Dr Alexandra Madeła

Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow

I completed both my BA in Classics (2016) and my PhD (2021) at Trinity College Dublin . I taught Greek and Latin language here at TCD (2016-2019), at University College Dublin (2019-2020), and at Maynooth University (2021). After spending a year as an Assistant Lecturer in Greek and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews (2021-2022), I rejoined Trinity in September 2022.

My research interests include late antique Greek epic (especially the Argonautica by Orpheus), the Argonautic myth, Homeric Revisionism (particularly Dares Phrygius’ De Excidio Troiae Historia), and ancient scholarship on the Iliad and Odyssey. My current IRC-funded project, based on my doctoral research, is a monograph on the Argonautica by Orpheus, which explores the poem’s ambivalent attitude towards Homer and includes an English translation.

Selected Publications

“Qui volunt eos cognoscere, Argonautas legant: An ambiguous reference in Dares Phrygius’ De Excidio Troiae Historia.” (forthcoming in Mnemosyne)
“War, Wisdom, and Other Gods: Philological Allegory in the Argonautica by Orpheus.” (forthcoming in Hermathena)
“The formulaic diction of the Orphic Argonautica in Context: A Comparison with Nonnus’ Dionysiaca.” In: B. Verhelst (ed.), Nonnus in Context IV: Poetry at the Crossroads. Leuven, 151-68 (forthcoming 2022)
Review of “Myth, Religion, Tradition, and Narrative in Late Antique Greek Poetry (ed. N. Kröll). Vienna 2020.” In: Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft, 74, 96-101 (2021)
“The Hidden Third Siren of the Orphic Argonautica.” Mnemosyne, 73, 112-22 (2020)
“The Sacred Island: An Ancient Name for Ireland.” Classics Ireland, 26, 25-9 (2019)