Alessio Ranno
Scuola Normale Superiore, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia - Storia Antica e Filologia Classica, PhD in Classics and Ancient History
From 2013 to 2018, I studied Classics and Ancient History at the University of Pisa, and simultaneously attended the five-year undergraduate course ("Corso ordinario") at the Scuola Normale Superiore. I completed my BA degree (110/110 cum laude) in 2016, with a thesis on Sophocles' Ajax. Consequently, I got my MA degree in 2018 (110/110 cum laude), presenting a thesis devoted to the analysis and intepretation of Pindar's Nemean 7; simultaneously, I was awarded a licentiate ("diploma di licenza") for my undergraduate studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore, officially delivered in December 2019.
From November 2018 to April 2024, I was enrolled in the PhD course in Classics and Ancient History at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Corso di perfezionamento in Scienze dell'Antichità), working on a thesis devoted to a thorough study of Pindar's lyric poetry for the Greek city of Corinth ("Pindar's Corinth. Tradition, poetics, reception"). My PhD research was also conducted within a co-tutelle agreement signed between the Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Warwick (Department of Classics and Ancient History). I received my joint PhD title, cum laude, on the 10th of April 2024.
Supervisors: Prof. Enrico Medda (Università di Pisa), Prof. David Fearn (University of Warwick), and Prof. Luigi Battezzato (Scuola Normale Superiore)
From November 2018 to April 2024, I was enrolled in the PhD course in Classics and Ancient History at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Corso di perfezionamento in Scienze dell'Antichità), working on a thesis devoted to a thorough study of Pindar's lyric poetry for the Greek city of Corinth ("Pindar's Corinth. Tradition, poetics, reception"). My PhD research was also conducted within a co-tutelle agreement signed between the Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Warwick (Department of Classics and Ancient History). I received my joint PhD title, cum laude, on the 10th of April 2024.
Supervisors: Prof. Enrico Medda (Università di Pisa), Prof. David Fearn (University of Warwick), and Prof. Luigi Battezzato (Scuola Normale Superiore)
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Conference Presentations by Alessio Ranno
The investigation of these intertextual dynamics, I argue, prompts a metaliterary reflection on Posidippus’ poem as a field of negotiation among poetic texts and genres, tradition and innovation, and on the ‘metamorphic’ power of poetic creation: in addition to actively cooperating with the craftsman in transforming the “dark jasper” (1) into an “ethereal” gem (6), Posidippus ultimately achieves a metamorphosis of his poetic ecphrasis, through his sophisticated intertextual play, into an aesthetic and commemorative artifact which imposes itself as a fully-fledged literary archive. This entails wider reflection on the nature of archivization as not a merely recollective, but also an actively creative process, which responds to and gives shape to the subjective expectations and desires that are placed in any attempt to gesture towards past traditions and their witnesses: in T.S. Eliot’s words, archivization as a process “mixing memory and desire”. This emerges as a noteworthy issue not just in Posidippus’ age, as a time deeply affected by a sort of archival impulse, but also ultimately for us as contemporary recipients of ancient Greek literature.
The Pindaric narrative is divided into three sequences: 1) Sisyphus and Medea (52-55); 2) Corinth‘s participation in the Trojan War (55-60); 3) Bellerophon‘s taming of Pegasus (61-92). The analysis of the first two sections will bring into focus the implicit presence of the (lost) epic poem Korinthiakà by Eumelus of Corinth (8th-7th cent. BC ca.), together with Homer‘s Iliad 6 (the dialogue between Diomedes and Glaucus), as fundamental and pervasive literary subtexts for Pindar‘s lyric reworking of Corinthian myth, constantly moving between the opposite poles of tradition and innovation.
The tale of Pegasus‘ taming, which probably did not appear in Eumelus‘ Korinthiakà, fully shows the extent of Pindar‘s original engagement with Corinthian myth. In giving a poetic shape to the myth, with the addition of some personal innovations, Pindar appears to claim an authoritative position beside Eumelus within Corinth‘s cultural and literary tradition. Furthermore, the peculiar shape of the narrative, the role assigned to each character (Bellerophon, Athena, the seer Polyidos, Poseidon), and the modalities of their interactions (e.g., Athena‘s appearance to Bellerophon in a dream), are established by Pindar in order to enhance the semantic potentialities of the myth and achieve specific communicative and metapoetic purposes. From this perspective, Pegasus‘ bridle can be regarded not only as a symbol of moral restraint, but also of Pindar‘s lyric itself as able to potentially mediate between multiple, heterogeneous dimensions of time and being (past, present and future; eternity and transience; near and far; immaterial and material), and arrange them into a balanced whole, a well-textured fabric obeying to the guiding principles of appropriateness (καιρός) and measure (μέτρον). Moreover, Bellerophon‘s dream as a virtual space of encounter between human and divinity emerges as a symbolical counterpart of poetic creation. Furthermore, the ability of Athena‘s speech to cross the boundaries between the fictionality of the dream and the materiality of the world (ὅναρ/ὕπαρ) stands as an equivalent of the poet‘s 'epiphanic‘ voice, materializing itself into the physicality of performance and/or text.
Papers by Alessio Ranno
Accesso libero al link: https://lessiconavi.sns.it/lessico/galene/
The investigation of these intertextual dynamics, I argue, prompts a metaliterary reflection on Posidippus’ poem as a field of negotiation among poetic texts and genres, tradition and innovation, and on the ‘metamorphic’ power of poetic creation: in addition to actively cooperating with the craftsman in transforming the “dark jasper” (1) into an “ethereal” gem (6), Posidippus ultimately achieves a metamorphosis of his poetic ecphrasis, through his sophisticated intertextual play, into an aesthetic and commemorative artifact which imposes itself as a fully-fledged literary archive. This entails wider reflection on the nature of archivization as not a merely recollective, but also an actively creative process, which responds to and gives shape to the subjective expectations and desires that are placed in any attempt to gesture towards past traditions and their witnesses: in T.S. Eliot’s words, archivization as a process “mixing memory and desire”. This emerges as a noteworthy issue not just in Posidippus’ age, as a time deeply affected by a sort of archival impulse, but also ultimately for us as contemporary recipients of ancient Greek literature.
The Pindaric narrative is divided into three sequences: 1) Sisyphus and Medea (52-55); 2) Corinth‘s participation in the Trojan War (55-60); 3) Bellerophon‘s taming of Pegasus (61-92). The analysis of the first two sections will bring into focus the implicit presence of the (lost) epic poem Korinthiakà by Eumelus of Corinth (8th-7th cent. BC ca.), together with Homer‘s Iliad 6 (the dialogue between Diomedes and Glaucus), as fundamental and pervasive literary subtexts for Pindar‘s lyric reworking of Corinthian myth, constantly moving between the opposite poles of tradition and innovation.
The tale of Pegasus‘ taming, which probably did not appear in Eumelus‘ Korinthiakà, fully shows the extent of Pindar‘s original engagement with Corinthian myth. In giving a poetic shape to the myth, with the addition of some personal innovations, Pindar appears to claim an authoritative position beside Eumelus within Corinth‘s cultural and literary tradition. Furthermore, the peculiar shape of the narrative, the role assigned to each character (Bellerophon, Athena, the seer Polyidos, Poseidon), and the modalities of their interactions (e.g., Athena‘s appearance to Bellerophon in a dream), are established by Pindar in order to enhance the semantic potentialities of the myth and achieve specific communicative and metapoetic purposes. From this perspective, Pegasus‘ bridle can be regarded not only as a symbol of moral restraint, but also of Pindar‘s lyric itself as able to potentially mediate between multiple, heterogeneous dimensions of time and being (past, present and future; eternity and transience; near and far; immaterial and material), and arrange them into a balanced whole, a well-textured fabric obeying to the guiding principles of appropriateness (καιρός) and measure (μέτρον). Moreover, Bellerophon‘s dream as a virtual space of encounter between human and divinity emerges as a symbolical counterpart of poetic creation. Furthermore, the ability of Athena‘s speech to cross the boundaries between the fictionality of the dream and the materiality of the world (ὅναρ/ὕπαρ) stands as an equivalent of the poet‘s 'epiphanic‘ voice, materializing itself into the physicality of performance and/or text.
Accesso libero al link: https://lessiconavi.sns.it/lessico/galene/