Jake Sawyer

Jake Sawyer
PhD Candidate

My research interests focus on what I often call “late” Greek literature, ranging from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine periods. More specifically, I find myself constantly returning to texts at the crossroads of multiple cultures, be it the Egyptian context of Hellenistic poetry, Greek poetry composed by Roman emperors, or even classical reception in the 20th century. My dissertation focuses on the 5th century CE epic poet, Nonnus of Panopolis, and the intersection of Christian literature and intertextually in his works. I argue that even in an epic poem about Dionysus, Christian modes of reading classical texts influence the poem’s systems of reference and seek to train the potential reader’s own hermeneutics. In addition, I bring in interdisciplinary methodologies from the study of visual art and gesture in an attempt to expand the study of intertextuality in our field more broadly.

Past the dissertation, I have two projects in the works. The first focuses on the Symposium of Methodius of Olympia, an early 4th century bishop who wrote a “Christianized” version of Plato’s Symposium wherein ten women discuss the virtues of chastity rather than desire. Following my research on intertextuality in Late Antiquity, I suggest that Methodius’ use of Plato is more complex than previously given credit. The second concerns the groundbreaking 1981 album, Deceit, from British post-punk band, This Heat. Recorded in an abandoned industrial refrigerator, the album reflects the anxieties of an imminent nuclear apocalypse and the complicities of imperialism. In songs like “S.P.Q.R.” the band connects Latin education to the propagation of imperial projects, linking modern London to ancient Rome. 

Forthcoming Publications:
Sawyer, J. forthcoming. “Christian and Classical Intertext as Hybridity in Nonnus of Panopolis’ Twin Epics.” Reading through the Lines: Variations and Functions of Intertextuality in Byzantine Literature. In the series: Routledge Research in Byzantine Studies.