(Un)commonplaces in Attic Oratory
By Davide Napoli (Harvard University)
My talk starts from two elements: a well-known fact and an ancient remark. The fact is that the genre of Attic oratory is permeated by commonplaces or topoi, as Aristotle calls them. The ancient remark is attributed by Thucydides to Cleon, who says that the Athenians are “the easy victims of newfangled arguments (kainotētos), unwilling to follow received conclusions (dedokimasmenou); slaves to every new paradox (atopōn), despisers of the commonplace (eiōthotōn)” (3.38.5, trans. Jowett).
Engendering authorship in the epigrams of Sappho and Erinna
By Chiayi Lee (Princeton University)
My talk examines the epigrams attributed to Sappho (AP 6.269, 7.489, 7.505) and Erinna (AP 6.352, 7.710, 7.712) as ancient case studies in co-opting and re-defining female authorship in the genre of epigram, and as a demonstration of the unique conceptual possibilities of epigram as pseudepigraphon.
The Limits of Form in Plato’s Engagement with the Sophists
By Evan Rodriguez (Idaho State University)
In this presentation I argue that the dominant narratives about Plato’s rivalry with his sophistic contemporaries do not sufficiently account for formal similarities between philosophical and sophistic methodology.
Queer failures of form in the Hippokratic case history of Phaethousa of Abdera (Epidemics VI 8.32)
By Nicolette D'Angelo (University of California, Los Angeles)
Queer failures of form in the Hippokratic case history of Phaethousa of Abdera (Epidemics VI 8.32)