Classical Continuum

An Open Access Rapid Publication Platform for New Research on ‘classical’ Civilizations sponsored by the New Alexandria Foundation

Song 44 of Sappho and the Role of Women in the Making of Epic

2015.02.27, rewritten 2024.02.14 | By Gregory Nagy At H24H 4§20, I formulate this “take-away” from that analysis: “Song 44 of Sappho is an example of epic as refracted in women’s songmaking traditions.” And I simply give a reference there to an earlier analysis that I had attempted, in a book entitled Homeric Questions (Nagy 1996). [The hyperlink directs to an open access version of the book on the CHS website.] I now think that the… Read more

Song 44 of Sappho revisited: what is ‘oral’ about the text of this song?

2016.08.31 rewritten 2024.02.13 | By Gregory Nagy The phraseology that we see in Song 44 of Sappho reveals the same kind of formulaic structure that we see at work in the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. Such a structure, in the case of Homeric poetry, indicates that this poetry originated from traditions of oral performance. So also in the case of the songmaking exemplified by Song 44 of Sappho, there is… Read more

The Fragmentary Muse and the Poetics of Refraction in Sappho, Sophocles, Offenbach

2009 rewritten 2024.02.11 | By Gregory Nagy [[This essay originally appeared in 2009 in  Theater des Fragments: Performative Strategien im Theater zwischen Antike und Postmoderne (eds. A. Bierl, G. Siegmund, Ch. Meneghetti, C. Schuster) 69-102. In this expanded online edition, the page-numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example,… Read more

Pausanias as novelist: a micro-sample

2018.07.20 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In this post, dated 2018.07.20, I have put together a working retranslation of the sad story of Komaithο, priestess in love, as retold by Pausanias at 7.18.8–7.20.2. Some essential parts of this story have already been paraphrased at §1 in the post for 2018.07.13, but now I need to look at the whole story. And, for that, I need to share my working translation,… Read more