Classics Commons^™

The Cosmos According To Ptolemy, Benjamin Smith

Classics Ancient Science Fair

In the second century AD, Claudius Ptolemaeus, the astronomer from Alexandria, would provide a geometric conception of the cosmos with the ability to predict planetary motion, in what would be known as the Ptolemaic, or Geocentric, Model of the Universe. Prior to Ptolemy, the notion in ancient astronomy was that the cosmos was ”perfect”; the heavenly bodies must move along the perfect curve (a circle) as the perfect shape (a sphere). Yet, irregularities occur in observing the planets in concentric circles alone. Ptolemy’s answer, building upon Hipparchus and Aristotle, would present an eccentric system in which the heavenly bodies move …

Finding Pythagoras In The Pythagoreans, Brandon Barnes

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation for the Ancient Science Fair deals with the Pythagorean Theorem. Since Pythagoras himself did not write down his work, early scholars had to work to find the knowledge and unify it among differing sources.

The Antikythera Mechanism, Aladsair Turnbull

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The mechanism was retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera in 1901. The structure of the mechanism was the subject of debate among scholars for many years after the initial discovery. Little is known about the maker of the device and there is still disagreement regarding certain pieces of the mechanism. Close study of the fragments allowed many models to be designed.

Gynecology In Antiquity, Kristen Cross

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The field of Gynecology has had major shifts through its history. It began with the expansion of duties for Midwives and a wide variety of schools of thought continued to advise its growth. This presentation discusses the ancient thoughts, their origins, and its many outdated beliefs.

Evolution Of Surgery And Surgical Instruments In Science, Shelbi Royster

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The professionalism of the medical field developed in ancient Greece through the Hippocratic Corpus. This is one of first Greek writings on medical practices and the tools associated with different medical practices as well. Although medicine and its practices were defined from different writers, the medical field was not a popular profession to enter in the Greek world. Educational occupations such as philosophy were more sought after, especially with superstitions of the Greeks.

Sailing In The Ancient Mediterranean, Cody Lawrence

Classics Ancient Science Fair

Sailing in the Mediterranean was no simple feat. The technological advancements took many decades to continue went through many stages. This presentation discusses various stages of these advances and discusses many of the shipwrecks found of the various stages of development.

The Engineering Of Roman Baths, Rachel Kinder

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The Roman Bath was a engineering miracle that has captured our imaginations for centuries. This presentation explores the history, engineering, and social implications of the Roman Bath.

Ballista, Amber Terrill

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation is based on the construction of a miniature scale Ballista. In addition to creating and demonstrating the Ballista, it also discusses its function, and other aspects of the siege weapon.

Plutarch Reading Plato: Interpretation And Mythmaking In The Early Empire, Collin Miles Hilton

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

Plutarch of Chaeronea, an eminent figure among the Platonists of the early Roman Empire, built his philosophy by continuously drawing frameworks and models from Plato’s dialogues, both in his works dedicated solely to exegesis and his own lively philosophical dialogues. He both interprets Plato and adapts various models from the Platonic dialogues. Each philosopher was especially concerned with problems posed by myth, yet each also employed their own elaborate and imagistic narratives. In this study, I argue two main points. First, Plutarch’s treatment of mythic narratives, in their dangers and their potential uses, is carefully modelled after Plato. Both are …

‘The Oracular Tale’ And The Oracles Of The Greeks: Storytelling, Conjecture, And Oracular Ambiguity In Herodotus’ Histories And Its Historical And Cultural Context, Daniel J. Crosby

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I investigate the belief in the power of prophecy in ancient Greece. More specifically, I study how the ancient Greeks used oracles, like those of the famous oracle at Delphi, to make their past, present, and future knowable. I analyze the stories about oracles from Herodotus’ Histories as well as Thucydides and the corpus of Greek inscriptions using a theory of storytelling called narratology. With this theory, I show that all stories about oracles are expressions of the same basic plot whether a narrator employs all of its typical episodes or leaves some of them implied. Further, …

Aletheia: The Orphic Ouroboros, Glen Mcknight

Theses : Honours

This thesis shows how The Orphic Hymns function as a katábasis, a descent to the underworld, representing a process of becoming and psychological rebirth. I begin with the Greek concept of sparagmόs, a dismemberment or deconstruction, as a necessary precursor in that it emphasises at once both primordial unity and yet also the incipient tensions within the Orphic initiates on this path to katabasis. The argument herein extends beyond literary explication to consider how the Orphics sought to enact this process in Greek society itself.

The thesis then establishes the connections between the Hymns and the thinking of …

Epiphanius's Condemnation Of The Nazarenes: When Orthodox Christianity Is Threatened By Jewish Practice, E. Andrews

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 377 AD, Epiphanius of Salamis wrote the Panarion. In the Panarion he labeled 80 religious sects as heretics. Among those groups was a Jewish-Christian sect called the Nazarenes. The Nazarenes believed that there is one God, that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and that both the Old and New Testaments were to be used as Scripture. For Epiphanius, the only fault of this sect was in their continued observance of the Law of Moses. It is important to explain why Epiphanius concluded that they were …

[Review Of] The Poetics Of Power In Augustan Rome: Latin Poetic Responses To Early Imperial Iconography. Vergilius (2020) By Nandini Pandey, Erika Z. Damer

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

Pandey’s study comes in the wake of such landmark studies of texts and monuments as Paul Zanker’s Augustus und die Macht der Bilder (1987), Diane Favro’s The Urban Image of Augustan Rome (1996), and Karl Galinsky’s Augustan Culture (1998). Pandey’s reading decenters the authority of Augustus in creating Augustan moral, literary, and aesthetic ideologies, and instead argues that a multimodel, diachronic process across various media constructed and contested Augustan political, moral, and aesthetic hegemony. Her diffused model allows those hegemonic structures scholars have seen in, particularly, Augustan visual culture, to emerge ad hoc through the agency of contemporary writers, readers, …

Friends, Barbarians, Future Countrymen: Clientela And Caesar’S De Bello Gallico, J.T. Godfrey

Honors Papers

Imagine a Roman citizen of the 50s BCE unrolling Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico. They might expect a dramatic tale of barbarians rushing naked against Roman shields with faces painted blue, blonde mustaches adorning their faces, their hair like horses’ manes flowing in the wind. Our Roman would probably believe Gallic society to be even more mysterious than their battle tactics; after all, they counsel with druids, they count by nights, and they believe in a never-ending cycle of life and death. Although some Romans possibly read Posidonius’ account of Gallic society (which dispels some of these prejudices), most would …

The Trauma Of Dishonor: Exploring The Ramifications Of Dishonor In Classical And Modern Society, Tamara Wachsman

Scripps Senior Theses

Exploratory in nature, this thesis investigated whether dishonor can be categorized as traumatic. With a foundation of existing research in trauma and honor, primary source analyses were conducted on classical texts, and a psychological study was conducted with participants living in the United States. The main primary source analyses were based on case studies, centering on Achilles, an ancient Greek hero, and Dido, an ancient Roman queen, who both experienced severe dishonor. Specifically, the narratives of Achilles and Queen Dido served as portrayals of dishonor in the form of a male hero who has his honor seized, and a woman …

A Story To Tell… How To Integrate The Three Modes Of Communication Through A Story Time Program In French, Frederique Grim

The Coastal Review

Bilingual story time programs found in local community libraries not only benefit children, they can also serve a need for L2 college students: the development of their communicative skills in an authentic environment. In addition to linguistic benefits, experiential learning has proven to prepare students for real-world skills, such as networking, mock professional experience and a sense of community engagement. This paper recounts how a world language story time program supports L2 learners’ three modes of communication, as articulated by ACTFL, and necessary for language development. Based on students’ perceptions, this study highlights their increase in motivation and confidence in …

The Modern Formulation Of Chinese Art History And The Building Of A Nation In Early Twentieth-Century China, Chennie Huang

Dissertations and Theses

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Chinese formulation of art history underwent dramatic changes. It moved away from the traditional narratives that did not follow a strict chronology to adopt the Western linear model which emphasizes progress and national identity. Based on the premodern tradition, the modern formulations of Chinese art history began as a political strategy for nation building amid the political upheavals, including military attacks on China that led to the end of Qing imperial rule and the beginning of the Republican era (1912-1949).

In the early 1900s, while exiled in Japan, Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929), …

Born To Fight: The Virtues Of Pankratiasts Within Pindar's Nemean Odes, Elijah Culley

Senior Independent Study Theses

The goal of this study is to examine three of Pindar’s Nemean odes dedicated to victors of the pankration. I examine how Pindar constructs the athletes of pankration and the role that the sport plays in each ode. Pindar connects the past with the present by placing his athletes within the mythological timeline. He follows the Homeric tradition of epic poetry but adapts it to fit the context of lyric poetry. He transfers the qualities of Homeric heroes onto his athletes, introducing them as divine heroes in his own time. Pindar presents the pankratiasts as natural-born fighters who possess both …

The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, And The Therapy Of Epic, Joel Christensen

Publications and Research

In The Many-Minded Man, Joel Christensen explores the content, character, and structure of the Homeric Odyssey through a modern psychological lens, focusing on how the epic both represents the workings of the human mind and provides for its audiences—both ancient and modern—a therapeutic model for coping with the exigencies of chance and fate. By reading the Odyssey as an exploration of the constitutive elements of human identity, the function of narrative in defining the self, and the interaction between the individual and their social context, The Many-Minded Man addresses enduring questions about the poem, such as the importance of …

Homer’S Thebes: Epic Rivalries And The Appropriation Of Mythical Pasts, Elton T. E. Barker, Joel P. Christensen

Publications and Research

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes.

Homer’s Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic engagements come to the fore. Rather than sifting through these appearances to reconstruct lost poems, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen argue that the Homeric poems borrow heroes from Thebes to address key ideas—about politics, time, and genre—that set out the unique superiority of these texts in …