Sappho to Elytis and Beyond: Archaic Lyric Across Byzantine, Modern Greek, and Wider European Poetic Worlds

 

 

Friday, October 2 (9:15 AM-6:00 PM) and Saturday, October 3, 2026 (9:30 AM-1 PM)

Rutgers University—New Brunswick, College Avenue Campus

Alexander Library, Teleconference Hall (Friday)

Center for Cultural Analysis, AB West Room 6107 (Saturday)

 

Friday, October 2

9:15 AM — Welcome
Serena Connolly, Chair, Department of Classics, Rutgers University 

9:20 AM — Opening Remarks
Timothy Power, Director, Program in Modern Greek Studies; Classics, Rutgers University

SESSION I · 9:30 AM–12:30 PM

Chair: T. Corey Brennan (Rutgers University)

Artemis Leontis
University of Michigan
The Delphic Festivals in the Modern Greek Repertoire of Ancient Choral Lyric

Katerina Stergiopoulou
University of Edinburgh
Archaic Lyric in the Work of Phoebe Giannisi

Andrew Ford
Princeton University
Anxieties of Influence in Seferis, Eliot and Aeschylus

LUNCH · 12:30–1:45 PM

SESSION II · 1:45–3:45 PM

Chair: Bice Peruzzi (Rutgers University)

Naomi Weiss
Harvard University
Archilochean poiesis from Guy Davenport to Cy Twombly

Kristina Chew
Rutgers University
Sappho, Undocumented: Greek poetry and myth in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée

COFFEE · 3:45–4:00 PM

SESSION III · 4:00–6:00 PM

Chair: Salam Al Kuntar (Rutgers University)

Gregory Nagy
Harvard University
On the poetics of καημός

George Syrimis
Yale University
Marching to the Timpani: The Reception of Federico García Lorca in Greek Music

 

Saturday, October 3

SESSION IV · 9:30 AM–12:30 PM

Chair: Tim Power (Rutgers University)

Ewen Bowie
University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College
Reading Alcaeus in the Roman Empire: Horace to Himerius and beyond

Emmanuel Bourbouhakis
Princeton University
Metre without Music? Pindar’s Lyric Legacy in Byzantium

Lucia Athanassaki
University of Crete
The sizzle and buzz of Bacchylides’ dithyramb for the Athenians (c. 19): Poetic self-references in performance – ancient and modern

 

12:30–1:00 PM: Closing Discussion