The Critic and the Poet: Zoilus’ attacks of Homer

Title: The Critic and the Poet: Zoilus’ attacks of Homer

By Matthieu Réal (Padova, Ancient Studies)

Date: Monday, February 9, 2026

Time: 1630-1800

Room: Humanities Seminar Room (H-232)

Abstract: Long cast as the arch-villain of ancient Greek literary criticism, Zoilus of Amphipolis, the 4th century BCE critic of Homer, is frequently dismissed as a resentful and pedantic detractor. This talk challenges that caricature, repositioning Zoilus as one of Homer’s most perceptive early readers. I argue that his criticisms were not hostile attacks, but rather a deliberate rhetorical strategy designed to lure readers into a deeper examination of his poetry. Moving beyond the ethical concerns of Plato toward a formalist appreciation of poetry, Zoilus’ approach anticipates Aristotelian concerns for character consistency, narrative coherence, and artistic technique. This reassessment stems from a broader project on the ancient reception of Greek poetry in which I contend that literary criticism was a sophisticated, public, and competitive cultural practice long before the rise of the Hellenistic libraries. Ultimately, rehabilitating Zoilus encourages us to rethink philology not as a detached science of meaning, but as a playful, performative, and collaborative social practice.

About the speaker: Matthieu Réal is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Università degli Studi di Padova and a member of the ERC-funded project FragArist, which investigates the lost works of Aristotle. He earned his BA (2014) and MA  (2016) in Classics from Padova, followed by a PhD in Classics from Cornell University (2023), where he also served as a Visiting Lecturer in 2023–2024. His research centers on early Greek literary criticism, Homeric poetry, and Aristotle, with additional interests in the reception of classical antiquity in film. His current book project, Critics and Poets: Literary Interpretation in Classical Greece, re-imagines the “invention” of criticism by uncovering the rich landscape of sophisticated interpretive practices that predate Aristotle’s Poetics.

Organized by the Program in Cultures, Civilizations, & Ideas