Bernardo Ballesteros Petrella

Dr Bernardo Ballesteros Petrella is a Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. He specializes in comparative studies between early Greek and Near Eastern poetry, with a focus on epic and narrative texts. His academic background includes a BA and MPhil from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. He has held postdoctoral positions at LMU Munich and the Warburg Institute.

• BA and MPhil from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
• DPhil in Classical Languages and Literature from University of Oxford

His research examines intersections between Sumero-Akkadian narratives and Homeric/Hesiodic texts, particularly regarding divine representation. He is currently expanding his doctoral thesis into a monograph and developing a second book on orality, writing, and poetic technique in archaic Greece and Babylonia. His work contributes to the Early Text Cultures research cluster.

Recent publications explore comparative mythology across Greek, Babylonian, and Sanskrit traditions, emphasizing destiny, agency, and narrative structures. His teaching includes graduate seminars on Sophocles and courses on Homer, early Greek hexameter, and Babylonian poetry.

• Postdoctoral Fellow at LMU Munich
• Henri Frankfort Fellow at the Warburg Institute