Guest Post

Homer in Houston

2016.03.07 | By Gloria Ferrari Pinney Notes for the panel discussion “A Poet or a God: The Iconography of Certain Bearded Male Bronzes” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 25, 2016. Read more

Textual Comment on Aristotle, Poetics 1447b7–9, Part 2

2016.02.02 | By Coleman Connelly How can the Syriac and Arabic tradition of Aristotle’s Poetics help editors of the Greek text at Poetics 1447b7–9? In Part 2 of my comment, I walk the reader through this thorny textual problem, and demonstrate the dangers of ignoring lost Syriac intermediaries when editing Greek texts on the basis of Arabic translations. Read more

Previewing a concise inventory of Greek etymologies, Part 2

2016.01.31 | By Olga Levaniouk A concise inventory of Greek etymologies (CIGE) represents an understanding of Greek—and especially Homeric—etymology as part of the formulaic system of early Greek poetry. Poetic function can be of crucial etymological importance, and, conversely, etymology can be essential for understanding poetry, especially when it comes to the Homeric lexicon. Read more

Life of Ferdowsi myths as evidence for the reception of Ferdowsi

2015.12.17 | By Olga Davidson In a previous study, I argued that the historicized narrative of the so-called Older Preface to the Shahnama of Ferdowsi is strikingly parallel to Ferdowsi’s own poeticized narrative concerning the genesis of the Book of Kings. In the present study, I make a parallel argument with regard to the Bâysonghori Preface. This text is the preface to the Bâysonghori Shahnama, a fifteenth century manuscript commissioned… Read more