Prof Ruth Parkes MA, MSt, DPhil

 Research officer

I have experience in teaching a wide range of courses in Greek and Latin, particularly built up from my time as a lecturer at Oxford. I have research interests in the Classical epic tradition and its reception and have published widely on Latin poetry from the periods of the first and fifth centuries AD, the Middle Ages, and beyond.

Classical Association

My experience and expertise in teaching and research supervision encompasses Classical literature from Early Greek Hexameter poetry to its reception in the twenty-first century. Undergraduate and postgraduate courses taught at TSD include:

• Myth in Greek and Roman Epic
• The myth of the abduction of Persephone
• Myth in Classical and Medieval times
• Caesar and Cicero
• Advanced Latin verse
• Advanced Latin prose

My major research interests lie in the Latin epics of the first centuries BC and AD (especially Vergil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid) and their reception, particularly in the Classical period, late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. I also work on the late Antique poet Claudian.

Latin literature, particularly in the first century AD and late Antiquity

Statius, Thebaid IV. Edited with a translation and commentary (2012, OUP: Oxford Classical Monographs series)

‘Men from before the moon: the relevance of Statius Thebaid 4.275-84 to Parthenopaeus and his Arcadian contingent’, Classical Philology 100.4 (2005), 358-365

‘Model Youths? Achilles and Parthenopaeus in Claudian’s Panegyrics on the Third and Fourth Consulships of Honorius’, Illinois Classical Studies 30(2005), 67-82

‘Where was Hercules? A Note on Aeneid 8.201-212’, Vergilius 53 (2007), 100-103

‘The Return of the Seven: Allusion to the Thebaid in Statius’ Achilleid’, American Journal of Philology 129.3 (2008), 381-402

‘Hercules and the Centaurs: Reading Statius with Vergil and Ovid’, Classical Philology 104.4(2009), 476-494

‘Who’s the father? Biological and literary inheritance in Statius’ Thebaid’, Phoenix 63(2009), 24-37

‘Sed tardum (Ach. 1.47): Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica as prequel to Statius’ Achilleid’, Materiali e discussioni 63 (2009), 107-113

‘Dealing with ghosts: literary assertion in Statius’ Thebaid’, Ramus 39.1 (2010), 14-23

‘Tantalus’ Crime, Argive Guilt and Desecration of the Flesh in Statius’ Thebaid’, Scholia 20 (2011), 79-91

‘The Deidamia Achilli: An Eleventh Century Statian-Ovidian Epistle’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18.1 (2011), 19-35

‘Chthonic ingredients and thematic concerns: the shaping of the necromancy in Statius’ Thebaid’ , in Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic ed. A. Augoustakis (OUP, 2013), 165-80

‘The Long Road to Thebes: The Geography of Journeys in Statius’ Thebaid’, in Geography, Topography, Landscape: Configurations of Space in Greek and Roman Epic, edd. I. Ziogas and M. Skempis, Trends in Classics. Supplementary Volumes (DeGruyter, 2013), 405-26.

‘The epics of Statius and Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica’, Brill's Companion to Valerius Flaccus edd. M. Heerink and G. Manuwald (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 326-339

‘The 'Argonautic' expedition of the Argives: models of heroism in Statius' Thebaid' CQ 64.2 (2014), 778-86