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152433 results in Classical Studies

Page 28 of 7622

  • ‘In answer spoke…’: unlocking a narratological approach to Homer’s speeches through GenAI

  • Wayne Rimmer
  • Journal:
    Journal of Classics Teaching , First View
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    14 April 2026, pp. 1-9
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  • The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the pedagogical application of Generative AI (GenAI) to a particularly fruitful area of Homer, the speeches, drawing on narratology as a theoretical framework to contextualise the use of the technology. The teaching methodology, students interrogating a chatbot to explore a speech from Homer, comprises dialogic learning as students craft questions, reflect and respond to the chatbot’s responses. This reiterative process is demonstrated through dialogue with Microsoft Copilot on one speech from the Iliad, book 16, where Achilles chides a tearful Patroclus (Il. 16.7–19), and one from the Odyssey, book 19, where Odysseus rebukes the treacherous maid Melantho (Od. 19.71–88). Two different strategies were deployed to highlight the response patterns of GenAI. With the Iliad, the strategy was to ask Copilot questions directly about the speech; with the Odyssey, Copilot was asked to assume the role of a character from the exchange. It was found that Copilot supported a narratological interpretation of the text by offering students an informed, and largely accurate, window on the speech for them to explore key considerations such as focalisation, the viewpoint on the unfolding narrative. Furthermore, while Copilot provided a rich layered response, there was still space for students to negotiate the meaning of the text further, retaining their own responsibility as active learners. The conclusion is that GenAI is in line with an inquiry-based approach to the study of Homer that promises to engage students and keep the discipline fresh.

  • Who is listening? Apostrophe and ‘double relevance’ in the hymns of Romanos the Melodist

  • Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen
  • Journal:
    Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , First View
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 April 2026, pp. 1-19
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  • This article analyses selected hymns of Romanos the Melodist (c. 485–562) with a special focus on who speaks and who listens. Romanos uses apostrophes to address biblical characters, the triune God, the Mother of God, and saints. Did they listen? In rare cases, characters respond – for instance, the eternal villain Hades, whom Romanos interrogates about Christ’s descent to the Underworld. At other times, the biblical characters seem to address the congregation from the storyworld. Examples such as these are analysed through the lens of modern narratology.

Saints and cities in medieval Italy
  • Diana Webb
  • Published by:
    Manchester University Press
    Published online:
    11 April 2026
  • The saints' Lives in this book were written in Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Here translated into English and in full for the first time, they shed light on the ways in which both lay men and women sought God in the urban environment, and how they were understood and described by contemporaries. Only one of these saints (Homobonus of Cremona) was formally canonised by the Pope: the others were locally venerated within the communities which had nurtured them. Earliest in date were Homobonus of Cremona and Raimondo Palmario of Piacenza, near-contemporaries and inhabitants of neighbouring cities, who died in 1197 and 1200 respectively; the latest was Enrico ('Rigo') of Bolzano, who died in Treviso in 1315. This was a period of rapid demographic and economic growth in the Italian urban environment; it witnessed much social and political upheaval, accompanied by religious change. Miracle collections are important hagiographical genre for some saints. The miracles which Umiliana de' Cerchi did in the first three years after her death and her posthumous appearances to her devotees were separately recorded, constituting, together with the Life, a hagiographical dossier. Umiliana and Pier Pettinaio were associated with the Franciscans, while Homobonus and Raimondo Palmario lived and died before 'the coming of the friars'. The Lives of both Pier Pettinaio of Siena and Rigo of Bolzano were written some time after their deaths, apparently to satisfy local and community pietas. There is no cross-reference between the Lives of Zita of Lucca and Rigo of Bolzano and their extensive miracle collections.

History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe
  • The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg
  • Simon MacLean
  • Published by:
    Manchester University Press
    Published online:
    11 April 2026
  • The career, mental world and writings of Regino, abbot of Prüm, were all defined by the Carolingian empire and, more particularly, by its end. The high Ottonian period of the mid-tenth century also witnessed a revival of historiography, exemplified by the work of the two major authors who wrote about the rise of the dynasty. The first of these was Liutprand of Cremona, whose Antapodosis, a history of European politics from 888 until around 950, and Historia Ottonis, a focused account of events surrounding Otto's imperial coronation, were both written in the earlier 960s. The second was Adalbert, who most probably wrote his continuation to the Chronicle in 967/968. Regino's Chronicle, dedicated to Bishop Adalbero of Augsburg in the year 908, was the last work of its kind for several decades, and as such its author can be regarded as the last great historian of the Carolingian Empire. The Chronicle is divided into two books. The first, subtitled 'On the times of the Lord's incarnation', begins with the incarnation of Christ and proceeds as far as the death of Charles Martel in 741. The second 'On the deeds of the kings of the Franks' takes the story from the death of Charles Martel through to 906. The much shorter continuation by Adalbert of Magdeburg enjoys a place in the canon of works relating to the history of the earliest German Reich and consequently has received considerably more attention.

Ottonian Germany
  • The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg
  • David A. Warner
  • Published by:
    Manchester University Press
    Published online:
    11 April 2026
  • The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg has long been recognised as one of the most important sources for the history of the tenth and early eleventh centuries, especially for the history of the Ottonian Empire. Although there is sufficient evidence of continuity between the Ottonians and the early Salians to justify a long Ottonian period extending at least to 1056, it is the Ottonians alone who defined the mental landscape of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg. Thietmar's testimony also has special value because of his geographical location, in eastern Saxony, on the boundary between German and Slavic cultures. He is arguably the single most important witness to the early history of Poland, and his detailed descriptions of Slavic folklore are the earliest on record. Among anglophone readers, Thietmar's reputation rests chiefly on the various studies of Ottonian society and politics produced by the late Karl Leyser, one of the most influential historians of his generation. Although Thietmar placed great importance on kings and royal politics, he was scarcely reticent when it came to expressing his opinions on other matters. Notwithstanding his emphasis on the Divinity's role in directing Ottonian kings, Thietmar did not conceal the fact that the effect of royal government could be disruptive.

  • VI: - Pier Pettinaio of Siena (d. 1289)

  • Diana Webb
  • Book:
    Saints and cities in medieval Italy
    Published by:
    Manchester University Press
    Published online:
    11 April 2026, pp 191-241

  • Summary

    The Life of Pietro Pettinaio presents problems akin in some respects to those raised by that of Raimondo Palmario. The original Latin version by the Franciscan Pietro da Montarone was written in 1330, over forty years after the death of the saint. The manuscript was lost in a fire at San Francesco in the sixteenth century, but by 1507 it had been translated into Italian by Serafi no Ferri, an Augustinian hermit of Lecceto near Siena, and in this form it was printed in 1529. In 1802 Maestro de' Angelis, a Sienese Franciscan, republished this Italian text, embellishing it with footnotes mostly of a doctrinal and devotional character. Pietro had sought out surviving witnesses to Pier's life and presents him as an exemplar of a particular kind of holy life, lived by a layman under the aegis of the Franciscan order and firmly embedded in the urban society around him.

  • III: - Umiliana de’ Cerchi of Florence (d. 1246)

  • Diana Webb
  • Book:
    Saints and cities in medieval Italy
    Published by:
    Manchester University Press
    Published online:
    11 April 2026, pp 93-140

  • Summary

    The Life of Umiliana de' Cerchi was written by the Franciscan Vito of Cortona, in 1246, the year of the saint's death. However, it contains references to several later events, for example a vision of the saint which another member of the Florentine Franciscan community, Fra Buonamico, experienced in July 1247. Several of the miracle stories implicate individuals who are mentioned among Umiliana's associates in the Life. They thus amplify the picture of the pious network of which the saint formed a part during her lifetime. The witness-list which prefaces the Life is headed by the names of three Franciscans: Fra Michele, Umiliana's confessor and confidant; Vigor, another friar of Cortona; and Buonamico of Florence. Umiliana lived the feminine version of the Franciscan life to perfection, but the important thing was precisely that she did so, not enclosed in a convent, but living in a room in her father's tower.

Page 28 of 7622