The Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics by the Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) has been treated by commentators as wide-ranging as Borges, Renan, and Kilito as an exemplary case of the failure of translation. Critics who presume Ibn Rushd’s failure often concentrate on his rendering of Aristotle’s tragedy and comedy by praise…[Read more]

This paper has two parts. First, I examine Basil of Caesarea’s theological anthropology and show how he understands the human being as a body-soul unity. The body is the good instrument of the soul. It is marvelous because it has been molded by God’s own hands. In the second part, I examine what I call Basil’s theological physiology, which flows…[Read more]

Basil of Caesarea, in his polemic against astrology (Homiliae in hexaemeron 6,5−7), makes direct, creative uses of Origen’s anti-astrological treatise (Philocalia 23). My argument is based on an identical context, namely the interpretation of Gen 1:14b, and five close similarities in content, some verbatim, between Basil’s sermon and Orige…[Read more]

A basic sketch of the historical phonology of the Lycian language from Proto-Indo-European, originally compiled for a “Lycian Self-Help” reading group at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Easter Term 2015), organised by Dr. Philippa Steele. The sketch is based primarily upon the accounts given in H. Craig Melchert’s Anatolian…[Read more]

Handout for a supplementary lecture to the course “Alexander’s Legacy: Greek as a World Language” (Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, 2014).

Document contains a complete parsing of R̥g-veda 2.33, originally compiled for a course on Vedic at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Lent term 2014).

This document contains a brief survey of Sanskrit nominal compounds, originally compiled for personal use, later used as a teaching handout.

Document contains a now slightly outdated annotated bibliography of Vedic linguistics, originally compiled for a course on Vedic at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Lent term 2014).

Document contains a complete parsing and etymological analysis of R̥g-veda 1.32, originally compiled for a course on Vedic at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Lent term 2014).

Document contains an etymological glossary of R̥g-veda 1.1, originally compiled for a course on Vedic at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Lent term 2014).

Document contains a preliminary partially annotated bibliography of key works on Ancient Greek dialectology, originally compiled in 2015.

Document contains a complete parsing and partial etymological analysis of R̥g-veda 1.85, originally compiled for a course on Vedic at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (Lent term 2014).

This extended review highlights an increasingly important aspect of the contemporary performance reception of the Odyssey in the UK, with growing numbers of practitioners and companies moving away from the straightforward dramatisation (or revisionist dramatic contestation) of Homer’s epic tale, and towards a deepening engagement with epic s…[Read more]

Our lack of reliable information concerning the physical and choreographic aspects of ancient tragic performance permits modern writers to construct their own imaginative re-creations of the ancient text/body relationship in a wide variety of modes. The range of ways in which texts translated or adapted from ancient tragedy are capable of…[Read more]

The translation of ancient tragedy is often considered at a linguistic level, as if the drama consisted simply of words being written, spoken and heard. This article contends that translation for the stage is a process in which literary decisions have physical, as well as verbal, outcomes. It traces existing formulations concerning the links…[Read more]

Alice Oswald’s recitation of her 2011 poem Memorial is an intensely modest, self-effacing performance. Yet it is also one which invites us to consider key questions about the ancient practice, and modern re-performance, of epic poetry. Oswald explicitly cites the antiphonal lament of Homeric funerary ritual as an influence upon her r…[Read more]

Ted Hughes’ version of Euripides’ Alcestis (1999) is a play which diverges significantly from its ancient source-text, most notably in an interpolated sequence during which the drunken Heracles re-enacts his own labours, before experiencing traumatic visions. This article identifies this un-Euripidean interlude as a characteristic instance of int…[Read more]

This review-essay discusses George Brant’s play Grounded (2013) in the context of its production at the Gate Theatre (London). It begins with a critical examination of my own “mis-seeing” of the play’s protagonist as a version of the tragic Heracles. The analysis which follows compares key aspects of The Pilot’s narrative with Euripides’ Heracles…[Read more]