Classics Commons^™

From The Perspective Of Eternity, Robin Mcallister

English Faculty Publications

This is a partial history of the literary topos “sub specie aeternitatis”. The Latin phrase means “from the perspective of eternity”. Eternity is the way God sees the universe, not as a succession of moments in time from past, to present, to future, but as a simultaneous present which includes the past and future as if they are already and always present. This temporal simultaneity is accompanied by a spatial totality and simultaneity. In both Chaucer and Dante the protagonist ends life’s wanderings and struggles by being carried up into the heavens and looking back on earth from the point …

Sagp Ssips 2016 Program, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sagp Ssips 2016 Abstracts, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Grand Allusions: Vergil In Phaedrus, Jeremy B. Lefkowitz

Classics Faculty Works

This article focuses on two allusions to Vergil in the opening of the third book of Phaedrus’ Aesopic fables (3.Prol.) and suggests that Vergilian poetry plays a surprisingly central role in Phaedrus’ reflections on the nature and purpose of his poetic project. By linking his own avowedly humble poetry to the Aeneid and Eclogues, Phaedrus draws attention to some unexpected points of contact with Vergil; but he also quite clearly presents himself as a relatively unimportant poet who has had a particularly difficult time finding acceptance in Rome. The engagements with Vergil thus provide contexts for Phaedrus to highlight a …

Interstate Alliances Of The Fourth-Century Bce Greek World: A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Nicholas D. Cross

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation offers a reassessment of interstate alliances (συμμαχία) in the fourth-century BCE Greek world from a socio-cultural perspective. Although there are a number of studies of ancient and modern alliances that approach the topic from a politico-military perspective, this is the first to apply a socio-cultural perspective to classical Greek alliances. By considering the subject in its own context, from the primary literary and epigraphic sources rather than modern theoretical models, this study aims to identify how contemporaries understood and represented their collaborative activities with other poleis. This approach leads to insights that challenge the widespread notion that classical …

Publication In Martial's Time And The Publication Of His Works, Jack Kaufmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I have attempted in this thesis to broadly discuss the nature of literary publication in classical times, characterized by (a) the lack of printing presses or any other means to make multiple copies of a work except by writing out each copy by hand, and (b) the lack of any copyright or other protection of a writer’s work. These factors led to a very different concept of publishing than our modern one. I have then focused on the epigrams of Martial (ca. 40 A.D. – 103 A.D.) in particular, because (a) his epigrams contain a wealth of information relating to …

Judging A Book: For Megan Cook The Value Of A Volume Is More Than The Words On The Page, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Megan Cook doesn’t judge a book by its cover. She also considers the historical context, the manner of binding, the illustrations on the contents page, marginalia penciled in by various owners, food stains that are reminders of someone’s long ago lunchtime reading.

Nietzsche’S Digital Alexandrians: Greek As Musical Code For Nietzsche And Kittler, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Obviousness, Benjamin Goldberg

Sophia and Philosophia

1. The Problem of Obviousness
There’s no such thing as obviousness.

This isn’t, of course, itself obvious; nor is it clear why it should be a problem. So let me start elsewhere, with the anti-vaccine movement. A friend of mine laid out the ‘obvious’ position: there are facts and rationality on one side, unenlightened ignorance and bigotry on the other. Scientists versus fools, and the fools don’t even know what game is being played.

Poetic Justice: Apology Overdue, Stephen Faison

Sophia and Philosophia

Jurors of our republic, I do not know whether you were persuaded by the case made against me, but I certainly hope that you were not. Some of what the prosecutor told you is accurate, though much of it is untrue. To put it another way, some of his facts are correct, yet the conclusions he presented were usually misleading distortions and in some cases simply incorrect. If the indictment is clarified to its essentials, I am accused of corrupting the young and not believing in the gods in whom the city believes. I intend to show that these charges …

The Context Of Alkmeonid Inscriptions And Monuments: A Catalogue Of Material And Literary Evidence For The Alkmeonidai, Cameron G. Pearson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Scattered in our ancient historical sources—Herodotus, Thucydides, the Athenaion Politeia—is the story of the Alkmeonidai; a wealthy, powerful, politically active, and frequently exiled Athenian family, in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. They also are mentioned in many literary works, such as Pindar, Aristophanes, Andocides, Isocrates, and Plutarch with more information provided by the ancient commentaries on these texts. But as is often the case, what we learn from written sources is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. However, the Alkmeonidai left many other traces of themselves, in dedications, public inscriptions, the temple at Delphi, and their names are also found …

Pharaonic Occultism: The Relationship Of Esotericism And Egyptology, 1875–1930, Kevin Todd Mclaren

Master's Theses

The purpose of this work is to explore the interactions between occultism and scholarly Egyptology from 1875 to 1930. Within this timeframe, numerous esoteric groups formed that centered their ideologies on conceptions of ancient Egyptian knowledge. In order to legitimize their belief systems based on ancient Egyptian wisdom, esotericists attempted to become authoritative figures on Egypt. This process heavily impacted Western intellectualism not only because occult conceptions of Egypt became increasingly popular, but also because esotericists intruded into academia or attempted to overshadow it. In turn, esotericists and Egyptologists both utilized the influx of new information from Egyptological studies to …

A Diachronic Approach To The Confusion Of B With V In Spanish, Eva Núñez-Méndez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This volume presents specific topics in diachronic Hispanic linguistics. These topics include: lexical survivals in Ibero-Romance, Arabisms, lexical variation in early modern Spain, the origins of the confusion of b with v, Andalusian Spanish in the Americas, the expansion of seseo and yeísmo, processes of koineization, syntactic change in scribal documentation from the Middle Ages, and the semantic changes of the verbs ser, estar and haber. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the Spanish lexicon, phonetics, morphosyntax, dialectology and semantics with the input of ten prominent scholars.

It focuses not only on relevant issues in the evolution of Spanish but …

Virgil In Virginia: Eighteenth-Century Pastoralism And The Novus Ordo Seclorum, Alley Jordan

Theses

This work examines classical reception in early America. Specifically, it addresses the role of classical ideas on pastoralism in the thought of one of America’s founders, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is best known for his role in the forming of United States government, but he was also influential on developing the idea of “America.” As such, his political theory on agrarian republicanism has strong ties to how the classical poets, such as Virgil and Theocritus, likewise thought about the relationship between land and government.

An Epic Hydrography: Riverine Geography In The Argonautika Of Apollonios Rhodios, Joseph R. Morgan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The literary record of the Ancient Mediterranean contains untapped potential for the study of the history of spatial representation, a new frontier in the history of geography. The articulation of spatial networks in written form is an integral element of several genres represented in the extant corpus of Greek literature. An analysis of the fabula space of an ancient narrative—the internal geography of the work itself—provides insights into the generic constraints, intertextuality, and contemporaneous geographical concepts that authors drew upon in constructing their particular literary geographies. The Argonautika of Apollonios Rhodios presents a particularly rich fabula space in epic form. …

The Curse As A Garment In Greek Tragedy, Judith Fletcher

Ancient Studies Faculty Publications

This article considers how Greek tragedy adapts the metaphor of the curse as a garment used in Ancient Near Eastern rituals and treaties. Using this comparative material, I analyze the fatal garments used by female characters in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, and Euripides’ Medea.

Initial Textual Imaging Group, Roger T. Macfarlane

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Finding development needs of scanning hardware for penetrating layers of carbonized papyrus. Explaining different kinds of ancient textual imaging groups. Process of X-ray Phase Contrast CT. Papyrus project.

Poor, Pitiful Monsters From Homer To Borges, Robin Mcallister

English Faculty Publications

This article reviews famous monsters in Western literature that reveal a hidden humanity or affinity with the hero that elicits compassion or emphasizes their bestiality in surprising ways. Their monstrosity is often a distorted mirror image of the hero’s humanity. Shakespeare’s Caliban is a famous example of the affinity between monster and protagonist. Homer’s Polyphemus, the first monster in Western tradition establishes certain traits that persist through later literature: lawless, barbarian, cannibal, and giant. Polyphemus hates men, but loves his old ram. Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon in Beowulf are giants, lawless, cannibals. The dragon Beowulf dies fighting anticipates …

Rethinking Greece: Despina Lalaki On Hellenism, State-Building, Archaeology And The "Democratic West", Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Northwest Coast Native American Art: The Relationship Between Museums, Native Americans And Artists, Karrie E. Myers

Museum Studies Theses

Museums today have many responsibilities, including protecting and understanding objects in their care. Many also have relationships with groups of people whose items or artworks are housed within their institutions. This paper explores the relationship between museums and Northwest Coast Native Americans and their artists. Participating museums include those in and out of the Northwest Coast region, such as the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the Burke Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum. Museum professionals who conducted research for some of these museums included Franz Boas, …