G O Hutchinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1213593 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G O Hutchinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | O Hutchinson |
| SIGNATURE | HUTCHINSON G O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3306-1673 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 65 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 189 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Polybius: Book 8
Polybius is one of the most remarkable ancient historians, excelling as source, theorist and writer. Book 8 shows many sides of this extraordinary author: the superb narrator, recounting the tragic end of the potentate Achaeus and Hannibal's diverting capture of Tarentum with the aid of wild boar; the technical writer on Archimedes' sensational machines for destroying Roman ships; the zestful polemicist, railing against Theopompus' diatribe on th…
Motion in Classical Literature: Homer, Parmenides, Sophocles, Ovid, Seneca, Tacitus, Art
Space and Text Worlds in Apollonius
The paper looks not so much at geographical space or at the standard antithesis of “space” and “place,” but at the fluctuating relationships of space and mind. Various contrasts of inside and outside are considered (bodies, ships, houses), in connection with characters’ experience of space and its meaning. Werth’s idea of text worlds is then considered: the shifting worlds presented in a text, often as perceived or constructed by characters. This…
On Not Being Beautiful
‘ x is more beautiful than y ’ sounds a standard thing to say in Greek and Latin literature; but it raises intricate and interesting issues, not least from the standpoint of y . This chapter draws on symbolic logic to compare the relation between assessing superiority or inferiority in beauty and making choices in love in both Greek and Latin literature. The various dynamics, logics, and rhetorics of desire in the light of inferiority and superio…
Modernism,” “Postmodernism,” and the Death of the Stanza
Lyric after Pindar should be seen not as declining and petering out, but as developing in ways which radically question or play with the fundamentals of the genre (or “super-genre”). The stanza is a crucial feature of lyric up to Pindar, especially when seen textually; “modernist” expansion into huge astrophic entities (Timotheus, etc.) and “postmodern” reduction into stichic lines (Callimachus, etc.) both involve radical rethinking of the super-…
Motion in Grattius: Hunting an Augustan Poet
This chapter views motion as an important component to this as well as to other didactic poems. The presentation of hunting itself is less astir with lively motion than might have been expected, especially in light of its potential for exciting narrative; rather, verbal networks connect hunting with wider worlds, and a larger ethical and pragmatic vision is conveyed. Humans interact not just with animals but also with the divine and with the forc…
Appian the Artist: Rhythmic Prose and Its Literary Implications
If we had no idea which parts of Greek literature in a certain period were poetry or prose, we would regard it as our first job to find out. How much of the Greek prose of the Imperial period is rhythmic has excited less attention; and yet the question should greatly affect both our reading of specific texts and our understanding of the whole literary scene. By ‘rhythmic’ prose, this article means only prose that follows the Hellenistic system of…
Hellenistic Poetry and Hellenistic Prose
Genre and Super-Genre
Styles and Settings
Specific adaptation takes place within a stylistic framework provided by author or period. The ‘pointed style’ illustrates a stylistic framework taken by Latin from Greek, but commonly a Greek author is adapted into a quite different way of writing. Ennius' and Seneca's reworkings of Euripides illustrate frameworks and procedures that differ between the Latin authors and periods. Cicero's rendering of the Timaeus shows him moulding Plato into his…
Two Languages
Romans' command of Greek, and the number of Roman authors who wrote Greek poetry and prose, were considerable. But the literatures remain distinct, with few Romans writing equally in both. The actual separation between the languages is especially marked in vocabulary. Latin borrowing is attended with much reserve in literature, and the incorporation of unassimilated Greek is for the most part tightly limited. Differences between the language are …
Hexameters: History and Internal Mixture
A chronology shows differences in times of appearance for the hexameter genres, and in the extent to which authors work across genres and super-genres. It is mistaken to think of Greek models being abandoned after Augustus. Silius shows extensive use of Greek poetry; Lucan's degree of transformation sometimes makes connections less certain. Virgil's use of Homeric phrases differs from those of his predecessors and successors; the latter interact …
Space and Intertextuality in Hexameters
The two types of narrative hexameter poetry — on Greek myth and Roman history — stand at a different distance from Greek poetry; and even within the type on Greek myth there are different distances from Greek models. The various subjects of didactic poetry, intrinsically general, are localized to different degrees, and involve different degrees of proximity to Greek poetic models; Greek prose is also important. Pastoral uses names to bring a Gree…
Strife and Change
This chapter explores the consequences of the basic schema. The concepts ‘old’ and ‘new’ differ between the sequences; only Latin can be new, and there the development of literature matters. The concept ‘first’ is complicated; imitari often means ‘match’ more than ‘imitate’, and has a competitive edge. The main image for viewing relations between the literatures is the image of war. Ethnic character affects the shape of the histories, including t…
Making Histories
This chapter sets out Roman conceptions of their own and the Greeks' literary history. The Greek conception of literary history as a chronological sequence of authors turns into two sequences, which the Romans artificially separate in time (Greek poetry is made to end around 240 bc, when Roman poetry is to begin). Authors sometimes create asymmetry between the sequences: theirs may be the only work in the Latin sequence within a genre, or may enc…
Rome, Villas, South Italy
This chapter looks at the concrete settings of place in which Romans have experience related to Greek literature. The spatial separation of Roman and Greek literature is bridged by alleged contacts before 240 bc. In Rome, contact may be roughly divided between occasions publicly arranged for the Roman people and situations privately brought about either by Greek initiative or by Roman patronage. These include theatre and public libraries; rhetori…
The Grounds of Hexameter Poetry
Hexameter should be recognized as a super-genre, which is not the same as calling all hexameter poetry ‘epic’. The genres within the super-genre differ greatly in their grounds; these are derived from Greek poetry, and Latin and Greek are compared. The basic ground of narrative hexameter poetry is typically an account of the past addressed to no one, and marked by ironic knowledge; it typically contrasts with the inset grounds of speeches, marked…
Sicily, Athens, Rest of Greek Mainland, Rhodes
Sicily offers a Greek island close to Italy, and rich in literary associations and marvels; theatres are important, but not competitions. Athens is the foremost locale for experience related to Greek literature. Roman visits are extended, whether for education or later. Romans contribute to Athens by building; in their image of the place, the ancient subsists into the present. Despite changes at Athens, the city remains central to philosophical e…
Greek to Latin: Frameworks and Contexts for Intertextuality
Hutchinson investigates the relationship between Latin and Greek literature and shows some of the contexts in which the interaction of the literatures should be viewed. Based on an independent collection of evidence, the book draws extensively on inscriptions, archaeology, papyri, scholia, and a wide-range of texts
Image and world in epinician poetry
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Reading the Victory Ode
The victory ode was a short-lived poetic genre in the fifth century BC, but its impact has been substantial. Pindar, Bacchylides and others are now among the most widely read Greek authors precisely because of their significance for the literary development of poetry between Homer and tragedy and their historical involvement in promoting Greek rulers. Their influence was so great that it ultimately helped to define the European notion of lyric fr…
Catullus: Poems, Books, Readers
In this book, a sequel to Traditions and Contexts in the Poetry of Horace (Cambridge University Press, 2002), ten leading Latin scholars provide specially commissioned in-depth discussions of the poetry of Catullus, one of ancient Rome's most favourite and best loved poets. Some chapters focus on the collection as a whole and the interrelationship of various poems; others deal with intertextuality and translation and Catullus' response to his Gre…
Pliny's Praise: The Panegyricus in the Roman World
Pliny's Panegyricus (AD 100) survives as a unique example of senatorial rhetoric from the early Roman Empire. It offers an eyewitness account of the last years of Domitian's principate, the reign of Nerva and Trajan's early years, and it communicates a detailed senatorial view on the behaviour expected of an emperor. It is an important document in the development of the ideals of imperial leadership, but it also contributes greatly to our underst…
House Politics and City Politics in Aristophanes
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Deflected Addresses: Apostrophe and Space (Sophocles, Aeschines, Plautus, Cicero, Virgil and Others)
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Cicero’s Correspondence: A Literary Study
There has been a great revival of interest in the writings of Cicero, one of the most important Latin prose writers; his letters have remained unaccountably neglected, save for basic textual and explanatory work, and for detailed history. This study shows that Cicero's letters should be regarded as artistic works, the artistry no less real for being bound up with personal situations. With close analyses, extensive use of contemporary literature, …
Greek to Latin: Frameworks and Contexts for Intertextuality
Hutchinson investigates the relationship between Latin and Greek literature and shows some of the contexts in which the interaction of the literatures should be viewed. Based on an independent collection of evidence, the book draws extensively on inscriptions, archaeology, papyri, scholia, and a wide-range of texts
The Catullan Corpus, Greek Epigram, and the Poetry of Objects
The full-text of this article is not currently available in ORA, but you may be able to access the article via the publisher copy link on this record page. Citation: Hutchinson, G. O. (2003). 'The Catullan corpus, Greek epigram, and the poetry of objects', Classical Quarterly, 53(1), 206-221. Copyright © 2003 The Classical Association
Rhythm, style, and meaning in Cicero's prose
This article has a double purpose: to argue for some specific points on Cicero's rhythm, and to show how the significance of rhythm for literary understanding is larger than has perhaps been perceived. The piece is based on a reading of the whole of Cicero; but it will make only occasional reference to the letters. The question of rhythm in the letters is particularly involved, and it will be best handled elsewhere
Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary Study
Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: A Critical Study
List of authors and emperors Introduction Conceptions of genre: Criticisms in prose, 'lower' poetry Genre and philosophy, history, and high poetry Wit Extravagance Structure and cohesion The gods in mythological poetry The gods in prose and in Lucan Death in prose Death in high poetry Bibliography General index Index of passages discussed
Propertius and the Unity of the Book
How, in books of Roman poetry, are poems related to each other and to the book as a whole? The question is approached with divergent preconceptions. On the one hand, many assume that the design of a book will be symmetrical, and should be represented in a diagram. In such a scheme, every connection must be plausible—which is never the case; and it must be supposed that ancient readers were given to making diagrams, through which alone such symmet…
Read the Instructions: Didactic Poetry and Didactic Prose
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The Publication and Individuality of Horace’s Odes Books 1–3
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The Date of De Rerum Natura
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Appian the Artist: Rhythmic Prose and Its Literary Implications
If we had no idea which parts of Greek literature in a certain period were poetry or prose, we would regard it as our first job to find out. How much of the Greek prose of the Imperial period is rhythmic has excited less attention; and yet the question should greatly affect both our reading of specific texts and our understanding of the whole literary scene. By ‘rhythmic’ prose, this article means only prose that follows the Hellenistic system of…
House Politics and City Politics in Aristophanes
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Deflected Addresses: Apostrophe and Space (Sophocles, Aeschines, Plautus, Cicero, Virgil and Others)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Propertius and the Unity of the Book
How, in books of Roman poetry, are poems related to each other and to the book as a whole? The question is approached with divergent preconceptions. On the one hand, many assume that the design of a book will be symmetrical, and should be represented in a diagram. In such a scheme, every connection must be plausible—which is never the case; and it must be supposed that ancient readers were given to making diagrams, through which alone such symmet…
Aeschylus: Septem Contra Thebas
Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes
Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: A Critical Study
List of authors and emperors Introduction Conceptions of genre: Criticisms in prose, 'lower' poetry Genre and philosophy, history, and high poetry Wit Extravagance Structure and cohesion The gods in mythological poetry The gods in prose and in Lucan Death in prose Death in high poetry Bibliography General index Index of passages discussed
Rhythm, style, and meaning in Cicero's prose
This article has a double purpose: to argue for some specific points on Cicero's rhythm, and to show how the significance of rhythm for literary understanding is larger than has perhaps been perceived. The piece is based on a reading of the whole of Cicero; but it will make only occasional reference to the letters. The question of rhythm in the letters is particularly involved, and it will be best handled elsewhere
Narrative
The letters contain many arresting examples of narrative. These narrative letters and parts of letters effectively raise, and help to answer, questions about the nature of the letters, and their relation to other literature. They cut across the categories of narrative most considered by modern discussions. Ricreur’s monumental treatment, for example, principally considers novelistic fiction and modern historiography. From such a perspective the n…
Consolation
Advancing still further into the regions of gloom, we pass from exile to bereavement. In the last chapter we saw Cicero writing from within a terrible experience. In this chapter, we shall look at Cicero and others writing from outside a still more terrible experience to those within it; we shall see them attempting to handle, and to modify, strong emotion in others. The theme is intrinsically interesting, and the letters that treat it include so…
Time
The subject of time in these letters may be a difficult one; but it throws much light on their qualities. We have already discussed letters where past events are enclosed into the form of narrative; but there the treatment of time is comparatively simple, and more akin to that in other kinds of literature. Time in letters is particularly complicated. One may find some leads by using, or perverting, ideas from philosophy and linguistics. Kant conc…
Dialogue
We turn now to a particular aspect of narrative, the direct rendition of dialogue. The subject is, in my view, both appealing and significant. The letters in which dialogue occurs are particularly memorable. It might seem that what makes these letters notable is not the form but the historical content: quoting conversation is an obvious thing for Cicero to do, it might be held, but it allows modern readers the good fortune to eavesdrop directly o…
Title Pages
Exile
Cicero’s letters from exile have typically been viewed as extreme and somewhat embarrassing outpourings of emotion. The extremity has frequently been seen as betraying a peculiar and inadequate personality, or at any rate an unusual mental state. These reactions descend from the moral criticism of Cicero’s grief voiced in antiquity itself. A moral strain is often audible in modern comments on the letters; psychological categories are sometimes of…
The Letters and Literature
Cicero’s correspondence forms one of the most remarkable collections of texts in Latin. Not only do these letters throw a uniquely penetrating light on the social and political world of the late Republican elite, and the events of a momentous period; not only are they vital to understanding one of the most central figures in Latin literature, and fundamental to our knowledge of many contemporary authors; they also contain a great quantity and var…
Abbreviations
Dedication
Humour
Humour is one of the most attractive ingredients of Cicero’s letters. But it would be misguided to view it as a straightforward feature of artless conversation, which allows us to escape from the artificialities of premeditated expression. It would be misguided too to approach the humour in a void as disembodied jokes, without relation to the particular circumstances in which each letter originates. One must appreciate the importance of both an a…
Cicero’s Correspondence: A Literary Study
There has been a great revival of interest in the writings of Cicero, one of the most important Latin prose writers; his letters have remained unaccountably neglected, save for basic textual and explanatory work, and for detailed history. This study shows that Cicero's letters should be regarded as artistic works, the artistry no less real for being bound up with personal situations. With close analyses, extensive use of contemporary literature, …
Sophocles and Time
This paper is not directly concerned with Sophocles’ views on time. It is interested rather in considering how structures of time are used in the plays to shape the experiences they depict and provide. In a literary work time is, among other things, a way of organizing material, articulating its meaning, intensifying its force. The sequence of past, present, and future is a framework fundamental to most criticism of drama; but the area of time th…
Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary Study
Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces (Alcman, Stesichorus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripides)
"This book presents a new text and a detailed commentary for many of the central pieces of Greek lyric poetry. For authors from Alcman to Simonides, the pieces chosen are usually the longest and best preserved; a single large poem each is taken from Bacchylides and Pindar; two odes from tragedy illustrate the transference of lyric into drama. The text and apparatus contain the results of fresh work on the papyri, and new suggestions. The commenta…
The Date of De Rerum Natura
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Publication and Individuality of Horace’s Odes Books 1–3
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Catullan Corpus, Greek Epigram, and the Poetry of Objects
The full-text of this article is not currently available in ORA, but you may be able to access the article via the publisher copy link on this record page. Citation: Hutchinson, G. O. (2003). 'The Catullan corpus, Greek epigram, and the poetry of objects', Classical Quarterly, 53(1), 206-221. Copyright © 2003 The Classical Association
Hellenistic Epic and Homeric Form
This chapter seeks to illuminate Hellenistic poems by pursuing what they did with some aspects of Homer and with some ideas that were connected with Homer in the Hellenistic period. Accordingly, the inquiry will not consider the abundant and important evidence for poems that have been more or less lost; it will concentrate on one surviving epic, the Argonautica, and one partially surviving epic, the Hecale.
Down among the Documents: Criticism and Papyrus Letters
This chapter examines papyrus letters, with emphasis on private letters and their relationship with literature. The role of critical analysis in understanding the link between papyrus private letters and literature are discussed by citing the Greek document The Oxyrhynchus Papyri 2190, a letter from a student to his father dating from around AD 100. The document clearly has a pragmatic function, which must be related to its form; and, as with ora…
The Monster and the Monologue: Polyphemus from Homer to Ovid
The colourful career of the Cyclops in literary history strikingly exemplifies the complexities of Homeric reception. This chapter illustrates the value of narratological strategies, which have made such a vast contribution to the understanding of classical literature. It also suggests the value of extending narratology, and integrating it further with other types of criticism.
Classical Antiquity Studies (54 works) · Art (52 works) · Literature (51 works) · Philosophy (32 works) · Poetry (30 works) · Computer Science (26 works) · History (26 works) · Linguistics (21 works) · Classics (14 works) · Aesthetics (11 works)