Narrative Approaches to the Lives of Ancient Greek Poets
Ghent University, January 16-17, 2025
Sint-Baafshuis, Biezekapelstraat 2, Ghent
Organizers: Camila de Moura Silva and Koen De Temmerman
Lives of famous and less famous ancient Greek poets have proven to be a treasure trove of inspiration for authors and other artists across different times and cultures from Antiquity onwards. In recent decades, scholarship on these Lives has increasingly turned from questions of historicity to different aspects of their narrative construction and to examining how such aspects relate to aetiological, (meta)literary or other functions. Scholars have thus opened up new directions in interpreting and evaluating these fascinating texts. Our workshop inscribes itself in this recent trend and aims to investigate and discuss different aspects underlying the construction of these texts as narratives.
Registration for this event is possible until 10 January 2025 via this link.
Those wishing to attend online can fill out this form to receive the Zoom link closer to the date.
Questions may be emailed to camila.demoura@ugent.be.
Day 1 – Thursday 16/01/2025
10.00-10.10 Opening remarks
SESSION 1 LIVES OF HOMER
Chair: Koen De Temmerman (Ghent University)
10.10-10.40 Jaume Pòrtulas (University of Barcelona) – Meaning and Scope of Homer’s Heroization
10.40-11.00 Coralie Santomaso (University of Geneva) – Life Imitates Life: Virgil’s Poetic Career as a Mirror of Homer’s
11.00-11.30 Adriane da Silva Duarte (University of São Paulo) – Mythical Births: Suassuna’s As infâncias de Quaderna and the Lives of Homer
11.30-11.50 Discussion
11.50-13.30 Lunch
SESSION 2 LIVES OF SAPPHO AND OTHER FEMALE POETS
Chair: Kristoffel Demoen (Ghent University)
13.30-14.00 Renate Schlesier (Free University Berlin) – Sappho’s Family, a Fusion of Narratives
14.00-14.20 Cara Sewing (Osnabrück University) – A Lack of Beauty and a Festival of Impudence. Biographical Representations of Female Greek Poets in the Literature of Early Roman Empire
14.20-14.40 Maria Navarro López (University of Barcelona) – Framing Greek Women Poets: A Biographical Approach
14.40-15.00 Discussion
15.00-15.20 Coffee Break
SESSION 3 ARCHAIC, CLASSICAL AND HELLENISTIC LIVES
Chair: Anne-Marie Doyen (Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve)
15.20-15.40 Malwina Grabowska-Zywar (University of Warsaw) – Pausanias and the Early Greek Poets: The Case of Eumelus of Corinth
15.40-16.10 Flore Kimmel-Clauzet (Paul Valéry University Montpellier 3) – Characterization of Ancient Greek poets in the Lives: the Case of the Misogynist Euripides
16.10-16.40 Marília Futre Pinheiro (University of Lisbon) – Narrative approaches to the Lives of Hellenistic Greek Poets: Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius of Rhodes
16.40-17.00 Discussion
Day 2 – Friday 17/01/2025
SESSION 4 COLLECTIVE LIVES
Chair: Aude Busine (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
10:00-10.30 Camila de Moura (University of São Paulo/Ghent University) – The Lives of Greek Poets as a Collection
10.30-11.00 Sergi Grau (University of Barcelona) – Lives of Poets and Lives of Philosophers: Some Shared and Distinctive Narrative Patterns
11.00-11.20 Thomas Lister (University of Oxford) – Clearchus’ Fragmentary Dialogism: Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches
11.20-11.40 Discussion
11.40-13.10 Lunch
SESSION 5 LIVES AND BYZANTINE RECEPTIONS
Chair: Stefan Schorn (Catholic University of Leuven)
13:10-13.40 Claire Rachel Jackson (Ghent University) – Biography, Fiction, and Reception in Iamblichus’ Babyloniaka
13.40-14.00 Matías S. Fernandez Robbio (National University of Cuyo) – Something old, something new, something borrowed: three epigrams on Lucian of Samosata
14.00-14.20 Discussion
14.20 Closing remarks
Evelien Bracke and Koen De Temmerman warmly invite you to a symposium on ancient narrative and its reception, organized in tribute to the late Prof. Saiichiro Nakatani (1972-2023).