Dr Patrick O'Sullivan
Position
Senior Lecturer
Administration
MA/PhD Co-ordinator
Qualifications
- B.A. (Hons.), M.A. (University of Melbourne)
- Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Room
Room 603
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 364 2987 ext 8879
patrick.osullivan@canterbury.ac.nz
Postal address:
Classics
School of Humanities
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
Background
Patrick O'Sullivan is a graduate of Melbourne and Cambridge Universities, where he also taught Latin, Greek, Classical Greek Civilisation and Greek and Roman Mythology. He has been teaching at Canterbury since 1999 across a broad range of subjects including Greek language and literature at all levels, Latin, and also Greek art, mythology, philosophy and cultural history. His research interests primarily include Greek literature and intellectual history, and his main project is a book on Euripides' Cyclops and major fragments of satyric drama, to be published by Oxbow. In 2008 he was involved as translator and actor in a full production of Euripides' Cyclops, produced in Christchurch.
Grants & Awards
2009-10: Contestable Research Funding Award (c. $2,000) from School of Humanities, University of Canterbury.
2008: (c. $10,000) Research Grant from College of Arts, UC for production of Euripides' Cyclops.
2006 & 2007: Voted Top Lecturer in the College of Arts in the annual UCSA Lecturer of the Year Awards.
2003-5: $100,000 Research Award from Marsden Fund Council through the Royal Society of New Zealand.
2003: Visiting Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge.
Undergraduate Courses
In addition to teaching Greek and Latin, he takes the following courses:
- CLAS 104: Greek Mythologies.
- CLAS 141: Classical Concepts of Beauty.
- CLAS 206/326: Art and Ideas in Archaic and Classical Greece: A course on Greek art in its social, political and intellectual context from c. 750-320 BC.
- CLAS 219/319: Sport and Leisure in the Ancient World.
- CLAS 224/324: Greek Philosophy: including lectures on the Sophists, Plato and Aristotle.
Graduate Courses
- CLAS 409/415: Fourth-year Honours Greek Language and Literature course on Helen of Troy in texts including Homer, Drama (esp. Euripides), and the first Sophistic (Gorgias and Isocrates).
- CLAS 402/403: Unprepared Translation from Greek and Latin.
- CLAS 404: Greek Literary Subjects, including: Homer, Iliad 1 & 9, Sophocles' Ajax, Pindaric Odes, Euripides' Cyclops, and Plato Republic 10.
- CLAS 416: Prescribed Texts: Latin, including Ovid, Metamorphoses, Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars. Catullus 64, Cicero Verrines.
- CLAS 314/454: Concepts of Art & Literature from Homer to Aristotle.
- CLAS 460: Approaches to Classical Studies: Concepts of Cultural Identity in the Greco-Roman World.
- EURO 401: The Idea of Europe.
Postgraduate Supervisions
2012: B.A. Honours Dissertation: James Ferguson: 'Concepts of Ancient Athletes' (in progress).
2011-12: B.A. Honours Dissertation: ‘Homeric Echoes: Emotion and Ambivalence in Archaic Greek Art’ (Alexandra Callaghan: Awarded 1st Class Honours).
2011: B.A. Honours Dissertation: ‘The Various Opinions In Euripides’ Electra: The Views On Clytemnestra’ (Chris Boyce).
2010-present: Ph.D. Dissertation: Andrew Wong: ‘Antisthenes’ Ajax and Odysseus: the Intellectual Hero in Classical Greek Literature’ (provisional title; in progress).
2010: B.A. Honours Dissertation: ‘Herakles from Antiquity to Aotearoa: Aspects of the Hero in Ancient literature and modern New Zealand art’ (Sophie Hawke: Awarded 1st Class Honours).
2009: B.A. Honours Dissertation:'Achilles in Catullan and Ovidian Poetry' (J. Purton: Awarded 1st Class Honours).
2008-9: B.A. Honours Dissertation: 'The Commodification of Pandora' (S. Hobson).
2008: M.A. Dissertation: 'The Sacrificial Motif in
2004-5: M.A. Dissertation: 'Sophocles' Oedipus and Platonic Virtue' (K. Courtney: Awarded 1st Class Honours); Co-supervisor.
2004: B.A. Honours Special Topic Research Essay: 'Depictions of Justice/Dike in Greek Art of the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BC' (J. Pettit: Awarded 1st Class Honours).
2003-4: M.A. Dissertation: 'Strife and the Appropriateness Standard in Homer, Hesiod and Pindar' (T. Perry: Awarded 1st Class Honours); Co-supervisor.
2000: B.A. Honours Dissertation: 'The Psychology of Knowledge in Heraclitus' (T. Perry: Awarded 1st Class Honours).
School Administration & University Service
i) University Library Committee.
ii) Co-ordinator of Classics Programme Research Seminars.
iii) Co-ordinator of Postgraduate Studies, Department of Classics
iv) President, Christchurch Classical Association, NZ.
v) Elected Vice-President of The Australasian Society for Classical Studies.
Research Interests
Greek theatre; Archaic and Classical Greek intellectual history, aesthetics and psychological theories; the role of visual artworks in Greek literary and philosophical texts.
Full List of Publications
Recent Publications
Book
Euripides' Cyclops and Major Fragments of Satyric Drama. Introduction, Translation and Commentary, in conjunction with C. Collard (in progress).
Refereed Articles & Book Chapters
2012: (i) ‘Sophistic Ethics, Old Atheism & ‘Critias’ on Religion’, Classical World 105.2: 167-185.
(ii) ‘Dionysos, Polyphemos and the Idea of Sicily in Euripides’ Cyclops’ in Greek Drama IV: Texts, Contexts, Performance, edd. J. Davidson and D. Rosenbloom (Oxbow Books: Oxford): 169-189.
(iii) ‘Cyclops’ in The Blackwell Companion to Euripides, ed. R. Mitchell-Boyask (Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA & Oxford; in press).
2011 (i) ‘Dio Chrysostom and the Poetics of Phidias’ Zeus’ in The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches, edd. T. Stevenson, et al. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle, UK): 137-154.
(ii) ‘Antiquities of Athens by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’ in Treasures of the Canterbury University Library, edd. C. Jones, B. Matthews and J. Clement (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch): 32-37, 229.
2010: ‘Use Your Illusion: ‘Critias’ on Religion Reconsidered’, in ASCS 31 [2010] Proceedings: classics.uwa.edu.au/ascs31, ed. N. O'Sullivan, 14 pp.
2008: (i) ‘Aeschylus, Euripides and Tragic Painting: Two Scenes from Agamemnon and Hecuba’, American Journal of Philology 129.2: 173-98.
(ii) 'Herakles the Greek Hero: Nothing Succeeds like Excess', in The Labours of Herakles. Lithographs by Marian Maguire (PaperGraphica, Christchurch): 57-63.
2007: 'Latin and Greek Teaching in Australian and New Zealand Universities: A 2005 Survey’ (with J. Maitland), Antichthon 41: 109-121.
2006: 'Survey on the Teaching of Latin and Greek in Australian and New Zealand Universities' (co-authored with Dr. J. Maitland, University of Western Australia).
Overview (discussion): http://www.ascs.org.au/docs/ASCS_Survey_discussion_overview.pdf (PDF, 48 KB).
Responses (data collation): http://www.ascs.org.au/docs/ASCS_Full_Survey_by_QQ.pdf (PDF, 292 KB).
2005: (i) 'Of Sophists, Tyrants and Polyphemos: The Nature of the Beast in Euripides' Cyclops', in Satyr Drama: Tragedy at Play, ed. G. Harrison, (Classical Press of Wales, Swansea): 119-159.
(ii) 'Pindar and the Statues of Rhodes', Classical Quarterly 55.1: 96-104.
(iii) 'The Sophists', in History in Dispute. The Ancient World, edd. P. A. Miller and C. Platter (Thomson Gale, Detroit, MI): 172-80.
(iv) 'Homer' in Classical Rhetorics and Rhetoricians. Critical Studies and Sources, ed. M. Balliff and G. Moran (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT): 214-19.
(v) 'Thrasymachus' in Classical Rhetorics and Rhetoricians. Critical Studies and Sources, ed. M. Balliff and G. Moran (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT): 368-71.
2003: 'Victory Statue, Victory Song: Pindar's Agonistic Poetics and its Legacy' in Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World, edd. D. Phillips and D. Pritchard (Classical Press of Wales): 75-100.
2001: (i) 'The Arts' (with N. O'Sullivan), in World Eras, vol. 6: Classical Greek Civilization 800-323 BCE, ed. J. T. Kirby (Gale Group: Farmington Hills, MI): 41-94.
(ii) 'The Arts' (with M. Helzle), in World Eras, vol. 3: The Roman Republic and Empire 264 BCE-476 CE, ed. J. T. Kirby (Gale Group: Farmington Hills, MI ): 65-139.
2000: 'Satyr and Image in Aeschylus' Theoroi', Classical Quarterly 50: 353-66.
Review Articles & Book Reviews
2012: (i) J.-F. Pradeau (ed.) Les Sophistes. Écrits complets. Tomes 1 & 2. (Paris: Flammarion, 2009), Classical Review 62.2: in press.
(ii) Stieber, Mary C., Euripides and the Language of Craft. Mnemosyne supplements. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature (Leiden: Brill, 2011), Journal of Hellenic Studies (forthcoming).
2011: S. Goldhill and E. Hall (edd.) Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2009), Classical Review 61: 36-9.
2008: S. Goldhill and R. Osborne, edd., Rethinking Revolutions Through Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2006), Polis: Journal of the Society for Greek Political Thought 25.2 337-43.
2006: (i) G. Paduano, Euripide: Il Ciclope. Introduzione, traduzione e note. (Milan: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2005), Classical Review 56: 513.
(ii) A. Nightingale, Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy. Theoria in its Cultural Context (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004), Journal of Hellenic Studies 126: 212-13.
2004: (i) Homer. The Odyssey, translated by M. Hammond (Duckworth: London, 2000), The Classical Bulletin 80.1: 43-5.
(ii) P. Vasunia, The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander (University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001), Prudentia 36.1: 75-80.
2003: M. Stansbury-O’Donnell, Pictorial Narrative in Ancient Greek Art, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1999), The European Legacy, vol. 8.1: 114-15.
2002: M. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Revised edition (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2001), Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 2002.10.06.
2001: D. Collins, Immortal Armor. The Concept of Alkê in Archaic Greek Poetry, (Rowman and Littlefield: Maryland and Oxford, 1998), Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 01.02.02.
2000: A. J. Bowen, Xenophon. Symposium, (Aris and Phillips: Warminster, 1998), Prudentia 32.1: 58-62.
1999: A. Stewart, Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1997), Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 99.10.9.
1989: (i) K. Mackinnon, Greek Tragedy Into Film, (Croom Helm: London, 1986), Primitiae vol. 7: 4-5.
(ii) M. Hammond, The Iliad: A New Prose Translation, (Penguin: London, 1987), Primitiae vol. 7: 6-7.