Modern Philology

ILARIA ANDOLFI

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.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

-demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the Greek language and literature in its diachronic and geographical development;
-develop advanced skills in translation and textual commentary of Greek texts;
-critically argue and compare different scholarly interpretations;
-present ideas clearly and appropriately in relation to the complexity of the subject matter;
-engage effectively in open discussion with other students.

A solid knowledge of the Greek language and literature in all its periods is required. Basic familiarity with textual criticism and Greek dialectology is also desirable.

Sicily and the Birth of New Forms in Greek Literature

This module aims to critically reconsider the geographical mapping of ancient Greek literature, challenging some long-established assumptions in the historiographical tradition. A widespread cliché holds that the great age of experimentation in literary genres belongs exclusively to the Hellenistic period, as if only then Greek literature developed significant forms of hybridization and innovation. The literary production of ancient Sicily, however, shows that similar processes were already fully active in the Archaic and Classical periods, thereby undermining a linear and centralized view of genre development.

From this perspective, the regional dimension of Greek literature can no longer be interpreted through a framework which, especially in the Classical period, tends to privilege Athens as the exclusive centre of cultural production. Instead, attention must be shifted towards a more complex map of the Greek world, in which western contexts—and Sicily in particular—emerge as autonomous spaces of literary experimentation.

The course therefore approaches Greek literature through this redefinition of its geographical and interpretative framework, combining the reading of canonical texts in both poetry and prose with so-called “non-canonical” materials of major significance for the cultural history of Sicily. These include, for instance, the Getty Hexameters and the defixiones from Selinunte, which allow us to observe closely the relationship between religion, superstition, ritual language, and textual production.

In this way, Sicily is no longer seen as a peripheral region of the Greek world, but as one of its most dynamic and creative centres, crucial for understanding ancient literature as a whole.

The course reconstructs the cultural milieu of Greek Sicily from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic age through the close reading of a wide range of texts, in both poetry and prose. The itinerary begins with the fragments of Stesichorus and selected Sicilian odes of Pindar, continues with Empedocles and Aeschylus in his western dimension, and includes the distinctively Sicilian theatre of Epicharmus and Sophron, the emergence of rhetoric with Gorgias of Leontini, the historiography of Thucydides and Timaeus of Tauromenium in their references to Sicily, as well as Plato’s testimony, and concludes with Archestratus of Gela and Theocritus, in order to restore the complexity and continuity of the island’s literary culture.

The bibliographical references listed above represent some of the standard editions of the texts that will be discussed during the course, but they are not intended to be exhaustive. All reading materials will be provided by the instructor during the course and made available to students.

M. Davies, P. J. Finglass, Stesichorus: The Poems. Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Pindaro: Istmiche, Pitiche, Olimpiche, Nemee (ed. Lorenzo Valla 1982-2020).
A. Laks, G.W. Most, Early Greek Philosophy. Volume V: Western Greek Thinkers, Part 2. Edited and translated by André Laks, Glenn W. Most, Cambridge, MA, Loeb Classical Library.
R. Kassel, C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci (PCG), Berlin, de Gruyter, 2001. (Volume I)
J.H. Hordern, Sophron’ s Mimes: Text, Translation, and Commentary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
S.D. Olson, A. Seins (ed.) Archestratos of Gela. Greek Culture and Cuisine in the Fourth Century BCE. Text, Translation, and Commentary, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2000.
A. S. F. Gow: Theocritus. Edited with a translation and commentary. 2 vols. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1950.

A. Willi, Sikelismos. Sprache, Literatur und Gesellschaft im griechischen Sizilien (8.–5. Jh. v. Chr.), Basel, Schwabe, 2008.
O. Tribulato (ed.), Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
K. Boscher (ed.), Theater outside Athens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
C. Antonetti (ed.) Gli esametri Getty e Selinunte, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2018.

W. Burkert, “The Making of Homer in the Sixth Century BC: Rhapsodes versus Stesichoros,” in Oxford Readings in Homer’s Iliad, ed. D. Cairns 1987 (repr., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 92–116.
K. Morgan, Pindar and the Construction of Syracusan Monarchy in the Fifth Century B.C., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
U. Mancuso, La lirica classica greca in Sicilia e nella Magna Grecia, Pisa: A. Polla, 1912.

The course consists of lectures, alongside seminar-style class discussions. In these sessions, students will be expected to prepare in advance through assigned preliminary readings. Discussion will focus not only on ancient texts, but also on selected passages of modern secondary scholarship, with the aim of critically assessing the effectiveness of interpretations and arguments (for example, the debate on the literary genre of Stesichorus).

not mandatory, but warmly recommended.

Oral examination focusing on the topics covered in class.