Essay 3. Homeric problems and bibliographical challenges, Part I: On the performances of rhapsodes at the festival of the Panathenaia 2022.1.23 | By Gregory Nagy This essay was originally published in Classical Inquiries 2018.11.22. §0. No one who claims expertise in the study of Homer will ever have the… Read more
What is a “proverb”? What is a “sententia”? What is a “saying”? To many readers, the question may seem superfluous, and the answer rather obvious, if even one of the greatest scholars of proverbs, namely Archer Taylor, declared that “an incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial, and this one is not.” To all of us, in fact, proverbs, sententiae, sayings, and many more (maxims, apophthegms, aphorisms, and so… Read more
Essay 2. Orality and literacy revisited 2022.1.9 | By Gregory Nagy A slightly rewritten version of an essay originally published 2017 in Classical Inquiries, https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/orality-and-literacy-revisited/. §1. I am surprised that I have never been asked the question: since Albert Lord was your mentor, and since you count yourself among… Read more
2023.01.02 | By Gregory Nagy Essay 10. Achilles the charioteer 10§0. In the Odyssey, where the death of Achilles in battle is being retrospectively narrated, Homeric poetry eulogizes the dead hero for being the master charioteer that he had been in his epic lifetime. In the battle scenes narrated by… Read more
posted 2021.06.24, to be reperformed 2021.06.30 | By Gregory Nagy §0. This presentation offers friendly criticism of the views of classicists who use such terms as "text" and "reperformance" without fully taking into account various comparative perspectives that have for some time been made available by way of typological descriptions of "live" performance as observed and analyzed in a wide variety of ethnographical studies. Read more
By Gregory Nagy | 2022.12.30 This essay, posted 2022.12.30 in Classical Continuum, is a “preprint” and pre-edited version of a text submitted to the Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey, edited by Joel P. Christensen, forthcoming. Figure 48a. “Mercury Conducting the Souls of the Suitors to the Infernal Regions” (1805). Read more
By Gregory Nagy | 2022.12.29 Introduction The three terms sacred space and frame and lyric occasions in the title of this essay all need to be questioned for their meanings, which depend in each case on the overall meaning of the title that combines these terms. As for the word… Read more
2022.12.26 | By Gregory Nagy Essay 9. “The apobatic moment”: An interaction between an athletic event and a heroic experience 9§0. At ancient Greek festivals, as we have just seen, there were seasonally recurring competitions in performances of poetry and song, not only in athletic events. And now we will… Read more
Five essays, ready for newer annotations, centering on theories about oral traditions Essay 1. Orality and literacy. 2022.12.19 | By Gregory Nagy Originally published 2001 in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, ed. T. O. Sloane, 532–538; Oxford. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces… Read more
2022.12.12 | By Gregory Nagy Essay 8. Combinations of competition in athletics and competition in the performance of epic 8§0. Ever since Essay 1, we have considered the meaning of the word agōn as ‘competition’ in contexts of athletics. And, ever since Essay 2, we have considered the same meaning… Read more