Janet Downie

Assistant Professor

Princeton University

Fall 2009
Tuesday & Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Fall 2009

CLG240/HLS240 Introduction to Postclassical Greek from the Late Antique to the Byzantine Era

CLG310 Topics in Greek Literature: Fiction and Fantasy

Background

Janet Downie specializes in Greek literature, with a particular interest in authors of the Roman Imperial period. This Fall she is teaching a course on the Greek novel (“Fiction and Fantasy”), as well as a course on postclassical Greek, tracing the theme of miracles and miracle workers in a range of pagan, Christian and Jewish texts from the first through the sixth century CE.

Janet Downie’s current research focuses on the literary and social dimensions of oratorical askesis in the Greco-Roman world, along with the late-ancient experience, perception and rhetoric of illness and healing. She is working on a book that investigates the rhetorical strategies and cultural significance of Aelius Aristides’
autobiographical Sacred Tales and has recently published an article on this subject in The Classical Quarterly (59.1). Her next major project will investigate the intersections of mythic, cultural and intellectual geography in Imperial-era Asia Minor, beginning with the dynamics of cosmopolitanism and local interest in Philostratus’
Heroicus.