Classical Studies

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Robert Cioffi Publishes an Essay on Newly Uncovered Euripides Papyrus in the London Review of Books

Bard Assistant Professor of Classics Robert Cioffi published his essay “Euripides Unbound” in the most recent issue of the London Review of Books (LRB). The essay tells the story of a papyrus artifact found in 2022 that contained 97 lines of two plays by Euripides, one of the most important discoveries of the author’s work. Cioffi, who is an expert on Greek tragedy and papyri, notes the difficulty of deciphering works like this, especially when so many others have been lost. He says the two years it took to decipher and print its contents shows the importance of collaboration for the field of papyrology, and that “for papyrology to continue, techniques and expertise must be shared.”

Alongside his essay, Cioffi appeared on the LRB Podcast to talk about the papyrus’s excavation from a cemetery in Philadelphia (Egypt) by archaeologist Heba Adly. He also discussed his recent book Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Greek Novel, which explores the relationship between Egyptian and Greco-Roman materials and explains how important the Nile River Valley was in Roman imperial literature. Cioffi is currently working on site at Hermopolis Magna in Egypt, where he hopes to find more unexcavated texts: “That’s what makes archaeology exciting—you cross your fingers and hope to find something amazing.”
 

Post Date: 09-30-2024

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Professor James Romm Reviews The Muse of History in the Chronicle of Higher Education

James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics James Romm published a review of Oswyn Murray’s The Muse of History in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Muse of History is an academic monograph about the study of ancient Greece that also includes personal stories reflecting on Murray’s long career as a historian. Romm finds that The Muse of History is a record of how we use the idea of ancient Greece as a “hall of mirrors” to understand the modern world, as well as a demonstration of Murray’s important contributions to his field.

Romm admires Murray’s “sleuthing into scholarship’s hidden corners” to create a catalog of overlooked scholars of Greek history; for example, the author’s discovery of an unfinished 1837 manuscript “attest[s] to his tireless, rigorous research.” Collectively, Romm finds that The Muse of History is “a multifaceted book” that “offers something of value to readers, whether they are students of history or, as we all are, its prisoners.”

Post Date: 09-17-2024