Classics Commons^™

Review: S. Connolly, Wisdom From Rome, Gnomon 96.1(2024), Lee Pearcy

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jurists And Orators: Rhetorical And Legal Perspectives On The Roman Family, Thu Ta

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

Roman legal advocacy and legal expertise have long been viewed as two different fields of occupation with different intellectual aims and have therefore been assumed to have had little interaction with one another. More recent scholarship, however, has questioned this dichotomy between orators and jurists. In my dissertation, I build on this work to explore the precise nature of the relationship between Roman rhetoric and Roman legal thought during the classical period of Roman law. I will study oratory, in particular Quintilian’s Minor Declamations, side by side with Roman legal texts in order to ascertain connections between rhetorical training …

The Platonic Sophists Against The Sophist: Complicating The Socratic Divide, Audrey Wallace

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

If one were to look for a Platonic definition of a sophist, it would seem that there could be no better place than Plato’s Sophist, in which the Stranger and Theaetetus lay out a series of definitions in an attempt to articulate what makes a sophist. The Stranger’s definition of a sophist as a persuasive teacher of ἀρετή for pay, combined with the clear bias of Plato against these competitors of Socrates, has often led scholars to read these characteristics as the target of Plato’s critique and as markers of Socrates’ superiority.

However, by looking at Plato’s characterization of …

Reading Selves/Writing Selves: Tracing The Intellectual History Of Writing As A Technology Of The Self, Olivia Hopewell

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

From the advent of writing in the ancient Mediterranean world, people have found ways to forge a connection between their selves and the text. Whether by means and for purposes of representation, translation, or presentation of the self, writing as a technology has long functioned as a method of enacting selfhood. This dissertation constructs an intellectual history of writing as a technology of the self in the ancient Greek and Latin imaginary, considering the works of Plato, Augustine, Ausonius, and Dhuoda. This history and these textual case studies then serve as a point-of-departure for a discussion of the ramifications of …

An Epic Of Tragic Proportions: [In]Forming The Politics Of Statius’ Thebaid Through Greek Tragic Intertext, Dianne Elizabeth Boetsch

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

Statius’ epic poem, the Thebaid, has often been compared to Virgil’s Aeneid and many studies rightfully devote their attention to this text. I argue, however, that Greek tragedy equally plays an integral role in our reading and understanding of the Thebaid. Statius’ relationship with Greek tragedy in his epic is pronounced, ubiquitous, and intentional throughout the Thebaid and it is no less prevalent and relevant than the Aeneid for an understanding of the poem. The extant Greek tragic plays that treat the Theban story and Polynices and Eteocles’ conflict include Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus at Colonus, …

Who Does That?: Further Conversations On Drawing Down The Moon, Radcliffe Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

This paper addresses responses to Drawing Down the Moon by Shannon Grimes, James Davila, Gregory Shaw, and Naomi Janowitz, using the cues of extraordinary efficacy, performance, social location, and ends to determine whether something is labeled magic and by whom. In each of the papers, the cue of social location appears as the most significant, even though the others each play a role as well.

Contingent Catastrophe Or Agonistic Advantage: The Rhetoric Of Violence In Classical Athenian Curses, Radcliffe Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

The surprising absence of violent language from classical Athenian curses is best understood as a rhetorical strategy appropriate for getting the divine powers to enact the curser's desire to harm his or her enemies and to gain an advantage in the particular agonistic context. A contrast with the extravagantly violent language of other contemporary curses, which call for unmitigated catastrophe to befall their targets, shows that the fundamental difference between these curses is the audience that they primarily address, which shapes the nature of the request that is made in the imprecation. Whereas contingent curses primarily address the human community …

The Votive Deposits From The Hera Sanctuary At Perachora: From Deposits To Maintenance, Mackenzie Heglar

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation develops a systematic approach to the archaeological study of deposition using legacy data. As proof of concept, I reassess the major votive deposits from the Heraion of Perachora—contained on the upper and lower terraces—excavated in the early 20thcentury. By investigating the stratigraphy in the areas associated with these deposits, I elucidate a more comprehensive understanding of Perachora’s depositional history. I show that the activities precipitating deposition—like the separation of votives and burnt remains—are indicative of on-going maintenance concerns, rather than responses to specific events.By correlating the evidence for deposition using underutilized archival material, I trace inconsistencies in interpretations …

Speech And Enchantment In Early Greek Thought From The Archaic To The Hellenistic Period, R. J. Barnes

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

When describing complex aesthetic or cognitive experiences, speakers often reach for idiomatic language. For ancient Greeks, one major cache of idiomatic terms comes from the language of enchantment. This dissertation accounts for how and why ancient Greeks used words related to θέλγω, κηλέω, γοητεία, μαγεία, μαγγανεία, ἐπῳδή, and ψυχαγωγία as a way of describing the effects of speech and song. Examination is given to writers from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Most important are Gorgias of Leontini, Plato, and Philodemus, who each remark in detail about the experience of enchantment. The study reveals that Greek writers use the language …

Resistance To The Rise Of The Principate: An Analysis Of Literary Allusions To Augustus’ Rivals, Christina Mcguire Villareal

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation asserts that opposition to Augustus and the establishment of the Principate was pervasive and originating from all social strata. After examining incidents of political resistance and social unrest, the project analyzes literary allusions to those who were killed or exiled while challenging Augustus’ rise to power. Using maps, coins, and other artefacts to help explore topographical and contemporary references, this study maintains that coded depictions in literature may provide deeper understanding of events from the period, especially since many of our extant sources are biased, incomplete, or composed centuries later.

The case studies for the literary portion of …

The Neo-Latin Supplements To Virgil’S Aeneid, 1400–1700, Luca A. D'Anselmi

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I examine the Neo-Latin supplements to Virgil’s Aeneid (1400–1700), in particular, Pier Candido Decembrio’s Liber Decimus-Tertius Eneidos (1419), Maffeo Vegio’s Supplementum (1428), Jan van Foreest’s Exequiae Turni (1651), and the Supplementum ad Aeneida (1698) of Simonet de Villeneuve. This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing discussion surrounding the nature of classical supplementation in Neo-Latin texts. While advancing new readings of each of the supplements, I argue that previous definitions of supplementation and previous scholarly approaches to each of the Virgilian supplements are insufficient. In addition, I make available several of the supplements for the first time …

Augustine’S Marginalia Contra Julianum, Catherine Conybeare

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Review Of Chrysanthou, Anthi. "Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, The Teletae And The Writings.", Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

And You Will Be Amazed: The Rhetoric Of Authority In The Greek Magical Papyri, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

An analysis of the rhetorical strategies used in the so-called Greek Magical Papyri to bolster the authority of the authors provides insight into the authors of these texts and their intended audiences. This article reviews the scholarship on the identity of the composers of the Greek Magical Papyri and explores the rhetorical strategies used in the texts to create authority, before comparing the dominant strategies in the Greek Magical Papyri with similar ones in other kinds of recipe collections, specifically alchemical and medical texts. The authors of the recipes in the Greek Magical Papyri make little use of the traditional …

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, …

Magic, Greek, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

Greek magic is the discourse of magic within the ancient Greek world. Greek magic includes a range of practices, from malevolent curses to benevolent protections, from divinatory practices to alchemical procedures, but what is labelled magic depends on who is doing the labelling and the circumstances in which the label is applied. The discourse of magic pertains to non-normative ritualized activity, in which the deviation from the norm is most often marked in terms of the perceived efficacy of the act, the familiarity of the performance within the cultural tradition, the ends for which the act is performed, or the …

The "Classical" Concept In Art Through The Ages And The Inventiveness Of Roman Art, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Classicizing Identity: The Alt-Right, Art, And Archaeology, Nina Angileri

Senior Honors and Award-Winning Theses

No abstract provided.

Misleading And Unclear To The Many: Allegory In The Derveni Papyrus And The Orphic Theogony Of Hieronymus, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contents: Drawing Down The Moon: Magic In The Ancient Greco-Roman World, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

What did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also use it to try to influence the world around them? In Drawing Down the Moon, Radcliffe Edmonds, one of the foremost experts on magic, religion, and the occult in the ancient world, provides the most comprehensive account of the varieties of phenomena labeled as magic in classical antiquity. Exploring why certain practices, images, and ideas were labeled as “magic” and set apart from “normal” kinds of practices, Edmonds gives insight into the shifting …

Underworld, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

Depictions of the underworld, in ancient Greek and Roman textual and visual sources, differ significantly from source to source, but they all draw on a common pool of traditional mythic motifs. These motifs, such as the realm of Hades and its denizens, the rivers of the underworld, the paradise of the blessed dead, and the places of punishment for the wicked, are developed and transformed through all their uses throughout the ages, depending upon the aims of the author or artist depicting the underworld. Some sources explore the relation of the world of the living to that of the dead …

Review: Irene Ceccherini, Sozomeno Da Pistoia (1387–1458): Scrittura E Libri Di Un Umanista., Julia H. Gaisser

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

“Arrows Fletched From Our Own Wings”: The Early Church Fathers And The “Delphi Of The Mind”, Daniel J. Crosby

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Delphi, one of the most important sanctuaries of the classical world, presented the Early Church Fathers with an interesting challenge. Although it continued to be an institution of local importance, by their time, the Oracle had long since been a provincial backwater, requiring Imperial patronage, at times, which revived the sanctuary temporarily, but not to its former glory and importance. It was not the actual institution that presented hindrance to the advancement of Christianity, nevertheless the Early Church Fathers attacked it with arguments ranging from the irreverent to the obscene. The interesting fact is that none of these indictments were …

Deviant Origins: Hesiodic Theogony And The Orphica, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

Hesiod’s Theogony provides one of the most widely authoritative accounts of the origin of the cosmos, but his account has always been challenged by rivals claiming to be older, wiser, and better, and the name of Orpheus has always been privileged in the evidence for ancient rivals to Hesiod. The Orphic accounts play their variations on the Hesiodic themes, riffing in different ways on the idea of the ultimate origin of the cosmos; the processes of reproduction by which subsequent entities were generated; the conflicts between these divinities that created the changes from the original state to the current one; …

The Tyranny Of Authority: Eternal Damnation In The Fragments Of Clement Of Alexandria?, Daniel J. Crosby

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

This short paper discusses a fragment that John Potter (1715) incorrectly assigned to a hypothetical work of Clement of Alexandria called "On the soul," and how his error came to be responsible for a sharp divide in scholarship with regard to Clement's beliefs about hell and punishment after death. I conclude by suggesting that this short case study also highlights the importance of maintaining an awareness of the ideas and decisions that underlie a critical edition of a text.

The Latin Controversial Dialogues Of Late Antiquity, Charles Nestor Kuper

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation addresses how the literary genre of the philosophical dialogue was used by Latin authors in late antiquity (300–700 AD) to negotiate ongoing anti-heretical debates. ❧Traditional scholarship on this topic has focused mostly on the Greek dialogues. When the Latin material received attention, it was read in terms of its appropriation of and deviation from classical models. More recent scholarship has acted as a corrective to this model, and one key question that has emerged is whether true dialogue persisted into late antiquity at all. Some scholars have provocatively suggested that the democratic aims of the dialogue are inconsistent …

Introduction: The Power—And The Problems—Of Plato’S Images, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Putting Him On A Pedestal: (Re)Collection And The Use Of Images In Plato’S Phaedrus, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Alcibiades The Profane: Images Of The Mysteries In Plato’S Symposium, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.