Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

Tolkien And The Classical World (2021), Edited By Hamish Williams, John Houghton

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by John Wm. Houghton, of Tolkien and the Classical World (2021), edited by Hamish Williams

We Are Lysistrata, Amy Rubio, Srinidhi Subramanian

2021 Honors Council of the Illinois Region

Our presentation is focused on the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes in 411 B.C. It focuses on the themes presented in the play and what that reveals about the playwright as well as the period in history. We speak about the supposed role of women in that society, and how that play can be related to today. We further study how this play can be adapted to showcases themes of female empowerment.

Social Stratification & Mummification In Ancient Egypt: The Inevitability Of Variability In The Post-New Kingdom Mummification Program, Andrew Arsenault

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study examined the connection between social status and mummification in post-New Kingdom Egypt using a sample of sixty-one (n=61) adult non-royal Egyptian human mummies archived in the IMPACT radiological database. The purpose of this research was two-fold. First, as they have been uncritically accepted by both the academic community and popular literature, the validity of Classical mummification accounts offered by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus was assessed. Second, four features of mummification with status connotations (arm position, amulets, cranial resin, estimated stature) were tested using exploratory data analysis in search of any potential connections with each other or specific time …

Non Ego Laudari Curo: Honor, Shame, And Aristocratic Competition In Tibullus’ Elegy, Federico Di Pasqua

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation explores the ethics of shame and honor at the end of the Republic to offer new perspectives on Tibullus’ work and Roman elegy. By situating Tibullus’ corpus within his contemporaries’ aristocratic discourse on honor, my research argues that the elegiac narrator is not alien from the heroic self-assertion and pursuit of vengeance, typical of the honor-seeking elites of Roman antiquity. In my reading, Tibullus, while clad in elegiac non-conformity, is deeply committed to his contemporaries’ honor-driven ethos and, therefore, wary of the policing gaze of his fellow Romans. Albius Tibullus was an elegist and a citizen of equestrian …

Death And Empire: The Genesis And Expression Of Imperial Identity Via Assyrian Mortuary Contexts, Petra Maria Creamer

Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations

The ancient Assyrian Empire at its greatest extent in the 7th century BCE, spanned almost one million square kilometers. As the world’s first regional-scale empire, it established control over many pre-existing settlements, drawing them into the fold of not only Assyrian political dominance, but Assyrian cultural influence. In the Middle Assyrian period – from the very beginning of Assyrian expansion in the 14th c. BCE to the collapse of the Bronze Age in the 11th c. BCE – the Assyrian empire underwent its first phases of expansion. After a brief period of contraction, the Neo-Assyrian period saw the culmination of …

Alexander The Great And The Rise Of Christianity, Stephen M. Girard

Honors Projects

Alexander the Great and the Rise of Christianity focuses on the political, mythical, and philosophical connection between Alexander the Great's life and the beginnings of early Christianity. The first chapter of the text focuses on an analysis of mythical conceptions of Alexander the Great as “Son of God” as well as cultural perceptions of him as “Philosopher King” and cosmopolitan, and how these portraits of Alexander were influential for Christianity. The second chapter analyzes Alexander’s relationship with the Jewish people, and his appearances in the Old Testament apocalyptic Book of Daniel. The last chapter discusses Alexander’s relationship with Christianity itself, …

Caratacus, The Remembered Warrior: The Legacies Of Caratcaus In Roman Histories And The British Victorian Era, Isabella Kearney

Pomona Senior Theses

This study will explore the origins of the historical figure of Caratacus and analyze its reception in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. This work will begin by providing an overview of Caratacus’ context in the first century in Britannia. Then, looking at the reception of Caratacus, the study will chronologically analyze the portrayal of Caratacus in the ancient sources of Tacitus and Cassius Dio. As the first textual evidence of Caratacus, this will provide insights into Caratacus’ history and the origins of Caratacus’ transformation into an icon of Roman and British history. This work will then analyze the receptions of Caratacus …

Trojans Abroad: Two Thousand Years Of Wandering, Kristof S. Szabo

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This study explores three different claims made on a Trojan foundational myth, centered around the cultures found in Rome, Britain, and Scandinavia. Why would these peoples, centuries removed from the epic race, make such a claim as the basis for their history? This project studies the history of these distinct cultures, how and where they gained their understanding of the Trojan legend, and under what motivations did they wish to make their individual claims. The project then turns to a close reading of the specific literature that constructs the Trojan allegation: Vergil's Aeneid, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum Britanniae, …

Ἀντιάνειραι: Applying A Model Of Homeric Warriorship To Female Warriors In Ancient Greek Literature, Ruby M. Laufer

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I attempt to address the erasure of female warriors from the discussion of Homeric warriorship. I first create a model of the attributes and values of the Homeric warrior, based on the men of the Iliad. I then apply that model to four women: three Amazons—Penthesileia, Antiope, and Hippolyta—and one Greek—Atalanta—to show the ways in which they fit into the model. I conclude by examining the erasure of these women in other Homeric warrior models, and ultimately argue that these women are crucial to the study of warriorship, and should be considered as such in scholarship going …

Phanostrate And The Legitimization Of Professional Female Healers In Fourth Century Athens, Hannah Cremo

Senior Projects Fall 2021

The goal of this paper is to discuss the origins of female medical professionals and to explore the ways in which ancient female healers represented themselves. I argue that in fourth century Athens, legitimacy as a female medical professional in the eyes of doctors and the whole polis comes from a combination of using masculinized language to engage in medical discourse and feminine self-representation to expand the ideal of a “respectable woman.” Phanostrate’s funerary monument is the first look into how female healers legitimized themselves in the professional medical world, and so using her as a model, we can better …

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Vergil And Ovid's Clashing Portrayals Of Individual And Group Identity, Dante G. King

Senior Independent Study Theses

This independent study examines Vergil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Heroides and Metamorphoses with regard to Aeneas and Turnus as analogues for Roman citizens and Italic provincials respectively. As this project is primarily concerned with textual investigation, philological analysis of Vergil and Ovid’s texts takes center stage and is supplemented by contemporary material evidence and secondary scholarship in foundation narratology, identity, and political theory. So, whereas Vergil characterizes Aeneas as a dominant hero destined to found a new home for his people, the proto-Roman Trojans, and Turnus as a rebellious but ultimately ineffectual Italic monarch, Ovid presents the former as a detestable …

We're All A Little Bit Gay: Female Homoeroticism In Greek Art, Devon A. Matson

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study provides a close analysis of women in artwork from Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece (700-30 BC). Such images have traditionally been considered from exclusively heteronormative and androcentric perspectives. I employ queer and feminist theory in an attempt to provide a new understanding of the images present on these examples of ancient art which showcase women’s relationships. I examine a terracotta figure, a stamnos, a psykter, and a cup that display women interacting with one another. Their interactions demonstrate both homosocial and homoerotic relations. In an effort to reach a broader audience, I have curated a digital exhibit that …

Evaluating A Need For Somatic Access To Classical Objects In Public Museums, Jerod G. Peitsmeyer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Physical experiences with ancient art objects in museums are rare. Display paradigms in most public institutions continue to propagate systems of participant interaction that reinforces unequal power structures. The Montana Musuem of Art and Culture (MMAC) is the current custodian of an ancient, Rhodian wine amphora that provides an opportunity to examine a novel system of somatic participation. This proposal upends traditional gatekeeping practices and serves as a powerful and progressive, humanist touchstone; an olive branch extended to the general public from behind the walls of higher education and the ramparts of privileged scholarship. This study reimagines the amphora's future …

[Preface To] The Origins Of Roman Christian Diplomacy: Constantius Ii And John Chrysostom As Innovators, Walter Stevenson

Bookshelf

This book illuminates the origins of Roman Christian diplomacy through two case studies: Constantius II’s imperial strategy in the Red Sea; and John Chrysostom's ecclesiastical strategy in Gothia and Sasanian Persia.

Both men have enjoyed a strong narrative tradition: Constantius as a persecuting, theological fanatic, and Chrysostom as a stubborn, naïve reformer. Yet this tradition has often masked their remarkable innovations. As part of his strategy for conquest, Constantius was forced to focus on Alexandria, demonstrating a carefully orchestrated campaign along the principal eastern trade route. Meanwhile, whilst John Chrysostom' s preaching and social reform have garnered extensive discussion, his …

Antigone The Bride Of Death, Bailey Gomes

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Landscape And Lore: River Acheron And The Oracle Of The Dead, Lashante St. Fleur

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to explore the cultural relationships between people, landscape, memory and ritual, this master’s thesis focuses on the Acheron River in Epirus, Greece, long believed to harbor an entrance into Hades, the Greek underworld. Various entrances into the chthonic, or subterranean land of the dead, are peppered throughout Greece, with each tied to their own local myths, legends, folklore and cults. According to those traditions, Hades could be accessed from several terrestrial rivers thought to be connected to Oceanus, the primordial world-encompassing river surrounding all of creation. Flowing forth from River Ocean were all above- and underground rivers and …

Euripides' 'Andromache' And Athenian Hegemonic Ideology, Alexandra H. Dawson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Scholarship on the political character of Athenian tragedy has increasingly turned its attention to the relationship between tragedy and empire. In Athenian panegyric, Athens’ rule is frequently portrayed as hegemonic, although historiographical sources reveal inconsistencies between the idealized image of the city and the historical realities of empire. Several recent approaches have concentrated especially on tragedies that feature an Athenian setting or character in the dramatic action as a means to explore the ways in which the plays engage with Athenian ideas on power and domination. In response, the primary aim of this analysis is an understanding of the way …

Coffin Soul Portals Of The Female Xunren In Tomb Of Marquis Yi Of Zeng, Mary E. Blum

Theses and Dissertations

There is a significant void in scholarship concerning the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng’s (Zeng Hou Yi), Leigudun M1, Suizhou, Hubei Province, dated to 433 BCE during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BCE) of Bronze Age China, specifically on the lacquer coffins of the female xunren. There is extensive research dedicated to its well-preserved ritual bronze vessels, lacquer wares, and musical instruments, but this tomb is not known for the lacquer designs of portals present on twelve of the twenty-one female companion’s coffins. In this paper, I argue the xunren coffin designs in tomb Leigudun M1 of Zeng Hou …

De Libero Conscientia: Martin Luther’S Rediscovery Of Liberty Of Conscience And Its Synthesis Of The Ancients And The Influence Of The Moderns, Bessie S. Blackburn

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

One fateful day on March 26, 1521, a lowly Augustinian monk was cited to appear before the Diet of Worms.[1] His habit trailed behind him as he braced for the questioning. He was firm, yet troubled. He boldly proclaimed: “If I am not convinced by proofs from Scripture, or clear theological reasons, I remain convinced by the passages which I have quoted from Scripture, and my conscience is held captive by the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract, for it is neither prudent nor right to go against one’s conscience. So help me God, …

Embodying The Empire: Imperial Women And The Evolution Of Succession Ideologies In The Third Century, Christina Hotalen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces the creation and negotiation of dynastic succession ideologies between the emperors and their subject populations between 193 and 313 CE, particularly through the advertisement of imperial women. Julia Domna, Otacilia Severa, and Galeria Valeria occupy watersheds in the evolution of third century dynastic succession ideologies. The administrations of each emperor crafted propaganda designed to elicit support for their reigns and dynastic ambitions, each tailored to appeal to a particular audience. Images of the empresses in official media were carefully constructed to elicit a population’s support for the emperor’s legitimacy. Subjects responded to these messages, seeking to have …