Plenary lectures will be held in the University’s main building (plac Uniwersytecki 1), in either the Aula Leopoldina or the Oratorium Marianum.
Monday, 7 July, 18:00, Aula Leopoldina
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
The Threshold Once Kissed. Reflections on a New Edition of Callimachus’ Epigrams
A new edition of Callimachus’ epigrams is not only of great benefit to the study of Greek epigram, but also for the Roman reception of Callimachus. Tracing the legacy of these short Alexandrian poems among the authors of Roman elegy in particular opens new doors of artistic evaluation.
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes is Professor of Latin and Greek at Ohio State University.
Tuesday, 8 July, 8:30, Aula Leopoldina
Eleanor Dickey
Multilingual and multicultural education in antiquity: what can we learn from it?
Some ancient cultures (e.g. the Romans, the Assyrians) included a second language and/or study of another culture in their education systems; others (e.g. the Athenians) did not. What factors caused ancient societies to have (or not have) such material in their education systems? Who learned which languages at school? Why those particular languages? How were languages taught, and how much did the students actually learn? What effect did these studies have on the cultures concerned? And can ancient educational practices offer any useful lessons for the modern world?
Eleanor Dickey is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading.
Tuesday, 8 July, 16:30, Aula Leopoldina
Gesine Manuwald
The study of early Latin textual fragments and its relevance for Roman literary history
Between the fully extant works and the completely lost works of ancient Latin literature there is the intermediate category of items known through testimonies and fragments, which have been collected separately since the beginnings of scholarship in the early modern period and particularly in the nineteenth century. Beyond making these texts available, however, unearthing and editing fragments is not just a positivist and antiquarian task, but also contributes to providing a fuller set of toolkits for the subject, in that reliable editions of and easy access to these texts can assist with addressing broader questions of the development of literature in form and content. This lecture will explore the broader advantages to be gained from the engagement with fragments for a more rounded picture of Roman literature (as a case study), with respect, for instance, to its cultural context, intertextual connections between texts of different types and periods, the emergence of a literary language and the characteristics of literary genres.
Gesine Manuwald is Professor of Latin at University College London.
Wednesday, 9 July, 8:30, Oratorium Marianum
Edith Hall
Classics at the Crossways
Our discipline faces threats from all directions: internal conflicts, financial cutbacks, privatisation of the university sector, a reputation for exclusivity, allegations of uselessness in a high-tech modern society and contempt from authoritarian governments and social media entrepreneurs who use censorship and disinformation about Humanities to undermine citizens’ critical skills and capacity for resistance. This lecture asks how classicists as an international community can work together to fulfill our historic responsibility to the human race to defend Enlightenment values and enlightened education.
Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at Durham University.
Thursday, 10 July, 8:30–9:45, Oratorium Marianum
Ivana Petrovic
Epiphanies, ancient and modern: Apollo in Apollonius’ Argonautica
The first part of my paper will explore the representation of Apollo in Apollonius’ Argonautica. The poem opens with an invocation to Apollo, establishing him as a significant divine presence from the very beginning. It was Apollo’s prophecy to Pelias, after all, that prompted the king to send Jason on a perilous quest. Beyond this initial role, Apollo also delivers an encouraging oracle to Jason, and the Argonauts honor Apollo by founding his cults throughout their journey. Most notably, they witness two dramatic epiphanies of the god – first on the island of Thynias (2.669–719), and later by the island of Anaphe (4.1694–1730). In the second part of my paper, these two scenes will serve as a launching point for discussion of both current trends and potential future directions in scholarship on Hellenistic poetry.
Ivana Petrovic is Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia.