Matthew Chaldekas is a scholar of Greek literature and culture with a focus on the Hellenistic period. His research considers a range of topics, including aesthetics, the gaze, ancient magic, and the history of philosophy. His first book (Idyllic Visions: Sight and Social Power in Theocritus, Peeters 2026) examines the social drama which is articulated through vision in the Idylls of Theocritus. His second book, an examination of significant terms in the literary aesthetics of the early Hellenistic period, is under contract with De Gruyter and set to appear in early 2027.
He joins the Department of Classics, Archaeology and Religion at Mizzou after 7 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen. He has also served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Languages and Literatures at the University of California-Riverside.
- Ph.D. Classics, University of Southern California
- M.A. Classics, Tulane University
- B.A. Classics / English, Michigan State University
- AMS 2600: Media and Communication in Ancient Greece and Rome
- AMS 4550/7550: Literature and Culture of the Hellenistic Age
- GREEK 1100/H: Elementary Ancient Greek I
Monographs
in press (2026), Idyllic Visions: Sight and Social Power in Theocritus, Leuven / Paris.
forthcoming, The Semantics of Aesthetic Experience in Hellenistic Poetry and Philosophy, Berlin / Boston.
Edited Volumes
2025, The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis From the Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity (De Gruyter: Trends in Classics). Berlin / Boston (with Irmgard Männlein).
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112207697
2024, Hellenistic Aesthetics: Approaches and Frameworks, special issue of BICS 67.2 (with Thomas J. Nelson). https://academic.oup.com/bics/issue/67/2
in preparation, Women, Divinity, and Politics in the Hellenistic Period, under contract with
Routledge, expected 2027 (with Michele Solitario)
Articles & Book Chapters
2025b, “Female Philosophers in Early Ptolemaic Alexandria: Prosopographical Perspectives,” Mnemosyne 78.6: 1009–1035. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10296
2025a, “Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis,” in: M Chaldekas / I. Männlein (eds.) The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis From the Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity (Trends in Classics), Berlin / Boston: 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112207697-003
2024, “Ecphrasis and Manual Labour: The Aesthetics of Woodwork in Leonidas,” BICS 67.2: 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/bics/qbae026
2023b, “Melancholy as a Technical Term and Literary Model in Sophocles’ Trachiniae,” in: Jahrbuch Literatur und Medizin 14: 13–38.
2023a, “Ecphrastic Medea: Between Intermediality and Intermateriality,” in: J. Stellmann / D. Wagner (eds.) Materialität und Medialität: Grundbedingungen einer anderen Ästhetik in der Vormoderne, Leiden / Boston: 367–389. (Open-Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110988413-015)
2021, “Seeing Statues: Authority, Erotic Power, and the Gendered Gaze in Theocritus,” in: J.J.H. Klooster / M.A. Harder / R.F. Regtuit / G.C. Wakker (eds.) Women and Power in Hellenistic Poetry. Hellenistica Groningana 26, Leuven / Paris: 59–82.
2020, “The Ethnographic Eye: Verbal and Visual Identification in Theocritus Idyll 22,” Phoenix 74: 15–35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7834/phoenix.74.1-2.0015