Greek Epic of the Roman Empire: A Cultural History

这个项目提供了第一个系统的分析，从文化历史的角度，对公元1世纪到6世纪之间的大量具有挑战性的希腊史诗语料库进行了分析。对于古希腊人来说，史诗是最负盛名的文学形式，是文学体裁的顶点。通过这本书，他们表达了自己对战争、帝国、死亡、宗教、性别、自然秩序、心理和文化认同的概念。给定问题的时代看到的巨大的转换——罗马的出现的世界帝国,随后转移到君士坦丁堡Christianisation,奠定社会基础的中世纪的欧洲——它的史诗提供了一个宝贵的档案,一个无与伦比的机会去探索非常博学的文化的世界观是一次饱和文学范式的遥远的过去,面对快速变化的未来。鉴于史诗在希腊文化中无可置疑的中心地位，以及古代晚期历史变化的重要性，缺乏对这一时代史诗的概要性、语境化研究是古代文学和文化研究中的一个重大（实际上是我们认为最大的）缺口。《罗马帝国的希腊史诗》利用这些未被充分利用的材料来探索文化史的核心问题，提出政治、阶级和人口、宗教、性别、性、文化定义以及与自然世界的关系等问题。什么样的人物创作了这首诗，他们的地位和背景是什么，他们在哪里接受训练，什么样的制度因素塑造了他们？史诗是如何表达从希腊罗马到基督教宗教世界的转变的？它如何探索、促进或挑战性别和性的新结构？在这个瞬息万变的世界里，这是一种什么样的希腊身份的表达？它如何定位人类与自然环境的关系，尤其是与动物的关系？总之，这个项目提供了人类主体的第一个全面的肖像，因为它出现在这个庞大而复杂（但非常重要）的文学体中。这个项目之所以成为可能，是因为编纂了有史以来第一个完整的希腊帝国史诗数据库，其中包含了大约1000首诗歌、片段和参考文献、纸莎草学和碑文记录。除了学术出版物外，该项目还将制作第一套当时诗歌语料库的综合翻译，由加州大学出版社出版。它将有大量的网络存在，包括供公众使用的材料（包括录像）和一个用户友好的、可搜索的数据库版本。还将举办一个会议，与艺术历史姊妹项目“信仰帝国”（Empires of Faith）共同举行。

This project provides the first systematic analysis, in cultural-historical terms, of the large and challenging corpus of Greek epic poetry composed between the 1st and the 6th centuries CE. Epic was, for Greeks throughout antiquity, the most prestigious literary form, the apex of the hierarchy of genres. Through it they articulated their conceptions of war, empire, mortality, religion, gender, the natural order, psychology and cultural identity. Given the immense transformations that the era in question saw - the emergence of Rome as the head of a world empire, the subsequent shift to Constantinople, Christianisation, the laying of the social foundations for mediaeval Europe - its epic poetry offers an invaluable dossier, an unparalleled opportunity to explore the worldview of a highly erudite culture that was at once saturated in the literary paradigms of the distant past and confronting a rapidly changing future. Given the unquestionable centrality of epic to Greek culture, and given the significance of the historical changes wrought in late antiquity, the absence of any synoptic, contextualised study of the epic of this era is a major (indeed the greatest, we would argue) gap within ancient literary and cultural studies. 'Greek Epic of the Roman Empire' draws on this under-exploited material to explore central issues of cultural history, posing questions of politics, class and demography, religion, gender, sexuality, cultural definition and the relationship with the natural world. What kind of figures composed this poetry, what was their status and background, where were they trained, what kind of institutional factors shaped them? How does epic express the transformation from a Greco-Roman to a Christian religious world? How does it explore, promote, or challenge new constructions of gender and sexuality? What kind of an expression of Greek identity is it within this rapidly changing world? And how does it position humanity in relation to the natural environment, particularly to animals?In sum, this project offers the first rounded portrait of the human subject as it appears in this vast and complex (but hugely significant) body of literature.The project has been made possible by the compilation of the first ever complete database of imperial Greek epic poetry, which has thrown up around 1000 poems, fragments and references in the literary, papyrological and epigraphic records. As well as scholarly publications, the project will also produce the first comprehensive set of translations of the poetic corpus of the era, published by the University of California Press. It will have a substantial web presence, containing materials for public use (including videos) and a user-friendly, searchable version of the database. There will also be a conference, held in common with an art-historical sister project, 'Empires of Faith'.