Chrysanthos S. Chrysanthou
Principal Investigator
SHORT PROFILE
Chrysanthos S. Chrysanthou is Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Cyprus. He studied Classics at the University of Athens (2007-2011; Class Valedictorian with final average mark 9.67/10). He completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford with Distinction (2012) and his Doctorate of Philosophy with no corrections at the same University (2016). His DPhil thesis was on “Narrative, Interpretation, and Moral Judgement in Plutarch’s Lives”. During his studies, he received scholarships and grants from the Onassis Foundation, the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece, the State Scholarship Foundations of Cyprus, and the DAAD.
He is the author of three monographs and numerous articles and chapters on ancient Greek historiography and biography, narratology, and cognitive classics. He was the principal investigator of a research project on “Social Minds in the Ancient Greek Novel and Imperial Greek Historiography” funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) at the University of Heidelberg (2019–2022). He is also the founder and PI of the international research network “Fictional and Factual Narratives in Antiquity” funded by the Excellence Strategy of the University of Heidelberg (2019–). In 2023, he was awarded research funding of 1,49 million euros from the European Research Council (Starting Grants) for his project “Group Minds in Ancient Narrative”. In April 2024, he has unanimously been elected member of the Young Academy of Europe (https://yacadeuro.org/).
PUBLICATIONS
- MONOGRAPHS
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives: Narrative Technique and Moral Judgement (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston: 2018).
Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2022).
Septimius Severus and Herodian: A Literary Commentary on Books 2.9.2–3.15.8 of Herodian’s History of the Empire after Marcus (C. H. Beck, Munich: 2024).
- EDITED VOLUMES
Generic Enrichment in Plutarch’s Lives (Routledge, London: 2024). Co-edited with Prof. Timothy Duff, University of Reading.
- ARTICLES IN JOURNALS
“Zur Terminologie des Sterbens. Ausdrucksweisen über Tod und Sterben in den griechischen dokumentarischen Papyri”, Tyche 25 (2010) 1–21 (with Prof. A. Papathomas).
“P. OXY. LXXI 4808: Bios, Character, and Literary Criticism”, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 193 (2015) 25–38.
“5280. Themistius VI 71d–72a, 72d–73a”, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri LXXXI (2016) 94–97.
“The Proems of Plutarch’s Lives and Historiography”, Histos 11 (2017) 128–153.
“Plutarch’s Rhetoric of Periautologia: Demosthenes 1–3”, The Classical Journal 113.3 (2018) 281–301.
“Orator-politician vs. Philosopher: Plutarch’s Demosthenes 1–3 and Plato’s Theaetetus”, Classical World 112.2 (2019) 39–55.
“Laughter in Plutarch’s Lives”, Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 61.1 (2019) 43–56.
“Reading History Ethically: Plutarch on Alexander’s Murder of Cleitus (Alex. 50-52.2)”, Ploutarchos: Scholarly Journal of the International Plutarch Society 16 (2019) 45–56.
“Plutarch and the Malicious Historian”, Illinois Classical Studies 45.1 (2020) 49–79.
“Herodian and Cassius Dio: A Study of Herodian’s Compositional Devices”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 60.4 (2020) 621–651.
“Sex and Power in Cassius Dio’s Roman History: The Case of Elagabalus”, Mnemosyne 74 (2021) 598–625.
“Herodian’s Septimius Severus: Literary Portrait and Historiography”, Classica et Mediaevalia 70 (2022) 149–178.
“Plutarch on Cato the Younger and the Annexation of Cyprus”, L’Antiquité Classique 91 (2022) 27–45.
“Kaiserliche Erscheinungsbilder in Herodians Geschichte des Kaisertums nach Marc Aurel: Die Kaiser Commodus und Caracalla”, Gymnasium 129 (2022) 45–74.
“Φήμη in Herodian’s Roman History”, Philologus 167.2 (2023) 191–213.
“Group Minds in Ancient Narrative: Herodian’s History of the Roman Empire as a Case Study”, Mnemosyne.
“Group Minds in the Ancient Greek Historiography and the Ancient Greek Novel: Herodian’s History and Chariton’s Callirhoe”, Classical Quarterly.
- CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES
“Generic and Intertextual Enrichment: Plutarch’s Alexander 30”, in R. Hirsch-Luipold, M. Vamvouri & T. Schmidt (eds.) (2020), The Dynamics of Intertextuality in Plutarch (Leiden/Boston: Brill) 330– 340.
“Dreams and Moral Reflection in Plutarch’s Lives”, in G. Karla & al. (eds.) (2020), Ἤματα πάντα (Athens: Kardamitsa) 399–408.
“Digressions in Herodian’s History of the Empire”, in M. Baumann & V. Liotsakis (eds.), Digressions in Classical Historiography (Berlin & Boston) (2024), 271–305.
“A Compiled Compilation: The Epitome of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae”, in C. Mallan & T. Kampianaki (eds.), A Companion to Byzantine Epitome (Leiden) (accepted ~ 10.409 words).
“News and Messages in Herodian’s History of the Roman Empire” (submitted ~ 8.382 words).
- REVIEWS
Xenophontos, S. (2016), Ethical Education in Plutarch. The Classical Review 67.2 (2017) 370–372.
De Temmerman, K. – Demoen, K. (eds.) (2016), Writing Biography in Greece and Rome. Histos 11 (2017) cxi–cxx.
ERC PROJECT
Group Minds in Ancient Greek Narrative
I am writting a book-length, cross-generic study of the representation and functioning of group minds in ancient Greek narrative, including case studies from Homeric epic, oratory and philosophy, historiography, biography, and the novel. For my methodology and specific objectives, see my description in the section “The Project”.
