Digital Commons Network^™

Creating Legitimacy: The Dyarchy In Spartan Social Memory, Stephanie J. Dennie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Scholars of the constitutional development of Archaic Sparta and its dyarchy (or dual kingship) have long considered Tyrtaios’ Eunomia contemporary evidence for the mysterious lawgiver Lykourgos, whose alleged reforms have largely been reconstructed from late-Classical and Roman sources. According to orthodox narratives of Lykourgos, seventh-century Sparta enjoyed internal stability and good governance, but Tyrtaios’ seventh-century poem strongly suggests the continued existence of civil strife. Drawing on social memory studies and archaeological survey data, this dissertation questions the Lykourgan grand narrative and explores the capacity of Tyrtaios’ Eunomia to help us recontextualize Sparta’s socio-political development in the seventh century BCE.

I …

Applying 3d Structured Light Scanning To Roman Leather Insoles From Vindolanda: A Novel Approach To Podiatric Data Collection, Maria Lorene Glanfield

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis research introduces a novel 3D structured light scanning and digital, post-processing enhancement methodology influenced by digital approaches used in anthropological archaeology, ichnology, and forensic podiatry to the analysis of Roman leather insoles from Vindolanda. The primary objective was to capture 2D and 3D footprint impression evidence on the surface of 81 insoles for enhanced visualization and analysis in order to refine the quality of podiatric data that can be extracted from Roman footwear. I conducted three case studies (pointed toe, sandal, and children’s insoles) based on a set of distinct, but related research questions concerning the refinement of …

Shoe Modifications And Foot Health: A Case Study From Roman Britain, Casey Elizabeth Kay Boettinger

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, I undertake an examination of foot care practices in Antiquity. The majority of the discussion surrounding foot care comes from evidence of shoe modifications at Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort located in northern Britain. I provide a general discussion about herbal and non-herbal remedies for foot conditions, as recorded by medical authors. This discussion precedes a case study of selected shoes from Vindolanda, where I write about five modification types that demonstrate the sort of knowledge that existed at Vindolanda. The findings from this thesis suggest that podiatric knowledge and foot care existed as early as the …

The Myth Of Fanfiction: An Examination Of Two Deeply Connected Traditions Of Storytelling, Fionntan I. Ferris Mr.

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Fanfiction is an often dismissed medium of storytelling, however our investigation shows that it is deeply linked to the storytelling tradition of Classical mythology. Through the lens of classical reception studies we will examine the shared structures of these mediums as well as the deeper meaning they have and had to their audience in order to establish this deep connection. This paper will conclude with an investigation of why, despite their deep similarities, copyright law has led to fanfiction becoming derided while myth is placed on a pedestal.

Who Gets To Be A Knower? Epistemic Authority In Classical Studies, Jaymie Orchard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis I explore the question: who gets to be a knower in Classical Studies? First, I investigate how identity has been researched in Classical Studies. I focus on recent demographic studies, and I problematize the language and methodologies they employ. Then, using the methodology of reflexive positionality, I analyze how scholars have considered the impact that their own identity, and the identity of other scholars, has on the knowledge they produce. Though reflexive positionality is minimally applied, I demonstrate that there are conventions in Classical Studies which parallel the motivations of reflexive positionality and I explore the implications …

Evidence Of The Erotic In The House Of The Vettii, Ashley Franker-Shuh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis I examine the erotic evidence from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. I analyze the erotic wall-paintings in the House of the Vettii (located in rooms b, p, n, t, and x¹) and the erotic graffiti found within the house (located in rooms v and a). I also consider individual and overarching themes found within the erotic wall-paintings in order to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the artwork and identify a number of themes in the decorative programme: erotic abandonment, illicit desire, and demigods that use sexual violence against …

Peitho, Dolos, And Bia In Three Late Euripidean Tragedies, Christian Bot

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The themes of peitho (persuasion), dolos (trickery), and bia (violence or physical force) are central to the action of the three late Euripidean tragedies that I explore: Iphigenia in Tauris, Iphigenia in Aulis, and the Bacchae. I examine how these themes influence characters' interpersonal relations, drive plot development, and determine the "mood" of each play in terms of a spectrum from optimism to pessimism.

Shifting Discourses Of Roman Otium In Cicero, Catullus, And Sallust, Keegan Bruce

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the transitions that the Roman discourses of otium experience between the years 60–40 bce. I examine the instances of otium in Cicero, Catullus, and Sallust to reconstruct the discourses that influenced their usages of the term, and to shed light on how elite Roman men were adjusting to their shrinking access to the political sphere as a small number of men gained power. To perform this analysis, I rely on discourse theory and leisure studies. I have identified six main usages of otium in their writings: otium as free time; otium as peace, or time without disturbance; …

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 …

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 …

The Gift In The Iliad, Tyler Jordan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis I challenge the dominant conception of gift giving in the Iliad. In Chapter 1 I show that the textual evidence does not support the idea that different categories of gift giving are denoted by word choice. In Chapter 2, I show that modern theories are not able to explain perfectly the instances of gift giving in the Iliad. Furthermore, I show that the use or avoidance of gift-terms in the poem can carry meaning. In Chapter 3, I take the conclusions from the previous two chapters and apply them to a focused analysis of the …

Experiential Learning: Museum Of Ontario Archaeology And The Vindolanda Field School, Victoria Burnett

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Presentations

Focusing first on the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, the slides are meant to illustrate the program PastPerfect that I had learned how to use during my time there, as well as a snippet of the Maple Harvest blog post I had written, wherein I would explain the value I had found in writing it and the comments that the Curator made in returning it to me before publishing it. After that is a slide where I would explain the Google Arts and Culture page, what the plans were for me to contribute to it a bit as well as the …

Report On The Museum Of Ontario Archaeology Cel And The Vindolanda Field School, Victoria Burnett

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In this report, Burnett discusses her experiences as an intern with the Museum of the Ontario Archaeology, and the opportunities she received taking part in the Vindolanda Field School. Having worked in the heritage field in various capacities for six years, Burnett found it to be immensely valuable to build upon her skills of research, critical thinking, and collaboration. Specifically, in the case of archaeology and museum-based conservation, Burnett focused her analysis on the differences between the practices in Ontario and in England as she experienced them at a variety of institutions and sites. Aside from this, the informational and …

Lictors In The Roman World, Erin Pierik

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lictors attended the senior magistrates of Rome for nearly its entire history. As an important part of the apparatus of state, lictors have received little scholarly attention in their own right. This thesis explores the roles lictors played within the constitution of Rome and how they supported and reinforced the authority of the magistrates. Lictors were highly symbolic as representatives of state authority and were used in the literary sources to demonstrate certain aspects of the state. Finally, material evidence for lictors is analyzed to provide a picture of lictors as people and as a social class that is not …

Ritual Impasse In Tragic Marriage: Sophocles' Deianeira, Euripides' Hermione, Euripides' Electra., Valeria Logacheva

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the ways in which the dynamics of marriage presented in Athenian tragedy of the fifth century BCE affect the portrayal of three tragic wives: Sophocles’ Deianeira, Euripides’ Hermione, and Euripides’ Electra. In modern scholarship, all three of these women have often been endowed with psychological portraits, which in turn have been used to explain their motivations and actions. Believing such an approach to be too subjective and anachronistic, I analyze instead the portrayal of tragic wives against the backdrop of contemporary Athenian institutions, in particular that of marriage. I argue that the problematic nature of their marriages …

Thucydides' Account Of The Plague As Trauma Narrative, Jenna M. Colclough

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thucydides’ detailed description of the Athenian plague, which is estimated to have killed from a quarter to a third of Athens’ population[1]and led to the breakdown of several social norms, has been approached from a variety of scholarly perspectives, yet its potential as a trauma narrative is still underexplored.

Drawing on comparative evidence from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, such as Katherine Anne Porter’s fictionalized account Pale Horse, Pale Rider, this thesis examines the emotive and commemorative functions of Thucydides’ plague episode through the lens of trauma theory. By combining elements of personal narrative, literature, and …

Searching For Wisdom: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Women's Perspectives Following Participation In An Ovarian Cancer Supportive Care Group, Helen Butlin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study used a novel methodology of hermeneutic-poetic-phenomenology to explore perspectives of women living with ovarian cancer. Each had participated in a supportive care group process Soul-Medicine prior to volunteering. Three women, Beth, Carrie, and Denise contributed to this study. The methodology was grounded in Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of poetic-phenomenology. Data was analyzed with attention to image-centred knowledge; material imagination; reverie; and horizons of hope to elucidate their implicated aspects of wisdom and the ways participant’s formed their personal wisdom integrating feminist theories of embodiment and bioethics.

Findings are framed through three images of a uniquely formed inner ‘wisdom-compass’, an …

Guilt In Vergil’S 'Aeneid' And Lucan’S 'Bellum Civile', Michelle Sugar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study is a comparative analysis that focuses on the portrayal of guilt in Vergil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Bellum Civile. I use Greek and Roman concepts of emotions and modern theories from psychology and psychoanalysis to argue that many of the emotions that seemingly pervade these poems, such as anger and despair, should be read as being partly related to a hero’s experience of guilt. I examine different types of guilt, namely legal and psychological guilt, to better understand how Vergil and Lucan use guilt to develop the emotional landscapes of their poems and how they represent the psychological …

Curating Suffering: The Challenges Of Mobilising Holocaust Histories, Narratives And Artifacts, John L. Sizeland

2018 Undergraduate Awards

With the upsurge in public interest in truth and accessibility to historically suppressed narratives surrounding human atrocities, the research done by archaeologists has taken on a new authority in these discussions as being a tangible link to victims, perpetrators and context. With this comes a return of the common debate amongst researchers, how best to present and represent their work to the public ensuring it is accessible, accurate and interesting. When it comes to knowledge mobilization of sensitive but important events, the Holocaust makes an interesting and relevant case study as debates surrounding its teaching and presentation have been continuous …

Xenia In Classical Economies: The Function Of Ritualized Interpersonal Relationships In Athenian Trade, Morgan C. Kostiew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Drawing on North’s New Institutional Economics (enhanced by Finley’s substantivist model), this thesis contributes to ancient economic theories by analyzing the role of the social institution of xenia in Classical Athenian economies. The significance of this ritualized interpersonal relationship has not yet been sufficiently appreciated, especially regarding its effects as a structural determinant on economic performance within specific trade mechanisms.

The case study of two particular economic services, provided by the Athenian aristocrat Andocides through his xenia with Archilaus of Macedon and Evagoras of Cyprus (And. 2.11 and 20-21) not only illustrates the significant effect of such ritualized personal relationships …

P13. Wagner's Use Of The Formal Lament For King Mark In Tristan Und Isolde, Julie Anne Nord

Western Research Forum

Background: The composer Richard Wagner often expressed his distaste for “number” operas and other contrived forms used in the Italianate works of his forerunners and contemporaries. In place of these operatic conventions, Wagner drew upon the Tragedy of Ancient Greece to propose a “total artwork” (Gesamtkunstwerk)) with no contrived breaks for conventional form. Despite, or perhaps because of, his aversion toward operatic formal conventions, Wagner turned to one such form for his music for King Mark in Tristan und Isolde.

Methods: This poster demonstrates Wagner’s use of lament tropes from the poetry of Greek Tragedy and from …

Homeric Kinship On The Margins Of The Oikos, Tim Wright

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Homeric scholarship has a long history, dating back to the 19th century, of elucidating Homeric poetry through examining its kinship structures and how kinship is performed. Of particular note has been the focus on the father-child dynamic both per se and with respect to its widespread use as a prototype for a diverse range of relationships. Agamemnon, for example, can be profitably viewed as a kind of dysfunctional father to the Achaeans, and many of the Odyssey’s characters are implicitly judged based on the extent to which they fill the role of the gentle father (ēpios patēr) …

Figures Du Monarque Et Imaginaire Tyrannique Chez La Fontaine, Hafida Bencherif

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pour La Fontaine, la fable est un genre où se réalise la réactualisation de l’apologue ésopique, à travers laquelle il a su maintenir une parole libérée de toute oppression mais déguisée par celle de l’animal fabuleux, afin de condamner les vices de la cour de Louis XIV. Cette thèse se donne pour objectif principal la saisie de la conception du pouvoir monarchique à travers la figure du Monarque et l’imaginaire tyrannique dans la fable « Les Compagnons d’Ulysse » et autres. Pour ce faire nous appréhendons la vision du pouvoir se dégageant de la réécriture de l’épisode du voyage d’Ulysse …

Inhuman And Heroic Women: Femininity In The Odyssey And The Arthurian Vulgate, Alexandra Salyga Reynolds

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Odyssey and the Arthurian Vulgate each integrate various traditional sources with various takes on gender into themselves as well as comment directly on the topic. The Odyssey prioritizes forming both cooperative and competitive equality between male and female characters and their distinctly masculine and feminine uses of language. The Arthurian Vulgate prioritizes forming a status hierarchy with masculinity higher than femininity and correspondences between the gender binary and other binaries, although it also transmits stories with embedded contradictory messages. Both texts also tell a false queen story, which comments on the possibility of a disconnect between a sign and …

The Acrobatic Body In Ancient Greek Society, Jonathan R. Vickers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis I collate the textual, artistic, and material evidence for acrobatics in sport and spectacle in Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece, and analyze gymnastic performances with regard to their respective socio-cultural contexts. I develop the theoretical perspective that all body movement is socially qualified in order to demonstrate how the extreme manipulations of an acrobatic body carry particular social meaning: in sport, the male acrobatic body approaches superhumanism, and in spectacle the female acrobatic body approaches subhumanism. I argue, on the one hand, that men’s tumbling took place at the early Panathenaia festival in Athens, both in martial …

Language Contact And Identity In Roman Britain, Robert Jackson Woodcock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Language is one of the most significant aspects of cultural identity. This thesis examines the evidence of languages in contact in Roman Britain in order to determine the role that language played in defining the identities of the inhabitants of this Roman province.

All forms of documentary evidence from monumental stone epigraphy to ownership marks scratched onto pottery are analyzed for indications of bilingualism and language contact in Roman Britain. The language and subject matter of the Vindolanda writing tablets from a Roman army fort on the northern frontier are analyzed for indications of bilingual interactions between Roman soldiers and …

The Real Housewives Of Ancient Rome: Evidence For The Economic Contributions Of Women, Sarah M. Vanderploeg

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The involvement of women in commerce has been a common feature of most economies. However, Roman authors tend to obscure the function of women within the Roman economy. This thesis seeks not only to understand the roles women played in commerce in ancient Rome but also the impact that their social status had on their ability to contribute in a meaningful way to the economy.

Epigraphic and literary evidence is drawn on to provide a complete understanding of the roles women played. It is apparent that social status affected the way a female was able to interact with the economic …

Defending Liberal Education: Implications For Educational Policy, Christopher W. Lyons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis advocates for the inclusion of liberal education in discussions of the college and university missions and mandates in North America. It is conceived with the purpose of influencing policy thinking and generating the theory and ideas required for sound education policy decision making. Research into liberal education is a special and atypical kind of inquiry and requires innovative theoretical approaches. Liberal education is foremost a philosophical problem and requires philosophical approaches. The method used is, therefore, conceptual in nature and drawn from analytical philosophy.

My research approaches liberal education conceptually in three ways: historically, philosophically, and politically. Historically, …

Peri Algeos: Pain In Aeschylus And Sophocles, Anda Pleniceanu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is an examination of physical pain in ancient tragedy, with the focus on three plays: Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Trachiniae. The study unfolds the layers of several conceptual systems in order to get closer to the core—pain and its limits in tragedy. The first chapter aims to show that Aristotle’s model for the analysis of tragedy in his classificatory tract, the Poetics, centered on the ill-defined concept of mimesis, is an attempt to tame pain and clean tragedy of its inherent viscerality. The second chapter looks at the dualist solution advanced by Plato …

"Zeus The Head, Zeus The Middle": Studies In The History And Interpretation Of The Orphic Theogonies, Dwayne A. Meisner

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis contributes to debates about the definition of Orphism by observing three characteristics of Orphic myth: Near Eastern influence, discourse between myth and philosophy, and speculations about the natures of Phanes, Zeus, Dionysus and other deities. In chronological order I analyze the fragments of four theogonies that were attributed to Orpheus: the Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic Theogonies. Most modern scholars have described these poems as if they were similar to Hesiod’s Theogony – lengthy chronological accounts of the births of the gods from the beginning of time to the present – but I argue that the Orphic tradition …