Classics Commons^™

Ethics In 21st Century Art Conservation: Confederate Monuments, Kate L. Hoffman

Honors Theses

This paper explores the ethics surrounding the conservation of damaged confederate monuments, specifically as educational tools for understanding their place in society and memory over time. Much of this research has been conducted through the use of contemporary news sources and memory studies scholarship on account of the recent influx of interest towards the monuments and their controversies in the 21st century. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to provide an unbiased source of material for future scholarship in memory studies towards confederate monuments, for if damages dealt to the monuments are repaired, that portion of their physical history …

Code-Switching Practices In The Foreign-Language Classroom: Instructor Nativeness And Students' Perceptions, Zachary Ty Gill

Honors Theses

In this study we investigated code-switching practices in the foreign language classroom among instructors who are native speakers of the target language (Spanish) and instructors who are non-native speakers of the target language, as well as students’ perceptions of L1 use. Participants were three college instructors of Spanish and 38 college students in an intermediate level Spanish course. The participants were observed and recorded during two hour-long classes involving group work. After the observations, the instructors completed an interview, and the students completed an online questionnaire. This study found that native instructors use less English than non-native instructors and the …

Increasing Awareness Of International Adoption Through Literature, Romy Newberry

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

To “Converse With The Most Excellent Men”: Classical Education, Cultural Capital, And The Formation Of A Ruling Class In The Antebellum South, Katherine E. Aberle

Honors Theses

Caroline Winterer writes in The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in Intellectual Life, 1780-1910that “Next to Christianity, the central intellectual project in American colleges before the nineteenth century was classicism.” Classics had been the heart of education among social elites in Europe and North America at least since the Renaissance, but the tradition would have particular importance in the American South. From such early planters as William Byrd II to such founding fathers as Jefferson and Madison, to planters at the end of the antebellum period, knowledge of classical languages and the history of classical antiquity was a …

Roman Character: Moral Foundations Theory And The Success Of Rome, Weston Liefer

Honors Theses

This study explores the six foundations in Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory and how they manifest in Livy's History and Augustan policy. Their presence within each of those areas will demonstrate how strongly the foundations were entrenched in Roman culture and may help explain the successful transition from a republic to an empire by examining how these foundations encourage group cohesion. Added to this, this study may also help provide more support for Haidt's theory. Moral Foundations Theory posits that there are six moral foundations of culture that have developed over time, each responding to a unique trigger: Care, Loyalty, …

Brutus, Cassius, Judas, And Cremutius Cordus: How Shifting Precedents Allowed The Lex Maiestatis To Group Writers With Traitors, Hunter R. Myers

Honors Theses

In either 103 or 100 B.C., a concept known as Maiestas minuta populi Romani (diminution of the majesty of the Roman people) is invented by Saturninus to accompany charges of perduellio (treason). Just over a century later, this same law is used by Tiberius to criminalize behavior and speech that he found disrespectful. This thesis offers an answer to the question as to how the maiestas law evolved during the late republic and early empire to present the threat that it did to Tiberius' political enemies. First, the application of Roman precedent in regards to judicial decisions will be examined, …

Connecting The Mind And Body In Ancient Greek Medicine, Taylor Ferris

Honors Theses

I investigated Greek medicine and healing shrines in antiquity and focused on the issue of the mind-body connection and how this phenomenon was understood in antiquity. I researched the Athenian plague of 430-425 B.C., sleep and dreams, particularly in the Rites of Incubation, and Hippocratic medicine as well as religious medicine in order to understand more deeply the origins of Greek medicine and how the healing phenomena were practiced and understood. I have come to a greater understanding of this connection between the mind and the body and have come to redefine the placebo effect and argue that the mind …

Infinity In Culture, Dessie Mcfarland

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Sex And The Law Of Ancient Athens, Laura S. Dona

Honors Theses

This paper will explore the legal implications of social norms and taboos surrounding both biological sex distinctions and sexuality in Ancient Athens. I believe that the legal speeches used in Ancient Athenian court cases reflect a unique gateway into understand these social norms, because these speeches are arguments made in an attempt to appeal to a jury of Athenian citizens. From these arguments, we can infer what would likely be honorable versus condemnable, and from the logical structure of the arguments we can further understand their legal reasoning. From what I have researched on biological sex and sexuality norms of …

Whore Or Hero?: Helen Of Troy's Agency And Responsibility From Antiquity To Modern Young Adult Fiction, Alicia Dixon

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to explore the use of Helen of Troy spanning literature from Homer to the modern Starcrossed series by Josephine Angelini, and to discuss how Helen's agency is both stripped from her and granted to her through the use of desire, death, and the connotations associated with her face and name. Specifically, the differences between ancient works and Angelini's novels in how these three categories are treated concerning Helen are used to show how a Helen with very similar characteristics to those Helens in ancient literature, who generally possess little or no agency, can go …

Liquid Gold: The Ancient Olive Oil Trade Between Baetica And Rome, Mary Martin

Honors Theses

The paper provides an overview of the olive oil trade between the city of Rome and its colony, Baetica, focusing on the 1st-3rd centuries AD. Topics covered include the procedure for making oil, a discussion of how the oil was packaged for shipment, hypotheses about what routes might have been taken to deliver each shipment, and estimates on the total consumption of Baetican oil in Rome. A special attention was placed on linking the records of people involved in the trade to their jobs and business functions. To accomplish this work, epigraphic records from statue bases, amphorae and dedicatory plaques …

Democratizing Dionysus: The Origins Controversy And The Dual Evolution Of Tragedy And Civism, Belen Plaza-Gainza

Honors Theses

Finding the origins of tragedy has been a fascinating subject since late antiquity, and it continues to be a source of academic debate. The controversy I have examined is from the early years of our twenty-first century, and has questioned the testimony of Aristotle, opening the debate once again. The evidence continues to prove that tragedy’s origins were religious, and even though there is no hard evidence to prove that it evolved from Dionysiac ritual, there is no hard evidence to disprove this theory either.

I have taken this opportunity to examine the origins of tragedy from its evolution, which …

Engendering Epic: Heroism As Constructed Masculinity In The Epics Of Gilgamesh And Beowulf, Rachael Scott Poe

Honors Theses

When considering epic heroes like Gilgamesh and Beowulf, it is readily apparent that they are products of patriarchal societies, and, consequently, masculinity is an inherent consideration when defining heroism. Gender is not a neutral aspect of the human experience, nor is it uniform across socio-cultural boundaries; rather, individual cultures determine the range of appropriate and desirable behavior for each gender. Thus, the concept of gender is central to every human being, and especially to the epic heroes Gilgamesh and Beowulf whose masculine achievements shape the course of their tales. Though these heroes come from extremely different times and places, there …

Blood Sacrifice: The Connection Between Roman Death Rituals And Christian Martyrdom, Angela Dawne Kennedy

Honors Theses

Scholars from a variety of disciplines have done some incredible work on the subject of martyrdom, but the story is far from complete, particularly in terms of how and why it was so similar to the Roman concept of public deaths. The primary sources include the surviving Christian martyrologies, Greco-Roman philosophical treatises, and Roman, Christian, and Jewish histories. Martyrdom itself was a tool of assimilation that somehow bridged the communities of the empire together. There is a huge body of information in a variety of genres that contribute to this project. But there exists a hole in the combined scholarship …

Beyond Pederasty: Finding Models For Adult Male Homosexuality In Classical Athens, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Barnes

Honors Theses

Modern discourse on homosexuality in Classical Athens has been dominated by the discussion of pederasty, a homoerotic relationship between a younger boy and an older man. Scholars base their work on a huge body of ancient evidence, especially vase imagery and textual sources. Little has been said about how Athenians viewed non-pederastic erotic relationships between adult male peers. I have considered this question, attempting to set aside the pederastic framework which scholars have used almost exclusively. To narrow the range of ancient evidence, I have looked closely at the development of two pairs — Achilles and Patroclus and Harmodius and …

If The Shoe Fits…An Artistic Analysis Of The Classic Fairy Talecharacter Cinderella, Corinne Andrew

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Little Metropolis: Religion, Politics, & Spolia, Paul Brazinski

Honors Theses

There have been numerous councils throughout the Catholic Church?s history. From the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE to Vatican II in 1962, only a few centuries have passed without any major church doctrinal change. Following hand in hand with changes in doctrine came the bifurcation of the Christian Church into the Roman CatholicChurch and the Orthodox Church. The first split came in 325 CE with Arianism. Arius of Alexandria and his followers did not agree with the Catholic Church?s viewpoint that the son, Jesus, should be on equal footing with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Constantine the …

Julian As Fanatic Ideologue: An Explanation For The Persian Invasion Of A.D. 363 /, Dallas Deforest

Honors Theses

This thesis attempts to answer the question of why Julian went on his ill-fated Persian expedition. It argues that Julian was a fanatical ideologue and that his reforms, foreign policy, and, most importantly, Persian campaign must be viewed through Julian's ideological framework. The paper asserts that Julian's fanatical nature drove him to invade Persia because he was witnessing the failure of his ideologically driven domestic initiatives, and these failures were shocking and unacceptable to him. This process of failure drove him to the foreign facet of his ideology, which centered on an Alexander the Great complex and an invasion of …

The Victorian Construction Of Sappho, 1835-1914, Megan Kulp

Honors Theses

Sappho was an ancient Greek lyric poet writing on the isle if Lesbos in the seventh century BC. Her original works were contained in seven books; however, only a few fragments are extant. These fragments are mainly about women and are erotic in nature. Considering the homoerotic tone of Sappho's poetry, it is interesting that the Victorians were fascinated with her and a proliferation of biographies, artwork, plays, operas, translated poems, appeared in that era bearing her name. How did the Victorians reconcile the homoerotic tone of her poems with their own views on what was right and proper? The …