Classical Literature and Philology Commons^™

Romulus As A Rhetorical And Historiographical Tool In Imperial Roman Literature, Jaden M. Perry

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study exames the figure of Romulus in imperial Roman literaure as neither a fixed mythological nor historical subject, but as a flexible rhetorical and historiographical tool. Surveying a range of authors from the late first to fourth centuries CE, inlcuding historians such as Florus, Tacitus, Justin, Suetonius, and the Historia Augusta, as well as literary authors like Juvenal, Silius Italicus, Valerius Maximus, and Seneca, the thesis argues that references to Romulus and his deified counterpart Quirinus are deliberately manipulated to serve distinct authorial purposes. Rather than merely recounting Rome’s foundational myth, these writers employ Romulus to construct comparisons, …

A Crown In Death: An (Expanded) Dramaturgical Approach To The Trojan Women Of Euripides, Stephanie Lester

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

In the action-packed, visually-oriented market for modern media, some may assume a 2,400-year-old Greek tragedy to be slightly past its expiration date, especially if it features little to no action onstage like in Euripides’ The Trojan Women. However, it is important to remember that literature is lost when the world fails to cherish it, so if a text survives that long, it may be worth another cursory glance. In this case, that glance involved a full dramaturgical study featuring qualitative script analysis of multiple translations of The Trojan Women with related texts to explore context, themes, common literary devices, and …

Imagined Empires: Roman And Chinese Constructions Of One Another In Antiquity, Elizabeth S. Tsang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how the Roman and Han Chinese empires conceptualized one another during the first centuries CE, despite never establishing sustained direct contact. It argues that mutual perceptions were shaped less by firsthand experience than by mediated reports, commodities, and the political interests of intermediaries. The study proceeds in four parts. The first explores how Roman authors employed the ethnonym Seres to frame China as a land of wonder, wealth, and alterity. The second analyzes the Chinese designation Da Qin, showing how it projected Han imperial ideals outward by casting Rome as a mirror-image polity. The third turns to …

The Trial Of Abraham And The Trembling Of The Audience: Rereading The Aqedah, Michael Zhaohan Tang

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

This thesis reexamines the Aqedah narrative from Genesis 22:1–19, focusing on the conveyance of emotions and the portrayal of characters in a story that lacks explicit descriptions of thoughts and feelings. Approaching the text through a literary and narratological lens, I propose that through phraseological techniques like diction and parataxis and compositional strategies such as allusion and juxtaposition, the text captures the psychological depth of biblical characters, thereby enhancing its emotional impact on the audience. I dissect the narrative into eight scenes and within each scene, I conduct close readings to identify and analyze subtle lexical choices and rhetorical devices. …

Quid Multa?: What More? A Translation And Digital Annotation Of Selected Letters From Cicero To Atticus, Kelly Zach

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Modern Classicists are modernizing and digitizing the field of Classical Studies with great success. Philology, translation, and annotation are all aspects that have been evolved using techniques from the Digital Humanities. This project is a foray into the intersection between Classics and Digital Humanities combining traditional Classical work with a digital aspect. This digital aspect of annotation using a dependency grammar-based approach and intuitive software enhances the understanding and translation of selected letters from Cicero to Atticus.

Mercy Otis Warren’S Marcia(S) And Cornelia(S): A Case Study In Women’S Internalization Of Classicism In Early America, Brittany Ellis

Honors Theses

The connection between people in early America and classicism is a field of study that has been heavily documented, although it has remained a very male-focused field with little research done about how women in early America formed a relationship with antiquity. This thesis reveals that elite white women had a deep emotional and intellectual attachment with mothers and matrons from ancient Greece and Rome as a basis for expressing political thoughts and identity; classicism formed a common language that many women could relate to each other before, during, and after the American Revolution. This assessment is achieved through a …

The Impact Of Women On The Life And Legacy Of Mark Antony, Lauren E. Yaple

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Throughout the life of Mark Antony, the women he became involved with had a large impact on his political career, life, and legacy. These women, such as Fulvia and Cleopatra, used Antony as a means to achieve their own political, economic, and personal goals and were able to gain power in a very anti-feminist society through their relationships with and manipulations of him, affecting the career of Antony in many ways including his politics and his actions as a military commander, as showcased by the examination of primary sources from the late Roman Republic and early Roman empire periods. This …

Signs In Sophocles: Modern Approaches To Ptsd In The Ajax, Charlotte Simon

Honors Theses

This project explores the relationship between ancient Greek tragedy and modern psychology, specifically focusing on instances of PTSD, both through the descriptions of symptoms and the cultural reaction to such trauma responses in both ancient and modern sources. The case study from ancient Greece is Sophocles’ play, Ajax, a dramatic depiction of a post-PTSD soldier who has a mental break and is faced with either living with what he has done or committing suicide. The primary objective of this project is to illustrate what modern psychological theory can reveal about the portrayal of PTSD in Greek tragedy and therefore also …

Fable In Action: A Discourse Analysis Approach To The Life Of Aesop, Martha Hamilton Mccafferty

Honors Theses

In this essay, I examine instances of fable-telling throughout the Life of Aesop in a new light by using linguistic theories from the subfield of Pragmatics in my analysis. I suggest that the author’s purpose in composing the Life of Aesop is to instruct his audience on how to use fable effectively, and that Aesop serves as both the positive and negative example for this lesson. I begin by considering the nature of fable and demonstrate why it is necessary to define fable in reference to the social action which it performs. I then address the complex position of fable …

The Exemplary Spartacus: Reception, Adaptation, And Reconstruction, Benjamin Franklin Howland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My project, “The Exemplary Spartacus: Reception, Adaptation, and Reconstruction,” focusses on various representations of the gladiator Spartacus. I assert that Spartacus has almost exclusively been and continues to be an exemplary figure, with an extensive and connected literary tradition, working as an empty signifier in differing temporalities and localities. I draw specific attention to a core issue in the study of Spartacus, namely, the plethora of modern representations of Spartacus in various genres, and the continuing influence these representations exert through their blurring of the historical figure with local themes and ideologies. Each draw from the same ancient sources, infusing …

Ancient Snakebite Literature: The Brooklyn Medical Papyrus And Nicander’S Theriaca, Montgomery Q. Stewart

Publications and Research

The Brooklyn Papyrus is an Egyptian medical treatise on the subject of snakebite cures. It is a part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Charles Edwin Wilbour collection (47.218.48 and 47.218.85). In the 1960s, the papyrus was translated into French by Egyptologist Serge Sauneron. This research paper includes the first full translation of the Brooklyn Papyrus, as well as an introductory essay, which analyzes the structural and religious elements of the work. It also compares the Brooklyn Papyrus to another notable work on snakebites, Nicander of Colophon’s Theriaca.

Seven Stages In “Mantic Ut-Tyre” (“The Journey Of Logic”) By Attar In Sukhrob Sipehri’S Poem “Adress”, Nargiza Shoaliyeva

The Light of Islam

In the poem «Address», which was included in the collection «Green Volume» by S.Sepehri, in his own way he interprets the seven stages of asceticism - the «seven valleys», which are given in the dastan of Sheikh Fariduddin Attar «Mantik ut-tyr» («Journey of Logic»). The article provides a comparative analysis of the spiritual stages of the poet’s poetry - talab (need), ishq (love), marifat (enlightenment), isthiqno (denial), tavhid (unity), zairat (shock), fair (poverty) faqr fano (eternity). The path of Sufi perfection in the poem “Adress” is interpreted by the poet as a search for a “friend’s house.” In “The Journey …

The Delphic Plague : A Study In Athenian Oracular Rejection As Evident In The Oedipus Tyrannus., Devin A Stephens

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The purpose of this work is to determine the effects of the Plague of Athens on the socio-cultural and religious climate of Athens as revealed through Sophocles’ magnum opus the Oedipus Tyrannus. The focus is the problem of oracular decay as viewed by Sophocles due to the political discrepancies between Athens and Delphi of which the plague was the final catalyst. Sophocles in this work is then explored as a writer with sentiments of Delphic Apologism in the wake of the plague which acted as a catalyst for a near complete dissolution of religious customs and furthermore a negation of …

Myrrha Now: Reimagining Classic Myth And Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses In The #Metoo Era, Claire A. Pukszta

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper represents the final culmination of a theater senior project. The project consisted of an analytical research paper, performance in a mainstage department production, and supporting process documentation. I portrayed Myrrha, Hunger, Zeus, and others in a production of the play Metamorphoses.

Through research on Mary Zimmerman’s 1998 play Metamorphoses, adapted from the works of Roman poet Ovid, this thesis grapples with the historical meaning of the myth of Myrrha. A polarizing figure, Myrrha was cursed to fall in lust with her father. By exploring of portrayals sexual assault onstage, I tackle themes of audience relationships to …

Footnotes To Footnotes: Whitehead's Plato, Nathan Oglesby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the presence of Plato in the philosophical expressions of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). It was Whitehead who issued the well-known remark that “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists in a series of footnotes to Plato" -- the purpose of this project is to examine the manner in which Whitehead positioned himself as one such footnote, with respect to his thought itself, and its origins, presentation and reception.

This examination involves: first, an explication of Whitehead’s cosmology and metaphysics and their ostensibly Platonic elements (consisting chiefly in the Timaeus); second, investigation …

Western Classics In Modern Japan (German), Frank Jacob

Publications and Research

A presentation paper (invited guest lecture) delivered at the Institute of Ancient History at Marburg University, Germany, July 12, 2016.

1st Place: "The Art Of Storytelling" Literature Collection, Lauren Cruz

John and Margaret Class Student Book Collection Contest

This is Lauren Cruz's submission essay, annotated bibliography, and annotated wishlist for the 2016 John and Margaret Class Student Book Collection Contest, which won first place.

Lauren is a graduate student at Chapman University in the War and Society program.

Iambic Metapoetics In Horace, Epodes 8 And 12, Erika Zimmerman Damer

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

When in Book 1 of his Epistles Horace reflects back upon the beginning of his career in lyric poetry, he celebrates his adaptation of Archilochean iambos to the Latin language. He further states that while he followed the meter and spirit of Archilochus, his own iambi did not follow the matter and attacking words that drove the daughters of Lycambes to commit suicide (Epist. 1.19.23–5, 31).¹ The paired erotic invectives, Epodes 8 and 12, however, thematize the poet’s sexual impotence and his disgust during encounters with a repulsive sexual partner. The tone of these Epodes is unmistakably that of …

Review Of Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma, Hellenistic Tragedy, Paul Ojennus

Library Faculty Scholarship

Review of Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma, Hellenistic Tragedy: Texts, Translations and a Critical Survey. Bloomsbury Classical Studies Monographs. London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2015. Pp. xvi, 322. ISBN 9781472524218. $120.00. Kotlińska-Toma collects and translates the fragments of Greek tragedy of the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC); the study delivers a careful collection of the relevant texts, a descriptive overview of the nature of Hellenistic tragedy, and a summary of the stage conventions of the Hellenistic period, especially their differences from the Classical period.

Grief In The Iliad, Patrick R. Stickley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper addresses the causes and effects of grief within Homer's Iliad. In addition, this paper argues that error, both committed and suffered, is the primary cause of grief, and that grief is particularly transformative in regard to Achilles, both in his motivations and his physicality.

Gender Reversals And Intertextuality In Tibullus, Erika Zimmerman Damer

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

This paper argues that Tibullus’ practice of altering the gender of his intertextual references destabilizes gender as a biological, social, and even grammatical category in his elegies. In 1.8, Tibullus draws on images of women’s adornment from Callimachus, Philitas, and Propertius to create the opening image of the puer Marathus. In 2.6, Tibullus draws from Catullus’ lament for his brother in carmen 101 as he describes Nemesis’ dead young sister and demonstrates his technical skill in manipulating the flexibility of grammatical gender in Latin.

Recent Work On Tibullus, Erika Zimmerman Damer

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

This introduction provides an overview of Tibullus’ life, his poetry, and his style, and offers a bibliographical survey of emerging critical trends in interpreting this relatively neglected Roman elegist.

Nietzsches Hermeneutische, Phänomenologische Wissenschafts-Philosophie. Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen Zu Altphilologie Und Physiologie, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

“Above All Greek, Above All Roman Fame”: Classical Rhetoric In America During The Colonial And Early National Periods, James M. Farrell

Communication

The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of that ancient discipline, and in the practical approaches to persuasion adopted by orators and writers in the colonial period, and during the early republic. Classical theoretical treatises on rhetoric enjoyed wide authority both in college curricula and in popular treatments of the art. Classical orators were imitated as models of republican virtue and oratorical style. Indeed, virtually every dimension of the political life of early Ameria bears the imprint of a classical conception of public discourse. This essay marks the …

Ex Machina: Electronic Resources For The Classics, Beth Juhl

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay aims to provide an overview of electronic resources for the study and teaching of classics—including Greek and Latin languages and literature, philosophy, religion, art and archaeology, and ancient history—with particular emphasis on the tools most useful for a library collection serving an undergraduate clientele. Most of this discussion is devoted to CD-ROMs and other soft ware that are available for purchase, lease, or subscription. A short section at the end of the essay summarizes resources available on the Internet. There are a great many ingenious and entertaining programs for language teaching and drill, and numerous customized Greek and …

Dryden's Virgil: Some Special Aspects Of The First Folio Edition, Arthur W. Hoffman

The Courier

This article relates the history of John Dryden's translation of Vergil's Aeneid, a first folio edition of which is located at Syracuse University Special Collections. Dryden's translation, written in seventeenth century England, reflected the tense polticial environment of the times, and competed with several translations from other writers.

Two Papyrus Fragments Of The Odyssey, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The two papyri edited below are housed in the Rare Books Department of the Bancroft Library on the University of California's Berkeley campus. Of Roman date, they were summarily described on page 303 of The Tebtunis Papyri Vol. II and have listings in Roger A. Pack's Greek and Latin Literary Texts from Greco-Roman Egypt. The collations which follow are based upon P. von der Muihll's edition (Basel 1946). For fragment no. 1, pertinent excerpts from the apparatus criticus of that edition are reproduced.