Recent scholarship has witnessed an escalating interest in the study of Greek literary epigram, which was given further momentum by the discovery and publication of the New Milan Papyrus, attributed to Posidippus of Pella. Considerable progress has been made in our appreciation of the development and features of the genre and its exponents in the Hellenistic period. However, intense scholarly focus on Hellenistic epigram has led to an under-appreciation of the later epigrammatic material, from the Roman to the Byzantine period. The aim of this international conference is to investigate the changes that literary epigram underwent over the centuries, its interrelationship with other Greek literary genres and with the visual arts, as well as the factors which influenced its development across time. In this way the conference aims to advance our understanding of the epigram by shifting focus away from an author-, garland,- and time-based study of epigrams and exploring Greek literary epigrams - from the Hellenistic to those included in the Cycle of Agathias - in a wider perspective, leading to the understanding of the larger dynamics that shaped the epigram as a literary type, and the factors that influenced its development and guaranteed its survival throughout antiquity.
The list of confirmed speakers includes:
- Prof. Silvia Barbantani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
- Prof. Peter Bing (Emory)
- Prof. Joseph Day (Wabash College)
- Prof. Marco Fantuzzi (Columbia)
- Dr. Lucia Floridi (Milan)
- Dr. Valentina Garulli (Bologna)
- Prof. Kathryn Gutzwiller (Cincinnati)
- Prof. Annette Harder (Groningen)
- Dr. Regina Hoeschele (Toronto)
- Prof. Richard Hunter (Cambridge)
- Prof. Irmgard Maennlein-Robert (Tübingen)
- Dr. Doris Meyer (Strasbourg)
- Dr. Andrej Petrovic (Durham)
Possible subjects for papers include, but are not limited to:
- Contextualisation of literary epigrams of different periods within their religious, political, and geographical milieu
- Cross-fertilisation between different epigrammatic subgenres
- Poetic rivalry and imitation
- Intertextuality
- Poetic voice in different epigrammatists and subgenres
- Development of poetic topoi within the genre
- Mythic and other narrative modes
- Interrelation between epigrams and inscriptions
- Epigrams and patronage
- Epigrams and iconography
- Epigrams, anthologies, and performative context