Elizabeth Minchin
BA DipEd (Syd) BA MA PhD (ANU) FAHA SFHEA
Professor of Classics
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
T:
61255106
Areas of expertise
- Latin And Classical Greek Literature 200510
- Language Studies 2003
- Latin And Classical Greek Languages 200305
- Literary Studies 2005
Research interests
My research focuses on the Homeric epics as oral poetry: the composition of the Homeric epics;
Homer and memory; Homer's narrative; the speech Homer attributes to his characters; the reception of the Homeric epics through time. As a member of the ARC-funded ANU-University of Melbourne 2010 Gallipoli Project I developed a strong research interest in social memory and the landscape of the Dardanelles region, which I am directing to new projects on myth and memory and landscape within that region, and their reception.
Biography
My first career after graduating from Sydney University was as a secondary school teacher of
languages ancient and modern. I subsequently completed an MA and PhD at the Australian
National University in Ancient Greek literature (my PhD thesis was a study of the role that
memory played in the composition of the Homeric epics) and joined the Classics staff in the
Classics Program (now the Centre for Classical Studies) at the ANU. Teaching the languages and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome--that is, helping students to appreciate why the literature of these ancient cultures continues to be so influential--is what drives me. I have also enjoyed teaching classes in social history. The awards I have won for the quality of my teaching reflect my commitment to doing this well.
Researcher's projects
1. Troy, landscape and memory
2. The legend of Hero and Leander on the Hellespont and its transmission through time
3. Heritage in the landscape: the so-called heroic tumuli in the Troad
4. 'Translation' and Transformation: Alice Oswald's Excavation of the Iliad
5. The Odyssey after the Iliad: ties that bind
6. Repetition in Homeric epics: cognitive and linguistic perspectives
7. Homer and the stewardship of memory
8. Theoretical approaches to the description of landscape
9. Speech acts in Homer
Current student projects
Aspects of hospitality in the Homeric epics (PhD)
echoes of Homeric Epics in Doctor Who
Past student projects
Many studies of the Homeric epics
The reception of the Homeric epics
Babrius and Aesopian fables
Tragic props and cognitive function (ancient drama)
Minoan iconography
The rose in Greek and Latin literature
Horace on ancient travel
Medicina domestica: medicina and power in the non-urban Roman household
The judgment of Paris in art and literature
The reception of the Homeric epics in contemporary literature (PhD)
Similes in the Odyssey (MPhil)
Publications
- Minchin, E 2021, 'Homer's Landscape of War: Spatial Mental Model and Cognitive Collage', in Bettina Reitz-Joosse, Marian W. Makins, C. J. Mackie (ed.), Landscapes of War in Greek and Roman Literature, Bloomsbury Academic, London, UK, pp. 25-37.
- Minchin, E 2021, 'The Creation of a Storyrealm: The Role of Repetition in Homeric Epic and Alice Oswald's Memorial', in Deborah Beck (ed.), Repetition, Communication, and Meaning in the Ancient World, Brill, Leiden; Boston, pp. 373-392.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Remembering and Forgetting', in Beate Dignas (ed.), A Cultural History of Memory in Antiquity, Bloomsbury Academic, London, UK, pp. 133-145.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Bridge Essay: Shifting Paradigms in Orality, Literacy, and Literature', in Ken Seigneurie (ed.), A Companion to World Literature, Wiley Blackwell, United Kingdom, pp. 239-244.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Book Review: Divine Spectators in Homer: Myers's (T.) Homer's Divine Audience. The Iliad's Reception on Mount Olympus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019', The Classical Review, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 14-16.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Reading Emotional Intelligence: Antilochus and Achilles in the Iliad', in Jonathan J. Price & Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz (ed.), Text and Intertext in Greek Epic and Drama, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Oxford, UK, pp. 52-64.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Visualizing the Shield of Achilles: Approaching its Landscapes via Cognitive Paths', The Classical Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 473-484.
- Minchin, E 2020, 'Carol Dougherty, Travel and home in Homer's Odyssey and contemporary literature (Review by Elizabeth Minchin)', Bryn Mawr Classical Review, vol. 9, no. 43.
- Minchin, E 2019, 'Homeric Religion: The Gods and the Poet', in John Barton (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Religion, Oxford University Press, online, pp. 1-29.
- Minchin, E 2019, 'Review: A Thousand Ships', Classicum, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 40-41.
- Minchin, E 2019, 'Odysseus, Emotional Intelligence, and the Plot of the Odyssey', Mnemosyne, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 351-368.
- Minchin, E 2019, 'The cognition of deception: Falsehoods in Homer's Odyssey and their audiences', in Peter Meineck, William Michael Short, Jennifer Devereaux (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Classics and Cognitive Theory, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 109-138.
- Minchin, E 2018, 'The Odyssey after the Iliad: Ties That Bind', in Robert Simms (ed.), Brill's Companion to Prequels, Sequels, and Retellings of Classical Epic, Brill, The Netherlands, pp. 9-30.
- Minchin, E 2018, 'The Battleground of Troy in the Mind's Eye: Homer's Landscape of War', Humanities Australia, vol. 9, pp. 48-56.
- Minchin, E 2017, 'Voice and Voices: Homer and the Stewardship of Memory', in Niall W Slater (ed.), Voice and Voices in Antiquity: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, vol 11, Brill, Leiden and Boston, pp. 11-30.
- Minchin, E & Jackson, H, eds, 2017, Text and the Material World: Essays in Honour of Graeme Clarke, Astrom Editions, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Minchin, E 2017, 'Mapping the Hellespont with Leander and Hero: "The Swimming Lover and the Nightly Bride"', in Greta Hawes (ed.), Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 65-82.
- Minchin, E 2016, 'Heritage in the Landscape: The 'Heroic Tumuli' in the Troad Region', in Jeremy McInerney and Ineke Sluiter (ed.), Valuing Landscape in Classical Antiquity: Natural Environment and Cultural Imagination, Koninklijke Brill, Leiden and Boston, pp. 255-275.
- Grieve, J & Minchin, E 2016, 'Andre Tchernia, The Romans and Trade, Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy, Oxford University Press, 2016, xiii, 379 pp (translated by James Grieve, with Elizabeth Minchin, from Les Romains et le commerce, Naples, 2011)'.
- Minchin, E 2016, 'Remembering Leander: The Long History of the Dardanelles Swim', Classical Receptions Journal 8.2 (2016), 276-293.
- Minchin, E 2016, 'Repetition in Homeric Epic: Cognitive and Linguistic Perspectives', in Mihailo Antovic and Christobal Pagan Canovas (ed.), Oral Poetics and Cognitive Science, Walter de Gruyter and Co., Berlin Germany, pp. 12-29.
- Minchin, E 2015, ''Translation' and Transformation: Alice Oswald's Excavation of the Iliad', Classical Receptions Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 202-222.
- Minchin, E 2014, 'Shedding New Light on the Ancient Mediterranean World: The ANU Classics Collection', TAASA Review: Journal of the Asian Art Society of Australia, vol. 23, no. 2, June 2014, pp. 20-21.
- Minchin, E 2014, 'Poet, Audience, Time, and Text: Reflections on Medium and Mode in Homer and Virgil', in Ruth Scodel (ed.), Between Orality and Literacy: Communication and Adaptation in Antiquity: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, Koninklijke Brill, Leiden and Boston, pp. 267-288.
- Minchin, E & Pomeroy, A, eds, 2014, Antichthon: Journal of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies, volume 48.
- Burton, P, Pomeroy, A, Minchin, E et al, eds, 2013, Culture, Identity and Politics in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Papers from a Conference in Honour of Erich Gruen.
- Minchin, E 2012, 'Commemoration and pilgrimage in the ancient world: Troy and the stratigraphy of cultural memory', Greece and Rome, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 76-89.
- Minchin, E 2012, 'Introduction [to Orality, Literacy and Performance in the Ancient World]', in Elizabeth Minchin (ed.), Orality, Literacy and Performance in the Ancient World, Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Minchin, E, ed., 2012, Orality, Literacy and Performance in the Ancient World, Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Minchin, E 2012, 'Memory and Memories: Personal, Social, and Cultural Memory in the Poems of Homer', in Franco Montanari, Antonios Rengakos, Christos Tsagalis (eds), Homeric Contexts Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany and Boston, USA, pp. 83-99.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Ring Composition', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 751pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Nestor', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 571-572pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, ''Themes' and 'Mental Moulds': Roger Schank, Malcolm Willcock and the Creation of Character in Homer', The Classical Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 323-343.
- Minchin, E & Davis, P, eds, 2011, Antichthon.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Speech-Act Theory', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 817-818pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Arming-Scenes', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 97pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Catalogues', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 155-156pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Memory', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 505-506pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Speech Introductions', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 818-819pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'Andromache', in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), The Homer Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex, UK, pp. 53-54pp.
- Minchin, E 2011, 'The Words of Gods: Divine Discourse in Homer's Iliad', in APMH Lardinois, JH Blok & MGM Van Der Poel (ed.), Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion, Koninklijke Brill, The Netherlands, pp. 17-35.
- Minchin, E 2010, 'From gentle teasing to heavy sarcasm: Instances of rhetorical irony in Homer's Iliad', Hermes: Zeitschrift fuer klassische Philologie, vol. 138, no. 4, pp. 387-402.
- Minchin, E & Davis, P, eds, 2010, Antichthon.
- Minchin, E 2010, 'The expression of sarcasm in the Odyssey', Mnemosyne, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 533-556.
- Minchin, E & Davis, P, eds, 2008, Antichthon.
- Minchin, E 2009, 'Communication without words: Body Language, 'Pictureability' and Memorability in the Iliad', Ordia Prima, vol. 7 (2008), no. 2009, pp. 17-38.
- Minchin, E 2008, 'Can one ever forget? Homer on the persistence of painful memories', Scholia, vol. 15, pp. 2-16.
- Minchin, E 2008, 'Spatial Memory and the Composition of the Iliad', in E Anne Mackay (ed.), Orality, Literacy, Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman World, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 9-34.
- Minchin, E 2007, 'Men's Talk and Women's Talk in Homer: Rebukes and Protests', Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 19/20, pp. 213-224.
- Minchin, E 2007, Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory, Gender, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
- Minchin, E 2007, 'The Language of Heroes and the Language of Heroines: storytelling in oral traditional epic', in Craig Cooper (ed.), Politics of Orality, Koninklijke Brill, Netherlands, pp. 3-38.
- Minchin, E 2005, 'Homer on autobiographical memory: the case of Nestor', in Robert J. Rabel (ed.), Approaches to Homer: Ancient and Modern, Classical Press of Wales, Swansea, UK, pp. 55-72.
- Minchin, E 2004, 'Rhythm and regularity in Homeric composition', in C J Mackie (ed.), Oral Performance and Its Context, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, pp. 21-48.
- Minchin, E 2002, 'Verbal Behaviour in its Social Context: Three Question Strategies in Homer's Odyssey', The Classical Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 15-32.
- Minchin, E 2002, 'Speech Acts in the Everyday World and in Homer: The Rebuke as a Case Study', in Ian Worthington and John Miles Foley (ed.), Epea and Grammata: Oral and Written Communication in Ancient Greece, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, pp. 71-97.
- Minchin, E 2001, 'Homere', European Legacy, The, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 679-680.
- Minchin, E 2001, 'Similes in Homer: Image, Minds Eye, and Memory', in Watson, Janet (ed.), Speaking Volumes: Orality and Literacy in the Greek and Roman World, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden.Boston.Koln, pp. 25-52.
- Minchin, E 2001, Homer and the Resources of Memory: Some Applications of Cognitive Theory to the Iliad and the Odyssey, Oxford University Press, New York USA.
- Minchin, E 2001, 'How Homeric is Hysteron Proteron?', Mnemosyne, vol. 54, pp. 635-645.
- Minchin, E 2001, 'On Declining an Invitation in Homer and in Everyday Talk: Context, Form and Function', Antichthon, vol. 35, pp. 1-19.
- Minchin, E 1999, 'Homer and the Art of Storytelling', Omnibus, no. January, pp. 1-3.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- The silent wilderness speaks: the long history of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles (Secondary Investigator)
