Diane Rayor | Grand Valley State University (original) (raw)

Diane Rayor

DIANE J. RAYOR is Professor Emerita of Classics at Grand Valley State University, Michigan.
She has published six book translations of ancient Greek poetry and drama: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works (Cambridge University Press, paperback 2nd edition Feb. 2023); Euripides' 'Medea': A New Translation (Cambridge U P, 2013); Sophocles' 'Antigone': A New Translation (Cambridge U P, 2011); Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes (California U P, updated 2014); Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece (California U P, 1991); and Callimachus (with S. Lombardo, 1988).

Sappho News:
Her newest Sappho (Feb. 2023) incorporates thirty-two more fragments than in the first edition (2014) and revisions of over seventy fragments. The second edition also includes an audio recording of the poems by Kate Reading freely available on the Cambridge site: cambridge.org/sappho.

https://classicsforall.org.uk/reading-room/book-reviews/sappho-new-translation-complete-works

Classical Wisdom Podcast “3 of Ancient Greece’s Most Fascinating Women” interview by Anya Leonard on Sappho, Antigone, and Medea, 2024: https://youtu.be/EAiEEADkoKE

Classical Wisdom Podcast, 2024, Homeric Hymn to Demeter: https://vimeo.com/1003724535

Radical Philosophy Radio Program on 3CR, Melbourne Australia interview by Beth Matthews, 2023:
https://www.3cr.org.au/radicalphilosophy/episode/sappho-professor-diane-rayor

The History of Literature Podcast “#516 Sappho (with Diane Rayor)” interview by Jacke Wilson, 2023:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/516-sappho-with-diane-rayor/id1048375034?i=1000614415436
https://open.spotify.com/episode/13gEolEZ3q7XstQjulLzqA

Demythifying Podcast interview by Lauren and Charlotte, 2023:
https://demythifyingthepodcast.buzzsprout.com/1809909/12372772-demyth-x-diane-rayor

The Montréal Review adapted excerpt: https://www.themontrealreview.com/Articles/On\_Translating\_Sappho\_Again.php

Smarty Pants Podcast interview by Stephanie Bastek, #271 2023. https://theamericanscholar.org/filling-in-the-fragments/

TED-ed video 2021: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/ancient-greece-s-most-intriguing-erotic-poet-diane-j-rayor

Interviewed by Tom Ranzweiler on Sappho for Pride Month series 2021: https://youtu.be/ST3eQDnJC\_o

Interviewed for SweetBitter Podcast series Season 1 on Sappho, 2020. https://sweetbitterpodcast.com/sappho/

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Books by Diane Rayor

Sappho: A New Translation of the complete works, Jul 1, 2023

This second edition incorporates thirty-two more fragments primarily based on Camillo Neri's 2021... more This second edition incorporates thirty-two more fragments primarily based on Camillo Neri's 2021 Greek edition and revisions of over seventy fragments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVawZtVH51c
Sappho, the earliest and most famous Greek woman poet, sang her songs around 600 BCE on the island of Lesbos. Of what survives from the approximately nine papyrus scrolls collected in antiquity, all is translated here: substantial poems and fragments, including three poems discovered in the last two decades. The power of Sappho's poetry ‒ her direct style, rich imagery, and passion ‒ is apparent even in these remnants. Diane Rayor's translations of Greek poetry are graceful, modern in diction yet faithful to the originals. Sappho's voice is heard in these poems about love, friendship, rivalry, and family. In the introduction and notes, André Lardinois plausibly reconstructs Sappho's life and work, the performance of her songs, and how these fragments survived.

The Homeric Hymns invoke and celebrate the gods of ancient Greece in 33 hymns. As introductions t... more The Homeric Hymns invoke and celebrate the gods of ancient Greece in 33 hymns. As introductions to the Greek gods, entrancing stories, exquisite poetry, and early literary records of key religious rituals and sites, the Homeric Hymns should be read by anyone interested in mythology, ancient religion, and women in antiquity.

Euripides' Medea comes alive in this new translation that will be useful for both academic study ... more Euripides' Medea comes alive in this new translation that will be useful for both academic study and stage production. The accurate yet accessible translation reflects the play's inherent theatricality and vibrant poetry. The book includes introduction and notes by Rayor, as well as an essay by director Karen Libman. Euripides' most enduring Greek tragedy is a fascinating and disturbing story of how far a woman will go to take revenge in a man's world.

The play centers on Antigone's refusal to obey Kreon's law and Kreon's refusal to allow her broth... more The play centers on Antigone's refusal to obey Kreon's law and Kreon's refusal to allow her brother's burial. Antigone poses a conflict between passionate characters whose extreme stances leave no room for compromise. The highly charged struggle between the individual person and the state has powerful implications for ethical and political situations today. The accurate yet accessible translation reflects the play's inherent theatricality. The book includes introduction and notes by Rayor, as well as an essay by director Karen Libman.

Routledge, 2018

Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry, first published almost 25 years ago, offered students accurate an... more Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry, first published almost 25 years ago, offered students accurate and poetic translations of poems from the sudden flowering of lyric and elegy in Rome at the end of the Republic and in the first decades of the Augustan principate. Now updated in this second edition, the volume has been re-edited with both revised and new translations and an updated commentary and bibliography for readers in a new century, ensuring that this much-valued anthology remains useful and relevant to a new generation of students studying ancient literature and western civilization. The volume features an expanded selection of newly translated poetry including:

fresh Catullus translations, with a greater selection including Poem 64

fresh Sulpicia translations and the five poems of the "Garland of Sulpicia"

six new Propertius poems

new and revised selections from Tibullus, Ovid and Horace.

The second edition reflects changing interests and modes of reading while remaining true to the power of the poetry that has influenced the literature of many cultures. The combination of accurate and vibrant translations with thorough commentary makes this an invaluable anthology for those interested in poetry, world literature, Roman civilization, and the history of ideas and sexuality, allowing readers to compare different poets' responses to politics, love and sex, literary innovation, self, and society.

The Classical Review, 1988

Drafts by Diane Rayor

Translation of Andromache's Lament

This is my latest translation based on the recently discovered patch and a suggestion by Andre La... more This is my latest translation based on the recently discovered patch and a suggestion by Andre Lardinois.

Papers by Diane Rayor

Routledge eBooks, Oct 10, 2018

Sappho's Lyre, 1991

Nothing is unexpected or sworn impossible, nothing is amazing since Olympian Father Zeus made nig... more Nothing is unexpected or sworn impossible, nothing is amazing since Olympian Father Zeus made night out of high noon, hiding the light of the blazing sun; and damp fear came upon men. Since then, all things are credible and expected by men: Let nothing you see amaze you even if animals take the place of dolphins in their salty pasture, and love the echoing waves of the sea more than dry land, while dolphins take to the wooded hills.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2011

... Long ago, when we were about Antigone and Ismene's age, my sister Linda and I played tho... more ... Long ago, when we were about Antigone and Ismene's age, my sister Linda and I played those parts. ... In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, an anonymous poem composed in the early sev-enth century bce, Hades kidnaps Persephone to be his bride.21 The story of Hades and ...

Sappho: A New Translation of the complete works, Jul 1, 2023

Routledge, 2018

fresh Catullus translations, with a greater selection including Poem 64

fresh Sulpicia translations and the five poems of the "Garland of Sulpicia"

six new Propertius poems

new and revised selections from Tibullus, Ovid and Horace.

The Classical Review, 1988

Translation of Andromache's Lament

Routledge eBooks, Oct 10, 2018

Sappho's Lyre, 1991

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2011

Routledge eBooks, Oct 10, 2018

The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes (Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical... more The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes (Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature) Diane J. Rayor The Homeric Hymns have survived for two and a half millennia because of their captivating stories, beautiful language, and religious significance. Well before the advent of writing in Greece, they were performed by traveling bards at religious events, competitions, banquets, and festivals. These thirty-four poems invoking and celebrating the gods of ancient Greece raise questions that humanity still struggles with-questions about our place among others and in the world. Known as "Homeric" because they were composed in the same meter, dialect, and style as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, these hymns were created to be sung aloud. In this superb translation by Diane J. Rayor, which deftly combines accuracy and poetry, the ancient music of the hymns comes alive for the modern reader. Here is the birth of Apollo, god of prophecy, healing, and music and founder of Delphi, the most famous oracular shrine in ancient Greece. Here is Zeus, inflicting upon Aphrodite her own mighty power to cause gods to mate with humans, and here is Demeter rescuing her daughter Persephone from the underworld and initiating the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. This updated edition incorporates twenty-eight new lines in the first Hymn to Dionysos, along with expanded notes, a new preface, and an enhanced bibliography. With her introduction and notes, Rayor places the hymns in their historical and aesthetic context, providing the information needed to read, interpret, and fully appreciate these literary windows on an ancient world. As introductions to the Greek gods, entrancing stories, exquisite poetry, and early literary records of key religious rituals and sites, the Homeric Hymns should be read by any student of mythology, classical literature, ancient religion, women in antiquity, or the Greek language.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 6, 2014

Classical World, 1996

... virtue of a "simultaneity of multiple causes"their genre itself, its archa... more ... virtue of a "simultaneity of multiple causes"their genre itself, its archaic dialects, its ... many and variously charming pornographic epigrams that were available in both "classical" lan-Foreword ... guages in various collections (not least The Greek Anthology, whose lubrici-ties are ...

BRILL eBooks, 2016

The Publisher notifies the readers that the above-mentioned chapter has been retracted, and suppo... more The Publisher notifies the readers that the above-mentioned chapter has been retracted, and supports the following statement by the editors of the volume: In the years following the first publication of this book, serious doubts have been raised about the provenance of the newest Sappho papyri (P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105). Last summer, the Green collection/Museum of the Bible released a statement according to which their fragments (P. GC inv. 105) were acquired from a Turkish dealer on January 7, 2012, without any document proving their legal provenance. Most recently, Mr Green has restituted to Egypt ca. 5,000 papyri, including P. GC inv. 105, on the basis of their illegal acquisition circumstances. P. Sapph. Obbink appears to have been part of the same bookroll to which P. GC inv. 105 belonged. In an article published in 2017, Simon Burris showed that a fragment found among those of the Green collection physically joined with P. Sapph. Obbink (zpe 201: 12-14). This evidence suggests that P. Sapph. Obbink too came from the same source as P. GC inv. 105. In the meantime, Michael Sampson has published an article that also questions the provenance of the papyri as reported in chapter 2 of this book (Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 57 [2020] 143-169). Dirk Obbink, the author of this chapter, was given the opportunity by Brill publishers to respond to this evidence, but so far they have not received a substantive response. He has told them that he is working on an academic article in which he disputes the findings of Sampson, but he has not mentioned a timeline. Considering the above, in consultation with Brill publishers, we therefore have retracted this chapter, although it will remain accessible. The repatriation of the Green Sappho fragments has restored these papyri to its rightful owner. We hope that they will be made available to the scholarly community in their new location both directly and through online digital reproductions, so they can be studied further. The status of P. Sapph. Obbink-978-90-04-31483-2 Downloaded from Brill.com04/21/2022 10🔞05AM via free access remains problematic, however, not only because its provenance is tainted, but also because the papyrus, which is the main testimony of the Brothers and the Kypris poems, is inaccessible. We sincerely hope that it will also be made available to the academic community soon and its acquisition circumstances will be fully explained. So far we have not seen any evidence to suggest that either P. GC inv. 105 or P. Sapph. Obbink is not authentic. We as the editors of this volume will continue to monitor the developments around these papyri and we will, in consultation with the publisher, update this postscript or take further measures when necessary, on the basis of new scholarly evidence. Preface This is the second volume in a series within Brill's Mnemosyne Supplements which records the proceedings of the Network for the Study of Archaic and Classical Greek Song (http://greeksong.ruhosting.nl/). One volume in the series, entitled The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the Visual, eds. Vanessa Cazzato and André Lardinois, has already been published, while two more are in preparation: on authorship and authority in Greek lyric poetry and on the reception and transmission of Greek lyric poetry from 600bc to 400 ad. The Network was founded in 2007 as a means of facilitating interaction among scholars interested in the study of archaic and classical lyric, elegiac and iambic poetry. Most of the papers included in this volume were originally presented at the conference entitled 'Sappho in the Third Millennium' , organised by Anton Bierl at the University of Basel in the Summer of 2014, or at the panel on the New Fragments of Sappho, organised by André Lardinois at the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies in New Orleans in January 2015. The publication of the volume was then planned jointly by Anton Bierl and André Lardinois and the papers underwent a process of peer reviewing at the hands of the editors as well as an anonymous reviewer for the Press. The contributors were also able to read each other's papers and comment on them before the manuscript went to press. We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous reader for his fine, crystal-clear comments and his thorough revision of the manuscript. We further would like to thank Debby Boedeker, Vanessa Cazzato, Doris and Pia Degen, Hendri Dekker and Marieke Graumans, who helped us prepare the manuscript for publication, and Laurie Meijers and her team, who did an excellent job in copy-editing and composing the text. Finally, we would like to thank the Faculty of Arts of Radboud University for providing the funds which enabled this volume to be made available through Open Access.