Sheila Murnaghan | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Harvard University, Cambridge University, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Classics |
Sub-discipline | Classical tradition,Ancient Greek literature |
Institutions | University of Pennsylvania |
Notable students | Monica Cyrino |
Notable works | Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey |
Sheila Murnaghan is the Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Professor of Greek at the University of Pennsylvania. She is particularly known for her work on Greek epic,tragedy,and historiography. [1]
Murnaghan gained her AB in Classics from Harvard University in 1973 followed by a BA from Cambridge University in 1975 and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980. [2] Murnaghan taught at Yale University from 1979 until 1990 then moved to the University of Pennsylvania where she is now the Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Professor of Greek. [3]
Murnaghan works on Greek epic poetry,tragedy,and historiography,gender in classical culture,and the classical tradition. Her groundbreaking work Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey (Princeton 1987),which was based on her PhD thesis,was republished in 2011. [4] [5]
Murnaghan currently works on the classical tradition,particularly the development of Greek mythology as children's literature in the 19th-20th centuries. She was invited to give a lecture on the subject as part of the Heinz Blum Memorial Lecture Series at Boston College in 2016 [6] and her volume on the subject with Deborah H. Roberts was published in 2018. [3]
An epic poem,or simply an epic,is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who,in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces,gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
Homer is the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey is attributed. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy,Virgil refers to him as "Poet sovereign",king of all poets;in the preface to his translation of the Iliad,Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets".
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad,the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus,king of Ithaca,and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war,which lasted ten years,his journey lasted for ten additional years,during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence,Odysseus was assumed dead,and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
Odysseus,also known by the Latin variant Ulysses,is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
Penelope is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus,despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source,Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea.
A Greek chorus,or simply chorus,in the context of ancient Greek tragedy,comedy,satyr plays,and modern works inspired by them,is a homogeneous,non-individualised group of performers,who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. The chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players,who variously danced,sang or spoke their lines in unison,and sometimes wore masks.
Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest surviving work of Greek dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. In this text Aristotle offers an account of ποιητική,which refers to poetry and more literally "the poetic art," deriving from the term for "poet;author;maker," ποιητής. Aristotle divides the art of poetry into verse drama,lyric poetry,and epic. The genres all share the function of mimesis,or imitation of life,but differ in three ways that Aristotle describes:
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature,dating back to the early Archaic period,are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey,set in an idealized archaic past today identified as having some relation to the Mycenaean era. These two epics,along with the Homeric Hymns and the two poems of Hesiod,Theogony and Works and Days,constituted the major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical,Hellenistic,and Roman periods.
Ancient Greek in classical antiquity,before the development of the common Koine Greek of the Hellenistic period,was divided into several varieties.
The Telegony is a lost ancient Greek epic poem about Telegonus,son of Odysseus by Circe. His name is indicative of his birth on Aeaea,far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca. It was part of the Epic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths of the Trojan War as well as the events that led up to and followed it. The story of the Telegony comes chronologically after that of the Odyssey and is the final episode in the Epic Cycle. The poem was sometimes attributed in antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta,but in one source it is said to have been stolen from Musaeus by Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene. The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter.
Ithaca was,in Greek mythology,the island home of the hero Odysseus. The specific location of the island,as it was described in Homer's Odyssey,is a matter for debate. There have been various theories about its location. Modern Ithaca has traditionally been accepted to be Homer's island. One recent alternative candidate is Paliki,which may have been an island separated from the rest of Kefalonia,as argued by Bittlestone,Diggle and Underhill in Odysseus Unbound. This theory,however,has not been generally accepted on grounds of geology,archaeology,philology,or historical and Homeric analysis. “What is clearly missing,”wrote Dr Christine Haywood reviewing Odysseus Unbound,“is a good knowledge of the complexities of Homeric language,and the support of archaeology.”
Patricia Elizabeth Easterling,FBA is an English classical scholar,recognised as a particular expert on the work of Sophocles. She was Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge from 1994 to 2001. She was the 36th person and the first —and,so far,only —woman to hold the post.
Emily Rose Caroline Wilson is a British classicist and the Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017 she became the first woman to publish a translation of Homer's Odyssey into English.
In Greek mythology,the suitors of Penelope are one of the main subjects of Homer's Odyssey.
Mimesis:The Representation of Reality in Western Literature is a book of literary criticism by Erich Auerbach,and his most well known work. Written while Auerbach was teaching in Istanbul,Turkey,where he fled after being ousted from his professorship in Romance Philology at the University of Marburg by the Nazis in 1935,it was first published in 1946 by A. Francke Verlag.
Odysseus Acanthoplex is a lost play by the Athenian dramatist Sophocles. Several fragments are extant. The plot told of Odysseus' death,accidentally killed by his son Telegonus. Some scholars believe that another Sophocles title,Niptra,is the same play as Odysseus Acanthoplex. Dana Sutton,however,disputes this,suggesting that Niptra was a separate play dealing with Odysseus' return to Ithaca but not with his death.
Angus Morton Bowie is a British academic,Emeritus Lobel fellow in Classics at The Queen's College,University of Oxford. His research interests include Homer,Herodotus,Greek lyric,tragedy and comedy,Virgil,Greek mythology,structuralism,narratology,and other theories of literature.
Ann Bergren was Professor of Greek literature,Literary Theory,and Contemporary Architecture at University of California,Los Angeles. She is known for her scholarship on Ancient Greek language,gender,and contemporary architecture.
The metabasis paradox is an instance in Aristotle's Poetics where,according to many scholars,he makes two incompatible statements. In chapter 13 of the book,Aristotle states that for tragedy to end in misfortune is "correct," yet in chapter 14 he judges a kind of tragedy "best" that does not end in misfortune. Since the 16th century,scholars in Classics have puzzled over this contradiction or have proposed solutions,two of which date from the 21st century. Gotthold Lessing's solution has been the most influential yet there is not a consensus.
Ahuvia Kahane is a British academic working in Ireland,specializing in the study of Greek and Roman antiquity,its traditions and the relations between the ancient world and modern culture and thought. Kahane is the 17th Regius Professor of Greek at Dublin,the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture (2017) and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He is also Senior Associate at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford.