New blog

We would like to direct any visitors to the site of our new blog, Topica! https://classicstopica.wixsite.com/topica Continue reading →

GIS 17/11 – The roles of women in the Trojan war and of the chorus in the Oresteia

Marc Bonaventura opened last week’s GIS with an analysis of the role of women in “De Excidio Troiae Historia”. This account of the Trojan War is presented in the form of a historiographical prose composition attributed to Dares Phrygius which is thought to be a 5th century AD Latin adaptation of a Greek original written … Continue reading →

GIS 27/10/17 – Timing Death and the ‘Birth’ of the Greek Alphabet

On Friday 27th October, the GIS hosted two papers that nicely complemented each other in their mutual emphasis on the shortcomings of clear ‘beginnings’ and ‘ends’. With a paper titled ‘Timing Death: Questioning the chronology of Romano-British tombstone reliefs’, Hanneke Reijnierse-Salisbure kicked off with an overview of some tombstone reliefs, which have usually been examined … Continue reading →

GIS 9/6/17: Lucan’s Pompey and Athenian Tribute Lists

This past Friday Ludovico Pontiggia and Leah Lazar gave the final GIS presentations of the term.  Ludovico began the session with a presentation about the death and burial of Pompey in Lucan’s Bellum Civile.  Drawing on Horace Odes 3.30 as a model for a metapoetic interpretation of the closure of Bellum Civile 8, Ludovico argued … Continue reading →

‘Letter to my Ex’: Identity and ‘Ira’ in Ovid’s Heroides 6

Ovid’s Heroides represent and reveal sides of stories we are not usually given in classical myth- the stories of the women left behind while men wander the world accomplishing heroic deeds. This collection also leaves no chance for response- the letters are themselves just one side of a dialogue, giving us a male poet’s construction of women … Continue reading →

GIS: Case Endings in Mycenaean Greek and Transfer of Information in Heliodorus’s Aethiopica

This week at GIS we had two papers discussing a similar question from different angles: how to make sense of transmitted information, and in particular, how to decode language.   Our first speaker was Katie Shields, who presented on Mycenaean Greek and Hittite, two Indo-European languages attested in the late 2nd millennium BCE.  Katie’s paper … Continue reading →

GIS report – 19/05/17

This week, GIS truly lived up to its name, as we listened to two very interdisciplinary talks by Albert Bates and Peter Swallow, which engaged with literature, philosophy, art history and reception. Does Lucretius make us think of such images? In his presentation on “Artistic images in Lucretius’ DRN 1” Albert Bates looked at the … Continue reading →

GIS 12/5/17: The Evolution of Medusa and Underground Storage in Late Iron Age Iberia

  This week at GIS we had two fascinating presentations on two very different aspects of change and evolution in the Classical world.  First to present was Di Yan, with a paper entitled, ‘Let the Masks Speak: Multiple Images of Medusa and the Gendered Expression.’  In her paper, Di discussed the iconographical evolution of Medusa, … Continue reading →

GIS report – 10/02/17

This week we had two inspiring presentations by Alxander Hardwick and Teresa Röger, respectively talking about late antique epic poetry and issues of interpretation in Augustine. In his paper, “Microcosms of Peacetime: Women and Warfare in the Iliad and Beyond”, Alexander has led us through a reappraisal of the role of the Amazon warrior Penthesileia, … Continue reading →

GIS report – 03/02/2017

This week we had two excellent presentations by Katherine Krauss and Ludovico Pontiggia, respectively talking about late antique fictional narrative and Roman imperial epic. In her presentation, “Aeneas and Apollonius in Africa: Virgilian Imperialism in the Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri”, Katherine has led us through a reappraisal of the context and literary function of the … Continue reading →