Dr Paola Bassino

Senior Lecturer

School of History and Archaeology

Paola.Bassino@winchester.ac.uk

@DrPaolaBassino

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Biography

?I hold a BA and an MA in Classics from the University of Turin, Italy (110 cum laude/110) and a PhD in Classics from the University of Durham (awarded in 2013). In 2014-15 I was a Research Fellow at the University of Durham, working on the ERC-funded project 'Living Poets: A New Approach To Ancient Poetry'. I worked at the University of Exeter as a Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History for the academic year 2015-16, and I joined the University of Winchester as a Lecturer in Classical Studies in September 2016. Since September 2019 I am Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Classical Studies.

Higher Education Teaching Qualification: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Areas of expertise

Early Greek poetry, especially archaic Greek epic
Biographical representations of the ancient poets
The Sophists and their interaction with the epic tradition
Homer and Hesiod in the Renaissance
Textual criticism and manuscript studies

Publications

?Books

P. Bassino, Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: A Commentary. De Gruyter (2018).
P. Bassino, L. G. Canevaro and B. Graziosi (eds) (2017), Conflict and Consensus in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry. Cambridge University Press.

Articles

'On Constructive Conflict and Disruptive Peace', in P. Bassino, L. G. Canevaro, B. Graziosi (eds) (2017), Conflict and Consensus in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry. Cambridge University Press.
'Homer: A Guide to Selected Sources'. Living Poets (2014). University of Durham, online publication.
'Lesches and the Contest between Homer and Hesiod'. Kyklos@Classics@ 1 (2013). Efimia D. Karakantza (ed.), The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, online publication.
'Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: nuovi spunti per una riconsiderazione delle testimonianze papiracee'. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 180 (2012): 38-42.

Book reviews

Review of S. Scully, Hesiod's Theogony. From Near Eastern Creation Myths to Paradise Lost. Oxford 2015. Classical Review 66.2, July 2016.
Review of M. Baier, Neun Leben des Homer. Eine Übersetzung und Erläuterung der antiken Biographien, Hamburg 2013. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.09.35.
Review of J. Ready, Character, Narrator, and Simile in the Iliad, Cambridge 2011. Journal of Hellenic Studies 133 (2013): 159.
Review of M. Kivilo, Early Greek Poets' Lives: The Shaping of the Tradition, Leiden 2010. Journal of Hellenic Studies 132 (2012): 174-5.

Conferences

?Percorsi dell'esegesi esiodea da Plutarco a Tzetzes: il caso di Op. 648-662. 24 May 2016 Conference 'Omero, Esiodo, Eschilo, Pindaro: forme e trasmissione dell'esegesi antica' . University of Bologna

Marcus Musurus Reader of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi. 13 October 2015 Research Seminars series University of Exeter, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

The Tradition of the Contest between Homer and Hesiod. 11 September 2015 Conference 'Contests of Speech and Song in Greek and Latin Literature'. University of Oxford, St Anne's College.

Ad ipsa Homerica loca: The Journey of Ciriaco d'Ancona to the Tomb of the Epic Poet. 13 September 2014 Conference 'Tombs of the Ancient Poets: Between Text and Material Culture' (Co-authored with Dr Peter Fane-Saunders). University of Durham, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Strategies of Enjambment in the Homeric Tradition. 5 April 2013 Classical Association Conference. University of Reading, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Conflict in the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi. 3 July 2012 Conference 'Conflict and Consensus in Early Hexameter Poetry'. University of Durham, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Lesches and the Contest between Homer and Hesiod. 27 June 2012 'Kyklos' project. Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University.

The Textual Tradition of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi. 12 April 2012 Classical Association Conference. University of Exeter, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Lucian and the Lives of Homer. 18 April 2011 Classical Association Conference. University of Durham, Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Conference organisation

Sophistic Views of the Epic Past from The Classical to the Imperial Age. International Conference, University of Winchester, 3-5 September 2018.

Conflict and Consensus in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry. International Conference, University of Durham, Department of Classics and Ancient History, 2-4 July 2012. Visit the website.

Staff Directory

Research interests

My main research interests lie in Greek epic poetry, and its ancient reception and transmission. The outputs of my research include a number of articles dealing with ancient biographical representations of the Greek epic poets, as well as two forthcoming books.

My first book (an expansion of my doctoral thesis) is titled Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: A Commentary (2018, De Gruyter, Texte und Kommentare 59). It represents the first comprehensive and systematic study of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi, the most important ancient biography of Homer and Hesiod. It includes an analysis of the development of the tradition of the contest between Homer and Hesiod; a study of the manuscript witnesses of the text (including two that have never been taken into account before); a critical edition; and the first commentary in English, located within, and contributing to, the recent wave of scholarly interest in the value of biographical material as evidence for the early reception of a poet's work.

I have also co-edited a volume titled Conflict and Consensus in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry, which collects essays exploring a series of related problematic issues in early Greek poetics concerning the role of conflict as a poetic theme and as an aspect of the early reception of epic, and the paradoxical relationships that exist between poetry and peace.

For my next major project, I am planning to investigate the ways in which the Sophists used and engaged with the epic tradition in order to present their own reflections on the power and limitations of speech.