PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Program in Hellenic Studies
Johannes Niehoff-Panagiotidis (Heisenberg Fellow, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Manolis Papoutsakis (Department of Near Eastern Studies)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
In this paper an attempt is made to apply methods of modern literary criticism and anthropological approaches to the history and culture, both literate and non-literate, of the Byzantine Empire and modern Greece. After its translation from Syriac to Byzantine Greek, the Mythologikon Syntipa became one of the most popular novels ('laiko anagnosma') in the Greek-speaking world. In Ottoman times, we have various Byzantine re-elaborations of this first translation, and later at least two translations into Modern Greek vernacular ('Dimotiki'). Printed editions were also issued, mainly and not surprisingly in Venice, testifying to the great popularity of the novel. In turn, this translation became the basis for most modern Balkan language translations, which date as late as the 18th and 19th centuries. My chief aim is to situte the history of this text in a historical framework, in order to shed light on processes of reception and transmission which remain active in the Balkans up to the present day.
JOHANNES NIEHOFF-PANAGIOTIDIS(jniehoff@Princeton.EDU) received a German/Greek bilingual education and pursued university studies in Tübingen and Pisa, majoring in Classics, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies; Near Eastern Studies; and Linguistics. He received his Master's degree in 1986, with a thesis on the social function of proper names. During 1986-1991, he was Wissenschaftlicher Angestellter at the University of Tübingen. In 1992, he was awarded his Ph.D. in Classics and Comparative Philology, with a dissertation entitled "Koine und Diglossie" (History of the Modern Greek language; published in Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994). He served as Hochschulassistent at the University of Freiburg, 1994-2000. In 1998, he submitted his Habilitation at the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the Freie Universitat Berlin ("Übersetzung und Rezeption: Die byzantinisch-neugriechischen und spanischen Adaptionen von Kalla wa-Dimna;" published, October 2003). Since 2000, he is a Heisenberg Grant recipient from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German National Research Fund).
Chrysi Kotsifou (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent (Susan Wessel, Department of Classics and Program in Hellenic Studies)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
This paper will concentrate on the papyrological sources from Byzantine Egypt concerning the economic and social role of local monasteries. The evidence is preserved in both Greek and Coptic, and dates from the fourth to the seventh centuries. It will bring together all monasteries from Lower and Upper Egypt, analysing their social and economic functions, material prosperity, as well as interactions with each other. More specifically, the contacts between monasteries and villages or towns, monasteries and other monasteries, and monasteries and specific monks will be addressed. As we will see, this interaction was not only possible but was also inevitable. Monasteries soon developed into significant centres of production, which eventually controlled a monopoly of everyday goods such as baskets, mats, and books. In addition, my paper will discuss the active involvement of monks and Holy Father in settling disputes, releasing prisoners, and intervening with the local magistrates for the benefit of people who felt they were wronged and suffered unjustly.
CHRYSI KOTSIFOU (<>kotsifou@princeton.edu) completed a B.A. in English and History at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 1997. She continued with an M.A. in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Kings College, London, which led to her Ph.D. dissertation on Travel to and within Byzantine Egypt. The Evidence from Hagiography, submitted in 2002. In the course of her graduate studies, Chrysi Kotsifou also studied Coptic, including all dialects and Coptic Paleography, at the University College London. For the academic year 2002-2003, she was the Andrew W. Mellon Research fellow at the Center for the Study of Early Christianity at the Catholic University of America. Her post-doctoral research concentrates on the papyrological evidence regarding the role of monasteries in Byzantine Egypt.
58 Prospect, Room 107
Efthymia Rentzou (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Constanze Guthenke (Department of Classics and Program in Hellenic Studies)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
Starting from Greece in the early '30s within modernist and communist circles, Nicolas Calas encounters the French surrealists in Paris in 1937, only to leave Europe at the outbreak of the war. After a flamboyant passage through the French intellectual scene, New York is the last station of this itinerary. From 1940, on he contributes to the dissemination of French surrealism to the public in America. Since then, Calas has been known mainly as an art critic, his name associated with various revues. Whereas his critical essays in English summarize his post-war intellectual development, his poetic oeuvre written in Greek reflects with great clarity the various phases of his life. Calas's Greek poems written in America disclose his ambivalence towards his own national and cultural identity. A comparison with earlier poems written in Greece shows the catalytic influence of the American environment on his perception and idea of Greece and on his use of the Greek language. The merging of two identities, the Greek and the American, works its way through his poetic writing to produce an often sarcastic discourse addressed to the new hybrid: the Greek Americans. The sarcasm and cynicism towards a group in which Calas himself could be rightfully included is further articulated by the two mirroring images of Greece and America, specifically of Athens and New York. This triangular relation with Greece and America as two opposing poles and the Greek-American hybrid as a "synthesis," successful or not, is not only a theme in Calas' poetry but can be detected as a constant structuring element in his American essays. In his critical writings, the Greek world becomes a kind of grid through which he evaluates American art. Against this background, my presentation will explore in parallel the Greek poetry of Calas written in America and his English language essays on art. This will bring us to a basic characteristic of his multifaceted work: the inquiry into identity.
EFFIE RENTZOU (erentzou@princeton.edu) holds undergraduate degrees in Classics from the University of Athens and in French literature from the Sorbonne. A Greek State Scholarship supported her graduate studies at the Sorbonne, where she earned a DEA in semiotics and a PhD in comparative semiotics and stylistics. Her dissertation on Surrealism and Literature: A Comparative Study of Greek and French Surrealism is an interdisciplinary study comparing Greek and French surrealism from three different perspectives: history, rhetoric, and poetics. She has published articles on Greek surrealism and, since 1999, writes a bi-weekly page of cultural criticism for a major Greek newspaper. Her central interests are Greek avant-garde and modern literature of the 20th century, how it figures in modern Greek culture, and its relation to and interaction with the international literary scene. Her current project is an intellectual biography of Nicolas Calas.
Denis Feissel (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Glen Bowersock (Institute for Advanced Study)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
Ephesus, in its role of capital of the Roman province of Asia, has a continuous tradition of inscribing imperial laws from the 1st to the end of the 6th c. AD - an exceptional fact for any ancient city. However, most documents of the second half of this period, brought to light during a century of Austrian excavations, still await a proper edition. Reconstructing about 35 different documents (some of them from a lot of scattered fragments) needs a combination of both archaeological and textual elements. A more global approach aims at setting, later imperial epigraphy in the deeply changed urbanistic context (both secular and religious) of a Late antique provincial metropolis.
DENIS FEISSEL (dfeissel@princeton.edu) was a member of the French School of Archaeology at Athens (1974-1978). Since 1978, he has been a member of the CNRS, and works in the Centre d' Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance at the Collhge de France. He was a member of the IAS (Princeton) from 1988-1989. Since 1998 he is Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris). His main books are devoted to the epigraphy of Macedonia (1983) and Asia Minor (1987). His numerous articles are mostly of Greek Christian inscriptions, papyri of the Near East, Byzantine law, institutions and prosopography.
Panagiotis Papadimitriou (Research Associate, Center of Byzantine Research, University of Thessaloniki; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Heath Lowry (Department of Near Eastern Studies)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
Using the categories of "ethnic group" and "ethnic identity," along with the interactionist-ethnosymbolic approach to "ethnicity," I shall argue in this paper that the ethnic identity of a non-dominant group emerges as a reaction to the surrounding hegemony of a national state. On the basis of recent sociological research and state archive documentary evidence, the discussion will focus on the impact of the institutions and policies of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey on the (trans) formation of Pomak group identity during the first three decades of the 20th century.
PANAGIOTIS G. PAPADIMITRIOU (ppapadim@Princeton.EDU) studied Classics at the University Ioannina, Greece (B.A. 1988). He pursued post-graduate research at the University College, London (M.A. in Classics, 1990) and at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Ph.D., 1996), with a dissertation on The Rhythmics and Metrics in Classical Greece: Reconstructing the Ancient Greek Theory of Poetic Rhythm and Metre. He has participated in the "Education of Muslim Children in Western Thrace, Greece" program sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Education. As fellow at the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies in Venice, he has conducted research on the interactions of Byzantium with Renaissance Italy. His current research interests lie primarily in the history and literature of the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and in ethnicity issues concerning non-dominant ethnic groups.
Warren T. Woodfin (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Slobodan Curcic (Department of Art and Archaeology)
58 Prospect Avenue, Room 107
From Antiquity onwards, the image of the emperor symbolically embodied his authority far from his physical presence. Members of the Palaiologan court wore headgear, the skaranikon, decorated with the emperor's likeness, along with clothing woven or embroidered with imperial symbols such as eagles, lions, and griffins. Simultaneously, the liturgical costume of Byzantine clergy was enriched with new insignia and rich embroidered decoration, including the introduction of headgear for bishops. Through a delicate manipulation of references to the system of hierarchical dress prevailing in the imperial sphere, the embroidered vestments of late Byzantine prelates stake a claim to more direct access to divine authority than that embodied in the emperor.
WARREN WOODFIN(wwoodfin@princeton.edu) graduated from Williams College in 1996 with Highest Honors in Art History. He holds an M.A. (1999) and a Ph.D. (2002) in Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the intersections between ecclesial liturgies and the ceremonies of statecraft in Byzantium and the medieval West. Byzantine textiles and costume are a particular interest and the subject of his doctoral dissertation on "Late Byzantine Liturgical Vestments and the Iconography of Sacerdotal Power." At Princeton, he is completing a book on Byzantine liturgical vestments and their embroidered decoration. Previously, Woodfin was a Junior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and Visiting Assistant Professor in Art and Art History at Duke University.
Enjoy the pictures taken at our Welcome Back Reception on October 2nd.
The exhibition explores the role of the "human animal" in early Greek art: centaurs, satyrs, sphinxes, sirens, Gorgons, and other fantastic creatures with mixed human and animal characteristics. More than one hundred objects will be on view representing a variety of media: from painted ceramic vases, and reliefs, and statues in stone, bronze, and terracotta, to fine metalwork in gold, silver, and electrum, and engraved seal stones in rock crystal, jasper, and carnelian.