Elizabeth Scharffenberger
senior Lecturer
(212) 854-7822
es136@columbia.edu
610 Hamilton Hall
Spring 2025 Office hours: TBA
Research Interests
Ancient Greek and Roman drama
Comic literature (from antiquity to the present day)
Intellectual history
Greek Prose Style
Reception studies
Classics in translation
Elizabeth Scharffenberger earned a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and Literature from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Classics from Columbia University. Before returning to teach at Columbia, she taught at Clarkson University, Washington University in St. Louis, NYU, Yale University, and Vassar College. At Columbia University, she teaches a wide range of courses, from “Elements of Greek Prose Style” and a recent graduate seminar on Athenian comedy to Contemporary Civilization and Literature Humanities in Columbia College’s Core Curriculum. Her research and publications are generally focused on Athenian drama in the classical period and its reception in later eras. Current projects include a volume of essays titled Aristophanes and Politics, co-edited with Professors Helene Foley (Barnard College and Columbia University) and Ralph Rosen (University of Pennsylvania), and papers on fragments of dramas by Euripides and Strattis.
Selected Publications
“Andromache.” In The Brill Companion to Euripides. Ed. Andreas Markantonatos. Brill: Leiden and Boston, forthcoming.
“Oedipus at Colonus.” In The Brill Companion to the Reception of Sophocles. Eds. Rosanna Lauriola
and Kyriakos Demetriou. 326-88. Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2017.
“ΔΙΟΓΕΝΟΥΣ ΛΑΕΡΤΙΟΥ ΠΥΡΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΜΩΝ (Text, translation, and notes),” coauthored with Katja Vogt. In Diogenes Laertios: Das Leben Pyrrhons (9. Buch). Ed. Katja Vogt. 16-71. Göttingen: Sapere, 2015.
“Phoenician Women.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Euripides. Eds. Rosanna Lauriola and Kyriakos Demetriou. 1-12. Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2015.
“The Life of Euripides.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Euripides. Eds. Rosanna Lauriola and Kyriakos Demetriou. 292-319. Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2015.
“The Maculate Muse in the 21st Century: Recent Adaptations of Aristophanes’ Peace and Ecclesiazusae.” In Ancient Comedy and Its Reception: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Henderson. Ed. S. Douglas Olson. 1000-1021. Berlin and New York: Walter deGruyter, 2013.
“Axionicus, The Euripides Fan (frr. 3-4 PCG),” in No Laughing Matter: Studies in Athenian Comedy. Eds. C. W. Marshall and George Kovacs. 159-75. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2012.
“‘That Story Is Not True’: Unmaking Myth in Ellen McLaughlin’s Helen and Saviana Stanescu and Richard Schechter’s YokastaS.” In Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales, and Legends: Essays on Recent Plays. Ed. Verna Foster. 49-65. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012.
