Mary Ebbott

 

 

Classics Department

Professor, Department Chair

Ph.D., Harvard University
 

Fields: Homeric epic (http://www.homermultitext.org), oral poetics, Greek tragedy 

 

• CV (PDF) »

Email: mebbott@holycross.edu
Office Phone: 508-793-2631
Office: Fenwick 425
PO Box: 91A
Office Hours (Spring 2023): Mondays 11 am - 12 noon, Tuesdays 2:00-3:30 pm, Fridays 2–3 pm, and by appointment.

 

Biography

My research specialties are Homeric epic and ancient Greek tragedy. I investigate the Iliad and Odyssey as oral, traditional epics and strive to understand them on those terms. For both Homeric epic and Greek tragedy, I am especially interested in the performance of these works and how that performance informs or affects the interpretation of them. Much of my scholarship is collaborative, especially that related to the Homer Multitext.

Some of My Publications

Books

Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush (with Casey Dué). Washington DC and Cambridge MA: Center for Hellenic Studies and Harvard University Press, 2010. 2nd corrected printing 2011.

Imagining Illegitimacy in Classical Greek Literature, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2003.

Articles

  • "Iphigenia: A Selection," in Ancient Exchanges, January 2023
  • "Homeric Epic in Performance," 9-20 in The Cambridge Guide to Homer, ed. Corinne Ondine Pache, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2020.
  • "Life/Story: Eumaues the Swineherd Tell His Own Tale," NonBinary Review, issue 22 (2019): 142–146.
  • "The Homer Multitext within the History of Access to Homeric Epic, " (with Casey Dué), 239–256 in Digital Classical Philology: Ancient Greek and Latin in the Digital Revolution, ed. Monica Berti, Berlin, Boston: DeGruyter, 2019.
  • "Thucydides' Use of Homer in his Archaeology," 89–103 in Pushing the Boundaries of Historia, eds. M. English and L. Fratantuono, London and New York: Routledge, 2019.
  • "Seeking Odysseus's Sister," Michigan Quarterly Review 56.2 (Spring 2017): 268–284. Full text here. 
  • “Hippolytus,” 107–121 in A Companion to Euripides, ed. Laura McClure, Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell Publishing, 2017.
  • “Tell Me How It Hurts: an intersection of poetry and pain in the Iliad,” New England Review 37.2 (2016): 31–46.
  • “Allies in Fame: Recruiting Warriors in the Theban and Trojan Epic Traditions,” Trends in Classics 6.2 (2014): 319–335.
  • “Mothers-in-Arms: soldiers’ emotional bonds and Homeric similes” (with Casey Dué), War, Literature, and the Arts, vol. 24, 2012.
  • “Error 404: Theban Epic Not Found,” Trends in Classics 2.2 (2010): 239–258.
  • “Digital Criticism: Editorial Standards for the Homer Multitext” (with Casey Dué), Digital Humanities Quarterly 3.1 (2009). 
  • “Text and Technologies: the Iliad and the Venetus A,” 31–56 in Recapturing a Homeric Legacy: Images and Insights from the Venetus A Manuscript of the Iliad, ed. Casey Dué, Center for Hellenic Studies and Harvard University Press, 2009.
  • “Butler’s Authoress of the Odyssey: gendered readings of Homer, then and now,” Classics@ Issue 3: The Homerizon: Conceptual Interrogations in Homeric Studies, ed. Armstrong and Dué, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. September 2006.
  • “Marginal Figures in Greek Tragedy,” 366–376 in A Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. Justina Gregory. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
  • “The List of the War Dead in Aeschylus’ Persians,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000): 83–96.
  • “The Wrath of Helen: Self-Blame and Nemesis in the Iliad,” 3–20 in Nine Essays on Homer, ed. Carlisle and Levaniouk, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.

Courses

Spring 2023: Greek 102-02 Introduction to Greek 1, MWF 1:00 pm

Classics 103 Greek & Roman Epic, T Th 11:00 am