Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas

• Herodotus and the Presocratics

  Scarlett Kingsley joins me in the Lesche to discuss Herodotus' place in the intellectual milieu of the fifth century, the subject of her book Herodotus and the Presocratics: Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century BCE.If you enjoy this episode, you might also like Episode 11 on The Sophists, with Josh Billings and Christopher Moore.Ancient textsHerodotus, Histories (especially the meeting between Solon and Croesus at 1.30-33, and the Constitutional Debate set in Persia at 3.80-82)Aristophanes, CloudsEuripides, PhoenissaeThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian WarHippias, Synagoge (non-extant)Dissoi logoiScattered references to many fifth-century thinkersAlso mentionedDewald, C. (1987) "Narrative Surface and Authorial Voice in Herodotus' Histories," Arethusa 20: 147-68.Diels, H. and W. Kranz (1951-52), Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, griechisch und deutsch (6 vols.). Berlin.Laks, A. and G. Most (2016), Early Greek Philosophy (9 vols.). Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA and London. Carolyn Miller's work on genreNestle, W. (1908) Herodots Verhältnis zur Philosophie und Sophistik. Stuttgart.Thomas, R. (2002) Herodotus in Context: Ethnography, Science and the Art of Persuasion. Cambridge.About our guestScarlett Kingsley is an Associate Professor of Classics at Agnes Scott College. Her research explores the intersections of early Greek historiography and philosophy, with a particular focus on Herodotus, Thucydides, and the Presocratics. Her first monograph, Herodotus and the Presocratics: Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century, was supported by a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship. She is also the co-editor, with G. Monti and T. Rood, of The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography (CUP, 2022). She is currently co-writing a book with Tim Rood entitled Land, Wealth, and Empire in Herodotus: Reading the End of the Histories (forthcoming, OUP).________________________________Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!Podcast art: Daniel BlancoTheme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using SibeliusThis podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Instagram: @leschepodcastEmail: [email protected] a book using this form

  --------  

  1:00:43
• Translating the Odyssey, with Daniel Mendelsohn

  Daniel Mendelsohn joins me in the Lesche to discuss his new translation of Homer's Odyssey, out on April 9 with the University of Chicago Press. Daniel Mendelsohn's websiteAncient textsHomer, Iliad and OdysseyAlso mentionedPrevious translations of the Odyssey by Richmond Lattimore, Robert Fitzgerald, and Emily Wilson (and Alexander Pope); also Caroline Alexander's Iliad.Previous books by Daniel Mendelsohn: An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic (Knopf 2017), The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (Harper 2006), The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity (Knopf Doubleday 2009), and Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate (University of Virginia Press, 2020)The Homeric scholarship of Jenny Strauss Clay, see, e.g., The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey. Princeton University Press, 1983. (Reprint, Rowman and Littlefield, 1996)Anne Parry, Blameless Aegisthus: A study of αμύμων and other Homeric epithets. Leiden 1973.Johanna's 2017 Eidolon essay on Daniel's An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic, "'Ithaca Gave to You the Beautiful Journey': Classics, An Odyssey, and a Conversation with Daniel Mendelsohn" About our guestDaniel Mendelsohn, an award-winning memoirist, translator, and essayist, writes frequently for the New Yorker and New York Review of Books, where he is the Editor-at-large. His books include the international bestsellers "The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million" and "An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic," as well as a translation of the poetry of Constantine Cavafy. His translation of Homer's Odyssey will be published in April, 2025.________________________________Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!Podcast art: Daniel BlancoTheme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using SibeliusThis podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Instagram: @leschepodcastEmail: [email protected] a book using this form

  --------  

  1:00:37
• The Small Cycladic Islands Project

  Alex Knodell, co-director of the Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP), joins me in the Lesche to reflect on this amazing six-season survey project, which wrapped up last summer. Alex's co-directors on the project were Demetrios Athanasoulis (Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades) and Žarko Tankosić (University of Bergen).Works mentionedSCIP publicationsChristy Constantakopoulou, The Dance of the Islands (Cambridge 2007). NB: Christy was a featured guest on the second(!) episode of Lesche ("Subject Communities of the Athenian Empire," with Leah Lazar)The Mazi Archaeological Project (MAP)Scott M Fitzpatrick, Victor D Thompson, Aaron S Poteate, Matthew F Napolitano, Jon M Erlandson, "Marginalization of the margins: The importance of smaller islands in human prehistory," The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 11 (2016): 155-70Excavations on Daskalio: see this 2018 Guardian article on the findings of the Cambridge Keros Project.About our guestAlex Knodell is currently the chair of the classics department and director of the archaeology program at Carleton College, where he teaches classes on Mediterranean archaeology, global prehistory, and archaeological method and theory. His research revolves around the broad themes of landscape and interaction within and between ancient societies, especially in the ancient Greek world. He is especially interested in late prehistory and early history, which is the subject of his book, Societies in Transition in Early Greece: An Archaeological History (University of California Press, open access). Since 2019, he has codirected the Small Cycladic Islands Project with his colleagues Demetris Athanasoulis of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades and Zarko Tankosic of the University of Bergen.________________________________Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!Podcast art: Daniel BlancoTheme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using SibeliusThis podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Instagram: @leschepodcastEmail: [email protected] a book using this form

  --------  

  54:10
• Myths of Kingship in Greece and the Near East

  Christopher Metcalf joins me in the Lesche to discuss his new book Three Myths of Kingship in Early Greece and the Ancient Near East, as well as the potential that Ancient Near Eastern texts and literary traditions have to shed light on early Greek ones -- and vice versa. Ancient textsGilgameshThe Hebrew BibleVarious Sumerian and Akkadian texts about Sargon, Dumuzi/Tammuz, and InannaIliad, esp. Book 1Homeric Hymn to AphroditeHerodotus Book 1, esp. on Gyges and Cyrus the GreatCtesias, PersikaSophocles, Oedipus RexEuripides, IonThe BM text on Inanna that Christopher edited is:Marie-Christine Ludwig and Christopher Metcalf (2017), "The Song of Innana and Išme-Dagan: An Edition of BM 23820+23831,"  Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 107: 1-21.Also mentionedWorks by Jean BottéroThe Electronic Babylonian LibraryGeorge, Andrew (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford.West, M. L. (1997) The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry. Oxford.Worthington, M. (2010)  Complete Babylonian Beginner to Intermediate Course: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Babylonian, with Original Texts (Teach Yourself).About our guestChristopher Metcalf is Associate Professor in Classical Literature at the University of Oxford. He is interested in the languages, literatures and religions of early Greece and the ancient Near East. He grew up in continental Europe, and came to the UK to study first Classics and then Ancient Near Eastern languages. In his research he enjoys combining detailed philological work, such as text editions, with larger-scale comparative studies of literary and religious aspects of the ancient world. He is the author of The Gods Rich in Praise in Early Greek and Mesopotamian Religious Poetry (2015), Gods and Mortals in Early Greek and Near Eastern Mythology (2021), and now Three Myths of Kingship in Early Greek and the Ancient Near East (2024).________________________________Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!Podcast art: Daniel BlancoTheme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using SibeliusThis podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Instagram: @leschepodcastEmail: [email protected] a book using this form

  --------  

  51:20
• Plato and Athens

  Carol Atack joins me in the Lesche to discuss Plato's civic entanglements (and disenchantments) with his native Athens. Carol is the author of a new biography of Plato titled Plato: A Civic Life (Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press 2024). The book is the second in a new series, Great Lives of the Ancient World, edited by Paul Cartledge. Ancient textsPlato: lots and lotsXenophon's Socratic worksIsocrates, Against the sophistsAbout our guestCarol Atack is a fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her books include Plato: A Civic Life (2024), Xenophon (Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics, 2024), and The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece (2019), based on her doctoral research. She has published many articles and chapters on classical Greek political thought and its modern reception, on topics ranging from free speech through utopian thought to radical contemporary readings of Greek political thought. She is currently working on a monograph on the temporality of Plato’s dialogues.________________________________Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!Podcast art: Daniel BlancoTheme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using SibeliusThis podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Instagram: @leschepodcastEmail: [email protected] a book using this form

  --------  

  57:08

Más podcasts de Arte

Podcasts a la moda de Arte

Acerca de Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas