Research Interests

My primary area of research is Archaic Greek poetics, especially epic . All too often, the works of this age are understood primarily through poetic principles and questions of a latter age – Aristotle, the Alexandrians, or Longinus. Studies in oral poetic and performance dynamics have done much to improve this situation, yet much work remains. The roots of our earliest Greek poetry extend deep into Indo-European antiquity. Its images and connections represent an intricate web of ancient symbolisms, religious expectations, cultural imperatives, patterns of thought, and cross-cultural influences, many of which scholars have only recently begun to recognize and penetrate. My research seeks to contribute to this discourse.

My dissertation and ongoing research on the poetics of the pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis exemplify the contribution such research may offer. Commonplace accusations of poetic excess and careless construction have led to widespread neglect of this work. Yet careful examination of scholarly reception and the poem itself suggests that it is model study demonstrating the need for the creation of new paradigms. Condemnations of its poetics stem from schools of thought whose criteria of judgment were typically hostile to traditional epic, criteria which modern scholars have often applied without evaluating their origin. Moreover, from the standpoint of oral verse composition and traditional religious symbolism, the poem is revealed as an artfully crafted adaptation of an exceedingly ancient and fundamental tale, that of the god or hero against the dragon. The requisite research is necessarily multidisciplinary, encompassing art and archaeology, anthropology and folklore, history and social history, comparative mythology and religion, comparative linguistics, philosophy, Near-Eastern and Indo-European studies, and even the sciences.

In the short term, my primary goal is to revise my commentary on the Aspis for publication as a monograph. In addition, I continue to pursue areas of related interest which stem from this study, e.g. Ares and sons of Ares as mythological type, systematic examination of apotropaic thought its manifold imagery, and the symbolism of color, light, and metal. Most especially, my continuing research seeks to understand further the conceptualization and depiction of terror and death which characterizes the poem.

As the backbone of a course which I taught this fall, “Demons in Early Western Literature”, such study has already begun to extend well beyond the limits originally imposed by my dissertation. With further research over the next several years, I hope to develop such material into a major study addressing the iconography of terror – its mental, physical, meta-physical, and verbal aspects – in Archaic Age Greece. I expect that research in the areas of folklore, social history, magic and superstition, and comparative art history will prove particularly illuminating additions to the material I have already gathered. The Archaic Age is a seminal period in the development of western though, literature, and culture, yet it remains dimly understood. By addressing some of its most fundamental concepts (terror, and by implication, its opposite) such a study has the potential to shine considerable light on this age, offering a wealth of ideas which may be of interest not only to Classics, but to a wide range of disciplines.

I do not view these specialized studies as ends in themselves. I maintain an active interest Greek and Latin literature of all genres and periods, including the Byzantine. I also have a personal interest in patristic literature and in relations between Christian and pagan in late antiquity. My study in archaic poetics is motivated by the desire to explore fundamental concepts and motifs in the hope that it will add depth and richness both to my teaching of the classics, whatever the period, and to my own wider reading in other areas.

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