Classical Studies PhD Student
He/Him
Griffin is a sixth year graduate student currently writing his dissertation on forms of predictability in Homer, aimed especially at the aesthetic role of epithets. With an instinct for interdisciplinary work, his study connects research from neuroscience, and speech and music perception, which together point to how an audience responds to patterns in Homer’s performance. He has taught multiple levels of Latin at BU, and designed his own course materials for third-semester students, focusing the transmission of Stoic doctrine with readings from Cicero’s philosophical works. He also has experience tutoring high school Latin students. As TF, he has led weekly discussion sections for World of Greece (CL101) multiple times, as well as Roman History (CL302) and, for the religion department, Death and Immortality (RN106). He has presented papers on the archaeology of the Athenian Pnyx, rhetorical and poetic periodicity, and the effect of epithets’ predictability on Homer’s audience. Otherwise, he enjoys reading poetry and the art of translation, the outdoors, and listening to Red Sox games on the radio.
Recent Papers:
- “Hector’s Epithet koruthaiolos, Its Contextual Field, and Translation”, Society of
Classical Studies, New Orleans, LA, January 2023 - “Interpreting The Flood of Horace Odes 1.2: Topography of the Etruscan Shore”,
Classical Association of New England, (on Zoom), March 2022 - “Physical Ideals and Disability in Ancient Greece”, Boston University Classics Day,
Boston, MA, December 2021 - “Landscape Engineering in Athens: Slope Reversal on the Pnyx” – University of Colorado Boulder Graduate Conference, January 31-February 1, 2020 (Boulder, CO)
- “Interpreting the Flood of Horace Odes 1.2: Topography of the Etruscan Shore” – Classical Association of New England, April 8-9, 2022 (on Zoom)