The lecture will explore the history of Greece’s politically driven “national disease” of progonoplexia—the worshipping of one’s own past—from the period of independence in the 1830s through the 2004… Read More
In this paper, I attempt to reconstruct the circumstances and cult of Tarpeia. Best known as a traitor (see Livy 1.11), Tarpeia's myth was complex and could be seen in a positive light. According to Piso (FRHist… Read More
A certain Eutropius was made consul of the Eastern Roman Empire in 399 CE. Our best and most comprehensive source for Eutropius are two epic panegyrics composed by the poet Claudius Claudianus. Claudian, a… Read More
Aristotle's Poetics upended literary thought in the Renaissance, mediating classical models, stimulating generic experiment, and isolating an emergent literary field. Yet it has long been… Read More
Ezra Pound’s modern epic poem The Cantos aspires to the inexhaustibility of his predecessors Dante and Homer. The poem’s themes span the history of civilizations (east and west), philosophy, theology,… Read More
The concept of "the classical world" has been foundational to the study of Greek and Roman literature, history, art, and archaeology since the centuries. Yet the chronological boundaries of this world have long… Read More
What is the contemporary? According to Giorgio Agamben, it is the untimely and it consists of a disconnection and out-of-jointness. Contemporariness always has a strong connection to the mythical and… Read More
In his Life of Alexander Plutarch claims that Aristotle produced his own recension of the Iliad and then gave it to Alexander as part of his provisions on campaign. This edition eventually… Read More
In this illustrated talk Peter Meineck will describe his work with members of American veteran community and their public engagement programs that have sought to bring veterans and the public together in conversation… Read More
In this lecture I explore how during the Mycenaean era individuals seeking to promote their social and political position manipulated objects and emblems to display their status so as to advance agendas of… Read More