Classics Commons^™

Reconstructing Indo-European Syllabification, Andrew M. Byrd

Linguistics Faculty Publications

The chief concern of this dissertation is to investigate a fundamental, yet unsolved problem within the phonology of Proto-Indo-European (PIE): the process of syllabification. I show that by analyzing the much more easily reconstructable word-edge clusters we may predict which types of consonant clusters can occur word-medially, provided that we assume a special status for certain consonants at word’s edge. Having thus analyzed the entire PIE phonological system, I believe I have developed the first working hypothesis of Indo-European syllabification, which we may now use to pre- dict which types of syllable-driven rules of consonant deletion and vowel epenthesis occurred …

Ophelia's Mistreatment And Ignored Monastic Opportunities, Danielle Tovsen

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Thesis: I will argue that Ophelia could have saved her own life if she had left home and fled to a nunnery; the treatment she received from Laertes and Polonius was worse than Hamlet's treatment of her throughout the play and especially in Act 3 .1. Through thorough research, the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, is explored. This thesis specifically focuses on the character of Ophelia and Ophelia's relationships with Hamlet, Laertes, and Polonius. Through the examination of Ophelia, with a literature review of Ophelia's reputation amongst scholars, the argument is made that Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia is one of …

Body As Battleground: Feminine Prophecy And Identity In The Ancient Mediterranean, Daniel M. Picus

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Women who spoke with the voice of divinity existed in the literature and mythologies of many cultures across the ancient Mediterranean. This paper examines six of these prophetesses from ancient Greek and Jewish traditions. It shows that prophecy is an experience deeply rooted in conceptions of the human body and “femininity.” By studying prophetesses in this light, I conclude that their bodies become battlegrounds for individual identities which may otherwise be subsumed by the god for whom they prophesy.

Reforming "Hellenization" Into A Two-Way Street: The Dialectic Of Colonization Between Greeks And Sikels In Eastern Sicily, Dirk Petersen

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Extensive colonization was a key feature of Greek-speaking societies of the ancient Mediterranean. Diffusion of colonizers likewise led to a diffusion of the colonized, ramifications of which pepper extant literature. Rather than acknowledging these groups’ multi-vocality, Classical scholarship traditionally discusses their relationship employing the one-sided term, “Hellenization.” Even those interested in the experiences of the colonized often employ concepts such as appropriation and assimilation in their discussions. Rejecting these approaches, this paper employs a case study of Greek colonization in eastern Sicily to seek, instead, a dialectic, a lens to account for the nuances of pluralism inherent in these interactions.

Two Kings: An Account Of The Preparation And Performance Of The Role Of Edgar In William Shakespeare's King Lear, Ryan Kathman

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This work is my graduate thesis documenting the creative process behind my performance of the role of Edgar in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2009 production of King Lear by William Shakespeare. It is comprised of five sections including an introduction, pre-rehearsal research, rehearsal and performance journal, post-production responses and conclusion. The introduction outlines my impressions of Edgar and King Lear prior to researching or rehearsing the role. In my research section, I attempt to better understand Shakespeare, his play and the role of Edgar by studying the playwright’s life and the history of the character and play, while also making …

Scopophilia And Spectacle: Fashion And Femininity In The Novels Of Frances Burney, Cheryl Denise Clark

Dissertations

My dissertation investigates how the relationship between looking and being seen, or the interaction between scopophilia and spectacle, intersects with the rise of consumer culture and the ascendance of eighteenth-century fashion and fashionable places. By using Frances Burney’s novels as a lens through which to examine the eighteenth century’s fascination with looking, I consider the ways in which attracting “the look” or gaining attention through the visibility of stylish apparel and goods becomes a pathway to social agency in Burney’s novels. Fashion for Burney, I argue, emerges as a multifaceted system that manifests as a means of as social power …

Toward A Material History Of Epic Poetry, John Paul Hampstead

Masters Theses

Literary histories of specific genres like tragedy or epic typically concern themselves with influence and deviation, tradition and innovation, the genealogical links between authors and the forms they make. Renaissance scholarship is particularly suited to these accounts of generic evolution; we read of the afterlife of Senecan tragedy in English drama, or of the respective influence of Virgil and Lucan on Renaissance epic. My study of epic poetry differs, though: by insisting on the primacy of material conditions, social organization and especially information technology to the production of literature, I present a discontinuous series of set pieces in which any …

Sexual Healing: Gender And Sexuality In The Healing Cult Of Asklepios, Aislinn E. Lowry

Honors Projects

This study analyzes gender roles and sexuality within the cult of Asklepios through the analysis of inscriptions, medical texts, poetry, and art. I argue that the ancient Greek understanding of gender identity and sexuality is so omnipresent that it permeates everything from the concepts of illness and health themselves, to the appearance of the deities, and even the way healing was received within the sacred precinct. Also, I contend that Hygeia and Asklepios, representing health through harmony with nature and medical intervention respectively, were created and function in healing cults as an interdependent, inextricably linked sexual binary: health is equated …

An Investigation Of Roman Silver Plate In The San Antonio Museum Of Art, Allyson Walsh

Classical Studies Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Sexual Healing: Gender, Sexuality, And The Balance Of The Masculine And Feminine Creative Principles In The Healing Cult Of Asclepius, Aislinn Lowry, Nancy Sultan, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Review Of Handbuch Der Illustrierten Vergil-Ausgaben 1502-1840: Geschichte, Typologie, Zyklen Und Kommentierter Katalog Der Holzschnitte Und Kupferstiche Zur Aeneis In Alten Drucken, By W. Suerbaum, Julia H. Gaisser

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Aristotle On Learning In De Anima Ii.5, John F. Bowin

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Just as the coming to be of a substance may be described as either an extended process or the completion of an extended process depending on whether it is described as the coming to be of the composite or of the individual form, so the process of learning may be described as either an extended process or the completion of an extended process depending on whether it is described as the oscillation between states of truth and error or as the ‘settling down’ or cessation of this oscillation at the stage where knowledge has become a stable disposition (hexis). And …

Intelligible Matter In Aristotle, John Thorp

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The oxymoronic phrase ‘intelligible matter’ occurs three times in Aristotle. In two passages it has the same meaning; in the third the meaning seems radically different. This gives the impression that the Aristotelian language of metaphysics is distressingly slack. This paper argues, against the nearly unanimous voice of two millennia of commentaries, that ‘intelligible matter’ has the same meaning in all three loci. In doing so it develops a capital distinction that tightens up the apparatus of Aristotelian metaphysics.

Causation, Agency, And Law In Antiphon: On Some Subtleties In The Second Tetralogy, Joel Mann

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

That no one can or should be convicted in a law court on pollution charges is, I suggest, the implicit message of Antiphon’s second Tetralogy. More than a mere rhetorical exercise, Antiphon offers us a rational and compelling critique of religious law and of legal responsibility generally. In so doing, he anticipates modern puzzles in the philosophy of law as well as some of their more sophisticated solutions. A work not only of ingenious skepticism but also of considerable subtlety, the second Tetralogy should be considered the product of a philosopher who made perhaps the most substantial extant contribution to …

Writing And Empire In Tacitus [Review], Timothy M. O'Sullivan

Classical Studies Faculty Research

Over the past decade, scholars such as Ash, O’Gorman, and Haynes have taken up a cause long championed by Woodman, insisting that we must treat Tacitus’ works as literary productions before we can use them as historical documents. By remaining attentive to issues of voice, allusion, and narrative presentation, these scholars have shown how Tacitus is worthy of the kinds of intense readings we might perform on any ancient author writing in poetry or prose; in many ways they do for Tacitus what Miles, Jaeger, and Feldherr did for Livy in the 1990s. Dylan Sailor’s Writing and Empire in Tacitus …

Review Of "Masks Of Authority: Fiction And Pragmatics In Ancient Greek Poetics" By C. Calame, Translated By P.M. Burk, Grace M. Ledbetter

Classics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of John Richardson, The Language Of Empire: Rome And The Idea Of Empire From The Third Century Bc To The Second Century Ad, Fred Drogula

Fred K. Drogula

Odysseus In Democratic Athens, Aara Suksi

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

This project explores the varied forms in which the early Homeric epic hero Odysseus re-appears in the culture of democratic Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.

“Death, Goodness, And The Lost Daughter: The Homeric Hymn To Demeter And Carol Shields' Unless”, Aara Suksi

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

This research examines how a reading of Unless, conditioned by a familiarity with the traditional Greek myth, creates new meaning from the old story pattern.

Ghouls, Hell And Transcendence: The Zombie In Popular Culture From "Night Of The Living Dead" To "Shaun Of The Dead", Jasie Stokes

Theses and Dissertations

Considering the amount of media created around the zombie and the sustained interest in its role in our society, we can clearly see that a cultural phenomenon is underway, and it is important for us to question this phenomenon in order to gain some understanding of how and why its appeal has stretched so far. The zombie is somehow enthralling, and it is my opinion that this is in part because the zombie is a study of what it means to be human in the postmodern world. My main purpose here is not to ask why zombies are popular or …