CAI Dublin Branch Lecture

This paper will examine the use of Hellenistic literary aesthetics in relation to the Exagoge of Ezekiel written in c. 2nd century BCE Alexandria. While the Exagoge, a retelling of the Scriptural account of the Exodus told in the form of Greek tragedy, does not survive in its entirety, it is still the longest extant tragedy that survives from the Hellenistic period. This presentation aims to demonstrate that when we recontextualise the Exagoge among contemporary Hellenistic Greek works and trends, including contemporary aesthetics, we are presented with a new understanding of not only the wondrous phoenix which appears in the tragedy, but also of the Jewish Ezekiel in his own modern Alexandria.

Dr Mary Sweeney is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with the GLOSSAM project at the University of Galway. She recently completed her IRC-funded PhD at the University of Galway on Hellenistic Jewish identity within the context of the fragmentary tragedy the Exagoge of Ezekiel. Her research interests include exploring cross-cultural exchanges, and the inheritance of Greek educational practices and Greek language materials in the Latin West. Within the GLOSSAM project, Mary’s research includes examining the role of glosses in the transmission of knowledge in Europe with a focus on the glossing tradition in the sixth-century Latin grammar of Priscian.

This is a hybrid lecture:

In person in the UCD Village, Meeting Room 4. Online on Zoom. See below for the location of the UCD Village.

Host or Publisher Classical Association of Ireland