The very name of the discipline of Classics evokes a fixed canon of works recognised and admired down the centuries for their unrivalled quality and significance. Yet one of the most important modern developments in that discipline, especially in the field of Greek literature, has been the discovery and publication of countless fragmentary ancient manuscripts containing fascinating new texts of epic and lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, novels, and more besides, greatly increasing the material available for scholars to study, and opening up all kinds of new perspectives on familiar texts too. What impact have these discoveries had on Classics as a discipline, and on our idea of what constitutes a classic work? What skills do classicists need in order to deal with a supposedly fixed corpus of texts which is in fact constantly changing? And how can these new discoveries be communicated to the wider audiences that their quality and significance deserve?

The lecture will begin at 6pm on Tuesday 16th October in the Wills Memorial Building; all are welcome, and no knowledge of Greek is required! It will be followed by a reception to which everyone is invited. Places are free but please register using the link above.

Born and educated in Birmingham, Patrick Finglass took his BA and DPhil at the University of Oxford, where he taught at several colleges before being appointed in 2006 to a lectureship at the University of Nottingham. He was subsequently promoted there to Professor of Greek and served as Head of the School of Humanities and of the Department of Classics. In 2017 he was appointed Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek and Head of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Bristol, in succession to Professor Robert Fowler FBA; he has also recently taken up the role of Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. His research, which has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust, engages chiefly with the interpretation and editing of ancient Greek tragedy and lyric poetry, especially Sophocles. His edition of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King was published this year by Cambridge University Press; forthcoming books include The Cambridge Companion to Sappho (co-edited with Adrian Kelly), Fragmented Women: The Female Characters of Fragmentary Greek Tragedy (co-edited with Lyndsay Coo), and Sophocles (a monograph in the series ‘Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics').