Classics Commons^™

"Seein' Is Believin "': Spiritualism Among Civil War-Era Mississippian And South Carolinian Slaves, Westley Follett

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When asked if she believed in ghosts, Minerva Wells of Simpson County, Mississippi replied, "Ise lak my race, I jes' sorter can't help from a believing in haints jes' a little bit." For many former slaves such as Minerva, spiritualism (a belief in ghosts, spirits, and "haints"), superstition, and magic were accepted facts of life. They held a profound influence over the actions of believers and they also formed an integral part of the Southern slave culture.

Faith In Europe: De Gasperi, Adenauer And Their Visions Of Postwar Europe, Michael Griffitts

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

G ermany and Italy faced exceptional challenges after World War II. Their culpability in the outbreak of this devastating war made recovery an especially difficult task. Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) and Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954) had the unenviable jobs of rebuilding their respective nations after Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had fallen from power. Both were Chri~tian Democrats who believed that the Christian tradition could provide an important foundation for Europe's rebirth. For both, the ennobling principles of Christianity and the transnational solidarity promoted by the religious tradition offered a refreshing possibility for peace and stability. Their commitment to greater European …

'A Mighty Woman In Zion": The Roles Of Mary Jane Dilworth Hammond As An Lds Missionary Wife In Nineteenth-Century Hawaii, Julia Ann Oldroyd

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Mary Jane Dilworth, the twelfth of thirteen children of Caleb and Eliza Wollerton Dilworth, was born on 29 July 1831 in Uwchlan, Chester, Pennsylvania. By 1846, her mother, brother, and eight sisters had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, to gather with the other Church members. The inhabitants of Nauvoo were later driven from their homes to Winter Qyarters, Nebraska, and on 17 June 1847 most of the Dilworth family headed farther west with the Jedediah M. Grant Mormon pioneer company and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley almost four months …

Tripping The Iron Feet Of Oppression: The Montgomery Bus Boycott As The Starting Point Of The Civil Rights Movement, Val J. Heyer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Many historians hold that the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision was. the starting point of the modem Civil Rights movement, because it showed that blacks could legally protest segregation and win. However, as Edgar French stated, "history refutes any claim that this date marked the beginning of their struggle." Today, disproportionate emphasis on Brown is displayed in history textbooks. Historians Paul Escott and David Goldfield wrote that the Civil Rights movement was a "religious crusade" and that Martin Luther King,Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were the epitomes of this crusade. They did not mention …

Empires And Multi-Ethnic Identities, Beatrice Forbes Manz

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The last fifteen years have brought an upsurge of the national and ethnic unrest that many had hoped was past. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and its alliance system poses new challenges and questions, and deprives us of the easy frame of reference within which we regarded the confusion of a small and contentious world. U oder these circumstances, it is natural that the study ofidentity should find appeal, and since the late 1970s a number of illuminating studies have appeared. Most of these studies explore the phenomenon of nationalism, seen as the most modern and widespread form of …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

The Mosaic Programs Of The Basilica Of San Vitale And The Great Palace Of Constantinople: A Unique Reinvention Of Roman Pasts, Justine Spencer

University Honors Theses

The Church of San Vitale and the Great Palace of Constantinople offer remarkable examples of artistic productions in early Byzantine mosaics. Bridging from the same Roman past they reinvented a classical medium with their unique interpretations of earlier traditions. They exemplify the diversity of Byzantine artistic productions that could coexist within the same medium and era. The mosaics of the Great Palace were part of a secular governmental public space and found deep in the heart of the Eastern Roman Empire. The mosaics of the Church of San Vitale were made for the domain of the newly reconsecrated Orthodox church …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Teenage Terror: Blackboard Jungle (1955) And The Spirit Of The Fifties, Mark Cordner

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

So violent it gained reference in the United States Congress, so extreme it caused the U.S. Ambassador to Italy to force its banning from the Venice Film Festival, so explicit it brought widespread disapproval from educators, Richard Brooks' Blackboard Jungle (1955) exploded across the silver screen with an intensity and honesty that was frightening as well as controversial. Released at a peak in the U.S. Congress' investigation into the mass media's influence on juvenile delinquency, Blackboard Jungle set off a fury of protest from enraged parents and teachers. The film also marked the beginning of a new Hollywood fascination with …

The Techniques And Applications Of Hitler's Propaganda, Kelly Stone

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In March of 1924, Adolf Hitler and forty of his associates were convicted of treason for attempting to overthrow the Weimar government in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch." Hitler was sentenced to five years in the Landsberg fortress, but was released in less than a year. During his eight month incarceration, Hitler wrote a remarkable book, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), in which he recounted his life, proclaimed his ideology, and described in detail his plans (upon attaining power) for Germany's future. Mein Kampf is not a literary masterpiece. Winston Churchill describes it as "turgid, verbose, [and] shapeless." Mein Kampf's importance …

Christiaan Huygens' Wave Theory Of Light: A Major Contribution To Seventeenth Century Science, Cari Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The phenomena of light have been subject to much speculation and controversy throughout history. The ancient Hebrews believed that light was formed by God's command on the first day of creation. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun, the source of light, and called it Ra; the Persians worshipped the sun as Mithras. By the fifth century B.C. the Greek's quest to comprehend light came under natural investigation instead of a supernatural mysticism. Through logic, the ancient Greek philosopher, Empedocles, reasoned that light must have a measurable speed since it takes time for light to get from one place to another. …

"History Ceases To Exist": Gettysburg And The American Memory, 1865 To 1985, Gary Daynes

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

John Brinkerhoff Jackson, the foremost historian of American landscapes, concluded his essay "The Necessity for Ruins" by stating that for most modern Americans "History ceases to exist." By this, Jackson did not imply that Americans have no interest in the past, for each year millions flock to historic sites. Rather, for Americans, the past is a plaything serving no purpose beyond bolstering their national self image.

From Initial Opportunities To The Awakening: A Paradoxical View Of The Rise Of Women's Literature, Rebecca Christensen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The 1800s saw the broadening of the female press with an expanded audience and increasing numbers of women writers. These women, following the admonition of Sarah Hale, emphasized the role of women as defenders of morality. Women, they believed, functioned in a separate sphere and their writing stressed women's proper place in family and home environments. The strong literary foundation created by the success of these women, however, paradoxically lead to the emergence of Kate Chopin, whose works reject the conventional model of women as the ideal of virtue and demonstrate women's needs as an individuals.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Archaeology Showcase (2024), Jesse Tune, Jacqueline Frost Dibiasie-Sammons, Aileen Ajootian, Joseph Cruz, Karina Glenn, Greg Palculict, Maggie Wallace

Lecture Series

Professor Jesse Tune, UM Department of Sociology and Anthropology
"Moving to the Edge of the World: Ireland's First Peoples"

Professor Jacqueline Frost DiBiasie-Sammons, UM Department of Classics
"Mapping Media: A bird's eye view of charcoal, chalk and ochre graffiti in Pompeii"

UM Classics majors Mr. Joseph Cruz, Ms. Karina Glenn, Mr. Greg Palculict, Ms. Maggie Wallace
"To Rome and Back"

Professor Aileen Ajootian, UM Department of Classics
"Young Herakles"

Contadino Is Italian For “Hoosier” (From No Depression Music: A Novella In Verse), James Bradley Wells

Classical Studies Faculty publications

No abstract provided.

Visualizing Ancient Empire In Tudor England: Imperial Monarchy, Reformation, And The Antique Soldier In The Title Page To Richard Grafton’S Large Chronicle (1569), Peter Nicholas Otis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the iconography and visual sources of the title page to the first volume of A chronicle at large and meere history of the affayres of Englande (1569) by the Tudor author Richard Grafton. Representing the visual synthesis of several distinct but interrelated currents that developed in the preceding century, the title page to the Large Chronicle offers a rare glimpse into a transitional moment in the middle Tudor perception and visual representation of the British past. These currents include imperializing royal iconography, with origins in antecedent representations in the late fifteenth century; the entry of the ‘classicizing’ …

Ecumenical Dialogue Between Reformers And Orthodox Under The Ottomans (15-16th Century), Svetoslav Svetoszarov Ribolov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Despite the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the Orthodox Church continued to make contacts with the West. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Patriarchs Joasaph II and Jeremias II had ecumenical contacts and theological dialogues with two generations of Reformers. Martin Luther and Melanchthon, and later Martin Crusius, Jakob Andrеä, and their associates in Wittenberg took up the initiative for a serious ecumenical dialogue with Constantinople. Despite a sincere desire on both sides, lack of a common methodological framework in the talks did not allow for significant results. In the end, both sides did not …

Digitizing Delphi: Educating Audiences Through Virtual Reconstruction, Kate Koury

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Implementing a 3D model into a virtual space allows the general public to engage critically with archaeological processes. There are many unseen decisions that go into reconstructing an ancient temple. Analysis of available materials and techniques, predictions of how objects were used, decisions of what sources to reference, puzzle piecing broken remains together, and even educated guesses used to fill gaps in information often go unobserved by the public. This work will educate users about those choices by allowing the side-by-side comparison of conflicting theories on the reconstruction of the Tholos at Delphi, which is an ideal site because of …

How Fears Of Ai In The Classroom Reflect Anxieties About Choosing Sophistry Over True Knowledge In The American Education System, David Arellano Smith

Critical Humanities

The rise of ChatGPT has educators across the United States of America worried about scholastic integrity like never before. This paper argues, however, that underneath this initial concern lies an even greater one, that the education system in the United States so closely resembles the style of teaching used by the sophists in Ancient Greece that it has ultimately failed to cultivate critical thinking skills in America’s youth, so much so that ChatGPT has become a far greater issue than it ever needed to be. The practice of ‘teaching to the test’ and the commodification of education, which is akin …

Alexander And The Roman Emperors, Sulochana Asirvatham

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Alexander most visible to us today is one who was created and recreated in the Roman period. While Alexander's presence in literature is strong enough that we can reasonably describe the trajectory of intellectual interest in Alexander during the Roman period, more difficult to pin down is the degree to which powerful Romans engaged in conscious imitatio or aemulatio Alexandri, which generally involves squaring literary hints with material evidence that does not always speak to us as directly as we would like it to. Without dismissing the world of ways in which various aspects of Alexander-myth may have been …

Signifying And The Feeling Of Differences, Samuel Weber

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

What does Werner Hamacher's concept of archiphilology have in common with Saussure's view of intralinguistic， differential function in language? Perhaps the way in which the indefinite of language itself “slowly defines itself，” both in response to past acts of appropriations， and appealing for new signifieds the meaning of which can only be seized and unseized over time. Several of Kafka's short stories illustrate how literary works play out the same tension within what can be called a “progressive and digressive” narrative， warding off any internal principle of closure or conclusiveness while continuing to require endings and answers. Holderlin's “Remarks on …

Guest Editor's Overview, Yue Zhuo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

The Ktisis Of The Early Christian Kourion: The Cosmic Symbolism Of The Mosaics In The House Of Eustolios And The Emergence Of Christian Kourion, Clay Carpenter

Doctoral Dissertations

This 2024 Doctor of Philosophy with a Concentration in Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology dissertation at Lipscomb University discusses how the fourth and fifth centuries AD comprise a crucial transitional period in the history of Western Civilization. With the legalization and triumph of Christianity, the Roman Imperial world was, in time, entirely transfigured in all sectors of human life – the religious, the social, the political, and the economic. For the archaeologist in particular, the changes to the configuration and orientation of the urban space of the classical cities that abundantly dotted the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean are high upon …

The Authors

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Short professional biographies of the Contributors: Dimitra Andrianou, Giacomo Bardelli, Magali An Berthon, Tina Boloti, Cecilie Brøns, Ana Cabrera-Lafuente, Francesca Coletti, Roxana Coman, Catarina Costeira, Cristina Cumbo, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Klara Dankova, Anna Maria Desiderio, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Arianna Esposito, Astrid Fendt, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Francisco B. Gomes, Judith Goris, Audrey Gouy, Karina Grömer, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Mary Harlow, Susanna Harris, Sophia Larissa Hayda, Angela Huang, Floor Huisman, Alina Iancu, Zofia Kaczmarek, Marisa Kerbizi, Meghan Korten, Tetiana Krupa, Karolina Anna Kulpa, Lena Larsson Lovén, Ronja Lau, Yuliia Lazorenko, Susanne Lervad, Petra Linscheid, Christina Margariti, Maria João Melo, Elena Miramontes Seijas, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, …

The Euroweb Textile And Clothing Terminology Network And The Digital Atlas Of European Textile Heritage: Some Reflections And Results, Louise Quillien, Alina Iancu, Meghan Korten, Susanne Lervad, Joana Sequeira, Catarina Costeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

One of the research areas of the EuroWeb project during the four years of the COST Action (November 2020 – October 2024) is the comparative study of textile and clothing terminologies in European languages across time. Inside the EuroWeb network, the research group on Textile and clothing terminologies has three topics of particular interest: 1. the specificities of these terminologies, and the strategies for naming textiles and garments; 2. the impact of European geography on textile and clothing terminologies, especially visible through textile terms formed after a toponym or through the circulation of loanwords; 3. the influence of textile and …

Exploring Dress, Gender, And Bodily Capital Through Pre- And Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies From Southwestern Europe, Francisco B. Gomes, Catarina Costeira, Anna Maria Desiderio, Arianna Esposito, Giacomo Bardelli

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment.

This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, …

Displaying And Experiencing Dress Identities In Museums: Case Studies From The Etruscan Period To Modern Times, Karina Grömer, Astrid Fendt, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Anna Zimmermann, Kayleigh Saunderson, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Francisco B. Gomes

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Dress, clothes, and accessories receive and give meaning through their nearness to the human body. As P. Stallybrass writes: “Bodies come and go: the clothes that have received those bodies survive.” It is through the close interaction between dress and person that they both receive their meaning. Clothes shape the human body, and we in return shape our clothes. Dress communicates class, gender, nationality, and marital status, and we leave behind parts of us in its smell, wrinkles, wear, and tear: “Clothes receive the human imprint.” Archaeological and historical dress — no matter how ancient — remain intrinsically linked to …

Book 6: Odysseus Meets The Maiden, Erwin F. Cook

Classical Studies Faculty Research

It is a commonplace among Homeric scholars that Scheria is a gateway between worlds. In what follows I shift focus to the role the Phaeacians play in facilitating Odysseus’s passage home, beyond doing so literally. My basic claim is that Odysseus is reintegrated into a functioning human society on Scheria before reestablishing his domestic relationships on Ithaca. He there establishes xenia, or guest-friendship, with the royal household, an institution that throughout the poem epitomizes civilized values. In this, Nausicaa plays a central role, and she too stands at the threshold of changing identities, from virgin princess to an adult …

Red Dyes From West To East In Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations To Romanian Textiles, Irina Petroviciu, Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although …