Angelo O Mercado
The allure of studying a “dead” language was too strong for Angelo Mercado to resist as a college freshman. It didn’t take long for Angelo to fall in love with the sound and rhythm of Classical Latin. His excitement grew to include the comparison of texts from other “dead” languages, embracing Greek and languages of ancient Italy related to Latin, as well as other languages in the Indo-European family. His life’s pursuit thus became the description of ancient poetry as formal systems that descend from a common ancestor, aspects of which can be recovered in light of linguistic theory and methodology.
Professor Mercado is best known for his work on Old Latin and related Italic meters. Recently, he has published series of papers on meter in Italic prayer texts and on the role of word accent in Latin meters adapted from Greek, which are based on syllable duration. This work is forthcoming as chapters of a handbook in press. He is currently working on describing and comparing Greek lyric and Indo-Iranian meters.
As a teacher, Professor Mercado thrives on introducing students to ancient language and epic. He regularly teaches Tutorial on epic, “Ancient Greek World” (HUM-101), elementary–intermediate Latin (LAT-103 and 222), Vergil (LAT-323), and Indo-European language and culture (CLS|LIN-270). He has also taught mythology (CLS|GLS-242), gender and sexuality in ancient Greece and Italy (CLS-395), and Plautus in Latin (LAT-395).
Education and Degrees
- Ph.D. in , 2006, University of California, Los Angeles
- M.A. in , 1998, University of California, Los Angeles
- B.A. in , 1996, Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA)
- Minor in Spanish
- High School Diploma, 1992, (San Jose, CA)
Selected Publications
Representative:
- Italo-Celtic
- “Word Stress in the Early Latin Hexameter.” In Satoko Hisatsugi, ed., , 85–102. Studien zur historisch-vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft 19. Hamburg: Baar, 2021.
- “Rhythm and Responsion in Some Italic Prayers.” In David M. Goldstein, Stephanie W. Jamison, and Brent Vine, eds., , 161–86. Bremen: Hempen, 2016.
- Italic Verse: A Study of the Poetic Remains of Old Latin, Faliscan, and Sabellic. 145. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, 2012.
- With Joseph F. Eska. Historische Sprachforschung 124 (2011): 227–38.
- Greek
- . Lecture given via Zoom, to the Cornell University Department of Classics.
- “On the Problem of Homeric Greek ἀμφιφορεύς.” In Gunkel, Jamison, Mercado, and Yoshida 2018, 242–55.
- Indo-Iranian
- In David M. Goldstein, Dieter C. Gunkel, Stephanie W. Jamison, and Anthony D. Yates (eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, 99–123. Berkeley: eScholarship, University of California, 2025.
- “Šāhs at the Pass of Thermopylae.” In Dieter Gunkel, Joshua T. Katz, Brent Vine, and Michael Weiss, eds., , 250–63. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave, 2016.
- Indo-European
- Co-editor with Dieter Gunkel, Stephanie W. Jamison, and Kazuhiko Yoshida. . Ann Arbor: Beech Stave, 2018.
In the News
- Bellarmine News, “” (Loyola Marymount University, April 4, 2016)