridge, MA 2010. The original pagination of the article will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{265|266}” indicates where p. 265 of the printed article ends and p. 266 begins.] Ἐν τῷ μη[νὶ] Ἀθύρ [[1]]…

Performance and Text in Ancient Greece

[[This essay is an expanded online version (2010) of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 34 in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies, ed. G. Boys-Stones, B. Graziosi, P. Vasunia (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) 417-431. In this expanded version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{417|418}” indicates…

Orality and Literacy

[First published in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric (ed. T. O. Sloane; Oxford 2001) 532-538. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{532|533}” indicates where p. 532 of the printed version ends and p. 533 begins.] The concept of orality stems from ethnographic descriptions of oral poetry in particular and…

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…

The fire ritual of the Iguvine Tables: Facing a central problem in the study of ritual language

[Originally published 2007 in Classical World 100:151–157, 10.1353/clw.2007.0017. Second edition, published online 2015.] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made…

The Epic Hero

To refer to this work, please cite it this way: Nagy, G. 2006. “The Epic Hero,” 2nd ed. (on-line version), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Nagy.The_Epic_Hero.2005. Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. The 1st ed. (printed version) of “The Epic Hero” appeared in 2005, A Companion to Ancient Epic (ed. J. M. Foley) 71-89. Oxford. In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version…

On Dialectal Anomalies in Pylian Texts

This text, “Nagy 1968,” was originally published as an article in the Atti e memorie del 1o congresso internazionale di micenologia, v. 2 (= Incunabula Graeca 25[2]; 1968), 663–679. In this online version, the original page-numbers of Nagy 1968 will be indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{667 | 668}” indicates where p. 667 of the original article…

The Fragmentary Muse and the Poetics of Refraction in Sappho, Sophocles, Offenbach

[[This essay originally appeared in 2009 in Theater des Fragments: Performative Strategien im Theater zwischen Antike und Postmoderne (eds. A. Bierl, G. Siegmund, Ch. Meneghetti, C. Schuster) 69-102. In this expanded online edition, the page-numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the first edition ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be…

The Homer Multitext Project

[This paper was originally published in Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come. Proceedings of the Mellon Foundation Online Humanities Conference at the University of Virginia March 26-28, 2010, edited by Jerome McGann with Andrew Stauffer, Dana Wheeles, and Michael Pickard, pp. 87-112. Rice University Press 2010.] Introduction The Homer Multitext project is published by the Center for…

The idea of an archetype in texts stemming from the empire founded by Cyrus

[This article was originally published as Chapter 14 of The Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Studies in Honour of Anthony Snodgrass, edited by John Bintliff and Keith Rutter, 337–357, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. It appears here 6 months after the print publication by agreement with University of Edinburgh Press.] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version…

The Idea of the Library as a Classical Model for European Culture

This essay treats the ancient library not so much as a place or institution but as an idea or concept—a Classical model, conveyed primarily by metaphors of comprehensiveness, completeness, and universality. [1] The focus is primarily on the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and secondarily on the Library of Pergamon in Asia Minor. I will…

The Library of Pergamon as a Classical Model

[[Originally published as Nagy, G. 1998. “The Library of Pergamon as a Classical Model.” In Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods (ed. H. Koester) 185–232. Harvard Theological Studies 46. This online edition (2011) contains slight modifications, which do not affect the content. The original page-breaks are indicated within brackets containing the original page-numbers: for example, “the Library {185|186} at the Mouseion”…

The Origins of Greek Poetic Language: Review (part II) of M. L. West’s Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford 2007)

[This online 2010 edition is a revised, expanded version of a review first published in Classical Review 60 (2010) 333–338. The original page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {333|334} marks where p. 333 stops and p. 334 begins.] West’s book is most useful for researchers in the Classics and in the…

The Sign of the Hero: A Prologue to the Heroikos of Philostratus

Originally published in J. K. Berenson Maclean and E. B. Aitken, eds., Flavius Philostratus, Heroikos (Atlanta 2001) xv-xxxv. The original pagination,which was indicated in roman numerals, will be indicated in this electronic version by way of the corresponding arabic numerals within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{16|17}” indicates where p. xvi of the printed article ends and p. xvii…

The Subjectivity of Fear as Reflected in Ancient Greek Wording

This essay was originally published in Dialogues 5 (2010) 29–45. In this on-line version, the original page-numbers of Nagy 2010 will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{29 | 30}” indicates where p. 29 of the original printed version of the essay ends and p. 30 begins. [1] Introduction In the first…

Theognis and Megara: A Poet’s Vision of his City

[[This article was originally published in 1985 by The Johns Hopkins University Press as Chapter 2 of Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis (ed. by T. Figueria and G. Nagy) 22-81. Baltimore. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{22|23}” indicates where p. 22 of the…

Things said and not said in a ritual text: Iguvine Tables Ib 10-16 / VIb 48-53

[A printed version of this article appears in Miscellanea Indogermanica: Festschrift für José Luis García Ramón zum 65. Geburtstag (ed. I. Hajnal, D. Kölligan, and K. Zipser) 509–549. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 154. Innsbruck, 2017. The online version of 2016.02.08 has been published with the kind permission of the editors. The page-breaks of the printed version will be indicated within braces:…

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…

Oral Traditions, Written Texts, and Questions of Authorship

[Originally published in The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion, ed. Marco Fantuzzi and Christos Tsagalis, 59-77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. In this online version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, {69|70} indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These…

Observations on Greek dialects in the late second millennium BCE

[This text is the English-language version of a lecture I delivered 2011.04.06 on the occasion of my induction as a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens. The lecture was then published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Athens in 2011, Volume 86 Second Issue (2011) pages 81–96. It is republished here with the permission of the Academy. The…

Greek Literature: Introductions and Suggested Bibliographies

Greek Literature 9 volumes, edited by Gregory Nagy and published in print 2001 by Routledge. What follows here is the series introduction and the nine introductions, one for each volume, published 2000 by the Center for Hellenic Studies in electronic form Introduction to the Series This nine-volume…

An Apobatic Moment for Achilles as Athlete at the Festival of the Panathenaia

[[First published in ΙΜΕΡΟΣ 5.1 (2005) 311-317.]] To refer to this essay, please cite it in this way: G. Nagy, “An Apobatic Moment for Achilles as Athlete at the Festival of the Panathenaia,” https://www-current.chs.harvard.edu/publications, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC, 2009 This presentation focuses on two Black Figure paintings, both dated around 510 BCE, that depict the athletic…

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…

Comments on Plutarch’s Essay On Isis and Osiris

[This “born digital” commentary has not yet appeared in print. This 6th edition is dated 08.28.2013. For previous editions, see the footnote.] [*] This compressed and selective commentary, with special reference to wording about the sōma ‘body’ of Osiris, features summaries, paraphrases, and quotations of Plutarch’s key formulations. I enclose within brackets ({}) my own…

Classics@9: Gregory Nagy, Diachrony and the Case of Aesop

Diachrony and the Case of Aesop Gregory Nagy [Also published in print in Diachrony: Diachronic Studies of Ancient Greek Literature and Culture, 2015, ed. José M. González, pp. 233–290. Pagination is herein represented by “{…|…},” indicating where one page ends and another begins. This online version is longer than the printed version due to the fact that, in the printed version,…

Ancient Greek Elegy

[[This essay is an online version of an original printed version that appeared in The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, ed. Karen Weisman (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010) 13-45. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{13|14}” indicates where p. 13 of the printed version ends and…

Alcaeus in Sacred Space

[The printed version of this article was published in Tradizione e innovazione nella cultura greca da Omero all’ età ellenistica: Scritti in onore di Bruno Gentili (ed. R. Pretagostini) vol. 1, 221–225. Rome 1993. The original pagination of the printed version will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{221|230}” indicates where…

Did Sappho and Alcaeus Ever Meet? Symmetries of Myth and Ritual in Performing the Songs of Ancient Lesbos

[Revised and corrected second edition of an article that originally appeared in Literatur und Religion I. Wege zu einer mythisch–rituellen Poetik bei den Griechen (ed. A. Bierl, R. Lämmle, K. Wesselmann; Basiliensia – MythosEikonPoiesis, vol. 1.1) 211–269. Berlin / New York 2007. The original pagination of the article will be indicated in this electronic version by way of curly brackets (“{“…

Achilles and Patroklos as Models for the Twinning of Identity

[Forthcoming in Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology, edited by Kimberley C. Patton (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).] Twinning in myth is a way to think about identity. As Douglas Frame shows in his essay, which is a twin to this one, mythical twins share one identity, but this identity is differentatiated. [1]…

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…

A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai

2015.03.01 Introduction The original version of this article, Nagy 1994-1995, “A Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai” (Nagy 1994-1995), was published in Minos 29-30 (1994-1995) 171-175. The new online version published here, Nagy 2015, is a second edition, and that is why it has a new title: “A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai.” Part I replicates…

A ritualized rethinking of what it meant to be ‘European’ for ancient Greeks of the post-heroic age: evidence from the Heroikos of Philostratus

[[This essay was originally published in 2019 as chapter 12 of Thinking the Greeks: A Volume in Honour of James M. Redfield, eds. Bruce M. King and Lillian Doherty, 173–187. It has been made available by permission of Routledge Publishers. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example,…

Diachronic Homer and a Cretan Odyssey

2017.06.10 [The online version of this presentation as published here on the website of the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Nagy.Diachronic_Homer_and_a_Cretan_Odyssey.2017, replicates the contents of another online version as published in Oral Tradition 31/1 (2017) 3–50. The proper URL citation for that version is  http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/31i/nagy. I am most grateful to the Editor of Oral Tradition for giving permission…

Lyric and Greek Myth

The printed version is published in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (ed. R. D. Woodard; Cambridge University Press 2007) 19–51. See also the companion piece, “Homer and Greek Myth,” pp. 52–82 of the same volume. For abbreviations like PH, HC, etc., see the Bibliography. (The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for…

Hesiod and the Ancient Biographical Traditions

[[This essay is an online version of an original printed version that appeared in The Brill Companion to Hesiod, ed. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and Ch. Tsagalis (Leiden 2009) 271–311. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{271|272}” indicates where p. 271 of the printed version ends…

Language and Meter

[This essay is an online second edition of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 25 in A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (ed. E. J. Bakker; Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World 2010) 370-387. In this online second edition, the original page-numbers of the first edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{371|372}”…

Hymnic Elements in Empedocles

[A French-language version of this essay was printed in Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 24 (2006), 51–62. In this online English-language version, the page-breaks in the printed French-language version are indicated within curly brackets “{…|…}”.] The language of Homeric poetry has often been used to help solve problems in interpreting the poetic language of Empedocles. Conversely, the language of Empedocles may…

Homeric Poetry and Problems of Multiformity: The ‘Panathenaic Bottleneck’

[This article was originally published in Classical Philology 96(2):109–119 (2001).] In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the…

Homeric Echoes in Posidippus

[Originally published in 2004 as chapter 5, pp. 57–64, of Labored in Papyrus Leaves: Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309), edited by B. Acosta-Hughes, E. Kosmetatou, and M. Baumbach. Hellenic Studies 2. Center for Hellenic Studies, 2004. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and…

Homer as Model for The Ancient Library: Metaphors of Corpus and Cosmos

§1. This essay treats the ancient library not so much as a place or institution but as an idea or concept – a Classical model, conveyed primarily by metaphors of comprehensiveness, completeness, and universality. Hence the words Corpus and Cosmos in my title. The focus is primarily on the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and secondarily on the Library of…

Homer and Greek Myth

[The printed version is published in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (ed. R. D. Woodard; Cambridge University Press 2007) 52–82. See also the companion piece, “Lyric and Greek Myth,” pages 19–51 of the same volume. For abbreviations like PH, HC, etc., see the Bibliography. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for…

Herodotus on queens and courtesans of Egypt

[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 (“{” and “}”). For example, “{109|110}” indicates where p. 109 of…

Epic

[[This essay is a 2010 online version of an original printed version that appeared as Chapter 1 in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, ed. Richard Eldridge (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) 19-44. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{19|20}” indicates where p. 19 of…

Herodotus and the Logioi of the Persians

[This essay was originally published in No Tapping around Philology: A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.’s 70th Birthday (ed. A. Korangy and D. J. Sheffield) 185–191. Wiesbaden 2014. In this online edition, the original page numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{185|186}” indicates where p. 185 of the…

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…

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…

Virgil’s verse invitus, regina … and its poetic antecedents

[[This is an electronic version of an article originally published in More modoque: Die Wurzeln der europäischen Kultur und deren Rezeption im Orient und Okzident. Festschrift für Miklós Maróth zum siebzigsten Geburtstag (ed. P. Fodor, Gy. Mayer, M. Monostori, K. Szovák, L. Takács) 155–165. Budapest 2013. The original page-numbers of the printed version will be indicated within braces (“{” and…

Studies in the Epic Technique of Oral Verse-Making: I. Homer and Homeric Style

[This article was originally published in 1930 in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 41:73–148. The original page-numbers of the printed version will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{73|74}” indicates where p. 73 of the printed version ends and p. 74 begins.] 1. The plan of the study (p. 77). —2. The formula (p. 80). —3. The…

Studies in the Epic Technique of Oral Verse-Making: II. The Homeric Language as the Language of an Oral Poetry

[This article was originally published in 1932 in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 43:1-50. The original pagination of the printed version is embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {1|2} marks where p. 1 stops and p. 2 begins.] i. The Homeric Language and the Homeric Diction: Older Theories of the Homeric Language (p. i); the Homeric Language…

The Plot of Zeus

[This article first appeared in French as “L’intrigue de Zeus,” in Europe 79 (no. 865, May 2001), 120-158. In this online version, the original page-numbers will be indicated within brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{51 | 52}” indicates where p. 51 of the original article ends and p. 52 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need…

S - Z

Orality and Literacy (Persian translation)

Gregory Nagy Translated into Persian by Farnoosh Shamsian [[This article was first published in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric (ed. T. O. Sloane; Oxford 2001) 532-538. It is currently available in English here: https://www-current.chs.harvard.edu/curated-article/gregory-nagy-orality-and-literacy/.]] شفاهیّت و کتبیّت گرگوری ناژ برگردان فارسی: فرنوش شمسیان مفهوم شفاهیّت [1] از توصیف قو‌م‌شناسانه‌ی شعر شفاهی [2]…

Dialectal Differences at Knossos

[This text, “Woodard 1986,” was originally published as an article in Kadmos 25 (1986), 49–74. In this online version, the original page-numbers of Woodard 1986 will be indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{51 | 52}” indicates where p. 51 of the original article ends and p. 52 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need…

Further Thoughts on Linear B po-re-na, po-re-si, and po-re-no-

1. Introduction §1. Opinions have varied and swayed regarding the interpretation of the Linear B term po-re-na. Whatever meaning is assigned, many would draw the forms po-re-si and po-re-no- into their interpretation of po-re-na, and vice versa. In this investigation I begin with the interpretation of po-re-na that appears most probable and reconsider po-re-si and po-re-no- on the basis of…