Willamette University

Classical Studies

Mary R. Bachvarova

Mary R. Bachvarova

Education

2002

  • Ph.D. with Honors, University of Chicago, "From Hittite to Homer: The Role of Anatolians in the Transmission of Epic and Prayer Motifs from the Near East to the Greeks," (Committee: Shadi Bartsch (head); Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.; Calvert Watkins (Harvard University); Christopher Faraone)

1997

  • M.A., University of Chicago, "The Treatment of hakāra in the Classificatory Systems of Sanskrit Grammarians"

1993-2002

  • Graduate Student in the Committee on the History of Culture, University of Chicago

1990-1992

  • Graduate Student-at-large, University of Chicago

1984-1990

  • A.B. in Classics: Greek and Latin, Magna cum Laude, Harvard University/Radcliffe College

1980-1984

  • Trinity School, New York City

Publications

Articles and Book Chapters

2012

  • "From "kingship in heaven" to king lists: Syro-Anatolian courts and the history of the world." Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 12: 97-118.

2010

  • "The manly deeds of Hattusili I: Hittite admonitory history and didactic epic," in Epic and History, eds. K. Raaflaub and D. Konstan. Waltham, Mass: Blackwell. 66-85.

2009

  • "Suppliant Danaids and Argive Nymphs in Aeschylus," in Classical Journal 104.4: 289-310.
  • "Hittite and Greek Perspectives on Travelling Poets, Texts and Festivals," in Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture: Travel, Locality and Panhellenism, eds. R. Hunter and I. C. Rutherford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 23-45.

2008

  • "The Poet's Point of View and the Prehistory of the Iliad," in Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbors: An International Conference on Cross-Cultural Interaction Held at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University (Sept. 17-19, 2004), eds. B. J. Collins, M. R. Bachvarova and I. C. Rutherford. Woodbridge, Conn.: Oxbow Press. 95-108.
  • "Sumerian Gala Priests and Eastern Mediterranean Returning Gods: Tragic Lament in Cross-Cultural Perspective," in Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Beyond, ed. A. Suter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 18-52.

2007

  • "Actions and Attitudes: Understanding Greek (and Latin) Verbal Paradigms." Classical World 100: 123-33.
  • "Oath and Allusion in Alcaeus fr. 129," in Horkos: The Oath in Greek Society, eds. A. H. Sommerstein and J. Fletcher, Exeter: Bristol Phoenix Press. 179-88, 258-64.
  • "Suffixaufnahme and Genitival Adjectives as an Anatolian Areal Feature in Hurrian, Tyrrhenian and Anatolian Languages," in Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Nov. 3-4 2006, eds. K. Jones-Bley, M. E. Huld, A. Della Volpe, and M. Robbins Dexter. Washington, D. C. Institute for the Study of Man. 169-89.

2006

  • “Divine Justice across the Mediterranean: Hittite Arkuwars and the Trial Scene in Aeschylus' Eumenides." Journal of Near Eastern Religions 6:123-53.

2005

  • "The Eastern Mediterranean Epic Tradition from Bilgames and Akka to the Song of Release to the Iliad." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 45: 131-53.
  • "Relations Between God and Man in the Hurro-Hittite 'Song of Release'." Journal of the American Oriental Society 125:1-13.

2004

  • "Topics in Lydian Verse: Accentuation and Syllabification." Journal of Indo-European Studies 32: 227-47.

2001

  • "Successful Birth, Unsuccessful Marriage: Using Near Eastern Birth Incantations to Interpret Aeschylus' Suppliants." NIN: Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity 2: 49-90.

1997

  • "The Literary Use of Dialects: Ancient Greek, Indic and Sumerian," in CLS 33: Papers from the Panels on Linguistic Ideologies in Contact, Universal Grammar, Parameters and Typology, The Perception of Speech and Other Acoustic Signals. eds. K. Singer, R. Eggert, G. Anderson. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. 7-22.

PDFs available upon request. Also, check my Academia.edu page!  Academia.edu/

Co-Edited Book

2008

  • Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and on Cross-Cultural Interaction Held at the Sept. 17-19, 2004), eds. B. J. Collins, M. Woodbridge, Conn.: Oxbow Press.

Forthcoming Book

  • From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Greek Epic, Cambridge University Press.
  • "The Transmission of Liver Divination from East to West," in Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 54
  • "Migrations in the Anatolian Epic Tradition," in the conference proceedings of "Nostoi: Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages," March 18, 2011, Koc University, Istanbul, edited by K. Kopanias, C.Maner, and N. Stampolidis (Kroc University Press)
  • Translations with introductory discussions of Hurro-Hittite narrative songs, and Hittite birth rituals for Women in the Ancient Near East, edited by M. Chavalas (Blackwell Press)

Teaching

Fall 2012

  • CLAS 260 (IT): Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greek Society
  • Greek 231: Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato, Apology; Lysias 1, Herodotus
  • Latin 231: Intermediate Latin I: Cicero and Livy

Spring 2012

  • Greek 232: Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer
  • Latin 232: Intermediate Latin II: Ovid and Lucretius
  • CLAS 250 (TH, Writing-Centered, No Seniors): Greeks, Romans and Barbarians

Fall 2011

Spring 2011

  • Greek 132: Beginning Ancient Greek II
  • CLAS 260 (IT): Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greek Society
  • Classics 496 (Writing-Centered): Senior Seminar (1 hour per week independent study)
  • Greek 390: Rapid Reading of Greek Prose Authors (3 hours per week)

Fall 2010

  • Greek 131: Beginning Ancient Greek I
  • Greek 231: Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Prose
  • Freshman Colloquium: The Journey to the Self: Narrative and the Hero
  • Classics 496 (Writing-Centered): Senior Seminar (1 hour per week independent study)
  • Greek 390: Independent Study (1 ½ hours per week)

Talks

  • "The Interaction between Oral and Written in Hittite Prayers," at "Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World X: Tradition, Transmission, and Adaptation," the University of Michigan, June 27-30, 2012
  • "Whether you are in India, Greece, Hattusa, Ugarit, or Nineveh...': The Supralocal Origins of Sapphic Invocations," at "Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome,"Santiago de Compostela, Spain, May 31, 2012
  • "The Origin of the Iliad: A Greco-Anatolian Enterprise Constructing a Shared Past," at "The East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface: Evidence and Implications, "Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU, April 13, 2012 (*Invited speaker)
  • "Troy as a Place of Remembrance: New Perspectives on the Material Culture of Iron Age Troy and the Origin of the Iliad" at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest, at Willamette University, March 10, 2012
  • "Pittei's Birth Ritual and the Cow-Maiden of the Moon-god: Bricolage and Borrowing," at the 222nd Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, Boston, March 16-19, 2012.
  • "Further parallels in Greco-Anatolian disappearing god rituals: The Hittite kurša hunting bag and the Dios Kōidion (Fleece of Zeus)," at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Nov. 21, 2011.
  • "Hurro-Hittite Narrative Song as a Bilingual Oral-Derived Genre," at the Eighth International Conference of Hittitology in Warsaw, Poland, September 5-9, 2011