Kontakt

Kontakt: anna.lefteratou@uni-heidelberg.de

Webpage: https://uni-heidelberg.academia.edu/AnnaLefteratou

 

I am a DFG Research fellow with an interest in imperial and late antique Christian epic poetry. Late Antiquity is one of the most intriguing milestones in the reception and refashioning of classical antiquity. The consolidation of Christianity as the Empire’s official religion allowed for a revision of Classical literature through a Christian lens. This mix created experimental literary forms that were later bequeathed to the Middle Ages, Byzantium and the Renaissance. The current project proposes to examine the Christianization of epic poetry in the cultural and literary milieu of the fifth century CE. I will use as test-case texts Eudocia’s Homeric Centos and Nonnus’ Paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel.

 

A. RESEARCH INTERESTS

Ancient narrative – Greek novel – Euripides – epic poetry – late antique and Christian epic – Greek myths in Christian contexts

 

B. EDUCATION

• University of Oxford (Corpus Christi College), D.Phil. in Classics (2010)
• Université Paris IV (La Sorbonne), Lettres Classiques (2006)       
• Université Paris IV (La Sorbonne), Lettres Classiques (2004)
• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Philology (2003) Ptychio (B.A.)
• Degree in music-performance (piano, BA), Attikon Odeion, Athens (2003)

 

C. ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

2016-2019      DFG Research Fellow at University of Heidelberg:
Project: The classical past and the christian future of the late antique Christian poetry. Eudocia, Nonnos, and their readers

2010—07.03.2016     Dorothea-Schlözer Excellence Initiative Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen and Courant Research Centre EDRIS, “Education and Religion from early Imperial Roman times to the classical period of Islam”, Area II
Project: Nonnos’ epic poems between paganism and Christianity in the mid-fifth century CE.

 

D. FELLOWSHIPS and AWARDS

• 2016-2019      DFG Grant ‘Eigene Stelle’
• 2010—2015   Dorothea-Schlözer Fellowship, Excellence Initiative, University of Göttingen
• 2010               Richard's Prize, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
• 2006—2009   Academy of Athens and the Loverdos Foundation Scholarship, 1^st prize
• 2006—2009   University of Athens and the Papadakis Foundation Scholarship 2^nd prize

(on honorary basis)

• 2004—2005   Scholarship from the Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche

 

E. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

• Dec. 2011       Interviewee for the Excellence Evaluation procedure and representative of the University of Göttingen post-doctoral fellows
• 2011-2012      Representative of the EDRIS post-doctoral fellows at the EDRIS board panel
• 2010-2012      Member of the Dorothea-Schlözer Mentoring Programme, Promoting Women in Academia, University of Göttingen

 

D. PUBLICATION LIST

i. Books/Edited Volumes:

1. 2016: Reading the way to the Netherworld: education and the representation of the Beyond in later antiquity, with I. Tanaseanu-Döbler, A. Lefteratou, K. Stamatopoulos, G. Ryser (eds.). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
2. Forthcoming: Mythological fictions: the bold and the faithful heroines of the Greek novel. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter (MythosEikonPoiesis Series)

ii. Articles:

3. 2013: ‘The myth of Iphigenia in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’. In M. Pinheiro, A. Bierl, R. Beck, (eds.), Intende, Lector. Echoes of myth, religion, and ritual in the ancient novel. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter (MythosEikonPoiesis Series), 200-222
4. 2016: ‘Dionysus’ katabasis to India: Christian echoes in Nonnus’ Indiad’. In I. Tanaseanu-Döbler, A. Lefteratou, K. Stamatopoulos, G. Ryser (eds.), Reading the way to the Netherworld: education and the representation of the Beyond in later antiquity. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 164-188
5. 2016: ‘Recognizing Jesus in late antique epic poetry: Nonnus and Eudocia on the healing of the Blind’. In A. Kahane, J. Clauss, M. Cuypers (eds.), Gods in Poetics. Leipzig: Franz Steiner Verlag, 274-293
6. Forthcoming 2018: ‘Carved into papyrus: opening ekphraseis as the statuesque trademark of the Greek novel’, Antiquité Classique
7. Forthcoming 2018: Mars and Venus in Xenophon of Ephesus’ description of the bed-tapestry’. Ramus, 47
8. Forthcoming 2018: ‘Rebranding Iphigenia as Christian: virgins in Ambrose’s De virginibus and in the apocryphal Passio Matthaei’, under review with Apocrypha

 

ii. For General audience

9. 2016: ‘Zwei Wundertäter im Vergleich: Jesus und Dionysos’. In P. Gemeinhardt, H-G. Nesselrath, I. Toral-Niehoff, EDRIS Abschlusspublikation, Education and Religion in Late Antiquity, Vandehoeck&Ruprecht, 19-26.

 

iii. Reviews

1. ‘Scott Fitzgerald Johnson’, Literary Territories, Cartographical Thinking in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press’, L’Antiquité Classique (forthcoming)
2.  ‘Roberta Franchi, Nonno di Panopolis, Parafrasi del Vangelo di S. Giovanni: canto sesto, Bologna’, BMCR (forthcoming)
3. ‘Hélène Frangoulis, Du roman à l’épopée: influence du roman grec sur les Dionysiaques de Nonnus de Panopolis. Besançon: Franche Compté’, BMCR (05.03.2015)
4. ‘B. Pouderon, C. Bost-Pouderon (eds.), Les hommes et les dieux dans l’ancien roman, Lyon 2009’, L’Antiquité Classique, 83 (2014), 267
5. ‘Nadia Scippacercola, Il lato oscuro del romanzo greco. Amsterdam: Hakkert’, L’Antiquité Classique, 82 (2013), 325
6. ‘K. Doulamis (ed.), Echoing narratives: studies of intertextuality in Greek and Roman prose fiction (ANS 13), Barkhuis’, L’Antiquité Classique, 82 (2013), 326
7. ‘B. Pouderon, C. Bost-Pouderon (eds.), Passions, vertus et vices dans l’ancien roman, Lyon 2009’, Ancient Narrative, 10 (2012), 107

 

iv. Recent Papers delivered in conferences

1. ‘Callirhoe’s funerary ekphrasis, Ariadne, and the later kline-lid sarcophagi’, talk at University of Rethymnon international conference on the novel (RICAN), ‘Material Culture and the Ancient Novel’, (14-15.10. 2016)
2. ‘The Baptism of Jesus in the Scamander. Eudocia’s Homeric Centos between orality and ritual’, Orality and Literacy Conference 2016, University of Basel (01-03.09.2016)
3. ‘Plutarch’s Pelopidas’, Sommer-Werkstatt ‘Plutarchs griechen und Römer im Gespräch’, Freiburg, CRC EDRIS and University of Basel (Ratio Religionis, DFG Emmy Noether-Forschergruppe) (09.2016)
4. ‘Eudocia’s Homeric Centos’, University of Heidelberg, Forschungskolloquium (06.06.2016)
5.  ‘Ambrose, reader of Achilles Tatius: a case of late antique reception of the Greek novel’, at ICAN V, University of Houston Downtown, Texas; Panel organized by K. de Temmerman ‘Romancing Saints: Christian narrative receptions of ancient novels in Greek, Latin and Syriac traditions’ (08.2015)
6. ‘The Greek novels and Nonnus on the metamorphosis myth’ at the ICAN V, University of Houston Downtown, Texas (09.2015)
7. ‘The Latin apocryphal Passio Matthaei and the Greek Martyrium’ Sommerwerkstatt 2014 Ratio-Religionis and EDRIS, at University of Bern, Summer-workshop ‘Die frühchristlichen Apostelakten im Gespräch’ Leuenberg (05.09.2014)
8. ‘Embedded erotic mythical narratives in Nonnus and the Greek novel’, at the Celtic Conference in Classics, University of Edinburgh (26.06.2014)
9. ‘Talking ‘myth’? Female myth-tellers in Plutarch and the Greek novels’, at the Plutarch-panel at the International Conference of the Classical Association Meeting, University of Reading (05.04.2013)
10. ‘Nonnus and his teachers’ at the International Conference ‘Educating the Future Generation’, University College London (14.09.2012)
11. ‘Nonnus’ and Eudocia’s reworking of Homer and of the Fourth Gospel: the case of the Man Born Blind’. Invited Guest Speaker at Corpus Christi College ‘Imperial Epic Day’, Oxford (16.06.2012)
12. ‘Reading the Light motifs Nonnus’ Paraphrase and the Gospel of John’ for the EDRIS Panel at the International Conference of the Society of Biblical Literature, International Conference, San Francisco (20.11.2011)
13. ‘Nonnus’ India and Beyond? Christian and pagan representations of blackness in Nonnian India’ at the International Conference ‘Reading the way to the Netherworld, University of Göttingen (15.09.2011)
14. ‘Sophocles’ Oedipus King in Nonnus’ Paraphrase 9’ at the International Conference ‘Poetics in the Greco-Roman World’, organized by the University of Belgrade, University College London, and the Institute of Classical Studies, London, Belgrade (10.09.2011)
15. ‘Lucian’s Stratonice and Achilles Tatius’ Melite: being the third-woman in love in imperial literature’ at Summer-workshop, Waldschlösschen Akademie, University of Göttingen (29.08.2011)
16. ‘Cornutus between science and Homeric exegesis’, at Crossroads EDRIS, Interdisciplinary lecture, University of Göttingen (07.02.2011)