The aim of this research project is to propose an innovative and multi-faceted approach to the study of female-voiced poetry in the Ancient Greek world. It consists in an exploration of the various poetic forms of the female voice by combining current anthropological and gender-studies approaches with a strong focus on linguistic and textual aspects. It features a group of internationally recognized scholars in the field of ancient Greek literature and a team of early career research fellows.

While many studies focus on the reconstruction of the profiles of ancient women poets, far less work exists on the fundamental features underlying the various developments of poetic textual forms that feature a female speaking voice. Therefore, our research activity includes both a close study of the preserved texts of female poets and an exploration of the impersonation of female voices in mimetic genres. The historical trajectory moves from texts embedded in pragmatic communication contexts (lyric poetry, oracles) toward the creation of a whole range of mimetic exercises (drama) culminating in Hellenistic poetry; it also moves beyond antiquity by taking into account the reception of female-voiced Greek poetry in Modern times.

Regarding poems that have been transmitted as composed by female authors, the project analyses the role of female poets in defining local identities through their choral production, performed for male and/or female communities in ritual occasions. Such problems are faced through a careful scrutiny of the remaining fragments, as well as of the dynamics of their transmission. The role of female voice in ritual is analyzed also by taking into consideration the form of female prophetic language. In this regard, the project aims at a comprehensive investigation of the authoritative strength of prophetesses and of their perception as public female voices.

Another field of research is the representation of female voice (both choral and individual) in Attic drama through the employment of lyric genres embedded in Greek performance and cult, with special attention to the innovative potential of tragedy as a genre itself; in addition, it takes into account the language of female characters from the point of view of sociolinguistics. Hellenistic poetry as well is a territory where female voice is recreated in a variety of ways, including female production, female pseudo-epigraphy and appropriation of female voice by male poets: the project analyses all these poetic forms in order to reconstruct a comprehensive overview of the qualities that constitute ‘female’ authorship.

The project will focus also on the reception of Sapphic poetry and ancient works on her figure in the Renaissance. By this way, it aims at detecting how the rediscovery of Sappho and the first modern assessments of her works have determined the reception of Greek female poetry as a foundational model in European literature.

Besides producing works of research such as commented editions of fragments and papers on specific questions and case studies, the project also aims at exchanging ideas and sharing information by organising international conferences and workshops. Another area of dissemination involves interaction with schools through lectures, events and trans-disciplinary activities.