Greek Literary Ostraca

Dr. Julia Lougovaya (University of Heidelberg) is offering in the Summer Semester 2017 in conjunction with Heidelberg University's "Webinars in Specialized Disciplines" initiative and the "Collaborative Research Centre 933: Material Text Cultures" an online seminar on Greek literary texts preserved on ostraca.

 

While much attention has been given to literature surviving on papyrus, less has been devoted to literary works written on ceramic sherds (ostraca). Found mainly in Egypt, such witnesses preserve a variety of literary texts, from Sappho to Theognis to excerpts from anonymous works of philosophy, and much more. The types of literary texts inscribed on ostraca are not homogenous, being attested for over a millennium, and while some clearly served educational purposes, others are hard to associate with a school environment. This seminar will look closely at a selection of these texts both diachronically and in relation to larger issues of practices such as excerpting and anthologizing, as well as more encompassing questions concerning production and consumption of literary texts in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. It is hoped, too, that the course will lay the foundation for an eventual corpus of Greek literary ostraca.

 

The webinar is free of charge and will take place Tuesdays, 16:15 - 17:45, Central European Time. The first meeting will be the 25th of April and the last the 18th of July. The language of instruction is English, and good knowledge of Greek is required. Certificates will be issued upon successful completion of the class.

 

Those wishing to participate should send a statement of interest and CV to Dr. Julia Lougovaya, lougovaya@uni-heidelberg.de, by the 15th of March, 2017.

 

The number of participants will be kept to a maximum of 10.