Sappho's Aristotle

January 15, 2010

Aristotle_Plato.jpg

Public Lecture

Thomas Walsh

"Sappho's Aristotle"

 

Friday, February 5 at 4:30 p.m., Cowell Conference Room



Three fragments of Sappho (1, 16, and 31) form a triad that tells us something about Greek literature, especially when that triad is set beside Aristotle's analysis of rhetorical genres (in Aristotle's Rhetoric 1.12-14). "Sappho's Aristotle" indicates a way to highlight what it means to juxtapose these texts, deriving as they do from contrasting categories (period, gender, genre, locale, etc.) of ancient Greek culture. The reception of our "new" Sappho fragment provides a test case for these remarks.