Language/Literature

Performing Plato

Hello! Let me get back for a moment to the provisional index of my book on the Phaedrus, which I outlined in my previous post: Introduction Prelude: Plato’s self-disclosing strategies: survey and new insights Chapter 1, ‘STESICHORE’: Stesichorus and the palinode Chapter 2, ‘SAPPHO’: Gorgias, lyric poetry and philosophical rhetoric… Read more

Turning around Achilles' Shield

During these first three months of my fellowship, I have been working on an interpretation of the description of Achilles’ Shield in Iliad XVIII. My intention is to link this famous passage with other demiurgical motives found in mythological and philosophical texts, namely Hesiod’s Theogony, Parmenides’ poem, Empedocles’ cosmogony, and… Read more

Of incredible and bizarre tales

I should start by noting that my post title refers to Ctesias’ work (at least in Plutarch’s estimation, Artaxerxes 1.4), not what I’m about to write. I’m only a “two-weeker” (and not until March) with regard to physical presence at the CHS. I note with great interest the variety of… Read more