Classics Commons^™

Persephone And Hades: A Study Of Representation In Art And Culture, Sara Buckley

Student Scholarship

Ancient artworks which represent classical Greek myths most commonly depict the story's climax. Their subjects reveal that the ancient Greeks' taste for dramatic storytelling matched their reverence for each divine entity's embodiment, whether it was a natural phenomenon or an abstract concept. The former of these traits dominate the visual portrayals of the Pluto and Persephone myth, as can be seen in many artworks where the ancient Greeks chose to depict the moment where Pluto theatrically abducts Persephone and sweeps her away to the underworld. In fact, in visual art, it was characteristic of the Greeks to stress the exciting …

Un Modo Più Chiaro: Francesco Scannelli, Guercino And The Physiology Of Style, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The mid-seicento in Italy witnessed a sustained proliferation of writers on art scattered throughout more regions than had been common in the previous century, leading to an era defined by arguments over the qualities and values of style.1 In the Preface for his Vite de 'pittori, scultori ed architetti of ca.1673-79, Giovanni Battista Passeri lamented the fact that: «Today it is fashionable for painters to do nothing but squabble among themselves about manner, taste, and style, and this arose because the reasoning is not established according to solid principles ».2 The querulous nature of the age has made it difficult …

Introduction To The Iliad, Erwin F. Cook

Classical Studies Faculty Research

Sing of rage, Goddess, that bane of Akhilleus,Peleus' son, which caused untold pain for Akhaians,sent down throngs of powerful spirits to Aides, war-chiefs rendered the prize of dogs and everysort of bird.

Edward McCrorie’s new translation of Homer’s classic epic of the Trojan War captures the falling rhythms of a doomed Troy. McCrorie presents the sundry epithets and resonant symbols of Homer's verse style and remains as close to the Greek's meaning as research allows.

The work is an epic with a flexible contemporary feel to it, capturing the wide-ranging tempos of the original. It underscores the honor of soldiers …

Whitlow, Ruth, 1886-1962 (Sc 2556), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2556. Notebook of Ruth Whitlow, kept while she was a student at Vanderbilt Training School, containing translations of the Roman poet Virgil.

Caesar's Bellum Gallicum Book 1 With Vocabulary, Notes, And Clause Subordination, James A. Stephens

Theses and Dissertations

Efficiency in the presentation of a Latin text and its study-aids is the key to assisting intermediate students, who frequently become overwhelmed with the amount of vocabulary and grammar that needs to be simultaneously understood in order to read with any accuracy. This text breaks down the first book of Caesar's Bellum Gallicum in both a visual and a conceptual manner to aid students in learning intermediate Latin efficiently. The text is comprised of five parts. The first section contains the text as found in DuPontet's edition of Caesar's Bellum Gallicum. The second section has grammar notes that explain tense …

Horace's Ideal Italy: Sabines And Sabellians In Odes 1-3, Keith R. Fairbank

Theses and Dissertations

Within Odes 1-3 Horace consistently locates an idealized version of Rome in Sabinum and Italia. The former had long been a moral foil for Rome. The latter consisted of the regions of Italy that rebelled against Rome during the Social War and fought on the side of Marius in the civil wars that followed. Horace joins these two groups with the term Sabellians and places them together in moral opposition to the corruption and decadence of the late first century BC. Thus Horace elevates the formerly rebellious and still foreign Italici into Roman politics in the lofty position of …

Voldemort Tyrannos: Plato’S Tyrant In The Republic And The Wizarding World, Anne Collins Smith, Owen M. Smith

Faculty Publications

In the Harry Potter novel series, by J. K. Rowling, the character of Lord Voldemort is the dictatorial ruler of the Death Eaters and aspiring despot of the entire wizarding community. As such, he serves as an apt subject for the application of Plato’s portrait of the tyrant in Republic IX. The process of applying Plato to Voldemort, however, leads to an apparent anomaly, the resolution of which requires that we move beyond the Republic to the account of beauty presented by Plato in the Symposium. In doing so, we shall find that while Plato can help us to understand …

They Love To Tell The Story: Five Contemporary Novelists Take On The Gospels, Kevin Brown

KSU Press Legacy Project

The Virgin Mary. Joseph. Peter. Mary Magdalene. Judas Iscariot. Pontius Pilate. Jesus. In They Love to Tell the Story: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels, Kevin Brown examines how Nikos Kazantzakis, Anthony Burgess, Norman Mailer, Jose Saramago, and Nino Ricci portray each of the major figures from the gospel stories against the backdrop of biblical and legendary lore and depictions by some other contemporary novelists. The result is a many textured tapestry of insight and reflection in which Mary encourages her son to lead a normal life; Peter is coarse and rash, loyal and treacherous; Judas may well …

The Persistence Of Vengeance From Early Modern England To Postmodern New York, Dominic M. Sevieri

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

As a passing glance at the popular texts of any given period reveals, the subject of vengeance is nearly inescapable; on billboards, websites, and year end lists, revenge represents a curious constant even amid disparate media. This study explores the cultural commonalities that align revenge texts of the English Renaissance and exploitation films of late 20th century America. As in-depth inquiry reveals, numerous ideas and narrative tropes popularized during the Early Modern period are pushed to their logical extremes in these films. The central factor that aligns London during the Renaissance and New York at the cusp of the 1990s …

Women And War: Power Play From Lysistrata To The Present, Shuyang Cynthia Luo

Honors Scholar Theses

"Women and War: Power Play from Lysistrata to the Present" is a three-fold project intent on analyzing the role of women in war and comedy. The intentions are: demonstrating how Aristophanes’ famed comedy, Lysistrata, was a subversive text for its time, as it presented a challenge to men’s authority that otherwise remained unchallenged, creating a modernized retelling of Lysistrata, which she holds would still be a subversive text, because men still have nearly absolute authority in war, and finally, analyzing the comedic nature of Lysistrata in a modern text; namely, why women’s choices constitute a comedy, and the comedic potential …

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Ceci N'Est Pas Un David, Andrea Roberts

Student Scholarship

It is a peculiar fact that almost every piece of artwork ever created has attached to it a piece of text.' Originally, at least, most works are given a title for the purpose of referring to what it is. Later, this body of text begins to grow as critical work is written and attached to it by the use of the title. A consequence of this is that text connected to a piece of artwork becomes significant to the piece itself and can even be reinterpreted and critiqued as though it were part of the original work. For example, there …

Dismemberment And Devotion: Anatomical Votive Dedication In Italian Popular Religion, Lindsay R. Morehouse

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Anatomical votives are religious offerings that are made to look like body parts and are dedicated in exchange for healing. In many cases, they are dedicated to intermediary figures as a way to bridge the worlds of human and divine. There is evidence that Anatomical votives have been offered in Italy from the middle of the first millennia BCE to the present. This paper examines Etruscan, Greco-Roman, and Christian cults in order to explore continuity and change in this practice over time within Italy.

Constructing Gender: Female Architectural Patronage In Roman Asia Minor And Syria In The First Through Sixth Centuries Ce, Grace K. Erny

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The patronage of architectural projects was a major way that prominent citizens of the Roman Empire shaped urban landscapes. These acts of patronage constituted a series of performances through which categories such as “male,” “female,” “public,” and “private” were constructed. In this paper, I use architectural, epigraphical, and literary evidence to analyze examples of female architectural patronage in the cities of Roman Asia Minor and Syria in the first through sixth centuries CE. I explore how these architectural performances contributed to an ongoing discourse about gender and the allocation of space.

Nationalism, Archaeology, And The Antiquities Trade In Turkey And Iraq, Miranda Pettengill

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The illicit antiquities trade is a vast and complex network comprising a large number of participants across the globe. This paper focuses specifically on looters and illegal excavators, those who first retrieve ancient objects from the ground to be traded on the black market. My research examines the reasoning and motivation behind looting; specifically, I evaluate how nationalistic ideologies in Turkey and Iraq affect the choices and actions of illegal excavators living there. I also discuss the benefits of community archaeology, an approach that includes local people in the practice and presentation of excavation, as a strategy to minimize the …

Don't Take Orpheus Without The Lyre: The Intricacies Of Using Pagan Myths For Christian Purposes In The Divine Comedy And Paradise Lost, Rebekah J. Waltmann

Masters Theses

Because of their universal and artistic nature, the classical myths lend themselves well to use in literature, especially poetry. When used properly, as by Dante and Milton, the myths have the ability to enhance the work; when used poorly, they become gaudy ornamentation. It was, and is, this ability to enhance both the artistry and function of literature that pulled so many poets to the myths, despite the difficulties that could arise when the pagan myths did not quite match the Christian setting. My purpose in this thesis is not to explicate every use of myth within The Divine Comedy …

The Politics Of Writing In The Works Of Cicero And Ovid, Caroline Ann Kyzek

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The period between the Late Republic and Early Empire of Ancient Rome was a period of instability which involved civil wars and politicians vying for power. As a result, the literature of this period was changing as well. The two works I have chosen to examine are Cicero’s Second Philippic and Book I of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria or The Art of Love. The reason I have chosen these two is that they are on opposite spectrums in the period of transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. As one form of government was replacing the other, writing was …

Philosophical Influences In The Art Of War Found In The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Nathaniel Ethan Clark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Philosophical Influences in The Art of Warfound in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is an examination of Sunzi’s philosophy about leadership in The Art of War as applied to the moral character, or lack thereof, of historical Han Dynasty leaders, Liu Bei and Cao Cao. In Luo Guanzhong’s The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the two are fictionalized with oppositional personalities and corresponding philosophical bases. I explore the ways in which their actions embody or reject the philosophy found in Sunzi’s The Art of War.

All Roads Lead Through Rome: Imperial Armatures On The Triumphal Route, Machal E. Gradoz

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The cityscape of ancient Rome was filled with opulent buildings that created armatures— fluid, connective thoroughfares throughout the city. These armatures came together to form narrative pathways. The triumphal route, the memorialized, celebratory course of victorious generals, is one such narrative pathway. Among other strategies to legitimize his sole rule, Augustus constructed a self-promoting armature along the triumphal route, thereby linking him with the triumph. This paper examines how the construction of the Augustan armature along the triumphal route promoted Augustus and how the Flavians responded to it in advertising their own legitimacy in the wake of a civil war. …

Alexandria And The Construction Of Urban Experience, Sara L. Bacon

Scripps Senior Theses

Early Ptolemaic Alexandria provides a unique perspective on cultural interactions during the Hellenistic Period. With this idea in mind, I have tracked the cultural affiliation of the city from its foundation through the early years of the Ptolemaic dynasty. In order to do this, both literary and archaeological evidence, including various foundation myths for the city, the poetry of Theocritus and Herodas, papyrological evidence as well as the city plan and archaeological remains of the Serapeum, were analyzed. Using this evidence, this thesis attempts to describe the cultural state of the ancient city and the surrounding area in its early …