Claude Calame

By Gregory Nagy

Can we think of Centaurs as a species?

2019.05.03 | By Gregory Nagy §0. Ιn three previous essays posted in Classical Inquiries, 2019.04.26, 2019.04.19 and 2019.03.22, I analyzed myths about Centaurs. Since they were pictured as half-man and half-horse, we could nowadays think of them as monsters. And, in terms of what we see in pre-classical and classical representations of Centaurs, such monsters were exclusively male, exhibiting the shaggy hormonal characteristics of exaggerated human maleness. Accordingly, Centaurs could… Read more

Guest Post

Hélène et le chant rituel : « mythe » et performance poétique en Grèce archaïque (une perspective anthropologique)

2016.05.01 | By Claude Calame “In the vast treasury of the myths, the (Greek) poet chose in turn the legend more adapted to the ceremony he wanted to celebrate”—so Bruno Gentili in a study of 1966 with the title “Poeta—committente—pubblico.” The example of Helen as cause of the Trojan war through the abduction by Paris gives the best opportunity to illustrate the adaptation of the heroic narrative to the circumstances… Read more