Dr Max Leventhal
College Teaching Associate
SpecialisationHellenistic literature and Culture
Research interestsMy research circles Hellenistic literature and culture and its reception, with a particular focus on both scientific and technical texts and Jewish Greek literature, although I have also made forays into – and published on – Neronian Latin poetry and Late Antique Greek poetry. My book, Poetry and Number in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, came out with Cambridge Classical Studies in 2022. I am currently completing a second monograph on the Letter of Aristeas, a fascinating text narrating the story of the translation of the Hebrew Torah into Greek. This work – I argue – explores just what linguistic and cultural translation might mean for a sacred Scripture and depicts how this seminal act of translation transformed both Greek and Hellenistic Jewish culture in the process. I continue to be fascinated by Jewish Greek literature; current works in progress tackle a Greek tragedy on the Jewish exodus from Egypt; a Greek Hymn to the Jewish God ascribed to Orpheus; and Jewish prophecies ascribed to the Sibyl. I welcome any and all enquiries related to these topics. For St John’s, I direct studies and teach Greek language and literature.
Further information