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Sophokles’ Rhapsode

One of the three earliest attestations of rhapsôidós occurs in Sophokles’ Oidipous Tyrannos 391. If you do not remember the identity of the rhapsode, you may be surprised to read that it is the Sphinx, the bane of Thebes. Why does Sophokles call her a… Read more

Getting to the bottom of things

Aphrodite of Syracuse Despite (or because of?) their brevity ancient epigrams pose countless hermeneutical challenges, and every so often their points seem to have eluded modern scholars. Sometimes it takes a lot of puzzling over a poem to extricate its meaning, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, the… Read more