Andrew L. Ford

Professor of Classics
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544

aford@princeton.edu (609-258-3951)

Research Interests

Greek literature; Literary history; Ancient literary criticism

Degrees 

Ph.D. Yale University, 1981
B.A., with distinction, Cornell University, 1974

Dissertation:

Early Greek Words for Poetry: aoidê, epos, poiêsis.
Dir. Prof. Heinrich Von Staden, Institute for Advanced Study

Academic Positions
Princeton University: Asst. Prof. /Assoc. Prof./Prof. 1987-present
École des Hautes Études en sciences sociales, Centre Louis Gernet Paris: Professeur invité: Jan. 2003.
Cornell University: Mellon Postdoc. Fellow 1984-86
Smith College: Instructor/Asst. Prof. 1980-84 

Books:

Aristotle as Poet: The song for Hermias and its contexts. Forthcoming from Oxford University Press, Summer 2010.

Homer: The Poetry of the Past

Cornell University Press, 1992

Named an "Outstanding Academic Book" for 1993 by Choice

Paperback edition, 1994

Read a selection here

The Origins of Criticism: Literary Culture and Poetic Theory in Classical Greece

Princeton University Press, 2002.     

Named an "Outstanding Academic Book" for 2003 by Choice

Paperback Edition, 2004

Read a selection here.

Essays, Articles and Chapters in Books:

For working papers, see the Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics.

• "The Seal of Theognis: The Politics of Authorship in Archaic Greece." Pp. 82-95 in Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis, edd. T.J. Figueira and G. Nagy. Johns Hopkins, 1985.
• "The Classical Definition of rhapsôdia." Classical Philology 83 (1988) pp. 300-307.
• "Unity and Greek Poetics." Arion, 3rd Series 1 (1991) pp. 125-154.
• "The Price of Art in Isocrates: Formalism and the Escape from Politics." Pp. 31-52 in Rethinking the History of Rhetoric: Multidisciplinary Essays on the Rhetorical Tradition, ed. T. Poulakos. Westview Press, 1993.
• "Platonic Insults: 'Sophistic.'" Common Knowledge 1.5 (1993) 33-47.
• "L'inventeur de la poésie lyrique: Archiloque le colon," Métis. Revue de l'anthropologie grecque vol. 8.1-2 (1993) 59-73.
• "Protagoras' Head: Interpreting Philosophic Fragments in Theatetus." American Journal of Philology 115.2 (1994) 199-218. Winner of the Gildersleeve Prize for best article in American Journal of Philology Vol. 115.
• "Katharsis: The Ancient Problem." Pp. 108-132 in Performativity and Performance, Papers from the English Institute, edd. A. Parker and E. Kosofsky Sedgwick. Routledge: 1995.
• "Classical Aesthetics." Article for The Encyclopaedia of Classical Philosophy, ed. Donald J. Zeyl (Greenwood, 1997), 8-16.
• "Critias." Article for The Encyclopaedia of Classical Philosophy, ed. Donald J. Zeyl (Greenwood, 1997), 156-7.
• "Epic as Genre." Pp. 398-416 in A New Companion to Homer, edd. B. Powell and I. Morris. Brill: 1997.
• "The Inland Ship: Problems in the Performance and Reception of Early Greek Epic." Pp. 83-109, 243-44 in in Written Voices, Spoken Signs: Tradition, Performance, and the Epic Text, edd. E. Bakker and A. Kahane (Harvard University Press, 1997).
• "Epic and the Earliest Greek Allegorists." Pp. 33-53 in Epics and the Contemporary World, edd. M. Beissinger, J. Tylus and S. Wofford. Berkeley and London: Univ. of California Press: 1999.
• "Reading Homer from the Rostrum: Poetry and Law in Aeschines, In Timarchus." Pp. 281-313 in Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy, edd. S. Goldhill and R. Osborne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1999.
• "Odysseus after Dinner: Od. 9.2-11 and the Traditions of Sympotic Song." Pp. 109-123 in Euphrosune: Studies in Ancient Epic and its Legacy in Honor of Dimitrios Marinatos, ed. A. Rengakos and J. Kazazis. Franz Steiner: 1999.
• "Sophists Without Rhetoric: The Arts of Speech in Fifth-century Athens." Pp. 85-109 in Brill's Companion to Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, ed. Yun Lee Too. Brill, 2001.
• "From Letters to Literature: Reading the 'Song Culture' of Classical Greece." Pp. 15-37 in Written Text and the Rise of Literate Culture Ancient Greece, ed. H. Yunis. Cambridge, 2003.
• "Catharsis: the power of music in Aristotle's Politics," pp. 309-36 in Music and the Muses: song, dance and word in classical Athenian culture, Peter Wilson and P. Murray eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
• “The Iliad and the Anger of Achilles.” Introduction to The Iliad, tr. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. Pp. xi-xxxviii.
• “The Genre of Genres: Paeans and Paian in Early Greek Poetry.” Poetica 38/3-4 (2006) pp. 277-296.
• “The beginnings of dialogue: Socratic discourses and fourth-century prose,” in The End of Dialogue, ed. Simon Goldhill. Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 29-44.
• Review article: Oxford Readings in Ancient Literary Criticism, Andrew Laird (Ed.). Hermathena 184 (Summer, 2008), pp. 115-20

• “Performance, Text and the History of Criticism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies, ed. George Boys-Stones. Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 628-638.

Forthcoming: 

• “Plato’s Two Hesiod’s”. In Plato and Hesiod, ed. J. Haubold and G. Boys-Stones. Oxford 2010, pp. 133-54
• “Aristotle on Σωκρατικο? λ?γοι and Fourth-century Theories of Genre.” Classical Philology 2010.
•  “The Poetics of Dithyramb.” in Dithyramb and its Contexts. ed.  Barbara Kowalzig and Peter Wilson. Oxford University Press, 2010.

• “Dionysus’ Many Names in Aristophanes’ Frogs,” in A Different God? Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, edited by Renate Schlesier, in cooperation with Oliver Leege and Roberto Sanchiño Martínez. De Gruyter. Announced: Spring/summer 2010
• “’A Song to Match my Song’: Lyric Doubling in Euripides’ Helen.”

Reviews

• R. Janko, Aristotle on Comedy, Classical World 79 (1986) p. 426.
• S. Halliwell, Aristotle's Poetics, Classical World 82.2 (1988) pp. 145-146.
• G. Else, Plato and Aristotle on Poetry, Classical World 82.6 (1989) pp. 460-461.
• E.A. Havelock, The Muse Learns to Write. Echos du Monde Classique N.S. 8 (1989) pp. 366-367.
• T. Saunders, ed. and trans., Early Socratic Dialogues, Classical World 83.6 (1990) pp. 534-535.
• D.A. Campbell, ed. and trans., Greek Lyric II. American Journal of Philology 112 (1991) pp. 269-270.
• A.T. Cole, The Origins of Rhetoric, Classical World 87.3 (1992) pp. 246-247.
• L. Slatkin, The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the "Iliad", Classical Philology 88 (1994) pp. 73-78.
• J. Svenbro, Phrasikleia. An Anthropology of Reading in Archaic Greece, Classical Philology 94 (1994) pp. 367-72.
• M. Davis, Aristotle's Poetics: The Poetry of Philosophy and L. Golden, Aristotle on Tragic and Comic Mimesis. Classical World 88.2 (1994) 139-140.
• Kevin Robb, Literacy and Paideia in Ancient Greece and Alan K. Bowman and Greg Woolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World. Classical Journal 91 (1996) pp. 337-344.
• Erwin F. Cook, The Odyssey in Athens: myths of cultural origins. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 96.4.25. HardcopyVersion: Vol. 7.4 (1996) pp. 299-305.
• Frank Beetham, Beginning Greek with Homer. An Elementary Course based on Odyssey V. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 97.4.2.
• Andrew Sprague Becker, The shield of Achilles and the poetics of ekphrasis. Journal of Hellenic Studies (1997) p. 215.
• Richard Kraut, Aristotle "Politics" Books VII and VIII. (Oxford: 1997). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 99.6.17.
• Yun Lee Too, The Idea of Criticism. Classical World.95 (2002) pp. 470-72.
• Stefan Büttner, Die Literaturtheorie bei Platon und ihre anthropologische Begründung. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.05.35 .
• Øivind Andersen and Jon Haarberg, eds. Making Sense of Aristotle: Essays in Poetics. London: Duckworth, 2001. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.12.20 . 
• Barbara Graziosi, Inventing Homer. Cambridge, 2003. The Journal of Hellenic Studies vol. 123 (2003) p. 10.
• Stephen Halliwell, The Aesthetics of Mimesis: Ancient Texts and Modern Problems. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. in BMCR 2003-07-27.
• Ruby Blondell, The Play of Character in Plato’s Dialogues and Grace M. Ledbetter, Poetics Before Plato, Comparative Literature 57 (2005) pp. 181-185. 
• David Bouvier, Le sceptre et la lyre. L'Iliade ou les héros de la mémoire.  Grenoble:  Éditions Jérôme Millon, 2002. Phoenix 59 (2005) 150-152.
• Robert Fowler, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Homer, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 126 (2006) pp. 148-49.

• Rev. of Deborah Levine Gera, Ancient Greek Ideas on Speech, Language and Civilization. Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2003 in BMCR2006.

• Review of Ilaria Ramelli (ed. and trans.), Setti sapienti: vite e opinioni nell’edizione di Bruno Snell Milano: Bompiani, 2005, in BMCR 2006.

• Review of M. Vöhler and B. Seidensticker, eds., Katharsiskonzeptionen vor Aristoteles. Journal of Hellenic Studies vol. 129 (2009), pp. 148-9.

Awards and Fellowships

The Arts and Humanities Foundation: 2004 Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in Humanities. For criticism: "The Iliad and the Anger of Achilles." Introduction to The Iliad, tr. R. Fitzgerald.
Gildersleeve Prize Panel, American Journal of Philology. 2003-6.
Choice award for an "Outstanding Academic Book" of 2003 for The Origins of Criticism.
Gildersleeve Prize, 1995: from the Johns Hopkins University Press for the best article of the year in the American Journal of Philology: "Protagoras' Head."
Choice award for an "Outstanding Academic Book" of 1993 for Homer: The poetry of the past.
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, 1993-1994.
Junior Fellow, The Center for Hellenic Studies, 1989-1990.
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University, 1984-1986.
NEH Summer Seminar, Harvard University, dir. G. Nagy, 1981.

Papers Delivered/Invited Lectures (and forthcoming)
 

• "Reading Archaic Greek Lyric." Boston College. Nov. 17, 1981.

• "EPOS and the Naming of the Hexameter." American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 28, 1981. San Francisco, CA.

• "Tragedy and Tyranny." Symposium on Religion, Ritual and Theater in Honor of Victor Turner. Nov. 10, 1981.
• "The Eyesight of Herodotus." Commentary at an NEH Symposium on Truth and Reality in Classical Antiquity. Brown University. Nov. 4, 1983.
• "Chaeremon's 'mixed rhapsody': Poetics 1447b32." American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 27, 1983. Cincinnati, OH.
• "Homer's Muses and the Unity of Epic." Symposium in Honor of George E. Dimock. Nov. 15, 1985. Smith College.
• "The Nameless Art in Plato and Aristotle." American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Panel on Aristotelian Literary Theory and Criticism. Dec. 30, 1984. Toronto, Canada.
• "Simonides on Poetry and the Plastic Arts," March, 1989. Lehigh University.
• "Poetic Contests in the Odyssey." April 1989. Brown University.
• "The Poetics of the Odyssey." March 1990. University of Virginia.
• "The Poetry of the Past: The Homeric and Hesiodic Definition of Epic." Oct. 1990. Cornell University.
• "Isocrates on Writing and the Plastic Arts." Dec. 28, 1990. San Francisco, CA.
• "Poetry and Immortality in Homer." Classical Humanities Society of South Jersey. Pomona, NJ., March 23, 1991.
• "The Demand for Organic Unity in the Pharedrus." President's Panel: Central States Communication Association. Chicago, April 13, 1991.
• "Literary and Art Criticism in Classical Greece." Haverford College, Sept. 19, 1991.
• "Aristotle's Poetics and Fifth-Century Greek Criticism." Cornell University, November 8, 1991.
• "Poetry and the Plastic Arts." Columbia University Seminars in Classics, Dec. 18, 1991.
• "A Panegyris at Phaeacia." American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 28, 1991, Chicago, Il.
• "Greek Lyric Poetry in the Seventh Century." Symposium on the Seventh Century in honor of Anthony Snodgrass. Princeton University, April 25, 1992.
• "The Origins of Literary Criticism in Classical Greece." Swarthmore College, Dec. 2, 1992.
• Commentary on a Panel on Performance and Ritual Context in Early Greek Poetry. American Philological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Dec 28, 1992.
• "Orality and Literacy and the Greeks." Smith College, Feb. 10, 1993.
• "Simonides on Poetry and Painting." Wesleyan University. March 25, 1993.
• "Archiloque et la poésie de colonisation." Centre de Recherche philologique, University of Lille. May 13, 1993.
• "Catharsis: The Ancient Problem." The English Institute, Cambridge, Mass. August, 28, 1993.
• "Mortals and Immortals in the Iliad." Smith College General Literature Program, Sept. 15, 1993.
• "The Rise of Greek Lyric Reconsidered." Smith College Classical Symposia. Northampton, MA. Oct. 15, 1993.
• "The Poetics and Deconstruction." Cornell University. Oct. 29, 1993.
• "Quotation as Segmentation: The Uses of Homer in the Fifth Century." Conference on 'The Text Divided: The Poetics and Politics of Segmentation." Princeton University, March 26, 1994.
• "Epic and the Earliest Greek Allegorists." Conference on Epics and the Contemporary World. University of Wisconsin at Madison, April 23, 1994.
• "Epic Performance in the Archaic Period." Conference on The Epic Word in Action: Tradition, Performance, and Mouvance; The Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. June 23, 1994.
• "The Divine Machinery in Homer," Lehigh University, Oct. 23, 1995.
• "Reading Homer from the Rostrum: Poetic Quotations in Aeschines In Timarchus." Seminar on 'Performance Culture' at King's College, Cambridge, July 16-19 1996.
• "Aristotle and 'The Tragic.'" Cornell University. Nov. 4, 1996.
• "The Last Line of the Odyssey." Wesleyan University. Nov. 7, 1996.
• "The Uses of Criticism: Four Classical Critics in Contexts." April 17, 1997. Grellet and Dorothy Simpson Lecture. Mary Washington Collge.
• "Athena in the Odyssey." Princeton Unitarian Church. May 27, 1997.
• "Greek humnos as a generic term." CorHaLi (Cornell-Harvard-Lille Colloquia on Archaic Greek Poetry). June 7, 1997. Princeton, NJ.
• "Homer's Iliad." General Literature Lecture, Smith College, Sept. 17, 1997.
• "Poetry and Ideology Plato's Republic." Program in the Ancient World Seminar, Princeton University, Oct. 14, 1997.
• "Censorship and the Poetics." Cornell University. Nov. 19, 1997.
• Why Literary "Critics"? Poetic Contests and Critical Authority in Ancient Greece." Dartmouth College, May 5, 1998.
• "La Performance de l'épinicie et la gloire épique dans Bacchylides 13." CorHaLi (Cornell-Harvard-Lille Colloquia on Archaic Greek Poetry): Lille, May 28, 1998.
• "Xenophanes and the Representation of Divinity." Sept. 23, 1989, Seminar on Initiation to Greek Culture, Cornell University.
• ""Literacy and the 'Song Culture' of Classical Greece" Keynote Introduction.  Written Texts and the Transformation of Classical Thought, a Conference. dir. H. Yunis. Houston, Texas: April 14, 2000.
• "Orphée comme chanteur(aoidos)." Conference on "La figure d'Orphée et les poèmes orphiques": CORHALI, dir. C. Calame. Lausanne, May 25 2000.
• "Homer's Iliad." Literature Humanities Program. Columbia University. Sept. 11, 2000
• "From Letters to Literature: Reading the 'Song Culture' of Classical Greece." New York University, Nov. 14, 2001
• "Early Homer Reception." Bristol, May 1, 2002.
• "A new Look at Gorgias." Classics and Ancient History Seminar. University of Bristol. 4/30/02.
• "Early Reception of Homer: the divine poet." Keynote address: Center for the Classical Tradition Colloquium, Conference on Homer and his reception: University of Bristol. 5/1/02.
• "Being There: epic and drama in the lyrics of Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis." Corhalie 2002. Princeton Univ. June 8, 2002.
• "The Role of Writing in the development of Greek Criticism." History of material texts, University of Pennsylvania. Sept. 30, 2002.
• "Hérodote: amateur et historien de la poésie." Centre Glotz, Sorbonne (Paris I). Jan. 14, 2003.
• "(P)sophia: les enjeux de la poésie chez les sophists." École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.Jan. 15, 2003. Seminaire de C. Calame, Centre Louis Gernet.
• "Comment faire l'histoire de la critique et pourquoi?" ÉHESS. Jan. 20, 2003. Centre Gernet
• "Entendre ou lire: la culture litteraire a l'epoque classique." ÉHESS. Jan. 29, 2003. Seminaire de F. Lissarague, Centre Gernet
• “La tragédie d’Aristophane: la comédie dans les Grenouilles.” Iniversité de Lille III. June 13, 2003.
• “Herodotus: Amateur and Historian of Poetry.” Univ. of Cal. Berkeley: Sept. 23, 2003.
• “Kairos and the Problems of Philoctetes.” Lehigh University. Oct. 31, 2003.
• "Critics, criticism and choruses in Aristophanes' Frogs." Swarthmore College: April 8, 2003.
• “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (ca. 430 BC): Reflections on Plato’s Protagoras.” The 2004 Roger Hornsby Lecture at the University of Iowa. March 10, 2004.
• “Aristotle’s Hymn to Virtue: Genre-crossing as a capital offense.” The Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. May 18, 2005.
• “The Function of Criticism in 432: Texts and Interpretations in Plato’s Protagoras.” Combined Rhetoric and Poetics/Poetry and Poetics Workshop. The University of Chicago. May 19, 2005.

• “The logoi in Sôkratikoi logoi: Dialogue in Fourth-century Genre Theory.” King’s College, Cambridge. March 23, 2006.

• “Formula and imprecation. Workshop on Ritual and Literature, with L. Muellner and G. Nagy. Harvard University. April 14, 2006, Cambridge MA.

• “Aristotle’s evidence for Socratic dialogue.” Columbia University Seminars. April 20, 2006.

• “The Genres and Occasions of Aristotle’s skolion/paean/hymn/hybrid for Hermias.” American Philological Association. Chicago. Jan. 5, 2008
•  “Pindare ou la répétition: une lecture de la quartorzième Olympique.” Colloque “Sur la philologie” En hommage à Jean Bollack, October 23, 2008.
• “Aristote En Proces: Le poème pour Hermias et ses contextes.” École Normale Supérieure, Nov. 2008.
• “Homer’s Iliad and the Western Tradition.” Trinity College. Sept. 9, 2009.            
•  “Dionysus’ Many Names and Aristophanes’ Frogs.” Tagung „Ein differenter Gott? Dionysos im Kontext des antiken Polytheismus: March 27, 2009. Berlin, Pergamonmuseum.
• “Aristotle as Poet: The Song for Hermias and its Trials.” Smith College, Oct. 1, 2009.
  
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