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In this paper I use a new historicist lens—following Nicholson (2007)—to argue that Pindar is using his account of Tantalus in Olympian 1.54-64 as an implicit comparison with and warning to Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, whose victory in the keles in 476 BCE this ode celebrates. Although Kirkwood (1982) is hesitant to read the historical Hieron into the ode, I follow Clay (2011) and Morgan (2015), who make a strong case that we should. While Morgan associates Hieron with Pelops, however, I argue instead for a connection with Tantalus.

At one point in Petronius’ Satyricon, Encolpius and his companions find themselves at the mercy of a woman named Quartilla who forces them to participate in an orgy (16.1-26.6). Although lacunose, Quartilla’s orgy is crucial to the thematic development of the Satyricon with respect to voyeurism and spectacle (McGlathery; Freudenberg), parodic initiations and theatricality (Cosci; Panayotakis; Battistón), and the wrath of Priapus (Gill; Habash).

Statian scholarship reveals the Silvae to be experimental poetry, challenging the still-dominant Augustan style based on Vergil et al., while manipulating the Domitianic patronage system (Zeiner 2005, Newlands 2002, Kershner 2010, Rühl 2015, Coffee 2015). More work remains, however, on Statius’ metapoetic attitudes within the Silvae—what Hinds calls “poetological policy statements” (Hinds 2000)—and their effect upon Statius’ poetic production (McNelis 2008, Chinn 2005).

The relationship between Petronius’s Satyrica and the Satires of Horace’s second book has been long noted in scholarship (e.g. Sandy 1969, Beck 1982). How precisely to characterize this relationship remains an important question for any appreciation of the Satyrica and its status as an important chapter in the post-Horatian evolution of the genre. Satire can either be considered just one of many sources of generic ornamentation for Petronius’ omnivorous sensibility, or it can be regarded as the key genre for interpreting the text.

Nec modus est lacrimis: Weeping Military Leaders in Latin Civil War Epic

In Book 9 of the Bellum Civile, Lucan interrupts his narrative of Caesar’s visit to Troy to acknowledge the literary shadow cast by his epic protagonist. Addressing Caesar as a rival narrator of civil war, he promises that future generations will read their texts side-by-side (venturi me teque legent; Pharsalia nostra/ vivet, 9.985-6). Although Lucan invites readers to interpret his poem as a response to Caesar’s prose, the intertexts between these two works remain understudied (Zissos 2010; Rambaud 1960).

Engaging with literary, in particular poetic tradition, revisiting it and adapting it to new contexts is a common occurrence in V-IV c. BCE Athens (Dalfen, Giuliano). Yet, few are the ancient authors who explore this practice either directly or indirectly in their work, offering a way to ‘meta-read’ their own production. This paper focuses on what I propose to call the ‘Odyssean meta-reading’ encoded in the work of Plato.

The Eternal Present in an Instant

—Plato’s Revision of Parmenidean Time in the Parmenides

Abstract

The isolated pronouncement traditionally known as fragment B3 of Parmenides has exercised outsized influence for its brevity: τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ νοεῖν ἐστί<ν> τε καὶ εἶναι. For some these words express the central insight of the entire poem: “auf diesem einen Satze beruht seine ganze Philosophie” (Reinhardt 1916, cf. Cassin 1998, Kimhi 2018). For others, they underpin the decisive opening argument of B2 (Diels 1897, Wedin 2014, cf. Laks and Most 2016). Yet their enigmatic phrasing has made this incomplete verse a site of continuing controversy.

The myth of Pandora in Hesiod’s Theogony (560-612) and Works and Days (47-105) is an etiology not only for women but also for the qualities that distinguish humans from the gods: fire, technology, sacrifice, and marriage exchange (Vernant 1990). The archetypal woman, as kalon kakon, is characterized by both her appetitive desires and the desire provoked for her (Zeitlin 1995). She is a stomach and a womb.