Athanassios Vergados is Professor of Greek at Newcastle University. He studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (BA) and at the University of Virginia (MA, PhD), and has held teaching and research positions in the US and Germany (Heidelberg).

The main focus of Vergados’ research is on ancient Greek poetry, especially hymnic and didactic. His publications include A Commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (De Gruyter 2013), Hesiod’s Verbal Craft: Studies in Hesiod’s Conception of Language and its Ancient Reception (OUP 2020), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on various topics in Greek literature from the Archaic to the Imperial Age. He has co-edited four volumes, most recently Teaching through Images: Imagery in Greek and Roman Didactic Poetry (with Jenny Strauss Clay, Brill 2021).

Ongoing work includes a co-authored commentary on Hesiod’s Theogony (for Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics), a Companion to Greek and Roman Didactic poetry (for Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies), and the edition of a number of documentary papyri from the Columbia University collection (in collaboration with Amphilochios Papathomas).

A thread connecting a great part of his research activity over the past years is ancient reflection on language, particularly etymologizing and related phenomena across literary genres. To this cluster of interests belongs his research project at the HIAS.

“‘True Stories’: Etymology in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautika” will lead to a monograph exploring Apollonius’ use of etymology in its cultural context. The project’s goal is to show that etymological explanations are neither merely a reflex of older poetry nor a literary game. Rather, they help the poet navigate between two opposing forces: tradition that looms large in an age conscious of its own epigonal status vs. innovation and progress arising from learnedness and aesthetic sophistication.

His tandem partner is Christian Brockmann, professor of Classics, director of the Institute for Greek and Latin Philology at Universität Hamburg, and member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg.

Athanassios Vergados’ HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg.