Classical Inquiries

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Chariots on the Lelantine plain and the art of taunting the losers, Part 2: Enter Theseus

2018.05.22 | By Natasha Bershadsky §0. In 506 BCE Athens defeated Chalcis in battle and annexed the lands of the Chalcidian hippobotai. The ritual confrontations between the hippobotai and the Eretrian hippeis, and any attendant chariot-riding, must have come to an end. Intriguingly, however, it is possible to show that the young Eretrian democracy attempted to harness the power and prestige of the obliterated aristocratic tradition, rerouting the chariots onto… Read more

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Chariots on the Lelantine plain and the art of taunting the losers, Part 1: Riding into the reenactment

2018.05.17 | By Natasha Bershadsky §0. This inquiry reconstructs the role of chariots in ancient Greek ritual reenactments of primordial battles fought over the Lelantine plain on the island of Euboea from ca. 750 to 506 BCE (the so-called “Lelantine War”). It also considers the possibility of a homoerotic connection between the Euboean charioteers and apobatai, operating in the framework of their progression toward full adulthood. Read more

By Gregory Nagy, Guest Post

On women and weaving, draft of a two-part Foreword to a work by Hanna Eilittä Psychas, Women Weaving the World: Text and Textile in the Kalevala and Beyond

2018.05.10 | By Gregory Nagy and David F. Elmer Women Weaving the World: Text and Textile in the Kalevala and Beyond, by Hanna Eilittä Psychas, was completed in December 2017. It originated as a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University. The author of Part I of the bipartite Foreword to the online edition of Women Weaving the World,… Read more

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Linear B po-re-na, po-re-si, and po-re-no-

2018.02.04 | By Roger D. Woodard §0. Opinions have varied and swayed regarding the interpretation of the Linear B term po-re-na. Whatever meaning is assigned, many would draw the forms po-re-si and po-re-no- into their interpretation of po-re-na, and vice versa. In this investigation I begin with the interpretation of po-re-na that appears most probable and reconsider po-re-si and po-re-no- on the basis of both internal and comparative evidence. [[For… Read more