2015 Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature - 15-16-17/06/2015, Edinburgh (Scotland)

The theme this year is progress, namely the process of moving forward, whether for its own sake or with the purpose of improvement or development. This theme may seem natural after the previous year’s conference on failure. After failing at anything, do we not look ahead towards a progression, or an improvement (or even simply an attempt not to fail again)? The ancient world too seems perpetually concerned with the implications of progress. The idea pervades many genres such as history, philosophy, and poetics. It can be seen as a positive or negative force, as an attempt to better oneself, to elevate to a better position, or in contrast as a movement away from a better state, a force for degeneration and declination. Through such ideas as Hesiod’s golden age, Thucydides and the idea of progress in historical inquiry, Stoic notions of degeneration and rebirth, or ancient commentary on linguistic or literary progress, the idea of how ancient literature addressed the question of whether we are capable of lasting progress is one that merits discussion.

FECHA/DATE/DATA: 15-16-17/06/2015

LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland)

ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Sarah Cassidy

INFO: web - ampal2015@ed.ac.uk

INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: Gratis / free / gratis - web

PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:

DAY 1: Tuesday 16th June Registration: 8.30-9.30 Jim McMillan Room SESSION 1: 9.30-11.00am PANEL 1.1: Statius on Progress. G.15. Chair: TBA Talitha Kearey (University of Cambridge): Revertendi Animus: Re-examining the ‘Golden Age’ in Statius Siluae 2.5. Henry Tang (University of Cambridge): Theseus in Statius Thebaid: A Symbol of Progression or Cyclic Sin? Joscelyn Cole (Royal Holloway University of London): Journeying towards Thebes: the Relationship between Adrastus and the Epic τέλος in Statius’ Thebaid. PANEL 1.2: Late Antique Progress. G.16. Chair: TBA Teresa Röger (Universität Heidelberg): Proba and Paulina Progressing in Pietas. Women's Dealings with Religious Change in Late Antique Rome. Alison John (University of Edinburgh): Progress or Decline of Literary-Culture and Education in Fifth-Century Gaul: Revisiting the Sources. Tomás Castro (Universidade de Lisboa): Pseudo-Dionysius on the Processes of Negation. TEA AND COFFEE: 11.00-11.30 Jim McMillan Room SESSION 2: 11.30-1.00 PANEL 2.1: Greek Drama. G.15. Chair: TBA Tori Lee (Washington University in St Louis): The Psychological Effects of Restraint and Seclusion in Prometheus Bound. Alexandre Johnston (University of Edinburgh): Human Progress and Linguistic Polyvalence in the First Stasimon of Antigone. Paul Martin (University of Exeter): Progression through the Tetralogy: the Case of Euripides’ Alcestis. PANEL 2.2: Republican Poetry and Progress. G.16. Chair: TBA Georgia Ferentinou (University of Athens): Propertius' Progress of Rome: Elegies 4.4 and 4.9. Matthew Johncock (Royal Holloway University of London): Lucretius' Reader and the Path to Moral Progress. Christina Boltsi (University of Athens): Slaughter and the Beast: Sacrifice, Ratio, and Progress in Lucretius. LUNCH: 1.00 – 2.00 Jim McMillan Room SESSION 3: 2.00-3.30 PANEL 3.1: Archaic Progress. G.15. Chair: TBA Gary Vos (University of Edinburgh): Mythological Progress and Progressing Mythology: Linus from Hesiod to Hellenistic Poetry. Pietro Verzina (Universities of Salerno and Madrid): Changing the Self and the World. The Homeric Hymns as Patterns of Transformation and Progress. Maciej Paprocki (Universities of Liverpool and Wroclaw): Always an Heir, Never a King. Apollo, Human Mortality and the Divine Succession. PANEL 3.2: Reading Progress in Fragments. G.16. Chair: TBA Effie Zagari (University of Reading): Aristophanes of the 4th c. BC. Anna Reeve (University of Leeds): Stesichorus' Geryoneis and Greek Colonisation in the West: a Nuanced Depiction of Progress. Max Leventhal (University of Cambridge): Dining Among the Stars: Astronomical Progress in the Cena Trimalchionis. TEA AND COFFEE: 3.30-4.00. Jim McMillan Room SESSION 4: 4.00-5.00 PANEL 4.1: Progression through Emulation. G.15. Chair: TBA Chiara Bonsignore (Sapienza Università di Roma): Remember and Let Go: Progress as Continuity and Rupture in two Hellenistic Epitaphs for Homer and Hesiod (Alc. Mess. 11 and 12 G-P = A.P. 7.1 and A.P. 7.55). Emma Greensmith (University of Cambridge): Uprooting the Bloom: The Poetics of 'Succession' in the Posthomerica of Quintus Smyrnaeus.

PANEL 4.2: Platonic and Neoplatonic Progress. G.16. Chair: TBA Christian Keime (University of Cambridge): How to Make New Ideas with Old Words: Plato’s Use and Transformation of Traditional Discourses in Plato’s Symposium (185e-188e; 201d-212c). Georgia Mystrioti (University of Athens): Pseudo-Plutarch's De Musica: The Moral and Pedagogical Importance of Music and Neoplatonism's Critical Attitude against its Progress. TEA AND COFFEE: 5.00 – 5.30 Jim McMillan Room KEYNOTE: 5.30-6.30pm. Professor Douglas Cairns: Progress to Pessimism? Sophocles’ Antigone. The Meadows Lecture Theatre DINNER 7.30pm, Venue TBA.

DAY 2: Wednesday 17th June REGISTRATION: 8.30-9.30. Jim McMillan Room SESSION 5: 9.30-11.00 PANEL 5.1: Progress and Anti-Progress in Athenian Political and Cultural Discourse. G.15. Chair: TBA Matteo Barbato (University of Edinburgh): Between Progress and Continuity: Following the Examples of the Ancestors in Athenian Public Debate. Sebastiano Bertolini (University of Edinburgh): Refusing the Progress: Aristophanes’ Countryside as Celebration of the Past. Claudia Baldassi (University of Edinburgh): Progress and Tradition in Euripides’ Helen. PANEL 5.2: Progression through History. G.16. Chair: TBA Pia Campeggiani (University of Edinburgh): Under the Rim of Pandora’s Jar: Unattainable Hope as an Interpretive Key to the Ancient Greek Conception of History. Josh Pugh Ginn (University of Cambridge): The Luck of the Romans: Plutarch on Progress to Empire in the de Fortuna Romanorum. TEA AND COFFEE: 11.00-11.30. Jim McMillan Room SESSION 6: 11.30-1.00 PANEL 6.1: Imperial Greek Progress. G.15. Chair: TBA Giulia Sara Corsino (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa): From Mythos to Logos. Progress of Erotic Customs in Longus' Poimenikà. Caitlin Prouatt (University of Reading): Plutarch's Pythian Prologues: Points of Progression. Joana Fonseca (Universidade de Coimbra): Failure and Progress in Apuleius’ Golden Ass. PANEL 6.2: Character Progression. G.16. Chair: TBA Dylan James (University of Oxford): Progress? The Only Persian-Speaking Greek in Herodotus’ Histories. Sofia Carvalho (Universities of Coimbra and Nottingham): Epeius and the Dichotomy bie vs techne: the Idea of Progress in Stesichorus' Iliou Persis. Tom Nelson (University of Cambridge): Civilisation at what Cost? Heracles and the Ambiguities of Progress in Hellenistic Poetry. LUNCH: 1.00-2.00 Jim McMillan Room SESSION 7: 2.00-3.30 PANEL 7.1: Progress across Time and Space. G.16. Chair: TBA Safari Grey (Trinity St David): Homer’s Odyssey: Astronomy, and the Influence of the Near East. Georgina Barker (University of Edinburgh): Circle Dance to St Petersburg: The Obsolescence and Necessity of Horace’s Muses in Elena Shvarts’ Homo Musagetes. Mariamne Briggs (University of Edinburgh): Silencing Statius: a Consistent Approach to Translating the Thebaid into Middle Irish

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