Sophia Xenophontos Explained

Sophia Xenophontos
Honorific Suffix:	FHEA
Occupation:	Classicist, author
Alma Mater:	Magdalen College, University of Oxford
Discipline:	Classicist
Sub Discipline:	Ancient Greek literature, Byzantine literature
Workplaces:	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Glasgow
Main Interests:	Plutarch, Galen; reception of ancient Greek literature and thought in Byzantium; Aristotelian commentaries; emotions, practical ethics and psychotherapy in antiquity and the medieval period; textual criticism and translation^[1] ^[2]
Notable Works:	(2016)

Sophia Xenophontos is a Greek-Cypriot classicist and associate professor of Greek at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.^[3] She is also affiliate scholar with the University of Glasgow,^[4] where she was previously lecturer in Classics and principal investigator and director of the Byzantine Aristotle project^{[5] [6]} funded by the AHRC.^[7] Xenophontos is an external collaborator for the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina project (under the auspices of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities) and the founder and editor-in-chief of the book series ‘Theorising the Greek and Roman Classics’ (Routledge, UK).^[8]

She specializes in the Greek literature of the 1st-2nd century AD, with particular focus on Plutarch. She has made significant contributions to the field, with her novel approaches to Plutarch's Lives and Moralia, which have been acclaimed by several reviewers. Xenophontos has expanded her scholarly pursuits to include the physician Galen of Pergamum, investigating the interplay between his psychological/moral writings and medical theory and practice. She has received recognition, including a Wellcome Trust University Award.^[9] Its main output is the monograph ‘Medicine and Practical Ethics in Galen’ published in 2024 by Cambridge University Press, which was highly praised. Her research on Galen has had an impact beyond academia, featuring in the German Der Spiegel, thus also contributing to popular understandings of ancient psychotherapy and emotions.

Active in the Aristotelian commentary tradition and the study of Byzantine philosophical works, Xenophontos has published critical editions and translations,^{[10] [11]} focusing mainly on Theodore Metochites and George Pachymeres in whom she is considered a leading authority.

Select publications

Books

• Xenophontos, Sophia. Medicine and Practical Ethics in Galen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
• Galen, On Avoiding Distress, On My Own Opinions. Critical Edition by Ioannis Polemis and Sophia Xenophontos; Translation by Sophia Xenophontos. Berlin: De Gruyter, Trends in Classics, 2023.
• Georgios Pachymeres, Commentary on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: Critical Edition with Introduction and Translation. Edited by Sophia Xenophontos. Translated by Sophia Xenophontos and Crystal Addey. Berlin: De Gruyter, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina, 2022.^[12]
• Marmodoro, Anna, and Sophia Xenophontos, eds. The Reception of Greek Ethics in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
• Theodore Metochites. On Morals or Concerning Education. Translated by Sophia Xenophontos. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 61. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2020.
• Xenophontos, Sophia, and Katerina Oikonomopoulou, eds. Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch. Vol. 20. Brill: Leiden, 2019.^[13]
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, and Sophia Xenophontos, eds. Greek Medical Literature and its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium. London-New York: Routledge, 2018.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. (2016)^{[14] [15] [16] [17] [18]}

Articles

• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Medical Imagery in Maximus of Tyre’s Orations." Medical History 67.3 (2023): 211–227.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Exploring Emotions in Late Byzantium: Theodore Metochites on Affectivity." Byzantion 91 (2021): 423–463.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "The reception of Plutarch in George Pisides’ panegyrical poems." Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 44, no. 2 (2020): 189-211.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "The cultural dynamics of the term Hellanodikes in Palaiologan Byzantium." Byzantinische Zeitschrift 108, no. 1 (2015): 219–228.
• Xenophontos, Sophia A. "Reading Plutarch in nineteenth-century Greece: classical paideia, political emancipation, and national awareness—the case of Adamantios Koraes." Classical Receptions Journal 6, no. 1 (2014): 131–157.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Resorting to rare sources of antiquity: Nikephoros Basilakes and the popularity of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives in twelfth-century Byzantium." Parekbolai (2014): 1–12.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "‘A living portrait of Cato’: self-fashioning and the classical past in John Tzetzes’ Chiliads." Estudios bizantinos 2 (2014): 187-204.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Psychotherapy and moralising rhetoric in Galen’s newly discovered Avoiding Distress (Peri Alypias)." Medical History 58, no. 4 (2014): 585–603.
• Xenophontos, Sophia A. "Imagery and Education in Plutarch." Classical Philology 108, no. 2 (2013): 126–138.
• Xenophontos, Sophia A. "Plutarch's Compositional Technique in the An seni respublica gerenda sit: Clusters vs. Patterns." American journal of philology (2012): 61–91.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Comedy in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives." Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 52, no. 4 (2012): 603–631.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Peri agathou strategou: Plutarch’s Fabius Maximus and the ethics of generalship." Hermes 140, no. 2 (2012): 160–183.

Book chapters

• Xenophontos, Sophia. ‘George Pachymeres’ Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: A New witness to Philosophical Instruction and Moral Didacticism in Late Byzantium’, in The Reception of Greek Ethics in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, eds. S. Xenophontos and A. Marmodoro, 226–248.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Plutarch and Theodore Metochites." In Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch, pp. 310–323. Brill, 2019.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Plutarch and Adamantios Koraes." In Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch, pp. 546–562. Brill, 2019.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. Galen's Exhortation to the Study of Medicine: An Educational Work for Prospective Medical Students”, in Greek Medical Literature and its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium. London-New York: Routledge, 2018, eds. P. Bouras-Vallianatos and S. Xenophontos, 67–93.
• ‘The Byzantine Plutarch: Self-identity and Model in Theodore Metochites’ Essay 71 of the Semeioseis gnomikai’, in The Afterlife of Plutarch. London: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement. Institute of Classical Studies (2018), eds. P. Mack and J. North, 23-39.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. “Military Space and Paideia in the Lives of Pyrrhus and Marius”, in Space, Time, and Language in Plutarch. Berlin-New York: De Gruyter, 2017, eds. A. Georgiadou and Κ. Oikonomopoulou, 317–326. (The chapter was translated into Russian upon invitation; it features in Hypothekai [2020] 4: 207–223).
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "Plutarch", in A Companion to Ancient Education. Chichester:Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, ed. Martin Bloomer, 335–346.
• Xenophontos, Sophia. "From Chaeronea to Paris: Adamantios Koraes as a reader of Plutarch and the choice of heroes." (2013): 455–464.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Sophia Xenophontos - Georgios Pachymeres. Commentary on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Critical. . .
2. Web site: Sophia Xenophontos - on Morals or Concerning Education. Theodore Metochites . .
3. Web site: Sophia A. Xenophontos School of Philology . 2024-01-12 . www.lit.auth.gr.
4. Web site: University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Humanities Sgoil nan Daonnachdan - Our staff - Dr Sophia Xenofontos . 2024-01-12 . www.gla.ac.uk . en.
5. Web site: About – BYZANTINE ARISTOTLE . 2024-01-12 . en-GB.
6. Web site: Who we are – BYZANTINE ARISTOTLE . 2024-01-12 . en-GB.
7. Web site: Sofia Xenofontos . UK Research and Innovation.
8. Web site: Theorising the Greek and Roman Classics - Book Series - Routledge & CRC Press . 2024-01-12 . www.routledge.com.
9. Web site: The physician of the soul: medicine and practical ethics in Galen . 2024-01-13 . Wellcome . en.
10. Web site: Sophia Xenophontos Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Academia.edu . 2024-01-12 . auth.academia.edu.
11. Web site: University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Humanities Sgoil nan Daonnachdan - Our staff - Dr Sophia Xenofontos . 2024-01-12 . www.gla.ac.uk . en.
12. Review of: Georgios Pachymeres. Commentary on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics . Bryn Mawr Classical Review . 1055-7660 . The volume under review, the seventh to appear in this series, is an excellent work that lives up to this double aspiration. Xenophontos’ edition of George Pachymeres’ Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction, a precise yet readable translation by Xenophontos and Crystal Addey, and indexes of parallel passages and of Greek terms. Modern readers are well-supported here in their first encounter with this hitherto unknown material. [...]The English translation of the text is among the commendable achievements of the volume as it is both precise and readable.[5] All in all, the volume is well-produced and deserves the attention of scholars and students who are interested in enhancing their understanding of Aristotle’s practical philosophy as well as of those who are interested in familiarizing themselves with Byzantine philosophy..
13. Cook . Brad L. . Review of: Brill's companion to the reception of Plutarch . Bryn Mawr Classical Review . 1055-7660 . This new companion to the reception of Plutarch is most welcome. The breadth of coverage in its thirty-seven chapters is unprecedented […] The depth of coverage is likewise unprecedented, for which it is all but required to have such a team of scholars to achieve this..
14. Monaco Caterine . Mallory A. . September 2018 . ETHICAL EDUCATION IN PLUTARCH: MORALISING AGENTS AND CONTEXTS. By SophiaXenophontos. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016. Pp. ix + 266. Hardcover, $140.00. . Religious Studies Review . en . 44 . 3 . 333 . 10.1111/rsr.13586 . 240277428 . 0319-485X.
15. Review of: Ethical Education in Plutarch: Moralising Agents and Contexts. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 349 . Bryn Mawr Classical Review . 1055-7660.
16. Book: Xenophontos, Sophia . Ethical Education in Plutarch . 2016 . de Gruyter . 978-3-11-035036-4 . Berlin.
17. Cambron-Goulet . Mathilde . 2018-11-09 . Sophia Xenophontos, Ethical education in Plutarch: moralising agents and contexts . Anabases. Traditions et réceptions de l'Antiquité . fr . 28 . 400–402 . 10.4000/anabases.8315 . 1774-4296.
18. Roskam . G. . 2018 . Ethical Education in Plutarch. Moralising Agents and Contexts . L'Antiquité Classique . 87 . In general, this is an excellent discussion of Plutarch’s views on ethical education, based on a thorough familiarity with both the Corpus Plutarcheum and with existing scholarly literature. The different chapters contain many innovative insights and rest on a varied methodology that does justice to the particular character of the source texts. Furthermore, Xenophontos correctly presents her study as “the first sustained attempt to show that both the Parallel Lives and the Moralia offer comprehensive and intriguingly sophisticated ways of reading and gauging Plutarch’s mental mapping on ethical pedagogy” (p. 195). This is definitely one of the greatest merits of the book. It is only fairly recently that the unity of Plutarch’s works and the many interconnections between Moralia and Parallel Lives have received more attention, and by adopting this line of approach, Xenophontos sets the standard for further studies in this field..