155

This paper explores the relationship between anatomical votives and the “miracle” inscriptions in the Asklepeion of Epidauros (the so-called iamata), in particular as this pertained to the role and agency of women within their own healing process and their unique and individual experiences of illness and disability.

Prophets in the Classical World were one of the few public and socially accepted figures that were not inextricably linked with the male gender. A µάντις could be male, female or even exist outside the gender binary, and this observation opens an avenue to explore the dynamics of gender and vatic authority.

Works and Days posits a famous distinction between two kinds of Erides (“Strifes”), one destructive and the other productive (11-26). This paper argues that Works uses the distinction to trace how violence is shaped and disseminated by the distribution of “surplus”—goods produced in excess of what is needed to sustain a specific, socially defined mode of life (Marx, Harvey).

The poet of Elea has drawn renewed attention in recent years not only for his philosophy but also his poetics, especially the enigmatic proem: here, an anonymous narrator is carried by mares and escorted by Heliades to the gates of the paths of Night and Day, where he is greeted by a goddess who will proclaim the remainder of the poem. In this paper, I argue for the presence of a previously underrecognized intertext of the pseudo-Hesiodic Shield of Heracles throughout Parmenides’ proem (B1.1-32).

This paper proposes that the arrangement of the account of Pandora’s pithos (Hesiod, Works and Days, 94-105) has a parallel in a regular narrative sequence in the Iliad and Odyssey that suggests Ἐλπίς (96) and her enclosure in the pithos hold no positive connotation for Hesiod’s episode.

According to an ancient tale, Homer and Hesiod once fought for the title of best poet: despite Homer being the crowd’s favorite, the victory went to Hesiod. The Contest of Homer and Hesiod narrates how the competition came to be and what happened during it. Long celebrated as a manifesto of rhapsodic skill (Ritook 1962; Collins 2004: 179-191), the Contest depicts, instead, two Archaic authors anachronistically posing as fifth-century literary critics.

Given Plato’s interest in philosopher-kings in the Republic, one could think that the Laws includes some sort of “philosophical virtue”—understood as the characteristic of a virtuous leader. But as prominent as Plato’s interest is in the role of philosophy in the Republic, we cannot take for granted that we should look for the Laws’ stance on this issue. After all, φιλοσοφία is not mentioned once in the Laws.

In the Republic’s Allegory of the Cave, Socrates describes people raised in an underground dwelling (514a-515c), shackled so that they cannot turn around or move, and forced to view the shadows of artifacts cast by a firelight behind them, with the result that “such people would think that nothing else is the truth than the shadows of the artifacts” (515c1-2). Yet, a single prisoner escapes and discovers the ordered world outside (514c-516d).

In the Apology, Socrates declares three times to the jury that he does not take payment for his activities. In all of these cases, he clearly means he does not receive any money. Understanding his reasons for refusing monetary payment will help explain what Socrates seems to think are acceptable returns to him: that he should be fed in the Prytaneum (36d) and that his friends may pay a fine of thirty minas (38b) on his behalf. One wonders if, strictly speaking, all these claims are coherent: how does being provided meals at public expense not qualify as payment?

I have developed mini-projects in which students undertake various “deformances” of Greek tragedies. Through their individual and collaborative experiments with remix, collage, erasure, and catalog, students creatively and critically extend our more traditional academic discussions. Pedagogically inclusive and easy to implement, deformative activities motivate close reading, prompt and crystallize interpretive insights, and help students develop dynamic, satisfying relationships with texts.