Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Trinity Menu Trinity Search

Department of Classics

Dr Jeremy Lam

Postdoctoral Researcher

Project title: Echoes of Olympus: Studies in the Reception of the Homeric Hymns in Hellenistic Poetry

I previously studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and worked in the technology industry in China before coming to Trinity College Dublin, where I completed my MPhil and then PhD in Classics. Since the completion of my PhD I have been a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Chinese and Greek Civilizations in Southwest University in Chongqing, China. I am delighted to return to TCD for the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship.  

My primary research interest is Hellenistic poetry, and my current project investigates the use of the Homeric Hymns in the poetry of the three major Hellenistic poets—Apollonius, Callimachus, Theocritus—together with the later Moschus. In addition to the question of hymnic genre, I am interested in the narratives of the Homeric Hymns and how they serve as important models for the Hellenistic poets for themes and topics that are marginal in the Homeric epics. In summer of 2023 I organised an international conference on the Argonautica myth with fellow TCD alumni Alastair Daly and Lisa Doyle, and the volume based on the workshop, Argo Crossing: Studies in Apollonius’ Argonautica and its Reception has recently been published (De Gruyter, 2026). A secondary research interest concerns the reception of classical literature and mythology in visual arts, especially in the ways that appreciation and analysis of an artwork can lead to deeper insights into the original text from which it derives. 

Besides my research I enjoy outreach activities where I could bring classical literature and mythology to wider audiences. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to explore such opportunities. 

Selected Publications

  • “Warrior Maiden: A Reconsideration of Sandro Botticelli’s Pallas and the Centaur.” In Magdalena Zira and Edith Hall (edd.), The Afterlives of the Aeneid’s Women. Liverpool University Press (forthcoming, 2026).
  • Argo Crossing: Studies in Apollonius’ Argonautica and its Reception, co-edited with Alastair Daly and Lisa Doyle. De Gruyter Brill (2026).
  • "Old World Landowners: Argonautic and Hymnic Intertexts for Ovid’s Philemon and Baucis Episode (Met. 8.611-724)” in Argo Crossing (see above), 171-84.
  • "A Gentle Monster: The Homeric Model for Medea’s Speech to the Serpent in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 8.92-108.” Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 93: 167-83 (2024).

Email lamt