Jon Solomon
Robert D. Novak Professor of Western Civilization & Culture
Professor of the Classics and of Cinema Studies

Curriculum Vitae | Website | Study Abroad Pictures

Office Hours | Tuesday & Thursday 12-12:45pm, Thursday 2-2:45pm
Office | 4056 Foreign Languages Building, (217) 333-0973

My research incorporates a variety of humanistic interests ranging from classical philology to medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque adaptations of the classics to contemporary cinema. Examples of the first began with my dissertation on ancient Greek music theory, continued with papyrological and epigraphical studies of fragments and newly discovered ancient Greek music, and culminated with a book-length translation and commentary on Harmonics by Claudius Ptolemy. I have also published several articles on ancient Greek poetry, including a metrical exegesis of Hesiod, grammatical exegeses of Sophocles, and an essay on the Polyphemus episode in Homer's Odyssey. Many years ago I made several excursions into ancient Greek medicine, helping to identify "The Thucydides Syndrome" in the New England Journal of Medicine and for the Centers for Disease Control, and into ancient cookery, publishing a cookbook and several articles. At the beginning of my career I wrote The Ancient World in the Cinema--a book which helped create a new subfield of classical studies and pedagogy. From there I made an excursion into a different area of popular culture and wrote a complete filmography of The Three Stooges. Recently I have written chapters in books on Gladiator, Troy, and Alexander.

Currently I am working on five projects. I am completing a study of Ben-Hur as the prototype for commerical success and synergy. I have finished a multi-volume book manuscript surveying the classical tradition in opera. I am preparing an edition and translation of Boccaccio's Genealogy of the Pagan Gods for Harvard University Press. And I am embarking on a book-length manuscript analyzing the use of classical allusions in contemporary cinema. I am also at the early stages of preparing a book on Greek mythology.