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Ortwin Knorr

Professor of Classics; Director, Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (CASA); Chair, Comparative Literature and History of Ideas

Headshot of Ortwin Knorr

Contact Information

Salem Campus

Address
Eaton 306
900 State Street
Salem  Oregon  97301
U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6029

Education

  • M.A.T. & Ph.D., University of Göttingen, Germany
  • Abitur, Altes Gymnasium Bremen

Research and Teaching

Professor Knorr (email) has written a book on the Satires of Horace and a dozen articles on the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the Odes and Satires of Horace, and on the anti-heretic writings of two Greek church fathers, John of Damascus and Epiphanius of Salamis. Most recently, his interest have expanded to include Classical Receptions as well.

At Willamette, he teaches a wide variety of Greek and Latin classes. With Latin students, he has read, for instance, the love poems of Catullus, Martial's Epigrams and Liber Spectaculorum, Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Horace's Odes, Seneca's Apocolocyntosis ("Pumpkinification", a biting satire on the failed apotheosis of the emperor Claudius), medieval Latin texts (including a comedy by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim), and a selection of documentary and literary texts on and by Roman women. With Greek students, he's enjoyed reading and discussing Homer's Odyssey, Homer's Iliad, Lucian's True History (the first science fiction novel ever), and other texts.

In addition, Professor Knorr also offers courses in English translation on Greek and Roman literature, in particular, classes on Greek and Roman epic poetry, ancient theater, Roman women, and a College Colloquium (first-year seminar) on ancient Greece and Rome in modern film.

Professor Knorr heads Willamette's Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (CASA) and chairs our interdisciplinary contract major in Comparative Literature and the History of Ideas (CLHI). He is the Vice-President of the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest (CAPN) and a former Program Coordinator of the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Professor Knorr joined the Willamette faculty in 2001, after teaching at Georg August University in Göttingen (Germany), the University of California Berkeley, the Johns Hopkins University, and Georgetown University.

Publications

Book

  • Verborgene Kunst: Argumentationsstruktur und Buchaufbau in den Satiren des Horaz [Hidden Art: The Argumentative Structure and Book Composition of Horace's Satires, in German], Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2004 (Beiträge zur Altertumswissenschaft, 15). Pp. 277, ISBN 3-487-12539-0.

Articles

  • “‛Lyra’s Odyssey’ in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy”, in Brett M. Rodgers and Benjamin E. Stevens, eds., Once and Future Antiquities in Science Fiction and Fantasy, 63-75. Bloomsbury: London 2018 (Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception). 
  • "Terence’s Hecyra: Farce or Failure?" in: Antonios Augoustakis and Ariana Traill, eds. A Companion to Terence. 295-317. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2013 (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, 103)
  • "Morbus Campanus in Horace, Satires 1.5.62," Classical Quarterly 62.2 (2012) 869-873.
  • "Plautus, Mostellaria 213: Another anus ebria?" Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 450-53.
  • "Theatralisches Spektakel und Metatheater in der Andria und Hecyra des Terenz" [Theatrical Spectacle and Metatheater in Terence's Andria and Hecyra, in German], Gymnasium, 115.5 (2008) 435-451. pdf download
  • "Metatheatrical Humor in the Comedies of Terence," in Terentius Poeta, eds. Peter Kruschwitz et al., Munich: C. H. Beck Verlag, 2007 (Zetemata, 127), 167-174. pdf download
  • "Horace's Ship Ode (C. 1.14) in Context: A Metaphorical Love Triangle," Transactions of the American Philological Association 136.1 (2006) 51-71.
  • "Three Orators and a Flawed Argument (Hor. Sat. 1.10.27-30)," The Classical Journal 100.4 (2005) 393-400. pdf download
  • "Die Parallelüberlieferung zum Panarion des Epiphanius von Salamis. Textkritische Anmerkungen zur Neuausgabe" [The Parallel Transmission of Epiphanius of Salamis' Panarion: Critical Notes on its Text on the Occasion of the New Edition, in German], Wiener Studien 112 (1999) 113-127. pdf download
  • "Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte des Liber de haeresibus des Johannes von Damaskus (um 650 - vor 754): Anmerkungen zur Edition B. Kotters" [On the History of the Textual Transmission of the Liber de haeresibus of John of Damascus (ca. 650- before 754): Notes on the Edition of B. Kotter, in German], Byzantinische Zeitschrift 91 (1998) 59-69. pdf download
  • "The Character of Bacchis in Terence's Heautontimorumenos," American Journal of Philology 116 (1995) 221-233. pdf download
Willamette University

Classical Studies

Address
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6077 voice
503-370-6944 fax