Social Minds in the Ancient Greek Novel and Imperial Greek Historiography: Studies of Chariton and Herodian

• Applicant: Dr. Chrysanthos Chrysanthou
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423347538

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Narrative studies of ancient Greek literature have focused so far on several aspects of literary texts such as voice (who speaks in a text), time (the temporal order, duration, and frequency of events in a story), space (the setting of the action of a story), characterisation (the process of construction of literary characters), and focalisation (the point of view from which events in a story are related). Much less attention has been paid to the study of the fictional minds (embracing all aspects of inner life— cognition, perception, dispositions, feelings, beliefs, and emotions) of characters in narrative texts. This first-time research proposal suggests filling this gap through a study of the (re)presentation and function(s) of social and collective minds in Imperial Greek narratives. More specifically, the proposed project seeks to examine the interaction between the minds of characters in ancient Greek historiography and the ancient Greek novel of the Imperial period, focusing especially on characters’ ‘Theory of Mind’ (i.e. their ability to think about other characters’ mental states) and mind-reading processes as well as their ‘intermental relationships’ (i.e. relationships where thinking is joined, shared, or collective). The work envisaged consists of sustained close readings of two selected case studies, Chariton’s Callirhoe and Herodian’s History of the Empire after Marcus; it examines the specific narrative techniques used by storytellers to depict their characters’ mental lives as externally manifested, social and shared as well as the role of social and collective cognition in the advancement of plot and the construction of literary characters. It also explores commonalities or contrasts between the degree and techniques of consciousness representation in the two genres, thus advancing research on the relation between fictional and non-fictional narration in antiquity; and it applies cognitive insights to concerns about the conception of individuality and collectivity, selfhood and personality during the Imperial period.

Publications

• Generic and Intertextual Enrichment: Plutarch’s Alexander 30. The Dynamics of Intertextuality in Plutarch, 391-404. BRILL.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Herodian and Cassius Dio: A Study of Herodian’s Compositional Devices”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 60.4 (2020) 621–651
  Chrysanthos S. Chrysanthou
  
• Plutarch and the “Malicious” Historian. Illinois Classical Studies, 45(1), 49-79.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Sex and Power in Cassius Dio’s Roman History. Mnemosyne, 74(4), 598-625.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• “Dreams and Moral Reflection in Plutarch’s Lives”, in G. Karla & al. (eds.) (2020), Ἤματα πάντα (Athens: Kardamitsa) 399–408.
  Chrysanthou, C. S.
  
• Herodian's Septimius Severus: Literary Portrait and Historiography. Classica et Mediaevalia, 70, 181-230.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. BRILL.
  S., Chrysanthou Chrysanthos
  
• “Kaiserliche Erscheinungsbilder in Herodians Geschichte des Kaisertums nach Marc Aurel: Die Kaiser Commodus und Caracalla”, Gymnasium 129 (2022) 45–74
  Chrysanthos S. Chrysanthou
  
• “Plutarch on Cato the Younger and the Annexation of Cyprus”, L’Antiquité Classique 91 (2022) 27–45.
  Chrysanthou, C. S.
  
• GROUP MINDS IN ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE ANCIENT GREEK NOVEL: HERODIAN'S HISTORY AND CHARITON'S CALLIRHOE. The Classical Quarterly, 73(2), 872-887.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Group Minds in Ancient Narrative. Mnemosyne, 77(3), 482-512.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Φήμη in Herodian’s Roman History. Philologus, 167(2), 191-213.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Digressions in Herodian’s History of the Empire. Digressions in Classical Historiography, 273-308. De Gruyter.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• Generic Enrichment in Plutarch’s Lives. Routledge.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S. & Duff, Timothy E.
  
• A Compiled Compilation: The Epitome of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae. Studies in Byzantine Epitomes and the Greek Epitomizing Tradition, 171-194. BRILL.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.
  
• News and Messages in Herodian’s History of the Roman Empire. Herodian, 139-154. De Gruyter.
  Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S.