Richard P. Martin - Classics Department, Stanford University
| 050701 | Read on Arrival |
| Richard P. Martin, Stanford University | |
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Abstract: The poetics of traveling poets are analyzed with the help of evidence from Greece (6thc BCE to 6th c CE), West Africa, and Ireland. A detailed explication of Aristophanes Birds 904-957 is used to explore further the tropes used by bards and rules of interaction with poeti vaganti. The Lives of Homer tradition is shown to match up with descriptions of cognate poetic performances (Greek and other) in this regard. |
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| 040701 | Golden Verses: Voice and Authority in the Tablets |
| Richard P. Martin, Stanford University | |
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Abstract: This paper attempts to read the gold “Orphic” tablets found in tombs from Thessaly to Sicily against the background of Homeric epic. It introduces the notion of “speech type-scene” and draws conclusions, from the deployment of formulae and pragmatic situations, about the “voice” one is supposed to hear behind the tablet texts. It was originally delivered as a paper at the Ohio State University conference Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (April 2006), organized by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles-Johnston. |
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| 050503 | The Voices of Jocasta |
| Richard P. Martin, Stanford University | |
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Abstract: The poem contained in the Lille Stesichorus papyrus presents several features that can be usefully compared with aspects of characterization and theme in the Oedipus Tyrannos of Sophocles. If we assume that an Athenian audience in the later 5th century knew the Stesichorean composition, the dramatic choices made by Sophocles take on new meaning. This paper is forthcoming in the proceedings of the International Conference on Ancient Drama held at Delphi, Greece (July 2002). |
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| 050502 | Gnomes in Poems: Wisdom Performance on the Athenian Stage |
| Richard P. Martin, Stanford University | |
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Abstract: An ethnography-of speaking-approach to proverb-use lets us explore the deployment of this genre as part of personal self-projection and of social life. Greek drama, by presenting proverbs in the mouths of its staged characters, makes use of the ordinary performance value of this “genre of speaking” while constructing a broader theatrical event. Characters can be judged on the basis of their skill at proverb-use, and important junctures in the plays can be marked by the employment of gnômai. Resistance to proverbs, and misuse of the genre (whether or not intentional) further mark speakers. This paper will appear in the Festschrift for John Papademetriou. |
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| 020501 | Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture |
| Richard P. Martin, Stanford University | |
| No longer available as a working paper. This is now published as "Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture," pp. 36-54 in M. McDonald and J.M. Walton (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theature, Cambridge University Press, 2007. | |
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