- Ancient Greek History, Greek Literature, Greek History, Greek Myth, Greek Epic, Ancient Greek Historiography, and 26 moreAnciet Greek Philosophy, Greek Language, Ancient Greek Literature, Homer, Homeric studies, Homeric Scholia, Hesiod, Hesiodic Poetry, Herodotus, Hecataeus, Acusilaus of Argos, Protagoras, Plato, Plato's Protagoras, Prodicus, Sophists, Empedocles, Mythography, Classics, Greek Lyric Poetry, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Presocratic Philosophy, Homeric poetry, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient Biography, and Archaic Poetry(Anciet Greek Philosophy, Greek Language, Ancient Greek Literature, Homer, Homeric studies, Homeric Scholia, Hesiod, Hesiodic Poetry, Herodotus, Hecataeus, Acusilaus of Argos, Protagoras, Plato, Plato's Protagoras, Prodicus, Sophists, Empedocles, Mythography, Classics, Greek Lyric Poetry, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Presocratic Philosophy, Homeric poetry, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient Biography, and Archaic Poetry)edit
- Ricercatore di tipo B (Assistant Professor, tenure-track) in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, at Sapienza Unive... moreRicercatore di tipo B (Assistant Professor, tenure-track) in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, at Sapienza University of Rome. Previously, I have been British Academy Newton International Fellow at King's College London (2020 and 2021), Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Heidelberg (2018 and 2019), and Fellow of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici "Benedetto Croce" in Naples (2017).
To receive off-prints that I am not allowed to share on this platform, please send an email to: ilaria.andolfi@uniroma1.it(Ricercatore di tipo B (Assistant Professor, tenure-track) in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, at Sapienza University of Rome. Previously, I have been British Academy Newton International Fellow at King's College London (2020 and 2021), Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Heidelberg (2018 and 2019), and Fellow of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici "Benedetto Croce" in Naples (2017).<br /><br />To receive off-prints that I am not allowed to share on this platform, please send an email to: ilaria.andolfi@uniroma1.it)edit
This chapter examines a fragment – or better, two fragments – ascribed to Democritus by the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria. According to a story reported by Clement, the Abderite philosopher stole some contents from the Story of... more
This chapter examines a fragment – or better, two fragments – ascribed to Democritus by the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria. According to a story reported by Clement, the Abderite philosopher stole some contents from the Story of Ahiqar, a wisdom book containing the sayings of the homonymous chancellor of the Assyrian king, whose earliest textual witnesses date back to the 5th c. BC. Moreover, in the same passage, Clement cites another report, where Democritus boasts his expertise in geometry, which is proved superior even to that of the Egyptians. My main concern in this discussion is to pinpoint the reasons that lie behind the ascription of these fragments to Democritus, and consequently to the credibility of these reports in antiquity. After this, I shall contextualise it against the background that informed it, as well as against other representations of Greek natural philosophers who travelled for the sake of knowledge.
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In this paper we challenge a staple of modern scholarship, which considers Hippias’ Synagogé as the first instance of Greek doxographical work. In this article, I offer a fresh analysis of the relevant ancient texts and of the state of... more
In this paper we challenge a staple of modern scholarship, which considers Hippias’ Synagogé as the first instance of Greek doxographical work. In this article, I offer a fresh analysis of the relevant ancient texts and of the state of scholarship. The result of this investigation casts doubt on the real nature and scope of Hippias’ Synagogé as a mere collection of passages. I argue
that this usually taken for granted interpretation does not capture what the Synagogé may have been. By contrast, I suggest restoring the entertaining nature and rhetorical strategy that lie at the heart of Hippias’ literary effort.
that this usually taken for granted interpretation does not capture what the Synagogé may have been. By contrast, I suggest restoring the entertaining nature and rhetorical strategy that lie at the heart of Hippias’ literary effort.
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This article asks whether Empedocles actually made use of his vernacular (a variety of Doric spoken at Acragas) in his lines, as it has been suggested by some modern scholars. Yet, a survey of these alleged Doric forms (D 73, 233-234;... more
This article asks whether Empedocles actually made use of his vernacular (a
variety of Doric spoken at Acragas) in his lines, as it has been suggested by some modern scholars. Yet, a survey of these alleged Doric forms (D 73, 233-234; 247-248 Laks-Most = B 17, 1-2 Diels-Kranz; D 101, 1-3 Laks-Most = B 22, 1-3 Diels-Kranz; D 75, 8-11 Laks-Most = B 35 Diels-Kranz) shows that the presence for Doricisms in Empedocles is neither abundant nor free from doubt.
variety of Doric spoken at Acragas) in his lines, as it has been suggested by some modern scholars. Yet, a survey of these alleged Doric forms (D 73, 233-234; 247-248 Laks-Most = B 17, 1-2 Diels-Kranz; D 101, 1-3 Laks-Most = B 22, 1-3 Diels-Kranz; D 75, 8-11 Laks-Most = B 35 Diels-Kranz) shows that the presence for Doricisms in Empedocles is neither abundant nor free from doubt.
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This paper seeks to investigate the strategies employed by Hesiod and by the Presocratics to claim personal authority. Despite the fact that the works of the latter mostly survive in the form of fragments as quoted and preserved in the... more
This paper seeks to investigate the strategies employed by Hesiod and by the Presocratics to claim personal authority. Despite the fact that the works of the latter mostly survive in the form of fragments as quoted and preserved in the texts of later writers, I will show how a ‘sealing’ device was directly inherited from Hesiod and how self-oriented statements actually help shape the individual authority of such thinkers.This paper will ultimately show how the Presocratics’ debt towards Hesiod is twofold: on the one hand, as modern critics have noticed, the poet is the first real authority when it comes to natural philosophy and cosmogony and this feature clearly distinguished him from Homer. But, on the other, Hesiod made that crucial step away from the bardic-rhapsodic anonymity towards a well-distinctive authorial awareness, which is also a distinctive feature of the Presocratics’ production.
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The main goal of the present paper is to offer new insight and a reassessment of Empedocles’ employment of poetic images borrowed from the field of handicraft activities. Unfortunately, the fragmentary status of our evidence prevents us... more
The main goal of the present paper is to offer new insight and a reassessment of Empedocles’ employment of poetic images borrowed from the field of handicraft activities. Unfortunately, the fragmentary status of our evidence prevents us from fully appreciate Empedocles’ art and especially his vision on the role of images in the didactic plot. As Empedocles himself stated, it is not possible to bring the divine down to earth and to examine it with human eyes and touch it with human hands (B 113). However, to enhance the efficacy and the vividness of the didactic discourse, he decided to employ the image of the goddess Aphrodite as an artisan, both to homage the epic and genealogical tradition and to merge it with those accounts spread in Near Eastern cultures, where gods are represented as craftsmen in creation myths (Enuma Elis, the Legend of Athrasis, and the Gilgamesh epic).
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This paper offers a fresh discussion of Hecataeus of Miletus’ fr. 33 EGM, usually dismissed for its opaqueness. The reference to the seer Amphiaraus, who, according to Aelian, slept away his watch and nearly suffered the consequence of... more
This paper offers a fresh discussion of Hecataeus of Miletus’ fr. 33 EGM, usually dismissed for its opaqueness. The reference to the seer Amphiaraus, who, according to Aelian, slept away his watch and nearly suffered the consequence of his negligence, is obscure, but has sometimes been interpreted as being a lost piece of the Theban saga. This reconstruction, however, is not the only one possible: as the story of the seer Evenius in Herodotus shows, this fragment might come from an account about Amphiaraus’ initiation to the prophetic art.
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This paper sets out to reveal a contribution made by the fifth-century sophist Protagoras to the field of literary scholarship, as described by Aristotle. A papyrus commentary preserved in P.Oxy. II 221 shows Protagoras commenting with... more
This paper sets out to reveal a contribution made by the fifth-century sophist Protagoras to the field of literary scholarship, as described by Aristotle. A papyrus commentary preserved in P.Oxy. II 221 shows Protagoras commenting with approval on the narrative structure of a passage in Iliad 21. I will argue that Aristotle played a role in reporting the sophist's view on literary criticism and will suggest that he may have incorporated them in his own scholarship.
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This paper analyses Empedocles' contribution to Sicilian politics as described by the ancient sources cited by Diogenes Laertius. It offers a close analysis of a bizarre anecdote by Timaeus (FGrHist F), where Empedocles got rid of a... more
This paper analyses Empedocles' contribution to Sicilian politics as described by the ancient sources cited by Diogenes Laertius. It offers a close analysis of a bizarre anecdote by Timaeus (FGrHist F), where Empedocles got rid of a potential tyrant to preserve political equality, also in the light of other ancient accounts in which Empedocles is described as a man of his people.
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This paper seeks to offer a fresh interpretation of the literary production of Hecataeus of Miletus, usually regarded as a starting point for historiography or mythography. Firstly, to assess his real contribution to the complex of Greek... more
This paper seeks to offer a fresh interpretation of the literary production of Hecataeus of Miletus, usually regarded as a starting point for historiography or mythography. Firstly, to assess his real contribution to the complex of Greek literature, it is paramount to carefully analyse the proem of the Genealogies (fr. 1 Fowler) and its value as a programmatic statement. It will be shown that the proem is shaped so as to resemble an authoritative heroic speech and that Hecataeus shares his concerns about the reliability of myth-telling with poets like Pindar. Secondly, it will be argued that his work was primarily conceived as a means to rewrite those stories already told in the epics (not only Homer and Hesiod but also the Epic Cycle and local sagas). Hecataeus’ contribution to archaic Greek literature fits into an open network of epic texts, as a cross-cultural comparison with the Hebrew Bible shows, and perhaps it can be best described as a form of “rhapsody in prose”, which entails a good degree of reworking of contents and the strong affirmation of an authorial persona free of the Muses’ patronage
Research Interests: Homer, Greek Epic, Ancient Greek History, Ancient Greek Historiography, Fragmentary Greek Historiography, and 9 moreEarly Greek poetry, Greek prose, Ancient Greek Literature, Greek Epic Cycle, Early Greek epic, Hecataeus, Fragments, Fragmentary greek poetry, and Greek and Roman Mythology and Mythography
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the origins of early Greek mythography, exemplarily represented by Hecataeus of Miletus and Acusilaus of Argos. The paucity of verbatim quotation and a total lack of information about the... more
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the origins of early Greek mythography, exemplarily represented by Hecataeus of Miletus and Acusilaus of Argos. The paucity of verbatim quotation and a total lack of information about the publication of their prose works and their audience makes it difficult to frame them within a specific literary genre. Despite that, a better understanding of their cultural milieu could help us approach their literary production in a new way. What arises from this investigation is how unprofitable it is to rely upon a rigid distinction among the production of early prose writers who clearly share a common goal and, to some extent, a similar communicative strategy.
Research Interests: Literacy, Presocratic Philosophy, Orality-Literacy Studies, Ancient Historiography, Archaic Greek history, and 9 moreAncient Greek Historiography, Mythography, Greek prose, Early Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Literature, Orality and Literacy, Greek Mythography, Acusilaus of Argos, and Hecataeus of Miletus
This paper seeks to investigate the strategies employed by Hesiod and by the Presocratics to claim personal authority. Despite the fact that the works of the latter mostly survive in the form of fragments as quoted and preserved in the... more
This paper seeks to investigate the strategies employed by Hesiod and by the Presocratics to claim personal authority. Despite the fact that the works of the latter mostly survive in the form of fragments as quoted and preserved in the texts of later writers, I will show how a ‘sealing’ device was directly inherited from Hesiod and how self-oriented statements actually help shape the individual authority of such thinkers.This paper will ultimately show how the Presocratics’ debt towards Hesiod is twofold: on the one hand, as modern critics have noticed, the poet is the first real authority when it comes to natural philosophy and cosmogony and this feature clearly distinguished him from Homer. But, on the other, Hesiod made that crucial step away from the bardic-rhapsodic anonymity towards a well-distinctive authorial awareness, which is also a distinctive feature of the Presocratics’ production.
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This paper revolves around Empedocles' poetic production and will point out that this poetic production needs to be subjected to fresh thinking, definition and assessment. A new and provocative comparison with the communicative... more
This paper revolves around Empedocles' poetic production and will point out that this poetic production needs to be subjected to fresh thinking, definition and assessment. A new and provocative comparison with the communicative strategies employed in Greek didactic elegy may turn out to be unexpectedly fruitful.
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Tra tutti i cosiddetti filosofi Presocratici, certamente Empedocle non è stato trascurato dagli editori moderni: abbiamo, infatti, a disposizione ben otto edizioni critiche dei suoi frammenti. Inoltre, la pubblicazione del Papiro di... more
Tra tutti i cosiddetti filosofi Presocratici, certamente Empedocle non è stato trascurato dagli editori moderni: abbiamo, infatti, a disposizione ben otto edizioni critiche dei suoi frammenti. Inoltre, la pubblicazione del Papiro di Strasburgo del 1999, che rappresenta ad oggi l’unica testimonianza di una trasmissione diretta del testo di uno dei “Presocratici”, ha (ri)portato all’attenzione degli studiosi alcuni problemi di tipo ecdotico e linguistico, nonché di natura strettamente filosofica, che meritano ulteriori approfondimenti.
Questo contributo intende esaminare proprio alcuni dei problemi eccotici e linguistici in Empedocle sui quali gli editori moderni non si sono sufficientemente interrogati. In particolare, ci si soffermerà su due aspetti, ovvero sulla presenza di forme “epicheggianti”, che non ricorrono in Omero o in Esiodo, ma che sono solitamente ricondotte allo sviluppo della dizione epica, e sulla presunta presenza di forme dialettali propriamente doriche.
Questo contributo intende esaminare proprio alcuni dei problemi eccotici e linguistici in Empedocle sui quali gli editori moderni non si sono sufficientemente interrogati. In particolare, ci si soffermerà su due aspetti, ovvero sulla presenza di forme “epicheggianti”, che non ricorrono in Omero o in Esiodo, ma che sono solitamente ricondotte allo sviluppo della dizione epica, e sulla presunta presenza di forme dialettali propriamente doriche.
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Review of the second volume of Early Greek Epic Fragments by C.C. Tsagalis