Department
Department of Classical Studies
Phone
+1 (210) 9997841
Email Address
ecook@trinity.edu
Room
212
Websites
Google Scholar, Amazon, Erwin Cook's Digital Commons Page

I am a citizen of the U.S. and U.K., and have studied in Switzerland and Germany. My main passion outside of reading, teaching and research is travel. My research focus is on Homeric epic, which I usually investigate in terms of other material, such as contemporary epic traditions; Near Eastern myth and architecture; and Greek religious practice. I am currently at work on a commentary to the first four Books of the Iliad for Valla (details under “Selected Publications”). I also recently joined the Scientific Board of Studi Italiani de Filologia Classica.

Education

  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Selected Publications

  • "Book 6 of the Odyssey" (forthcoming)
  • The Iliad: A Commentary. Vol. 1, Books 1-4. Giulio Guidorizze gen. ed. Torino: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla. (in preparation)
  • "The Philosophy of Mythology." A Companion to Early German Romantic Philosophy. E. Milán and J. Norman eds. (Brill, 2019) 113-42.
  • "Homeric Reciprocities." (Proceedings of a panel organized by Dimitri Nakassis at the 2014 annual meeting of the AIA). Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 29:1 (2016) 99-109.
  • "Mythic Background."The Cambridge Guide to Homer. Corinne Pache ed. Cambridge University Press, 2019: 62-69.
  • "Homeric Time Travel.” Literary Imagination. 2018: 113-25.
  • "The contemporary relevance of Homeric poetry," The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • "Structure as Interpretation in the Homeric Odyssey." Defining Greek Narrative. D. Cairns and R. Scodel eds. (Edinburgh Leventis Studies 7. Edinburgh University Press, 2014) 75-100
  • "Introduction" to a new translation of the Iliad by Edward McCrorie (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012)
  • "Epiphany in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Odyssey," The Proceedings of the Langford Latin Seminar 15 (2012) 53–111.
  • "On the 'Importance' of Iliad Book VIII." Classical Philology 104:2 (2009) 133–161.
  • "Active and Passive Heroics in the Odyssey". Re-edited version of an article that appeared in Classical World (1999), in Oxford Readings in the 'Odyssey' (Oxford, 2009).
  • Review article: "A. von Hendy, 'The Modern Construction of Myth'" (Indiana, 2002), English Language Notes (April 2006) 283–301.
  • "Near Eastern Sources for the Palace of Alkinoos," in Worlds Collide: Multiculturalism in the Archaeological Record, C. Witt, ed. Forthcoming. A revised and updated version of the article that appeared in the American Journal of Archaeology, 2004.
  • "Agamemnon's Test of the Army in Iliad Book 2 and the Function of Homeric Akhos." The American Journal of Philology 124 (2003) 165–198.

Subjects Taught

  • Greek
  • Latin
  • Greek and Comparative Literature
  • Philosophy
  • History
  • Intellectual History
  • Religion

Teaching and Expertise

  • Homer
  • Greek Religion
  • History
  • Philosophy

Honors & Awards

  • Fulbright Fellowships (1982, 1987)
  • Lifetime fellow of the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla (2016)
  • “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Heroics in the Odyssey,” anthologized in Oxford Readings in the ‘Odyssey’ (Oxford, 2008)
  • Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, Research Fellow (1998)
  • President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award, UT-Austin (2003).
  • The “Odyssey” in Athens selected as one of the Outstanding Academic Books of 1996 by Choice.