Lesbia

By Gregory Nagy

A scenario for exchanges of comments on a planned monograph about the ancient reception of Sappho

2019.03.08 | By Gregory Nagy As the title of this posting for 2019.03.08 indicates, I am planning to produce a monograph about the ancient reception of Sappho, and part of the plan is to organize a system for exchanging comments about this monograph, the text of which is I think not yet ready for publication in print. In this posting, I attempt to get the conversation started by making selected… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: Experiments in comparative reception theory, Essay Seven

2019.03.01 | By Gregory Nagy §0. This posting for 2019.03.01 is Essay Seven of a long-term project that started with Essay One at 2019.01.08. The numbering of my paragraphs here in Essay Seven continues from §110 of Essay Six, posted 2019.02.22, continuing from earlier posts. In Essay Seven here, I attempt to round out my findings, as of now, about the reception of Sappho’s songs in the ancient world. Most… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: Experiments in comparative reception theory, Essay Six

2019.02.22 | By Gregory Nagy §0. This posting for 2019.02.22 is Essay Six of a long-term project that started with Essay One at 2019.01.08. The numbering of my paragraphs here in Essay Six continues from §95 of Essay Five, posted 2019.02.08, continuing from earlier posts. In Essay Six here, I concentrate once again on the poetry of Catullus, which has been my main preoccupation in the course of this overall… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: Experiments in comparative reception theory, Essay Five

2019.02.08 | By Gregory Nagy This posting for 2019.02.08 is Essay Five of a long-term project that started with Essay One at 2019.01.08 and continued since then till now. The numbering of my paragraphs here in Essay Five continues from §77 of Essay Four. The primary examples in Essay Five here, as earlier in Essay Four, come from the poetry of Catullus. In my comments on this poetry so far,… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: Experiments in comparative reception theory, Essay Three

2019.01.25 | By Gregory Nagy This posting for 2019.01.24 is Essay Three of a long-term project that started with Essay One at 2019.01.08 and continued with Essay Two at 2019.01.16. The numbering of my paragraphs here in Essay Three continues from where I left off at the concluding paragraph §52 of Essay Two, which had continued from where I had left off at the concluding paragraph §33 of Essay One.… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Two small comments on Catullus Two: an iconic effect and an expression of delight in what is beautiful

2018.12.13 | By Gregory Nagy §0. As I contemplate the vast buildup of secondary bibliography documenting countless interpretations of “Catullus Two”—as Classicists normally call this poem—I struggle under the weight, looking for ways to break free by simply expressing the delight I experience whenever I re-read Catullus 2. The comments I offer here are merely two examples of such experiences. But I must already now highlight one thing that these… Read more