Classics Commons^™

Boudica At The Intersection: Gender, Alterity, And Narrative In Imperial Roman Historiography, Adam Cummings

Honors Theses

Tacitus (fl. ~100 ᴄᴇ) and Cassius Dio (fl. ~200 ᴄᴇ) wrote, respectively, the Annales and the Historia Romana, both now fragmentary, both detailing imperial Roman expansion, and both displaying anxieties about the barbarian ‘Other.’ Their accounts of Boudica, who led the Iceni against Roman encroachment in Britannia in 62 CE, provide a view into these authors’ visions of colonization, ethnicity, and gender. Characterizing this woman as a barbarian leader of war, the authors reveal not only their foundational ideologies but also the political projects underpinning their histories. This thesis will proceed in the following manner: I will provide 1) a …

The Structure Of Human Redemption As Demonstrated In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Erick S. Flores

Student Research

Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy is renowned all around the globe for its impact on literary history as a whole. This research paper delves into the structure of human redemption as portrayed in Dante's epic masterpiece. Through a comprehensive analysis of the narrative structure, allegory, and symbolism, employed by Dante, this study illuminates the underlying framework that guides the protagonist and readers on a transformative journey through the afterlife. By examining the divisions of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, this paper reveals the hierarchical nature of sin, the ever-progressive path of spiritual growth, and the ultimate attaining of salvation and understanding …

Hubris And The Protection Of The Citizen Body, Lillyan Uhlmann

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Classical Greek notion of hubris, which relates most closely to a modern form of disrespect, was an important form of protection for the citizen body. The law of hubris fell under the public sphere of graphai, which allowed for any individual in the community to bring up a charge. The law of hubris protected not only male citizens, but also women and slaves, which emphasizes the protection of the society as a whole. Hubris was a way to check those of power in society and charges of hubris, if proven, could result in the revoking of citizenship or political …

Heroic (Im)Maturity: Domestic Rupture And The Myth Of Telemachus' Coming Of Age, Mary Whitney

College Honors Program

As one of the most enduring narratives discussed in the field of Classics, extensive research has been written about Homer’s Odyssey. The universal and flexible maxims of the desire for homecoming (νόστος) make the events of this epic so compelling. One central aspect of Odysseus’ νόστος is the return of his son Telemachus to a specific role as the obedient prince. This implies that before the resolution of Odysseus’ νόστος, there exists the rupture of the domestic sphere that allows for freedom and chaos, both of which are removed and checked when Odysseus returns to Ithaca. For as long …

Mythos Series (Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined, Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined, And Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined) By Stephen Fry, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Faculty Articles & Research

Book review of Stephen Fry's Mythos series, reviewed by Phillip Fitzsimmons.

Nero's Alexandrian Coinage: The Olympic Series Of 66/67 And 67/68 Ce And Its Achaean Context, Samantha Doleno

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Emperor Nero's coinage is considered by some to be the height of artistic innovation, strongly influenced by his own philhellenism. This can especially be seen in his Alexandrian coinage, which minted an unprecedented amount of coinage at the end of his reign. The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore why the Olympic series, a series of billon tetradrachms minted in 66/67 and 67/68 CE and thought to commemorate Nero’s victories in Greece, was minted, despite Alexandria not being affected by Nero’s journey to Greece. I will argue that the Olympic series was minted as a philhellenic connection to …

‘Where Now Bucephalus And The Proud Eormanric?' The Interplay Of Gothic And Classical References As A Tacit Background Behind The Wanderer, Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon Source, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Journal of Tolkien Research

The famous lines "Where now the horse and the rider?" from The Two Towers, spoken by Théoden in Peter Jackson's film, but recited by Aragorn in Tolkien's original text, find an unquestionable source in the Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer, and as such received detailed comment by the Professor as a scholar, stating that it is not very important to identify who the rider being cited might be, as long as we admit he is a "type". In order to understand the type of this rider, then, we only have to look for similar occurrences of the evergreen "ubi …

The Curia Julia: Its History, Materials, Use, And Preservation Through The Centuries, Katharine Bogen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Curia Julia has one of the most fascinating histories out of all the buildings in Rome. Julius Caesar began its construction in 44 BCE in the Forum Romanum as the meeting place for the Roman Senate, and it continued to serve as such until the eventual fall of the Roman Empire. Today, the building stands almost completely intact, a feat that is not common for other structures of the same period. The reason why it has remained standing for so many centuries is due to its history of use: it was transformed into a church in the 7th century …

Review Essay: Lewis’S Lost Aeneid: Arms And The Exile, Nikolay Epplée, B. N. Wolfe, Louis Markos

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

An extended review of C. S. Lewis, C. S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile, ed. by A. T. Reyes (New Haven, 2011). xxiii + 184 pages. $27.50. ISBN:: 9780300167177

Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion In Minoan Crete, Elizabeth Rybarczyk

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Minoan civilization of Bronze-Age Crete has, until recently, been obscured in mythological uncertainty. As a prehistoric civilization, the available evidence for historic analysis is sparse and ambiguous. This paper evaluates the material evidence for ritual activity to chart the religious developments of Minoan Crete. In the earliest periods of their civilization, the Minoans practiced animism, which reflected their ideals towards survival and cooperation. As their prosperity grew due to technological advancements, a social hierarchy formed. The emerging elite employed religion to justify their claim to power by appropriating religion, which culminated in a dual-monotheistic Knossian theocracy. This lasted until …

Redefining Female Power And Influence In The Early Roman Empire, Jacqueline Elia

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Jacqueline Elia ’23
Majors: History and Classics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melissa Huber, History and Classics

Women are often absent from the ancient Roman literary historical record. Jackie’s research turns to the inscriptional, archaeological remains to add to our larger understanding of the lives of women in the Early Roman Empire. Through a series of case studies on the public contributions of women in cities around the Empire, including GIS maps to track the visibility of female benefactions, Jackie convincingly shows that women in the Early Roman Empire possessed more agency and societal influence than the literary history records.

Review Of The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek And Roman Mythology Through Christian Eyes, Charlie W. Starr

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Charlie W. Starr: Review of Louis Markos, The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology Through Christian Eyes (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Classical Academic Press, 2020). 448 pages. $27.99. ISBN 9781600513954.

The Colours Of Rethoryk: The Medieval World’S Influence On Red And White Color Symbolism In Geoffrey Chaucer’S The Canterbury Tales, Frederick W. Smallshaw

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Chaucer’s use of visual imagery and symbolism in The Canterbury Tales. From a literary approach, scholars point to Chaucer’s diverse and extensive descriptions of visuals in poetry as a primary rhetorical avenue, where he applies commentary to instances where a physical image (known in this case as a symbol) is most appropriate to elicit a desired emotion or convey a certain idea concerning moralit

The Colours Of Rethoryk: The Medieval World’S Influence On Red And White Color Symbolism In Geoffrey Chaucer’S The Canterbury Tales, Frederick W. Smallshaw

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Chaucer’s use of visual imagery and symbolism in The Canterbury Tales. From a literary approach, scholars point to Chaucer’s diverse and extensive descriptions of visuals in poetry as a primary rhetorical avenue, where he applies commentary to instances where a physical image (known in this case as a symbol) is most appropriate to elicit a desired emotion or convey a certain idea concerning moralit

The Colours Of Rethoryk: The Medieval World’S Influence On Red And White Color Symbolism In Geoffrey Chaucer’S The Canterbury Tales, Frederick W. Smallshaw

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Chaucer’s use of visual imagery and symbolism in The Canterbury Tales. From a literary approach, scholars point to Chaucer’s diverse and extensive descriptions of visuals in poetry as a primary rhetorical avenue, where he applies commentary to instances where a physical image (known in this case as a symbol) is most appropriate to elicit a desired emotion or convey a certain idea concerning moralit

What C.S. Lewis Really Did To "Cupid And Psyche", Charles Huttar

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The story of Lewis's engagement, starting at age 18, with Apuleius's story of Cupid and Psyche.

No Mere Materialism: The Revelatory Nature Of Death In C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Laurel Wood

Global Tides

This paper explores the role which death plays in the narrative of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. During the time of the trilogy’s composition, materialist philosophy was becoming increasingly popular in the Western world as individuals looked to science as the source of absolute truth. As a former materialist, Lewis was alarmed by this development and confronted materialist ideology in numerous fiction and non-fiction works.

Blending textual evidence from the trilogy with scholarly commentary, this paper demonstrates that Lewis uses death, particularly the fear of annihilation and the afterlife which it evokes, to bypass materialist assertions of the atheistic nature of …

"Like A Shadow Or Even A Dream": Memory And Haptic Motifs On Classical Attic Funerary Stelai, Vonne Daszkilewicz

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

During the third quarter of the fifth century BCE, Athens witnessed the revival of funerary stele reliefs. Sculpted motifs representing touch and interaction, often situated within familial scenes, characterized the grave monuments and contributed strongly to their tactility. Haptic stele motifs promoted the construction of memory by heightening the depiction of lasting bonds between living and deceased individuals. Grave reliefs provide a lasting representation of the deceased, while also serving as conspicuous reminders of the permanence of death. However, Attic funerary stelai provided a physical substitute for the departed towards which the living could direct their continued care and dedication. …

Musical Evidence For Low Boundary Tones In Ancient Greek, Dieter Gunkel

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

Several scholars have suggested that in ancient Greek there was a low boundary tone at the end of a relatively small prosodic constituent such as a clitic group or maximal prosodic word. The boundary tone may phonologically motivate some puzzling pitch-accentual phenomena in the language. One is the diachronic pitch-peak retraction that led to the circumflex pitch accent (HL) on penultimate syllables (the “sōtêra rule”). Another is the intonational phrase-internal downstepping or deletion of a word-final acute accent (H); that conversion of an acute to a grave accent is known as “lulling” or “koímēsis”. If such a low …

George Colvile's Translation Of The Consolation Of Philosophy, Ian Cornelius

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Consolatio philosophiae of the Roman statesman and philosopher Boethius (fifth/sixth century) was read and studied intensely in medieval western Europe and repeatedly translated into vernacular languages. Medieval commentaries on this text and translations of it claim attention today as case studies in a history of reading, for they exemplify the practices of medieval literary scholasticism. In an English context, the final flowering of this reading tradition may be placed in the year 1556, when John Cawoode printed a new translation of the Consolatio by a ‘George Coluile, alias Coldewel’. The translator remains unidentified. The translation is a medieval throwback …