Meetings

The meetings of the Philological Society in the academic year 2026-27 are given below. For each of those meetings held in the Faculty, tea, coffee and cakes will be available beforehand from 4.00pm in G.22.  The seminars themselves will be live-streamed via Zoom; links and reminders will be forthcoming in the week prior to each seminar.

5 November 2026: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Dr Ioannis Ziogas, University of Durham
The Trials of Forgiveness in Terence’s Adelphoe 

Terence’s Adelphoe puts the justice of forgiveness to the test. This issue is not peripheral, but fundamental to Roman comedy. By questioning the value and limitations of forgiveness, Terence puts the very nature of comedy to the test. Forgiveness, paternal mercy in particular, is in line with the suspension of law enforcement during the Roman festivals which featured performances of Roman comedy. The playwrights stage the relaxation of legal sanctions during the ludi by presenting plots that revolve around performances of forgiveness. But Terence’s Adelphoe complicates the harmonious symbiosis of comedy and mercy by inviting the spectators, who are cast in the role of judges in the prologue (5 uos eritis iudices), to think about the pros and cons of being lenient from a position of power and authority. 

12 November 2026: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Prof. Serafina Cuomo, Darwin College, University of Cambridge
Work and self-representation in the tablets from Penteskouphia

First found in 1879 near Corinth, the archaic-period Penteskouphia tablets are an assemblage of around one thousand painted clay tablets, mostly with images of Poseidon. Around 10% of the tablets depict scenes of pottery and potters, and have recently been re-catalogued by Eleni Hasaki. 

I will draw on this (amazing) material to ask the following questions: is what we are seeing in the Penteskouphia tablets the potters' self-representation? And, if so, what does it tell us about work in antiquity?

This paper is work-in-progress, and part of my new project, tentatively called 'Old labour: evaluating work and workers in ancient Greece and Rome'.

26 November 2026: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Dr David M. Pritchard, University of Queensland & Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Edinburgh University
The Cadetship of Classical Athens 

In 335 BC, the classical Athenians created a fulltime training program for new hoplites. No other Greek state had ever had such a cadetship for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds. The century that followed saw the Greek world in general enthusiastically embrace this innovative training for their own ephebes. J. L. Friend and T. R. Henderson have recently published the first books on the Athenian ephebia in over sixty years. Their important monographs have heated up considerably three longstanding debates about this cadetship. The first debate is whether all eighteen-year-olds or only those who had chosen to be hoplites were ephebes. The second debate concerns dating. The third debate is about why the Athenian people actually voted for this military reform. This richly illustrated paper aims to settle one way or another these now hot debates about this significant military innovation of democratic Athens. 

21 January 2027: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Dr Lucien van Beek, Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University 
The Archery metaphor for Speech and Thought in Ancient Greek 

The conceptualization of speaking in terms of archery is commonplace in Ancient Greek literature, as appears from the use of words like ἵημι ‘send (an arrow)’, ἁμαρτάνω ‘miss’ and σκοπός ‘target’ in reference to speech acts. It is not well understood, however, how this metaphorical usage relates to other conceptualizations of speech and thought, in particular to the cross-linguistically common ‘conduit metaphor’, which pictures ideas as mental content being transmitted in linguistic containers (words) from a speaker to an addressee. Recent scholars, focusing on the Homeric phrase ἔπεα πτερόεντα, have argued that the archery metaphor in Homer is an instance of the conduit metaphor, with the arrows conveying a message to an addressee. I disagree. In my paper, I will criticize this view and present a novel analysis of the conceptual mapping underlying the archery metaphor. I will also inquire into its pragmatic and philosophical aspects: under which circumstances was the metaphor used? And what does it tell us about ancient conceptualizations of thought and linguistic communication? 

4 February 2027: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Prof. Athena Tsingarida, University of Oxford
Vases as Gestures: Drinking Sets and Consumption Practices in Sixth-Century B.C. Athens

The paper will focus on the distinctive nature of ceramic material for the information it may bring on social practices and cultural interactions in banqueting practices. It will discuss a distinctive phenomenon that takes place in the second half of the sixth century in Athens when Attic potters modified shapes and formal details of drinking vessels, especially figured-decorated and black-glazed cups. This rapid change can be seen as a response to the need of constructing or asserting distinct social identities. How might some specific shapes, their size, capacity, and the combination into specific drinking sets along with the beverages they served, have been used to shape a diacritical way of drinking and behaving?

4 March 2027: 4.30pm, Room G.21, Faculty of Classics (& on Zoom)
Prof. Regina Höschele, University of Munich
Viewing Art in Plato’s Cave: Callistratus’ Ekphrasis of the Dancing Satyr

The opening text of Callistratus’ Ekphraseis describes a dancing Satyr displayed within a labyrinthine cave near Egyptian Thebes. My paper argues that this text deliberately evokes Plato’s allegory of the cave and thereby establishes a programmatic framework for the collection as a whole. Through a close reading of the first ekphrasis, I show that the cave functions not merely as a setting but as a metapoetic space in which Callistratus reflects on the ontology of images and the power of sculptural mimesis. By appropriating and systematically reworking Platonic language and concepts, Callistratus challenges the philosopher’s critique of the visual arts, presenting sculpture as capable of transcending materiality and approximating “true being” (to ontōs on). 

6 May 2027 4.30pm, Harrods Room, Emmanuel College (& on Zoom)
Dr Michael Griffin, King’s College London
Double Vision: The Attentive Barbaroi of Porphyry, De Abstinentia 1.42

In about 270 CE, the Platonist philosopher Porphyry composed a sustained defence of vegetarianism and an ascetic lifestyle. Partway through the first book (De Abstinentia 1.42), he pauses to criticize an unnamed group of ‘barbaroi’, who seem to claim the ability to attend to Platonic ideas and the ordinary world at once. Based on this skilful attention, the barbaroi appear to deny the need for asceticism. This paper explores the identity and philosophy of Porphyry’s barbaroi. Building on collaborative work with Sonsoles Costero-Quiroga, I argue that they may be specifically Valentinian Christians, and that Porphyry’s testimony preserves a uniquely Valentinian philosophy of attention.

More information about the Philological society and about how to become a member (which includes a subscription to CCJ) can be found athttps://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/seminars/philological

We look forward to seeing you at some or all of the meetings!

Dr Jane Rempel (Programme Secretary)