Naming and Not Naming in Sophocles

It is a privilege to be contributing, even in absentia, to this celebratory event in memory of a great Hellenist whose work has exercised extraordinary influence in our field. Jacqueline de Romilly’s eloquent illumination of classical literature and society has opened up new perspectives to scholars and teachers from different generations and traditions, and I am proud to count myself among her beneficiaries and admirers. I hope that the choice of a large topic for a short paper is one of which our honorand would have approved. Why this subject? Names matter: for the shaping of memory, history and identity; and poets are always potentially interested in exploiting them. 1