Dr Gary Vos (BA, (Res)MA, PhD)

Teaching Fellow

Background

I took my undergraduate degrees in Classics (BA) and Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations ((Res)MA) from Leiden University in the Netherlands and obtained my doctorate in Classics from the University of Edinburgh in 2018. I am a big believer in the transformative powers of education and the continuing value of Classics for contemporary society.

In the Netherlands I worked as a highschool teacher of Greek, Latin, Classical Civilization, and philosophy, and I count myself fortunate to be able to continue that job here with courses on World Mythologies, Etruscan Language and Culture, and the Trojan War in Archaeology and Literature for the Centre of Open Learning. In addition to my own academic work, I am active as an educational policy advisor in The Netherlands.

Undergraduate teaching

At the Centre for Open Learning I developed and taught courses on World Mythologies, the Trojan War in Archaeology and Literature, and Etruscan Language and Culture.

At the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, I taught intermediate and advanced Greek and Latin language tutorials, as well as survey courses of classical history (the Greek and Roman World courses).

Research summary

I would like to consider myself a comparativist, with a broad interest in Greek and Latin literature and mythology throughout the ages, from antiquity to the Renaissance. I mostly work on poetic texts of the Hellenistic and Augustan periods and try to combine the study of these with the application of literary theory. Much of what I do is concerned with intertextuality and metapoetics, in other words the relationships between texts (and the games texts play with each other) and the implicit, metaphorical representation of the act of writing in literary texts. A second interest is Greek and Roman mythography, which may be considered a 'minor' genre, but still has a lot to teach us regarding the views societies hold about themselves. A third interest is the reception of classical antiquity in later Latin literature, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Current research interests

Intertextuality, metapoetics, mythography, the Linus-song in antiquity and beyond, Callimachus, Theocritus, Vergil, Ovid, the humanist George Buchanan (1506-1582), the humanist Nikolaus Mameranus (1500-1567).

Project activity

My PhD thesis ('Linus Songs: Time, Narrative, and Intertextuality in Graeco-Roman Poetry') aimed to connect the divergent representations of the mythological figure(s) Linus in Greek and Roman poetic texts by means of an intertextual reading. Paradoxically, this much-neglected minor mythological figure makes a number of very marked appearances in key texts ranging from Homer's Iliad and Hesiod's Catalogue of Women via Callimachus' Aetia and Theocritus' Idyll 24, to Vergil's fourth and sixth Eclogues, and far beyond, to Statius and Nonnus - not to mention a host of Renaissance texts.

With Maciej Paprocki and David Wright, I have recently organized a conference and co-edited the its proceedings a volume on Thetis, the divine, powerful mother of the greatest of Greek warriors, Achilles: The Staying Power of Thetis: Allusion, Interaction, and Reception from Homer to the 21st Century (Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter, 2023).

Another project for the near future is to produce a monograph on the mythological figures called Linus and the so-called Linus-song named after them. The book is tentatively entitled 'Linus: Myth, Music, and Philology', and scheduled to be finished in 2026.

For a full and up-to-date list of (downloadable) publications, please consult my Academia-page: https://edinburgh.academia.edu/GaryVos

 

Monographs

  • Matthew Tibble, Nicolaus Mameranus: Poetry and Politics at the Court of Mary Tudor, with Appendices by Matthew Tibble and Gary Vos (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2020).

 

Edited Volumes

  • Maciej Paprocki, Gary P. Vos & David J. Wright (eds), The Staying Power of Thetis: Allusion, Interaction, and Reception from Homer to the 21st Century (Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter, 2023).
  • G.P. Vos (ed.), De bestendigheid van de klassieke oudheid (Leiden: Frons, 2010).

 

Articles

  • 'Lethaeus Amor: fama, geheugen en vergetelheid in Ovidius' Remedia amoris', in: Iris de Smalen, Mathijs Clement, Hubert Mooiman (eds), De kracht der herinnering: over herinneren en vergeten in en na de oudheid. Enschede, Utrecht & Wormerveer: Nederlands Klassiek Verbond, 2023, pp. 69-86.
  • 'A New Acrostic and Telestic at Laus Pisonis 227-30', Classical Quarterly 73.2, pp. 949-952.
  • 'Opus imperfectum? Completing the Unfinished Acrostic at Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.871-875', Classical Quarterly 73.1, pp. 243-249.
  • 'Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 26-29: A Textual Note', Classical Philology 118.2, pp. 253-256.
  • 'Thetis and Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo: Dynasty and Succession', in: M. Paprocki, G.P. Vos, D.J. Wright (eds), The Staying Power of Thetis: Allusion, Interaction, and Reception from Homer to the 21st Century. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 107-145.
  • 'Weaving together the Present and Past: Theocritus' Linus and the Reinvention of Time and Literature in Idyll 24', in: A.M. Harder, R.F. Regtuit & G.C. Wakker (eds), Past and Present in Hellenistic Poetry. Leuven - Paris - Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2017, pp. 101-136.
  • 'Buchanan, George (1506-82)', in: K. Pollmann et al. (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Vol. 2, pp. 718-720 (co-authored with R.P.H. Green).
  • 'Poëtische zelfrechtvaardiging en de prijs van roem (Verg. G. 4)', in: G.P. Vos (ed.), De bestendigheid van de klassieke oudheid. Special issue of Frons: blad voor Leidse classici. Leiden: Frons, 2010, pp. 118-135.