Professor Turkeltaub teaches all levels of Greek and Latin language and literature classes. In addition, he teaches courses that focus on Greek concepts of justice, humor and laughter, myth, religion, theater, and politics.
Professor Turkeltaub’s research focuses on Greek epic poetry, tragedy, and comedy. He has published on the Iliad, Odyssey, Homeric Hymns, and Euripides’ Hecuba. He currently has several projects smoldering on his back burner. These include a book that examines the formulaic nature of divine epiphany scenes in Homeric poetry, further articles that recover how the Iliad and especially the Odyssey use humor as a vehicle for discussing epic heroism and the epic tradition, and another series of articles about how Euripides used both dialogue and tableaus formed from his actors to engage his audiences in political discussions about contemporary artistic responses to the Peloponnesian War. While those projects smolder on his back burner, Professor Turkeltaub is spending most of his energies at the moment composing a new introductory Ancient Greek textbook “Myth through Introductory Greek.” The book teaches students Ancient Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary by focusing on the language’s linguistic foundations. Students then practice their burgeoning reading skills by reading unaltered passages from Ancient Greek literature about myths, including Hesiod’s Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, (pseudo-) Apollodorus’s Library, Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, and Euripides’ Hippolytus.
Daniel Turkeltaub earned his A.B. in Classics with a certificate in Medieval Studies from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He arrived at Santa Clara University in 2010 after holding positions at Stanford University (2002-2005), Washington and Lee University (2005-2006), University of Notre Dame (2006-2007), and Millsaps College (2007-2010).