Research Bulletin

Ritual objects and ancient Greek nomenclature

Ioanna Patera | 31 October 2012
Art/Archaeology Blog History

“University Professor – Antiquities Looter”?

Professor Henry “Indiana” Jones seizing a “priceless artifact” from a South American temple.Source: Raiders of the Lost Ark © 1981 – Lucasfilm, Ltd. Indiana Jones is the world’s most famous archaeologist – a death-defying adventurer who, in his attempt to “salvage” antiquities, leaves behind a trail of destruction. His main aim, we are left to believe, is the protection and preservation of cultural heritage because, as he often exclaims, these… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Mythology/Religion

Archaic and Classical Stone Epigrams: Ordinary, Extra-ordinary or Both?

In dealing with some core aspects of the classical world and its legacy (Attic drama; archaic epigrams collected in post-classical anthologies), I have become increasingly interested in epigrams on stone, and particularly in dedicatory epigrams on stone in the archaic and classical eras. Stone epigrams in fact combine in an unique way features regarded as “ordinary” and “extra-ordinary”, both by the ancient Greeks and by modern scholars, and I will… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog History

Guns, Drugs, and the Trafficking of Antiquities. Archaeology in 19th-century Greece.

A family of tomb hunters at the Isthmus of Corinth. “A party of native labourers digging among the tombs of the deceased Greeks for such relics of antiquity as now find a ready sale to museums or private collections.” Source: The Illustrated London News (21 April 1877), page 364 (sketch by William Simpson). Only a few days ago The New York Times published a front-page article about Turkey’s renewed campaign… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog History Language/Literature

Rethinking the Homeric Polis

Cop Shows and Homer, or, An Introduction to a Re-Thought Homeric Polis I begin with the commonplace that every story is selective in what it tells, and reliant upon the preconceptions of its target audience. A police procedural drama, for instance, will often feature scenes set at the police station, which might include a large room filled with desks where the detectives sit, a holding cell for criminal suspects, interview… Read more

Blog Research Symposium Papers

Research Symposium, Spring 2012

CHS fellows and undergraduates from Sunoikisis institutions presented at the CHS Research Symposium on April 27-28, 2012. Links to recordings of the talks are available below. Sunoikisis Undergraduate Research Symposium Friday, April 27, 2012 9:00-10:30AM Session 1 (Chair, Kenny Morrell, Rhodes College) “Sexuality and Intellectualism in Classical Athens” Leigh Ann Voulgaris, Kalamazoo College Abstract | Paper [PDF] | Video “Implicit Characterization in Plato’s Euthyphro” Jillian Stinchcomb, University of Notre Dame Abstract… Read more

Blog Language/Literature

Trollope's Apollo: Information Fluency through Reception Studies

What follows is a script for a presentation I gave this past March at the CIC Workshop for Information Fluency in Ancient Studies. Teams of professors, librarians, and senior administrative officers gathered to discuss various issues related to information fluency and devise information fluency plans for their programs and campuses. The project I describe in my talk is supported by the Center for Hellenic Studies and provides an example of… Read more

Blog Language/Literature Mythology/Religion Philosophy/Science

Socrates Plays Stesichorus

CHS Research Symposium, April 27-28 2012 Socrates Plays Stesichorus Andrea Capra I will take my cue from Attic comedy. Here is a sleight of hand scene where Socrates plays Stesichorus to the lyre while stealing a wine jug: 1. δεξάμενος δὲ Σωκράτης τὴν ἐπιδέξι’ 〈ἄιδων〉 Στησιχόρου πρὸς τὴν λύραν οἰνοχόην ἔκλεψεν (Eupolis, 395 PCG) A possible connection between Stesichorus and Socrates, as well as with Plato, provides some background to… Read more

Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Mythology/Religion

POxy XXX 2513: Iphigenia in the Corinthiaca of Eumelus

What follows is the text of the presentation I gave on the occasion of the CHS Research Symposium (April 28, 2012). I am glad to post it here, since I find it representative of the type of research on Eumelus I could conduct in this very special and conducive environment. A more detailed discussion on this topic will appear soon in a scholarly journal. I take advantage of this post… Read more

Blog Language/Literature

Presentation Text: The institution of the warrior in several Greek tragedies

I will introduce my contribution to the symposium by commenting on the title of my project, which I have called: ‘The institution of the warrior in several Greek tragedies’. This title however is an abbreviation of the proper but more complex research question I pose. An expression like ‘the warrior in tragedy’ suggests the interpretative effort of identifying characters with certain attributes and describing as well as evaluating the personal… Read more

Blog Mythology/Religion

The Marriage of the Aśvins

I’ve been working on a new idea concerning the Aśvins that I recently discussed at the Center. The Aśvins are the Indian divine twins usually thought to be cognate with the Greek Dioskouroi (both are pairs of horsemen descended from gods who are themselves cognate, i.e Zeus and Dyaus). There are a number of famous myths dealing with the Aśvins, e.g. their unusual birth, their exclusion from the sacrificial ritual,… Read more

Blog Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract: Alphabetic Images in Ancient Greece: the Hellenistic Technopaegnia

The book I came to CHS to complete, “Graphic Art: Alphabetic Images in Ancient Greece,” examines mixed-media contexts in which the materiality of the Greek alphabet is significant. This study underscores how Greek poets and craftsmen alike sustained an intermedial dialogue from the 8th century BCE on, and elaborates the role of writing on statues and pots, on the dramatic stage, and on the page. My work-in-progress presentation at the… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog Research Symposium Papers

Abstract: The Sacrificial Gaze

‘The Gaze’ has been applied surprisingly little to the history of Greek art. The term has wider art historical applications and has found its way into the corpus of writings about the ancient Romans and their visual culture. Gaze is related to ‘viewing’ and ‘spectatorship’ and implies an ‘audience’ concerned with ‘watching’ , ‘looking’, even ‘staring’. To quote Margaret Olin: ‘the term “gaze” is…emblematic of the recent attempt to wrest… Read more

Blog Philosophy/Science

Can the Skeptic Search for Truth? The Problems

In my previous post, I offered a brief description of my research project. In this second post, I will refer to both the main texts which are the object of my analysis and the problems that these texts seem to pose for the coherence of Pyrrhonian skepticism. At the beginning of the Pyrrhonian Outlines (PH), Sextus distinguishes between three kinds of philosophy according to the different attitudes that may be… Read more

Blog Language/Literature

Equine Poetics

I’d like to provide an overview of my current research project, a book length study of several aspects of the debt that Greek literature owes to inherited ideologies and artistic methodologies that have to do with horses and horsemanship in the Indo-European world. The importance of the horse to the development and movement of the Indo-European peoples is, of course, a famously well-worn topic and one that holds a central… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology

The Neuroaesthetics of Word and Image: A Valid Approach?

“What is art?” “What does art reveal about human nature?” Alva Noë, a philosopher at CUNY’s Graduate Center, posed these rhetorical giants among several others in a New York Times Opinionator blog, “Art and the Limits of Neuroscience,” in December, 2011.[1] With a critical eye toward theorizing these questions and their answers “in the key of neuroscience,” Noë hammers in particular on the emerging field of neuroaesthetics, that is, “the… Read more

Blog Language/Literature

On the “norm of the polyp” in early Greek epic

During my research talk one week ago (02/23/2012), I discussed the outcomes of a study I have conducted at the CHS on a specific epic fragment. In this post I wish to present, in a condensed form, some of these points by fulfilling at the same time the promise I made in the previous post to touch on the Alcmeonis. The starting point is an epic fragment [1] containing the first… Read more

Blog Language/Literature Philosophy/Science

On the function of the sphere simile in Parmenides’ poem

I’m currently working on my chapter on Parmenides. The interpretation I would like to put forward is that the craftsmanship images of the proem, notably the chariot (B1) and the gates of Day and Night (B1), serve to represent in an analogical mode the linguistic and epistemological relations existing between the two parts of the poem, namely ontology and cosmology. Thus, the mythical images of the proem are the key… Read more

Art/Archaeology Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology History

Crossing the land-borders of Attica

We all share personal tales of border-crossings. Whether it involves coming back to the US or passing through several Jordanian check-posts near the Golan Heights, border-crossing is subject to rules and interdictions. Personal effects can be searched at the border. Even if you cross a border without being checked, you are still spontaneously supposed to respect the border regulations. Modern nations impose rules on the movement of persons and goods.… Read more

Blog Language/Literature

Turning around Achilles' Shield in Bryn Mawr

An invitation to the Bryn Mawr Classical Colloquium is a perfect occasion to discuss work in progress with a highly stimulating audience. Last week, I had the chance to share my reading of Achilles’ Shield with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty from classics and classical archaeology departments. I argued that both the “window” and the “mirror” readings (both were discussed in my previous post) conceive a static mode of relation,… Read more

Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology History

Theatre for rent in Piraeus

In this post I will focus on a challenging inscription I have been pondering over for a long time. I came across it during my research on Athenian syngraphai (Carusi 2006), but I soon realized that the document allowed for further research in different directions. A few weeks ago I presented a preview of this study at the APA meeting in Philadelphia and I am now writing a longer article… Read more

Blog Epigraphy/Papyrology History Language/Literature

Toward a commented edition of Eumelus

Similar to other fellows, in my first post I am presenting my main research project. In the course of nearly a decade, the interest in and knowledge about the epic material attributed to Eumelus of Corinth has grown remarkably. On this area, I myself have endeavored to contribute via a series of studies beginning in 2003 to the present, including the monograph L’epica perduta. Eumelo, il Ciclo, l’occidente (Rome, «L’Erma»… Read more

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