Digital Commons Network^™

Palamedes' "Writing Lesson": On Writing, Narrative, And Erasure, Thomas E. Jenkins

Classical Studies Faculty Research

In this essay, I shall consider some striking parallels between legends of writing as manipulated by both Jacques Derrida and Euripides; more specifically, I shall investigate how each author dissects a narrative-or narratives-of writing's invention in order later to construct writing as an inherently unstable semiotic system. In each instance, a seemingly straightforward "myth" of writing is re-narrated in a dark and sardonic vein, one that downplays the technical aspects of writing and highlights instead the hermeneutical ambiguities encoded within this new technology. The Greek myth of Palamedes (as re-narrated by Euripides) hinges on the invention and eventual misapprehension of …

Frazier Polymetis: Cold Mountain And The Odyssey, Emily A. Mcdermott

Classics & Religious Studies Faculty Publication Series

Ever since its appearance in 1997, Charles Frazier’s novel, Cold Mountain, has been billed as a latter-day Odyssey. Separate unattributed book notes on the world wide web speak of its protagonist’s “dangerous odyssey” and his “odyssey through the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South.” One reviewer styles the novel "a Confederate deserter's homeward odyssey"; another characterizes it as having “reset much of the 'Odyssey' in 19th-century America.” While such assertion of parallelism between the novel and Homer’s epic is widespread, it also tends to remain general and relatively unadorned. It evidently rests on such typically odyssean plot elements …

The Translation Memoirs: A Meditative Exploration Of Translation Theory, Phillip M. Sauerbeck

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.

Sozomen, Barbarians, And Early Byzantine Historiography, Walter Stevenson

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

Sozomen, writing in mid-fifth century Constantinople, stands out as an exception proving the rule in Byzantine historiography. He is the first and last Christian Byzantine historian to make a serious effort at ethnography.⁵ When we consider how quickly Christianity was spreading outside the boundaries of the eastern Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries it is striking how little mention barbarians and their evangelization earn in the early ecclesiastical histories.⁶ To illustrate this point I will begin by showing that Sozomen’s predecessors, Eusebius, Rufinus, and Socrates, de-emphasized the natural interest that the historical genre had expressed in ethnography, …

Targeting Emotion In Early Stoicism, Scott M. Rubarth

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The Stoic sage is a cold, heartless being who would not grieve over the loss of a beloved companion or child. Unmoved, unemotional, uncaring, the sage is an ethical and emotional monstrosity hiding behind the pretension of the so-called virtues of detachment and austerity. That, at least, is how many who study Stoic ethics perceive the sage in regard to his/her emotional life. In this paper I will argue that this conception of the Stoic theory of emotion and passion is misleading; emotions, in fact, are central to Stoic ethics and apatheia should not be confused with the contemporary idea …

Sagp Newsletter 2002.2 (December), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Sulochana R. Asirvatham, Corinne Ondine Pache, John Watrous

Classical Studies Faculty Research

This book gathers essays that are all, in one way or another, connected with ancient Greek and Roman religions. The essays cover a wide range—both chronological and geographical—of religious discourse and practice from Classical Athens on to seventeenth-century America via medieval Europe. Thus, there is no attempt at comprehensiveness. Rather, we hope that these essays will serve to problematize some common distinctions that readers generally bring to the study of ancient Greek and Roman religion and its legacy—such as the distinctions between Greece and Rome, Greco-Romans and barbarians, pagans and Christians, religion and politics, and religion and magic, to name …

Odysseus In The Poetry Of George Seferis, Kostas Myrsiades

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography, Raphael A. Finkel, Ada Adler, William Hutton, Catharine P. Roth, Patrick Rouke, Ross Scaife, Elizabeth Vandiver, David Whitehead

Library Videos

Pope’s ‘Suidas’ is not a man but a work, The Suda (or Stronghold): a massive 10^th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, covering the whole of Greek and Roman antiquity and also including Biblical and Christian material.

Preserved in several medieval manuscripts, it has been edited and published several times since the end of the 14th century in traditional hard-copy scholarly editions, most recently that of Ada Adler (Teubner, 5 volumes: 1928-1938, reprinted 1971). The Suda On Line (SOL) project, begun in 1998 as part of the Stoa Consortium, opens up this stronghold of …

Animal Perception In Early Stoicism: A Response To Richard Sorabji, Scott Rubarth

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The Stoics cannot deny that animals perceive things in relation to each other things (e.g. the scent coming from that direction). The dog must minimally connect the scent a direct if we are to explain the animal following an animal's trail. And it is also true that if the animal is to act on a stimulus it must connect the stimulus with a desire or experience. The dog must connect the scent with its desire or hunger. However, I do not agree that the animal must believe that the scent is coming from a given direction or even believe that …

The Textual Relation Of The Peshitta Of Ezekiel 1-12 To Mt And To The Ancient Versions (Tg-J And Lxx), Joaquim Azevedo

Dissertations

Problem . The dilemma of the Syriac version is its mysterious provenance and the direct relationship it may have to the other versions (particularly G [Septuagint] and C^J [Targum Jonathan]). Thus some scholars have automatically discarded or ignored the Peshitta version as a useful tool (as a textual witness) for the study of the Hebrew text. The knowledge of textual problems, in this case the relationship of S [Peshitta Version] to the ancient versions, is of extreme importance in the analysis and study of the Hebrew Bible. The awareness of G [Septuagint], C^J [Targum Jonathan], and M [Masoretic …

Odysseus Elytis And The Thirties Generation In Modern Greek Poetry, Kostas Myrsiades

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Channels Of Imperishable Fire: The Christian Mystical Allegories Of Dioscorus Of Aphrodito, Clement A. Kuehn

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Herakleia Trachinia In The Archidamian War, Mychal P. Angelos

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Alexander On Form-In-Matter And The Breakdown Of Aristotle's Categories, John O. Ellis

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My discussion is divided into six sections. In the first I provide some background to the form-in-matter problem in Aristotle; the second focusses on Alexander's solution to the problem; in the third, we consider Plotinus' contribution; in the fourth, there's brief treatment of the problem by the commentators on the Categories; and finally in the fifth section I look at what I call the 'Lucius problem' - this pertains directly to the substantial qualities doctrine, and it reveals, I suggest, how Alexander's way of solving the form-in-matter problem contributes to the breakdown of Aristotelian categories. In the sixth section …

Monsters Of Antithesis, Melody Leming-Wilson

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

This paper traces and interrogates the multiple theories of matriarchy that have arisen in recent years and then turns to the Greek myths to show how matriarchies functioned in this literature. The theories of matriarchy often stem from the pre-Hellenic stories of matriarchy shown in Greek myths. In addition, these theories often suggest that the colonizing force of Indo-Europeans changed these myths into patriarchical ones. The Amazonian women can be seen to upset the patriarchal myth in important and interesting ways which suggest a matriarchal underpinning to their society. The question of whether a historical matriarchy actually existed is shown …

The Lives Of The Peripatetics: Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five, Michael Sollenberger

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The fifth book of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Philosophers is concerned with the first four heads of the Peripatos – Aristotle, Theophrastus, Strato, and Lyco – and two outstanding members of the school – Demetrius of Phalerum and Heraclides of Pontus. Consideration is given her to rather general matters of structure, organization, and arrangement of material in Book Five as a whole, to the different categories of information in the individual lives, and to the most striking feature of this book which set it apart from other books: namely, the wills of the first four scholarchs and the extensive …

The Unambiguity Of Aristotelian Being, Jaakko Hintikka

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper, I shall try to enhance our understanding of Aristotle's thought by relating it to certain contemporary problems and insights of philosophical logicians. One of the most central current issues in philosophical logic is a challenge to a hundred-year old dogma. Almost all twentieth-century philosophers in English-speaking countries have followed Frege and Russell and claimed that the words for being in natural languages — "is," "ist," ἔστι etc.— are ambiguous between the is of predication, the is of existence, the is of identity, and the generic is. The significance of this ambiguity thesis has not been limited to …

Review Of Philias Charin: Miscellanea Di Studi Classici In Onore Di Eugenio Manni, By Various Authors, Brunilde S. Ridgway

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Evidence For The Cults And Mythology Of Marseilles From Its Foundation To The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West From Ancient Literary, Epigraphical, Numismatic, And Archaeological Testimonia, Paul J. Properzio

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Concepts Of Ethos In Classical And Modern Rhetoric, Corinne Thomley

Masters Theses

Statement of Purpose:

Ethos, or the character of the speaker, is a subject of interest to students of rhetoric. This study traces the concepts of ethos from classical to modern times, and identifies philosophical value systems on which these concepts are based.

Hypothesis:

The study explores the hypothesis that similarities and differences exist between classical and modern concepts of ethos and that the concepts can generally be identified with philosophical value systems.

Criteria and Procedure:

The study is focussed by the following seven questions:

1. What philosophical value systems provided the bases for the concepts of ethos set forth by classical …

"Nothing" As "Not-Being": Some Literary Contexts That Bear On Plato And On Parmenides, Alexander P.D. Mourelatos

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In the main Section of this paper I examine a certain "characterizing" use of meden/ouden and medeis/oudeis in pre-Platonic non-philosophical contexts. The passages discussed and analyzed offer cle.ar and suggestive illustrations of the assimilation of "nothing" or "nobody" to "not-being." In the concluding Section I explore connections between that use and philosophical concepts,with particular reference to Plato's doctrine of degrees of reality.

The dialectic of being in classical Greek speculation focuses not on 'What there is' but on 'what it is' or 'how it is'; not on existence but on physis, constitution, or form.

Review Of Das Basler Arztrelief: Studien Zum Griechischen Grab- Und Votivrelief Um 500 V. Chr. Und Zur Vorhippokratischen Medizin, By Ernst Berger, Brunilde S. Ridgway

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Semantic Study Of Ecclesia Before 100 A.D., Harold Edwin Cline

Graduate Thesis Collection

In studying the background and origin of meaning for this word [ecclesia], this paper will seek to investigate the pagan, the Jewish, and the Christian literature in this order. Of couse, as the preliminary discussion has so far indicated, the primary weight and burden of study will be upond the Septugintal influence. The three stages to be developed are reminiscent of the comment of R.C. Trench in his opening comments concerning ecclesia. He named them as heathen, Jewish, and Christian. The development of these stages will be united and brought together to make some pertinent conclusions in the final chapter …

Ephesus, Pagan And Christian 133 B.C. - 262 A.D., Ruth O. Michener

Graduate Thesis Collection

This dissertation is an atrcempt to reconstruct and to recapture a period in the history of this famous city, a center so important in New Testament times and in the first two centuries or the Christian Church, but a metropolis which centuries ago became buried in the silt of a river. The site and a primitive kind of settlement began in pre-historic times. We will briefly trace the story of its ancestory; its youth; its changes; traditions; then its glory between the years 133 B.C. to A.D. 262; its contribution to culture; its spirit; its contact with Christianity; its period …

The Decipherment Of Mycenaean Greek In The Linear B Script And Its Consequences In The Field Of Homeric Scholarship , Francis Thomas Gignac

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Saint John Chrysostom's Theory And Practice Of Preaching, George John Wuest

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Latin Words In The Greek New Testament, Esther Laverne Benjamin

Graduate Thesis Collection

The primary purpose of this work is to call attention to the existence of Latin words in the Greek New Testament and to present an objective study of them. As a corollary to this study, the impact of Graeco-Roman culture upon Judea in terms of these words, their synonyms, and related words is pointed out. Glimpses of the background of the New Testament figures afforded through this study lend perspective to the New Testament pages.

An Analysis Of The Rhetoric Of Clement Of Rome, With Special Reference To The Epistle Of The Corinthians, John W. Raad

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Cicero's Views On Historical Composition As Exemplified In Caesar's Gallic Wars, Francis X. Dolan

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.