'SIGNS OF LIFE? NEW CONTEXTS FOR LATER GREEK HEXAMETER POETRY'

19-21 APRIL 2007

FACULTY OF CLASSICS, CAMBRIDGE

Greek hexameter verse of the later Empire is diverse in subject matter and style, in its use of the earlier literary tradition and contemporary educational practices and hierarchies, and in its relationship to the artistic and religious culture of later antiquity. This conference aims to open up the poetic world, both pagan and Christian, from Oppian to Nonnus and beyond to a range of questions, many of which are now taken for granted in the study of earlier Greek and Roman poetry; a central purpose of the conference will indeed be an attempt to define the kind of questions which it is sensible to ask of these texts and thus to suggest directions for future research in an area that remains a largely understudied chapter in the history of Greek literature. The conference will cover both 'literary' texts and poems which have survived by chance on inscriptions and papyri.

For more information please visit the following website:
http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/clge.html

PROGRAMME

Thursday 19 April

3.00 Opening remarks: Richard Hunter
Dirk Obbink (Oxford), 'Fragments of reconstructions: the fragmentary basis of later vs. early Greek epic'
Chair: Richard Hunter

4.00 Coffee

4.30 Emily Kneebone (Cambridge), 'Son of the seas? Fish and
childhood in Oppian's Halieutica'
Chair: Helen Morales

5.30 Katerina Carvounis (Cambridge), 'Imitation and innovation in
Quintus of Smyrna'
Chair: Helen Morales

Reception in Museum of Classical Archaeology

Friday 20 April

9.30 Rob Shorrock (Eton College), 'The politics of poetics in
Nonnus' Dionysiaca'
Chair: Philip Hardie

10.30 Coffee

11.00 Fotini Hadjittofi (Cambridge), 'The death of love in Nonnus'
Dionysiaca'
Chair: Philip Hardie

12.00 Ian Rutherford (Reading), 'Pindar's Nonnus'
Chair: Philip Hardie

1.00 Lunch

3.00 Jane Lightfoot (Oxford), 'Dionysius the Periegete'
Chair: Ewen Bowie

4.00 Coffee

4.30 Enrico Magnelli (Florence), 'Signs of life in Colluthus' Rape
of Helen?'
Chair: Neil Hopkinson

5.30 Michael Paschalis (Rethymnon), 'The Abduction of Helen: a reappraisal'
Chair: Neil Hopkinson

Saturday 21 April

9.30 Mary Whitby (Oxford), 'Gregory of Nazianzen and the
traditions of secular hexameter poetry'
Chair: Pat Easterling

10.30 Coffee

11.00 Gianfranco Agosti (Siena-Arezzo), 'Literariness and
levels of style in epigraphical poetry of late antiquity'
Chair: Richard Hunter

12.00 Closing Discussion

The conference is organised by Katerina Carvounis (anc26 AT cam.ac.uk) and Richard Hunter (rlh10 AT cam.ac.uk) with the generous support of the Faculty of Classics. For those attending from outside Cambridge there will be a fee of £20 (£15 for graduate students) to cover tea and coffee, administration, and the opening reception; a cheque payable to 'University of Cambridge' should be sent to RH at the Faculty of Classics. Those wishing to come for just the odd day or session are very welcome and should enquire with RH concerning charges. We regret that the conference is unable to arrange accommodation in Cambridge, but the organisers will be very happy to assist with advice and
contacts. Those wishing to attend must confirm with RH by e-mail by April 12, 2007.