David Konstan

Biography

David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at Brown University.  He took his undergraduate degree in mathematics and his doctorate in Greek and Latin at Columbia University.  He is a past president of the American Philological Association, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Among his interests are ancient comedy and the novel, and the history of values and sentiments.  Among his books are Roman Comedy (1983); Sexual Symmetry: Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres (1994); Greek Comedy and Ideology (1995); Friendship in the Classical World (1997); Pity Transformed (2001); The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and Classical Literature (2006); Terms for Eternity: Aiônios and aïdios in Classical and Christian Texts (with Ilaria Ramelli, 2007); “A Life Worthy of the Gods”: The Materialist Pyschology of Epicurus (2008); and Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea (2010).  He is currently working on a book on Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea.