Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

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 …

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, …

"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 …