Papers by Gregory Jones
The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the Visual, 2016
This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Nonc... more This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (cc-by-nc 3.0) License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Hesperia 88.4: 727-762, 2019
Ion, as the son of Apollo, was an object of myth and cult before Euripides composed the Ion in th... more Ion, as the son of Apollo, was an object of myth and cult before Euripides composed the Ion in the late 5th century b.c. This article offers an expanded analysis of the play's associations with religious traditions and art, arguing that its original performance cultivated a Pheidian aesthetic that made progressive allusions to sculpture and culminated in an evocation of the imperial Panathenaia. The play also quoted the Parthenon's east frieze, including the depiction there of the peplos ritual. An analysis of related vase painting corroborates this reading and suggests that a comparable mixture of Ionian and Erechtheid mytho-religious iconography was an intentional component of the Parthenon's visual program from its beginnings.
Mnemosyne 69 (2016) 1034-39: "Revisiting the Harmodios Song in Aristophanes' Acharnians" , 2016
At 977-979, following Dikaiopolis's example, the chorus of Acharnians welcomes peace and rejects ... more At 977-979, following Dikaiopolis's example, the chorus of Acharnians welcomes peace and rejects the presence of War: οὐδέποτ᾿ ἐγὼ Πόλεµον οἴκαδ᾿ ὑποδέξοµαι, οὐδὲ παρ᾿ ἐµοί ποτε τὸν Ἁρµόδιον ᾄσεται ξυγκατακλινείς, ὅτι πάροινος ἁνὴρ ἔφυ·
The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the Visual, 2016
This paper reexamines the generic morphology of the skolion melos, offering a more focused defini... more This paper reexamines the generic morphology of the skolion melos, offering a more focused definition of the genre than has previously been admitted. As the accumulated evidence shows, the skolion was recognized as a distinct lyric genre in antiquity, defined largely by its sympotic occasion, but also a tendency toward gnomic content and a unique musical style based on Aeolic meters and the Lydian and Ionian modes. This generic tradition was projected into the distant past when the quasi-mythical Terpander is said to have invented the skolion. Images of performance in archaic red-figure vase-painting, which represents our most important source of evidence for the skolion’s performative matrix before the classical and early Hellenistic periods, are consistent with later descriptions of the genre and would thus appear to place the pan-Hellenic concept as far back as the sixth century BCE. It is argued that Terpander’s association with the invention of the sympotic skolion and barbitos is illustrated on a red-figure cup by the Epeleios Painter made around 500 BCE.
This paper reexamines the known performance contexts of the skolion in light of recent advances i... more This paper reexamines the known performance contexts of the skolion in light of recent advances in our understanding of sympotic demographics and Greek popular culture, providing a close reading of select songs. In showing that the genre was primarily associated with public festivals and non-elite symposia, I argue that the Attic skolia were originally composed, performed, and transmitted by middling citizens at common symposia. Thus, we may isolate within the extant corpus of Greek literature a rare example of popular poetry that expresses the genuine voice of non-elites who articulated egalitarian views based on isonomia independently of elite sources.
The Classical Journal 106(3):273-293, Mar 2011
In Hermippos fr. 47 Perikles is addressed as the "the king of the satyrs," a title with no obviou... more In Hermippos fr. 47 Perikles is addressed as the "the king of the satyrs," a title with no obvious parallels in surviving Attic drama. While some scholars rightly compare the fragment's content to similar themes in Kratinos' Dionysalexandros, Hermippos' martial language and satyric imagery, along with Plutarch's scurrilous characterization of fr. 47, remain underexplored. In this paper I offer a new interpretation of the fragment, arguing that Perikles is presented through a series of previously overlooked sexual innuendos as an impotent emasculated satyr who becomes the victim of Kleon's sexual aggression; specifically, Perikles may be compared to Silenos who exhibits many of the same characteristics in Euripides' Cyclops.
Conference Presentations by Gregory Jones
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Papers by Gregory Jones
Conference Presentations by Gregory Jones