27 May

Posted at 11:33h in Announcements, Narrative Cosmonauts, Uncategorized

Join us in Rönnells Antikvariat (Stockholm) on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 18:00, for the launch of the new Swedish translation of Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon by Ingela Nilsson, the principal investigator of Retracing Connections and the Professor of Greek and Byzantine Studies at Uppsala University.

The power of Eros is great. The young Clitophon knows that. He and his beloved Leucippe have been tossed around the ancient Mediterranean world like play balls for fate and desire. They have seen it all: pirates, potions and mock deaths, loyal friendships, cunning court speeches and divine interventions. In front of a stranger in the coastal city of Sidon, Clitophon spins the story of his love adventures. His story turns out to be “pure novel” and contains everything from Greek myths and exotic beasts to explanations of the physical journeys of desire and the benefits of sex between men. Where the god of love rules, nothing is improbable.

The new Swedish translation by Ingela Nilsson is published by Bokförlaget Faethon in the series Moly with a foreword by Rebecka Kärde and illustrations by Monica Hellström.

At Rönnells, Ingela Nilsson will present the publication in conversation with Niklas Haga, Grecist and publisher. More information here.

27 May

Posted at 11:01h in Announcements

Christian Høgel, the leader of the Translation and Rewriting team and professor of Greek, Latin and Modern Greek at Lund University, has become a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

Christian was employed at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, first as a lecturer from 2008 and then from 2014 as a professor. Between 2012 and 2022, he co-funded and co-ran the Danish excellence initiative Center for Medieval Literature. In January 2023, he became a professor at Lund University. Christian’s main scholarly interests are translation and rewriting but he has published on a wide span of philological, literary and philosophical topics, spanning from antiquity to the Renaissance and covering a variety of Eurasian languages and cultures. He has now been elected to the philosophical-philological class of the Academy.

The members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities come from the humanities, religious studies, jurisprudence and social science disciplines. The number of working members is approximately 120 divided between the historical-antiquarian class and the philosophical-philological class. The total number of members, including foreign and honorary ones, is approximately 175. Being elected to the Academy is a recognition for groundbreaking and important efforts in humanities and social science research, as well as for the contribution to the cultural environment in general.

 

Christian Hogel

15 Sep

Posted at 11:58h in Announcements, Uncategorized

On 14 September, the book Nattens Sange (Songs of the Night) by Retracing Connections team member Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen was published in Denmark by Atlanten. The book contains four hymns of the poet Romanos Melodos (c. 485-560 AD) in a fresh translation into Danish. The hymns are accompanied by beautiful paintings and drawings by the internationally acclaimed artist Peter Brandes. Romanos was a deacon and singer in sixth century Constantinople who wrote lengthy narrative and dramatic hymns known as kontakia.

In his hymns, Romanos would retell Biblical stories in such a way that the audience would be invited to enter the sacred narratives and listen to conversations between biblical characters as if the audience were present at the narrated events.

The book opens with an introduction placing Romanos in context and giving a short overview of the current state of research, as well as providing examples of Romanos’ poetic and rhetorical techniques. Four hymns are rendered in Danish translation: “On Joseph”, “Nativity II”, “On Peter’s Denial” and “On the Victory of the Cross”. Except for the last one, these hymns have never before been translated into Danish. Each hymn is accompanied by paintings and drawings by Peter Brandes who draws on the Christian iconographic tradition in his own personal style. A commentary on each hymn concludes the book. 

Romanos’ poetic skill has earned him a spot among the most lauded Byzantine poets and became a model of inspiration for later liturgical poetry in Byzantium. This is testified by the fact that during the ninth and tenth centuries several hymns written in honor of saints were attributed to Romanos. He has thereby had a direct and indirect influence on the formation of the Byzantine Storyworld examined in the programme. 

 

Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen will present the book at Lund University on 17 October 2023 at the Collegium Patristicum Lundense. 

15 Sep

Posted at 11:32h in Announcements, Uncategorized

A new publication, Saints at the Limits: Seven Byzantine Popular Legends, edited and translated by Stratis Papaioannou, has appeared in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series of the Harvard University Press. 

This is a collection of medieval tales of Byzantine saints, including some rejected by the Church, translated into English for the first time. The legends collected in this volume, despite sometimes being viewed with suspicion by the Church, fascinated Christians during the Middle Ages—as related cults, multiple retellings, and contemporary translations attest. Their protagonists span the entire spectrum of Byzantine society, including foreigners, soldiers, ascetics, lustful women, beggars, and the sons and daughters of rulers. They travel to exotic lands, perform outlandish miracles, suffer extraordinary violence, reject family ties, save cities, destroy absolute rulers, and discover the divine. Some saints, like Markos the Athenian, are forgotten nowadays; others, like Saint George the Great Martyr, still command a wide appeal. Each, however, negotiates the limits of Byzantine imagination: the borders that separate the powerful from the outcasts, the real from the imaginary, the human from the beyond human.

These stories, edited in Greek and translated into English here for the first time, continue to resonate with readers seeking to understand universal human fears and desires in their Byzantine guise.