Philosophy and Philosophers in Greek Epigrams, Dr Marco Pelucchi (KU Leuven)

Greek epigram is a field of research that has recently become very active, not least thanks to new papyrological discoveries. However, the presence of philosophers and philosophical themes within the epigrammatic tradition has remained largely unexplored. In this talk, Marco will examine how philosophy and philosophers are represented across a variety of epigram types, including funerary, ekphrastic, satirical and polemical, and how the genre reshapes or appropriates philosophical themes and figures in subtle and original ways. He will also explore the curious case of epigrams that are often spuriously attributed to philosophers, particularly Plato. This raises important questions about authorship, reception and the motivations behind these ancient attributions. This talk will provide a rich and nuanced picture of the interplay between philosophy and poetry, raising broader questions about genre, authorship and literary transmission.

Marco Pelucchi is completing a second PhD in Ancient History at KU Leuven, working on the fragments of Hieronymus of Rhodes as part of the international project 'Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker Continued'. Having completed his PhD in Classical Philology at the University of Milan, he is currently preparing a new edition of the epigrams attributed to Plato. He is also the author of a book on Choerilus of Iasus (De Gruyter, 2022) and has published several papers on Greek epigrams and fragmentary literature.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me (giulia.bernardini@durham.ac.uk).