Lyric physicality: bodies and objects in archaic Greek lyric poetry

This dissertation investigates the way that archaic Greek lyric performance represents and displays itself a physical practice. Focusing specifically on descriptions of the bodies of performers and the objects used in performance, it argues that lyric poets do not simply reflect the physical and material conditions of their occasion, but in fact thematize physicality. The dissertation describes the various ways in which the physicality of performance is foregrounded and concludes that Greek lyric poets employ this strategy of physical self-display in order to constitute the parameters and significance of their poetic practice.