Fall 2009 

Prof. James Porter

The seminar will serve as an introduction to literary epigrams and inscriptions in poetry and criticism, from Homer to the Tabulae Iliacae, including CEG (Carmina Epigraphica Graeca), archaic lyric, monumental and sepulchral inscriptions, writing on pottery, artists’ signatures down to the classical period, and literary and literary critical versions of the same from the Hellenistic period, and evocations of all these themes wherever they are found in any form of writing for any kind of purpose. Themes in the seminar will include poems as objects, death and memory, text and voice, the competition between literature and other arts (esp. the visual, plastic, and three-dimensional arts), the ephemeral and the enduring, civic and private duty, love, and sacrifice, problems of scale, and the changing claims to creative (artistic) authority, ownership, and aesthetic claims over objects, time, and media. There will be a strong interdisciplinary element to the seminar given the nature of the materials. In essence, this is a good way to discover new facets about Greek literature from a material and visual cultures perspective. Students from all subfields of classics are welcome. Seminar format with in-class presentations and a short, final seminar paper.

Resources

Syllabus

Bibliography

Texts