Prof. Owen Hodkinson (univ. of Leeds) will come to Ghent on Tuesday 25/06 to lead a session of our reading group on Letters of Aelian, Alciphron and Philostratus. In addition, he will give a talk entitled “The reception of Philostratus’ Letters in Oxford ‘Uranian’ circle”.
ABSTRACT:
The reception of Philostratus’ Letters in Oxford ‘Uranian’ circle.
In this paper I present some little-known English verse translations of some of Philostratus’ Erotic Epistles, which were published in an Oxford student magazine of limited circulation associated with Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, the Spirit Lamp. The magazine’s publication of poetry and essays on themes of homosexual and ‘Uranian’ or pederastic desire provides both context and reason for this otherwise very surprising revival of one of Philostratus’ lesser known works at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, alongside authors with more contemporary currency in these subcultures such as Sappho, Theocritus, and the epigrammatists.
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