Name: Roberto Di Tuccio

Research: "The Hetaira: Imperial Representations of an Ancient Character"

My project focuses on hetairai as prominent characters in Lucian's Dialogi Meretricii and Alciphron's and Aristaenetus' letter collections. Hetairai knew a considerable fortune in comedy between the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BCE. At a later time, Second Sophistic literati would be familiar with comedy and comedic hetairai through rhetorical studies as well as exercises such as ἠθοποιία (‘construction of character’). As a result, Lucian's, Alciphron's and Aristaenetus' works provide us with a new perspective on these characters, voicing their passions, thoughts and ambitions in a way that both connects with and departs from the comedic tradition. These works can help clarify an important, if unexplored, question, namely the status of hetairai as shaped by their literary past as well as by contemporary concerns and practices. 

A comprehensive study on Imperial hetairai exploring the uneasy combination of contemporary and Classical models is missing yet. While I plan to explore intertextual cross-references and similarities pointing to the hetairai’s comedic past, my ultimate goal is to grasp the rationale for the return and partial transformation of this character. 

In order to disentangle the different threads that define new hetairai, intertextuality is a useful but insufficient tool. More recent narratological approaches as applied to Ancient literature are key to discerning both the hetairai’s different nuances – in terms of gender, morality and social role – and the way they are represented through the author’s narrative techniques. Moreover, Roman law is arguably crucial to a full understanding of these figures. This would be a fundamental cue to understand whether Lucian's, Alciphron's and Aristaenetus' fictional hetairai, while clearly inspired by Classical models, reflect the evolution of the law through time and space.

Recent papers/presentations given: 

2019: La Poesia Greca e Latina. Convegno di aggiornamento. Delegazione “Antico e Moderno” della “Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica”, Sapienza University of Rome, (19^th-20^th September 2019).

Other activities: 

I took part in a Classics teaching internship at “Liceo Classico Orazio” in Rome from February to May 2017. In 2019 I contributed to some articles in the bibliographical listing Journal Poiesis. Bibliografia della Poesia Greca. I also worked on the revision and translation of ancient Greek dramas then performed: Aeschylus' Agamemnon in 2020 and Aristophanes' Clouds in 2021. I conducted this task with Theatron Project- Ancient Theatre at Sapienza (Rome).