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Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Ancient Philosophy

Fear, Trembling, And Wonder: Psalms Of Awe, Solomon Aleph Jun 2025

Fear, Trembling, And Wonder: Psalms Of Awe, Solomon Aleph

University Honors Theses

This thesis proposes an expansion of genre form criticism within the Book of Psalms to include an additional category: Psalms of Awe. Building on scholarship that emphasizes the Psalms as expressions of religious experience, it draws from philosophical, theological, and critical scholarship to define the experience of awe as a distinct religious experience not fully captured by form critical scholarship. The thesis argues that awe is reflected in the Psalms through the combination of three key Hebrew roots: ירא (fear/reverence), פחד (fear/dread), and פלא (wonder). This is done by analyzing several psalms to explicate how each term captures a different …


The Campaigns Of Alexander: How Arrian’S Character Of Alexander Influences How He Is Portrayed In Writing, Peyton M. Myers Apr 2020

The Campaigns Of Alexander: How Arrian’S Character Of Alexander Influences How He Is Portrayed In Writing, Peyton M. Myers

Young Historians Conference

Historians have long been discussing and analyzing Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander, and not just for it's valuable and rare insights on the life of Alexander the Great. In his books, Arrian appears to have a more apologetic approach when writing about Alexander. It leads the reader into thinking Alexander was a better man than he actually might have been. In this paper, I take a look at five different authors-- both fictional and nonfictional-- and how they portrayed Alexander the Great as a person. Each of the authors wrote Alexander as a noble and just person, highlighting his …


The Influence Of Hellenism On The Literary Style Of 1 And 2 Maccabees, Dimitra S. Fellman Apr 2017

The Influence Of Hellenism On The Literary Style Of 1 And 2 Maccabees, Dimitra S. Fellman

Young Historians Conference

The Jewish people living within Hellenistic Greece experienced great freedoms, and many assimilated into the non-Jewish societies around them. Yet, under the Seleucid King Antiochus IV in the 2nd century BCE, the Jewish people experienced oppression and persecution, which has been chronicled in the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. At a glance, these books appear opposed to the blending of Hellenistic culture and society into surrounding Jewish communities, but a deeper analysis of both texts reveals that the authors depended on Hellenistic constructs to effectively tell their story. This paper explores the degree to which the authors of 1 …


The Notion Of Madness In Literature, Philosophy, And Tragedy: Evolving Conceptions Of Mental Illness In Athens, David Z. Bartolome Apr 2017

The Notion Of Madness In Literature, Philosophy, And Tragedy: Evolving Conceptions Of Mental Illness In Athens, David Z. Bartolome

Young Historians Conference

It is a basic understanding of modern medicine that mental illness is a disorder of the mind. But from where did this notion originate? In Homer’s popular epics, mental afflictions such as madness and depression are described as divine punishments rather than true mental illness. By the Hellenistic Age, Greek medical journals show a rejection of this divine explanation in favor of the mind. What changed in Greece? This paper tracks the Greek's understanding and conceptualization of madness throughout history and unites disciplines of literature, politics, tragedy, and philosophy to argue that modern understanding of mental illness has its earliest …


Sappho's Queer Female History, Tess M. Waxman Apr 2017

Sappho's Queer Female History, Tess M. Waxman

Young Historians Conference

Sappho was a queer woman in ancient Greece. Scholars have researched her sexuality, promiscuity, and sexual orientation, often instead of analyzing her works. Sappho’s poetry provides historians a rare view into the lives of queer women in ancient Greece, shaping the largely untold female LGBTQ history. She introduces a unique viewpoint; she brings complex ideas, such as the justice of Aphrodite, active versus passive lover roles, and erotic culture. Sappho’s distinctly queer poetry is important to explore in an attempt to better understand the past of more people.


Homer In Virgil, Thomas Kerns Jun 1992

Homer In Virgil, Thomas Kerns

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

This paper argues that the biggest influence on Virgil’s Aeneid was Homer’s epics. By tracing Homer’s influence on the Aeneid, there is a heightened sense of the reasons underlying the themes in Virgil’s writing. One of Virgil’s main purposes in writing the Aeneid is to identify Augustus with Aeneas. In the end, this paper suggests that not only are the influences of Homer important for an understanding of the Aeneid, but in fact are vital for it to accomplish its goals.


The Phaedo: A Painting In Three Parts, Sharon Parker Jan 1991

The Phaedo: A Painting In Three Parts, Sharon Parker

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

This paper argues that Plato’s Phaedo might be interestingly viewed as a painting: a landscape in three parts. This triptych is unified through the central question of the immortality of the human soul. This paper traces this conception of the Phaedo through an interrogation of the textual markers that might lead to an understanding of the whole. In the end, The Phaedo is seen as ascending from the corporeal to the ethereal.


The Protagoras: An Explication, Victorya Khary Jan 1991

The Protagoras: An Explication, Victorya Khary

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

The paper explores themes of Athenian life, Socratic philosophy, and the theme of Knowledge leading to power in the Protagoras. The setting of the Protagoras is primarily a portico at Callias’s home and Socrates debates Protagoras on numerous subjects. This paper shows that those possessing the most knowledge, Protagoras and Socrates, have the most power by invoking a pyramid structure where both Protagoras and Socrates are at the peak and give the lengthiest speeches. All of the speeches, whether by those at the top of the pyramid or the bottom, provide a glimpse into the unique nature of Athenian intellectual …


The Argonautica: Apollonius' New Epic, Christopher Frank Jan 1991

The Argonautica: Apollonius' New Epic, Christopher Frank

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Apollonius’ Argonautica takes as its general form the epic tradition of Homer, but often diverges from traditional paths in order to show trends in Hellenistic life. The poem is generally thought of as an Imitation, but its complex imitations do not perfectly follow the Homeric epic tradition. This paper points out the influences that led to these differences and then suggests that ultimately Apollonius is making a concrete and interesting statement about his own culture.


Neoplatonic Influences In Augustine's Confessions, Shon H. Kraley Jan 1990

Neoplatonic Influences In Augustine's Confessions, Shon H. Kraley

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Augustine wrote the Confession at a time when Christianity was still a small religion mostly populated with peasants and lower-class individuals. This paper argues that he actively utilized Neoplatonic philosophies and ideas in order to give credibility to his Christian doctrine. By doing so he accomplished the goal of expanding Christianity and appealing to the Intellegentsia.


Kykloi: Cyclic Theories In Ancient Greece, Hubert Wayne Nelson Jr. Nov 1980

Kykloi: Cyclic Theories In Ancient Greece, Hubert Wayne Nelson Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

It is both curious and frustrating, given the perennial popularity of the cycle concept in Ancient Greece, that there has not been a single book written devoted to the wide variety of philosophic and historical conceptions bound up with that loosely descriptive designation. This study was originally undertaken to satisfy my own curiosity on the subject. Herein I intend to survey the entire history of the cycle concept in general from about 700 B.C. to the time of Polybius in the second-century A.D. It is intended to be a descriptive as well as an analytical report.