Dr Thomas J Nelson

My research spans widely across Greek and Latin literature, with particular interests in politics, aesthetics and intertextuality. I’m particularly interested in rethinking traditional narratives of literary history, an aspiration which is reflected in the two main strands of my current research: first, I explore the (dis)continuities between the intertextual practices of archaic/classical poets and those of later literary cultures; and second, I aim to unearth the distinctive aesthetics and priorities of Hellenistic poets located beyond Ptolemaic Alexandria and the impact of these alternative poetic traditions at Rome. My first book (Markers of Allusion in Archaic Greek Poetry) was published in 2023 with Cambridge University Press; I am now working on Hellenistic epic fragments. I’m also currently co-editing volumes on Hellenistic aesthetics, on collaboration in ancient literature, and on Pergamon’s influence at Rome.

Greek literature, Homer, epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, Hellenistic poetry, intertextuality and allusion, citation and quotation, aesthetics, (meta-)poetics, Hellenistic royal ideologies, Roman receptions of Greek (esp. Hellenistic) literature.
 

Greek literature, Latin literature, Greek language, Latin language.

Full Publications:

Selected Publications:

Monographs

Nelson, T.J. (2023) Markers of Allusion in Archaic Greek Poetry. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press). [Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009086882].

Edited Volumes

Nelson, T. J., Pezzini, G. and Rebeggiani, S. (eds) (forthcoming) Pergamon and Rome: Culture, Identity, Influence. Oxford (Oxford University Press).

Journal Articles

Nelson, T.J. (forthcoming) “[Theocritus], Idyll 23: A Stony Aesthetic”, BICS.

Nelson, T.J. (forthcoming) “Tragic Allusion and Attic Tradition in the Ithyphallic Hymn for Demetrius Poliorcetes”, Classical Antiquity.

Nelson, T.J. (2022) “Iphigenia in the Iliad and the Architecture of Homeric Allusion”, TAPA 152.1: 55–101. [https://doi.org/10.1353/apa.2022.0007]

Nelson, T.J. (2021) “Intertextual Agōnes in Archaic Greek Epic: Penelope vs. the Catalogue of Women”, Yearbook of Ancient Greek Epic 5: 25–57. [https://doi.org/10.1163/24688487-00501002]

Nelson, T.J. (2021) “Archilochus’ Cologne Epode and Homer’s Quivering Spear (fr. 196a.52 IEG2)”, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 219: 4–7.

Nelson, T.J. (2021) “Achilles’ Heel: (Im)mortality in the Iliad”, Omnibus 82: 7–9.

Nelson, T.J. and Molesworth, K. (2021) “Tragic Noise and Rhetorical Frigidity in Lycophron’s Alexandra”, Classical Quarterly 71.1: 200–215. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838821000409].

Nelson, T.J. (2020) “Attalid Aesthetics: The Pergamene ‘Baroque’ Reconsidered”, Journal of Hellenic Studies 140: 176–198 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426920000087].

Nelson, T.J. (2020) “Nicander’s Hymn to Attalus: Pergamene Panegyric”, The Cambridge Classical Journal 66: 182–202 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1750270519000083].

Nelson, T.J. (2019) “Metapoetic Manoeuvres Between Callimachus and Apollonius: A Response to Annette Harder”, Aevum Antiquum 19: 107–127 [https://doi.org/10.26350/020747_000046].

Nelson, T.J. (2019) “‘Most Musicall, Most Melancholy’: Avian Aesthetics of Lament in Greek and Roman Elegy”, Dictynna: Revue de poétique latine 16: 1–47 [https://doi.org/10.4000/dictynna.1914].

Book Chapters

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Hellenistic Poetry Outside Alexandria”, in M. A. Harder and J. H. Klooster (eds) A Companion to Hellenistic Poetry. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press).

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Early Hellenistic Epic”, in M. Perale, J. Kwapisz, G. Taietti and B. Cartlidge (eds) Hellenistic Poetry Before Callimachus. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press).

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Moero of Byzantium”, in M. Perale, J. Kwapisz, G. Taietti and B. Cartlidge (eds) Hellenistic Poetry Before Callimachus. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press).

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “From Colophon to Rome: Pergamene Nicander, Latin Poetry, and Ovid’s Ceyx and Alcyone”, in T. J. Nelson, G. Pezzini and S. Rebeggiani (eds) Pergamon and Rome: Culture, Identity, Influence. Oxford (Oxford University Press).

Nelson, T. J., Pezzini, G. and Rebeggiani, S. (forthcoming) “Introduction: Pergamon and Rome”, in T. J. Nelson, G. Pezzini and S. Rebeggiani (eds) Pergamon and Rome: Culture, Identity, Influence. Oxford (Oxford University Press).

Nelson, T.J. (forthcoming) “Talk and Text: The Pre-Alexandrian Footnote from Homer to Theodectes”, in A. Kelly and H.L. Spelman (eds.) Texts and Intertexts in Archaic and Classical Greece. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press).

Nelson, T.J. (forthcoming) “Epiphany and Salvation in Inscribed Hellenistic Poetry: Bacchic and Odyssean Resonances in the Verse-Inscription of Hyssaldomos of Mylasa”, in M. A. Harder, J. H. Klooster, R. F. Regtuit, G. C. Wakker and C. L. Caspers (eds) Crisis and Resilience in Hellenistic Poetry. Hellenistica Groningana. Leuven (Peeters).

Nelson, T.J. (2022) “Beating the Galatians: Ideologies, Analogies and Allegories in Hellenistic Literature and Art”, in A. Coşkun (ed.) Galatian Victories and Other Studies into the Agency and Identity of the Galatians in the Hellenistic and Early-Roman Periods. Colloquia Antiqua 33. Leuven (Peeters): 97–144.

Nelson, T.J. (2021) “The Coma Stratonices: Royal Hair Encomia and Ptolemaic-Seleucid Rivalry?”, in M.A. Harder, J.H. Klooster, R.F. Regtuit and G.C. Wakker (eds.) Women and Power in Hellenistic Poetry. Hellenistica Groningana 26. Leuven (Peeters): 299–320.

Nelson, T.J. (2021) “Repeating the Unrepeated: Allusions to Homeric Hapax Legomena in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry”, in D. Beck (ed.) Repetition, Communication, and Meaning in the Ancient World. Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World Vol. 13, Mnemosyne Supplement 442. Leiden (Brill): 119–157 [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466661_007].

Nelson, T.J. (2020) “Penelopean Simaetha: A Flawed Paradigm of Femininity in Theocritus’ Second Idyll”, in C. Cusset, P. Belenfant and C.-E. Nardone (eds.) Féminités hellénistiques: Voix, genre, représentations. Hellenistica Groningana 25. Leuven (Peeters): 387–405.

Nelson, T.J. (2018) “The Shadow of Aristophanes: Hellenistic Poetry’s Reception of Comic Poetics”, in M.A. Harder, R.F. Regtuit and G.C. Wakker (eds.) Drama and Performance in Hellenistic Poetry. Hellenistica Groningana 23. Leuven (Peeters): 225–271.

Contributions

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Équitation, Char/Horseriding, chariot” (Latin) in J.-P. Guez, F. Klein, J. Peigney and E. Prioux (eds) Dictionnaire des images du poétique dans l'Antiquité. Paris (Classiques Garnier).

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Pas, Traces de pas /Steps, footsteps” (Greek and Latin) in J.-P. Guez, F. Klein, J. Peigney and E. Prioux (eds) Dictionnaire des images du poétique dans l'Antiquité. Paris (Classiques Garnier).

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) “Vol, Larcin/Stealing, theft” (Greek and Latin) in J.-P. Guez, F. Klein, J. Peigney and E. Prioux (eds) Dictionnaire des images du poétique dans l'Antiquité. Paris (Classiques Garnier).

Nelson, T. J. (2022) “Clôture, fermeture: Épigramme Grecque et Latine” in C. Urlacher-Becht (ed.) Dictionnaire de l'épigramme littéraire dans l'Antiquité grecque et romaine. Turnhout (Brepols) 349–352.

Nelson, T. J. (2022) “Érudition: Épigramme Grecque” in C. Urlacher-Becht (ed.) Dictionnaire de l'épigramme littéraire dans l'Antiquité grecque et romaine. Turnhout (Brepols) 592–594, 597–599.

Reviews

Nelson, T. J. (forthcoming) Review of G. P. Tsomis, Das hellenistische Gedicht Megara. Ein Kommentar (Stuttgart, 2022). Gnomon.

Nelson, T. J. (2021–2022) Review of E. T. Barker and J. P. Christensen, Homer's Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts (Cambridge MA, 2020). Classical Journal 117.2 (2021–2022) 232–234 [https://doi.org/10.1353/tcj.2021.0013].

Nelson, T. J. (2021) Review of M. S. Visscher, Beyond Alexandria: Literature and Empire in the Seleucid World (Oxford, 2020).  Classical Review 71.2 (2021) 336–338 [https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X2100086X].

Nelson, T. J. (2020) Review of J. Burgess et al. (eds) Yearbook of Ancient Greek Epic 3 (Leiden and Boston, 2019). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2020.03.32 [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.03.32].

Nelson, T. J. (2019) Review of R. Rawles, Simonides the Poet: Intertextuality and Reception (Cambridge and New York, 2018). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.02.46 [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2019/2019-02-46.html].

Nelson, T. J. (2018) Review of C. Tsagalis (ed.), Poetry in Fragments: Studies on the Hesiodic Corpus and its Afterlife (Berlin, 2017). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.07.33 [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018-07-33.html].

Nelson, T. J. (2018) Review of D. Sider (ed.), Hellenistic Poetry. A Selection (Ann Arbor, 2017). Classical Review 68.1 (2018) 287 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X1700186X].

Nelson, T. J. (2017) Review of P. Linant de Bellefonds et al. (eds), D’Alexandre à Auguste. Dynamiques de la création dans les arts visuels et la poésie (Rennes, 2015). Classical Review 67.1 (2017) 246–248 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X16002468].

Nelson, T. J. (2016) Review of S. A. Stephens, Callimachus: The Hymns (Oxford and New York, 2015). Mnemosyne 69.6 (2016) 1070–1073 [https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342221].

Nelson, T. J. (2016) Review of P. J. Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings. Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire (Cambridge MA and London, 2014). Classical Review 66.1 (2016) 180–182 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X15001663].