Modern Philology

ROBERTO NICOLAI MASTROFRANCESCO

The aim of the course is to deepen the knowledge of Greek literature through the analysis of texts and the use of the main critical tools (linguistic, rhetorical, pertaining to textual criticism). The course also aims to refine the skills of independent research in students.

The course aims to improve students' knowledge, skills, and critical text-analysis abilities by proposing a cross-cutting theme that involves different literary genres and authors from the 5th–4th centuries BCE. Another expected outcome is progress in the technique of translating texts.

Advanced knowledge of ancient Greek language and literature.

Middle Lands: the creation and description of spaces between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.
The geographical references found in works of literature create a space that, in most cases, is not neutral but marked and meaningful, enriching the authors’ messages. During the course, several examples of the creation and description of spaces (listed below) will be presented; students may use them as a basis for conducting independent research to be discussed in seminar-style classes.
Some examples include: Aeschylus, Agamemnon (the palace and the purple tapestries); Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (the crossroads); Oedipus at Colonus (the grove of Colonus, Athens; Thebes); Euripides, Helen (Egypt, the sea); Herodotus (Book VII: the catalogue of Xerxes’ troops; Book II: Egypt; Book IV: Scythia; 4.36: map of the oikoumene); Thucydides (Thrace, Sicily); Xenophon (Anabasis, Cyropaedia); Plato (Atlantis in the Timaeus–Critias; Athens and the Ilissus in the Phaedrus).

A. Blasina, Eschilo in scena, Stuttgart 2003
M. G. Bonanno, I tappeti di Clitemestra e i calzari di Agamennone, “Dioniso”, 1, 2002, pp. 26-35
A. Capra, Plato's Four Muses: The Phaedrus and the Poetics of Philosophy, Washington, DC 2014
P. Janni, La mappa e il periplo. Cartografia antica e spazio odologico, Roma 2004
R. Nicolai, Verità della storia e verità del paradigma: riflessioni su Isocrate (con un’appendice platonica), in A. I. Bouton-Touboulic, F. Daspet (édd.), Dire le vrai. Acte de la Journée d’Études du XLIIe Congrès international de l’ l’Association des Professeurs de Langues anciennes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, Bordeaux 23 mau 2009, Bordeaux 2012, pp. 9-37
R. Nicolai, La tragedia e i confini del mondo. Limiti geografici e limiti linguistici, in F. J. González Ponce, F. Javier Gómez Espelosín, A. L. Chávez Reino (edd.), La letra y la carta. Descripción verbal y representación gráfica en los diseños terrestres grecolatinos. Estudios en honor de Pietro Janni, Sevilla 2016, pp. 51-68 (Monografías de GAHIA 1)
R. Nicolai, I pericoli della montagna: la traversata delle Alpi e le frontiere dello storico, in M. Taufer (Hg.), La montagna nell’antichità – Berge in der Antike – Mountains in Antiquity, Freiburg i. Br./Berlin/Wien 2019, pp. 191-215
R. Nicolai, I generi della geografia e della storia: il caso dell’Anabasi, in R. Nicolai – A.L. Chávez Reino (eds.), Tra geografia e storiografia, Sevilla – Alcalá de Henares 2020, pp. 113-130
R. Nicolai, Euripide nella preistoria: Ifigenia in Tauride e Ciclope, “Geographia Antiqua” 29, 2020, pp. 20-41
R. Nicolai, From Hecataeus to Strabo: Pelasgians and migrations, in D. Dueck (ed.), The Mediterranean: a view from the East, Sevilla 2024, pp. 47-72
L. E. Enrico Rossi, Livelli di lingua, gestualità, rapporti di spazio e situazione drammatica sulla scena attica, in L. De Finis (a cura di), Scena e spettacolo nell’antichità, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studio. Trento. 28-30 marzo 1988, Firenze 1989, pp. 63-78, in particolare p. 71 s. = Id., κηληθμῷ δ᾽ ἔσχοντο. Scritti editi e inediti, a cura di G. Colesanti e R. Nicolai, II, Berlin 2020
P. Vannicelli, Resistenza e intesa: studi sulle guerre persiane in Erodoto, Bari 2013
P. Vannicelli, A. Corcella, G. Nenci (a cura di), Erodoto. Le storie, Volume 7, Libro VII: Serse e Leonida, Milano 2017
Further bibliographical references will be provided during the course.

Traditional lessons that involve active student participation.

As the course covers topics that span multiple literary genres and authors, students are expected to attend regularly.

The oral exam is conducted on the texts studied during the course and includes translation, commentary, and contextualization of the texts, as well as verification of linguistic and historical-literary competencies.

Translation and commentary on a text designed to highlight the topics addressed during the course.

• Examples of literary text analysis
  • Books: Aeschylus, Agamemnon; Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Euripides, Helen; Herodotus; Thucydides; Xenophon (Anabasis, Cyropaedia); Plato (Timaeus–Critias; Phaedrus).


• Student seminar work
  • Books: Texts selected by the students