We were pleased to welcome back Olga M. Davidson, Boston University, for a discussion on ‘Persian epic and the embedding of a song of lament’. The event took place on Thursday, September 19 at 11 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. You can watch the event on our YouTube channel, or in the frame below. In connection with this discussion, you might like to read her article “Women’s Lamentations and the… Read more
As previously published on Classical Inquiries, Gregory Nagy and Olga Davidson discuss, “Life of Homer” and “Life of Ferdowsi” in this video recording. The combined research of Nagy and Davidson on ancient “Life of Homer” and medieval “Life of Ferdowsi” narratives respectively has shown that the traditional “biographies” about these two poets, as transmitted by a vast variety of communities, can be studied as sources of historical information about the… Read more
Classical Inquiries has published a set of videos and texts featuring the work of Gregory Nagy and Olga M. Davidson on myths relating to the “Lives of Homer” and the “Life of Ferdowsi.” These papers and videos were originally part of an international conference held at Baku, 27–28 November 2015. Together, Nagy and Davidson argue that “the traditional ‘biographies’ about these two poets, as transmitted by a vast variety of communities, can… Read more
We were delighted to welcome Olga M. Davidson for an Open House discussion when she talked about why she began studying Homeric epic but went on to study the Shāhnāma of Ferdowsi and its poetic world. About her book Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings: Olga M. Davidson argues that….whenever the Shāhnāma was performed by the poet or by later practitioners of his poetry, the performer could… Read more