Athena Kirk

Associate Professor

Overview

I focus broadly on Greek literature. I am interested on the intersections between literature and documentary texts, and the material qualities of ancient texts, as well as public interaction with them. I am also interested in questions of materiality in the nonhuman world, and the operations of ancient animals and objects.

Research Focus

  • Greek Literature
  • Greek Cultural Poetics 
  • Ancient Literacy and Orality
  • Ancient Animal Studies

Publications

Forthcoming 2025. “Listmaking, Accountability, and Gender in Eleusinian Myth and History.” In Beck and Scharff, eds. Beyond Mysteries: The Hybrid History of Ancient Eleusis. Brill.

2024 “Clouds and Cows, Shields and Sheep: Some Nonhuman Sounds in Homer.” American Journal of Philology 145: 327-350.

2021 Ancient Greek Lists: Catalogue and Inventory Across Genres. Cambridge.

2021 “Orality and Literacy,” “Writing,” “Inscriptions,” and “Etymology.” Baron, ed., The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Wiley-Blackwell.

2019 “What is an ΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΗ in Classical Greece?” In Petrovic et al.,eds., The Materiality of Text—Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity, 29-47. Brill.

2018 “Semata Nikes: Archaic Pinakes in the Lindian Chronicle.” Mètis N.S. 16: 107-124.

2017 “Swelling Women: Formulaics in the Hesiodic Catalogue.” CHS Research Bulletin 5. 

2016 “λόγος and φωνή in Odyssey 10 and Plutarch’s Gryllus.” In Slater, ed., Orality and Literacy XII: Voice and Voices, 397-415. Brill.

2014 “Herodotus’s Semantics of Showcase.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 144: 19-40. 

2013 Review: Orality, Literacy and Performance in the Ancient World. BMCR 2013.03.31. 

2012 Translation: Lucian, “Remarks Addressed to an Illiterate Book-Fancier." In Gareth Long, Remarks Addressed to an Illiterate Book-Fancier. Kate Werble Gallery, New York.

In the news

CLASS Courses - Fall 2024

GREEK Courses - Fall 2024

CLASS Courses - Spring 2025

GREEK Courses - Spring 2025

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