Dr Jon P Hesk
Reader in Greek & Classical Studies
Director of the Centre for the Public Understanding of Greek and Roman Drama (CPUGRD)
Phone: 01334 462620
Room: S2
Research Interests
Greek literature and culture, especially Homer, tragedy, comedy, Attic oratory, Greek and Roman rhetorical theory and education. I am also interested in the culture, history and historiography of classical Athens and the use and abuse of these in classics and other disciplines.
Research projects
I am currently working on the following specific projects: the representation of deliberative and intellectual virtues and vices in Athenian oratory and drama; new perspectives on Greek rhetoric and education; Homeric quarrels as a form of narrative; the cinema of Terrence Malick and its relationship to Greek epic. I have a blog called ‘Ancient and Modern Rhetoric’, which explores the connections and differences between ancient rhetorical culture and modern uses of persuasive discourse in politics, advertising and education. I am also engaged in a project which aims to make own and colleagues’ research on Greek drama and Athenian culture relevant to school exam boards, school teachers and pupils.
Publications
Sophocles: Ajax
Hesk, J. P., 2003, Duckworth. 208 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Deception and Democracy in Classical Athens
Hesk, J. P., 2000, Cambridge University Press.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
'Uncertainty and the possibilities of violence: the quarrel in Odyssey 8'
Hesk, J., Apr 2017, Conflict and consensus in early Greek hexameter poetry. Bassino, P., Canevaro, L. G. & Graziosi, B. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 109-131 22 p. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316800034.006
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
‘Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and Homeric Epic. Spectacle, Simile, Scene and Situation.'
Hesk, J., 2 Sep 2015, War as Spectacle: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Display of Armed Conflict (Bloomsbury Academic).. Bakogianni, A. & Hope, V. (eds.). Bloomsbury Academic, p. 313-333, 397-99 22 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
'Thucydides in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries'
Hesk, J., Jan 2015, A Handbook to the Reception of Thucydides. Lee, C. & Morley, N. (eds.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 218-237 20 p. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118980194.ch12
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
'La construction de l’ « autre » et la contestation du « soi ». L’invective et l’elenchos dans l’art oratoire athénien.’
Hesk, J., 2014, The negative representation of the other in antiquity: Hostility, disapproval, depreciation. Queyrel Bottineau, A. (ed.). Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, p. 143-160 17 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
'Seeing in the dark: Kleos, Tragedy, and Perception in Iliad 10'
Hesk, J. P., Oct 2013, Epic Visions. Lovatt, H. & Vout, C. (eds.). Cambridge University Press
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Oedipus at Colonus
Hesk, J. P., 31 Jul 2012, Brill's Companion to Sophocles. Markantonatos, A. (ed.). Brill, (Brill's Companions in Classical Studies).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Common knowledge and the contestation of history in some fourth-century Athenian trials
Hesk, J. P., Jul 2012, Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras: History Without Historians. Marincola, J., Llewellyn-Jones, L. & Maciver, C. (eds.). Edinburgh University Press, (Edinburgh Leventis Studies ; vol. 6).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Euripidean euboulia and the problem of 'tragic politics'
Hesk, J. P., Mar 2011, Why Athens? A Reappraisal of Tragic Politics. Carter, D. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 119-143 24 p. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562329.003.0007
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Types of oratory
Hesk, J. P., 2009, The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric. Gunderson, E. (ed.). Cambridge University Press, p. 145-161
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
The Socio-political Dimension of Ancient Tragedy
Hesk, J. P., 2007, The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre. McDonald, M. & Walton, J. M. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 72-91
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Intratext and Irony in Aristophanes
Hesk, J. P., 2000, Intratextuality: Greek and Roman Textual Relations. Morales, H. & Sharrock, A. (eds.). Oxford University Press, p. 227-261
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
The Rhetoric of Anti-rhetoric in Athenian oratory
Hesk, J. P., 1999, Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy. Osborne, R. & Goldhill, S. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 201-230
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Greek thinking, fast and slow. Euripides and Thucydides on deliberation and decision-making
Hesk, J. P., 24 Nov 2017, In : Insights. 10, 8
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Leadership and individuality in the Athenian funeral orations
Hesk, J., Jun 2013, In : Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 56, 1, p. 49-65 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2013.00050.x
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
' Why did Socrates have to die? Politics, philosophy, and drinking-parties in Xenophon
Hesk, J. P., Jan 2008, In : Omnibus. 55
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Combative Capping in Aristophanic Comedy
Hesk, J. P., Dec 2007, In : Cambridge Classical Journal. 53, p. 124-160
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
'Despisers of the Commonplace': Meta-topoi and Para-topoi in Attic Oratory
Hesk, J. P., Sep 2007, In : Rhetorica. 25, 4, p. 361-384 24 p. https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.2007.25.4.361
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Abuse in Athenian Democracy
Hesk, J. P., Jan 2006, In : Omnibus. 51, p. 1-2
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Homeric Flyting and how to read it: Performance and Intratext in 'Iliad' 20.83-109 and 20.178-258
Hesk, J. P., Jan 2006, In : Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature. 35, 1, p. 4-28 25 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Sleazy Odysseus?
Hesk, J. P., 1997, In : Omnibus. 34
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
In Brief (New releases)
Howard, S., Quinn, P., Walker, N., Hesk, J., Shack, N., Quinn, T., Beckett, I., Wassenaar, I. & Fawcett, P., 2 Jul 2004, In : TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. p. 28-29 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Antiphon the Athenian - Oratory, law and justice in the age of the sophists
Hesk, J., 7 Mar 2003, In : TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. p. 13-13 1 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Antiphon the Sophist - The 'Fragments'
Hesk, J., 7 Mar 2003, In : TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. p. 13-13 1 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Greed and injustice in classical Athens
Hesk, J., 2003, In : Journal of Hellenic Studies. 123, p. 229-230 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Review of Greed and Injustice in classical Athens by R. Balot (2001)
Hesk, J. P., 2002, In : Journal of Hellenic Studies.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Female acts in Greek tragedy
Hesk, J., 17 Aug 2001, In : TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. p. 24-24 1 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
The beginnings of rhetorical theory in classical Greece
Hesk, J., 2001, In : Classical Review. 51, p. 60-61 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
The Cambridge companion to Greek tragedy
Hesk, J., 2000, In : Journal of Hellenic Studies. 120, p. 156-157 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
Taming democracy: Models of political rhetoric in classical Athens
Hesk, J., 1999, In : Journal of Hellenic Studies. 119, p. 183-183 1 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
For further information on publications, please view my profile on the university's research portal.
Research students
I am happy to direct the studies of post-graduates in any of the areas outlined in 'Research interests' above.
Teaching
I teach across several subhonours Greek & Classical Studies Modules.
My honours and taught postgraduate modules are as follows:
- GK4102 Greek Tragedy
- GK4105 Greek Rhetoric and its represntation
- CL4416 Responses to War: Athenian Drama and Civic Culture
- CL4420 Fame, Tradition and Narrative: Homer's Illiad
- CL5201 Themes and Methods in Classics
- GK5102 Greek Tragedy and Athenian Culture
- GK5104 Greek Rhetoric and Ideology.
Academic career
I did my undergraduate degree in Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1991 I moved to King's College, Cambridge where I started my Ph.D. In 1995, I spent two terms as a temporary lecturer in Greek and Classical Studies at Reading University. From 1995-1998, I was a Research Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge. I arrived in St Andrews in September 1998 and a very nice place it is too!