Recent ucbclassics_bujc items

Cover photo

Mon, 5 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the cover photo

Cover Letter

Mon, 5 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the cover letter for volume nine issue one

Ancient Information War within Greek Colonial Narratives: An Analysis of the Theraian-Cyrenean Founding Myth through Historiography and Archaeology

Wed, 5 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

During the Greek Archaic Period, the Greek world saw rapid development in culture, economy and political organization. These advancements led to increased prosperity and facilitated the formation of distinct political units. However, these developments introduced new pressures on these nascent governments, which led to waves of Greek colonization across the Mediterranean world. This introduced the new political relationship of ‘mother city’ and ‘colony’ into existing trans-Mediterranean networks, a complex structure that would play a large role in the politics of the Greek Classical Period. This paper explores the colonial foundation narrative of Cyrene, one of the most well documented foundation myths surviving, by looking at the competing and contrasting claims put forward by Cyrene and Thera. This paper examines the both the historical context and the geopolitical considerations at play behind the various components of the divergent traditions. ...

Defining Amantem: Dido and Popular Modern English Translations of the Aeneid

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000
In the Aeneid, Ancient Rome’s seminal epic poem and Vergil’s greatest work, a queen falls in love and later commits suicide. This queen’s name is Dido, and her story contains some of Vergil’s best poetry, but it has also long been a source of interpretive debate by translators. This paper seeks to illuminate how popular, modern, English translations of the Aeneid have depicted this dynamic, tragic character. These translations (i.e. Ruben, Fitzgerald, Lewis, and others) are the ones read in classrooms and disseminated to the wider public. This paper will attempt to understand them by examining how a translator’s personality and philosophy affect their decisions about the translation’s fidelity, cadence, and expressiveness. It is a comprehensive outline of Dido’s journey through the modern age and how that journey may change as more translators come to the fore who have their own distinct, diverse stories. The Aeneid lives through its translators; it...

Manly Women and Womanly Men: An Analysis of Gender Stereotypes and Inversions in Terence’s Hecyra

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In Roman New Comedy, each role is a caricature informed by societal expectations: the passive matrona, the grouchy uir, the abused but patient young uxor, the egotistical adulescens, and the self-serving meretrix. Hecyra stands out among Terence’s plays because it is unclear whether he is reinforcing or deconstructing these familiar stereotypes. Most scholars focus on the role of women, who are more involved in this play than any other by Terence. They seem to drive the plot forward and have more information than the men, but at the same time, they might be said to placate their husbands and sacrifice for their children. This begs the question, “Are the women in Hecyra acting unusually?” This paper will examine the expectations of women in New Comedy in relation to scenes where women in Hecyra might be said to be contradicting their prescribed roles. This discussion will prove that the wives are not acting...

AGAINST FATE AND FORTUNE: The Ethics of Agency in Books 1-6 of Statius' Thebaid

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Statius' Thebaid, a Roman retelling of the infamous Oedipus myth, owes much to its literary forebears. The central tale the epic explores is borrowed from an ancient source: Greek accounts of an unlucky Oedipus and his unhappy offspring. But this first-century rendering is not a carbon copy of its antediluvian precedents, and Statius' treatments of fate, fortune, and human agency diverge distinctly from those of his most immediate narrative parallels. Indeed, it is in the Thebaid's departure from the causal framework of these assorted sources that its author's influence is most clear.
Throughout the epic's early books, the doubled determinism of Statius' literary inheritance gives way to a possibility of ethical independence for creator and character alike. This mirroring effect—the author's compositional agency is employed to endow his actors with more expansive moral options—serves within the text both to ennoble autonomy and condemn those individuals unwilling or...

Reception of Epicureanism at Rome: Cicero, Lucretius, and the Flexibility of Greek Models in the Late Republic

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Epicureanism, a Greek philosophical school founded in Athens c. 307 BCE, conceives of “pleasure” (αταρξία) as the ultimate human good. This essay aims to investigate the reception of Epicureanism at Rome in the mid-1st century BCE, drawing on Cicero’s In Pisonem and Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura as case studies. Each work addresses the question of whether Epicurus could operate within the framework of Roman cultural and political values and, consequently, whether he should be appropriated into Roman thinking. Through close examination of these two texts, I argue that each author ultimately builds his own version of “Epicurus” to serve his distinctive rhetorical aims. Cicero and Lucretius therefore come together to provide examples of a broader phenomenon surrounding the issue of Hellenization at Rome, namely, that of Greek figures being rewritten and repurposed in different contexts to serve different Roman agendas, revealing the flexible nature of Greek models at Rome and of...

Letter from the editors

Thu, 1 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the editors

Contributors

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Contributors

The Indo-European Religious Background of the Gygēs Tale in Hērodotos

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In his exposition to the story of Kroisos in the first book of his Histories, Hērodotos narrates the rise of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydia through an act of assassination and usurpation by their founder, Gygēs. Commentators on Hērodotos’s text have seemingly neglected the resonances between the tale of Gygēs and the ancient Eurasian religious ideology of the sacred marriage, which conceptualized sovereign power as a goddess wedded to a male sovereign. This paper seeks to place the Gygēs narrative within the context of Indo-European traditions of the sacred marriage, suggesting that its origins lie in historicized myth.

Indo-European Poesy and the 'Ship of State' in Aristophanes's "The Frogs"

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Among several Indo-European poetic and literary inheritances from which Aristophanes draws in his play The Frogs, a crucial one seems to have been overlooked thus far, which ties together seemingly disparate beats and motifs in the play. This is the metaphor analogizing poets to carpenters, their craft (poems) to ships, and recitation/composition as sailing, which besides its appearance in other branches of the Indo-European languages, is attested in other places in the Greek corpus too, especially in the works of Pindar. Tying this inherited poetic trope in with the metaphorical “ship of state” (attested in the lyric poets, tragedians, Plato, etc.) and the on-the-ground importance of Athens’s naval culture and service to its polity makes the trope into more than just a technique for poetic embellishment, but rather, a crucial element in interpreting the literary and political significance of these aforementioned seemingly disparate sections of the play, the motivations...

Woman of Tiryns

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
This painting, reproduced from a Mycenaean fresco from Tiryns (c. 1300 B.C.E) in watercolor, depicts a woman in a style quite characteristic of Bronze Age Greece, holding a pyxis, or an ivory box.

‘The Realm of Truth Confronting its Shadowy Other’? The Reality of Elite Self-Distancing Narratives in Classical Literature

Mon, 5 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
This paper presents an oppositional analysis between representations of elite and non-elite spaces in classical literature, focussing on elite residences (Section I) and the common Roman barbershop (Section II). Its aim is to highlight the ancient literary elite’s selective deployment of the urban as a tool for reinforcing the divide between elite and non-elite. My main ancient sources are Achilles Tatius and Plutarch, and secondary literature (particularly from Tim Whitmarsh and Jerry Toner) is cited throughout the piece. It deals with issues of narrative authority, truth, and – although not explicitly framed in this term – 'fake news', a topic which of course has been at the fore of public discourse in recent years.

Medea: Incarnate Queen of Disorder

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000
A poem on the original queen of disorder and a part of whose spirit lives in all mothers and wives.

The Princess, The Pauper and The Perpetrator- A Trinational Electra in the Twentieth Century

Fri, 1 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Electra myth has been a popular subject throughout the centuries for dramatists. The three great ancient Greek tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) each created his own version of the myth, and these plays have been and continue to be translated or adapted into various languages. In contradiction to the famous phrase “lost in translation,” adaptations may incorporate political or cultural aspects of the country in which they are conceived, giving them even greater substance and meaning. The purpose of this paper, in turn, is two-fold. I begin by presenting and exploring the differences among the three Greek versions of the ancient tragedians and their implications. However, the majority of this paper focuses around three twentieth-century adaptations of each of the playwrights’ versions (namely, Jean Giraudoux’s French Électre, Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s German Elektra, and Eugene O’Neill’s American Mourning Becomes Electra). In addition to analyzing the changes...

Letter from the Editor Fall 2018

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000
a short introduction by the new Editor-in-Chief of this semester's publication

Fall 2018 Cover

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000
Fall 2018 edition of BUJC, designed by Anna-Tessa Rodriguez (Class of 2020, UC Berkeley)

Frayed Around the Edges: Ovid’s Book and Ovid’s Identity in Tristia 1.1 and 3.1

Fri, 29 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In Tristia 1.1 and 3.1, Ovid grapples with his sadness at being exiled from Rome to the empire’s periphery. Scholars typically interpret these poems, in which Ovid imagines his book journeying to Rome on his behalf, as exhibiting either Ovid’s total longing for Rome, or his total withdrawal in exile. Ovid’s identity, however, is more nuanced. Applying the theoretical lens of center/periphery to Tristia 1.1 and 3.1, I conclude that when Ovid wrote Tristia, his identity was actually in flux. Reading Ovid’s poems through the lens of center/periphery, we see how he engages with themes of exclusion and alterity. Thus, we can better appreciate Ovid’s shifting self-conception: no longer of the Roman elite, but a marginalized figure. Reflecting this change, Ovid draws on the contemporary poetic tradition of aestheticizing books, but he turns it on its head. Instead of emphasizing the color and refine of ideal Roman books, Ovid emphasizes the “other” nature of his book, which...

The Philosophical Satire of Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche: Alignment and Contradiction in Allusions to Plato and Lucretius

Fri, 29 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Cupid and Psyche, the expositional myth that interrupts the narrative of Apuleius' novel Metamorphoses, has been regarded as Platonic allegory for how the soul falls in love. However, inconsistencies and faults in the Platonic logic of Apuleius' allusions have caused some scholars to question the strict Platonic reading. Additionally, Apuleius' allusions to philosophic beliefs are not limited to the Platonic. His extensive quotations of Lucretius and his De Rerum Natura have long been recognized, though they are rarely studied at great length. Looking closely at the allusions to De Rerum Natura in Cupid and Psyche, I have found a rich coexistence of philosophical alignment and contradiction to Lucretius' Epicureanism. Therefore, considering the existence of allusions that correspond to and contradict both Platonism and Epicureanism and the relationship between those allusions and the rest of the text, I shall demonstrate that the tale...

Ganymede the Cup Bearer: Variations and Receptions of the Ganymede Myth

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A beautiful young boy carried away by an eagle up and became a cup-bearer on Mount Olympus—this is the myth of Ganymede. But who is this young boy? And why is he carried away by an eagle? Interpreters, from mythographers in the late antiquity to historians still living today, have attempted to interpret this myth and to unveil the significance behind this young cup-bearer’s abduction. The Ganymede myth is told differently by many myth tellers—from Homer to the tenth century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda—and interpreted differently by many interpreters. In this essay, I focus on how four different interpreters—Fulgentius, Natale Conti, Jan Bremmer, and Petra Affeld-Niemeyer—are interpreting differently the elements of Ganymede’s abduction, the eagle which carries Ganymede away, and the liquid Ganymede is bearing in his cup. I argue that the four interpreters interpret the Ganymede myth differently because of their varying presumptions about the fundamental nature of the myth....

Searching for Answers: Lucretius’s Atomic Soul

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000
In his De Rerum Natura, Lucretius strives to scientifically explain several aspects of the natural world. At times, however, his explanations suggest that his philosophical principles precede scientific evidence. This paper examines the relationship between Lucretius’s science and philosophy in general, and his treatment of the human soul more specifically. Based on the Epicurean principle that the fear of death is irrational, Lucretius attempts to prove that the soul is entirely physical, and will therefore cease to exist after death, while accounting for its sentience. He must describe an atomic soul, no matter how complicating this becomes, in order to satisfy the principle that nothing comes after death. This entails describing the soul in the same manner as perceptible phenomena, and for this reason his evidence meets with several obstacles. Lucretius’s scientific explanation for the soul presents compelling evidence that he forms a scientific basis around pre-existing...

Spring 2018 Cover

Wed, 4 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000
Spring 2018 Cover

Spring 2018 Letter from the Editors

Wed, 4 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000
Spring 2018 Letter from the Editors

Timeless Masters of Rhetoric: Socrates and Johnnie Cochran

Tue, 6 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In contrast to its recent pedagogical decline and ongoing negative perceptions, the enduring significance of rhetoric as an independent, systematized discipline continues to be emphasized by modern scholars. In light of this dichotomy, this study presents a coherent, cross-cultural review of two renowned, juridical speeches which aims to highlight the vitality, applicability and confluence of classical Greek rhetoric in contemporary legal speech. Employing its own rhetorical taxonomy, this study seeks to illuminate rhetorical interconnections between examples of classical and modern, North-American forensic oratory by highlighting the homogenous and canonical methodology of ancient and modern orators.

Conflating Piety and Justice in Euripides' Orestes

Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Scholars have long debated the exact difference between what is “pious” (ὅσιος) and what is “lawfully right” (δίκαιος). Many agree that τὰ ὅσια are actions or deeds that please the gods, while τὰ δίκαια are mortal customs. Although, by definition, these two realms of justice are distinct, they are largely conflated in Euripides’ Orestes. In the end, piety (ὅσιος) trumps justice (δίκαιος) and even the τὸν κοινὸν Ἑλλήνων νόμον.
This paper explores the syntactic differences between these two realms and how Euripides comments on them within the play. After establishing a general trend toward anti-intellectual and religiously motivated sentiment after the scandals of 415 BCE in addition to the many rumors of persecuting intellectuals for impiety, this paper seeks to understand why Euripides departed for Macedon just after the production of the Orestes in light of these sweeping attitudes toward intellectuals and impiety. If, in fact, the intellectuals and...

The Rape of Persephone in Children’s Media: Feminist Receptions of Classical Mythology

Sun, 28 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In contemporary academic contexts, the ‘Rape of Persephone’ myth is a source of insight into the powerlessness of women in patriarchal, Greco-Roman society. In popular culture, however, the myth has found a surprising second life amongst children’s media as the story of two unlikely, star-crossed lovers. Instead of simply rephrasing the myth as it is found in ancient sources, some Western authors and artists have changed the myth’s plot and characterization of Hades and Persephone in order to transform this rape myth into a love story. In this paper, I explore the ways in which each adaptation deviates from the source material and reveals contemporary views of gender politics. On the one hand, there are some adaptations in which the ‘Rape of Persephone’ is altered just enough to be deemed appropriate for children. On the other hand, there are retellings in which the changes appear to not simply censor the myth, but to subvert the sexism inherent in the myth itself. I argue...

Ancient Roman Spaces that Served as Museums

Fri, 26 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Between the 2nd century BCE and 2nd century CE, ancient Roman spaces, both public and private, served as museums that met religious, political, and social needs. Museums in the sense that they were places that acquired and exhibited art and objects; however, the purposes of these museums were strongly linked to where they were located and that space's uses. In religious contexts such as temples, shrines, and sanctuaries, art served primarily as votive offerings. Public buildings like the Atrium Libertatis displayed collections that commemorated important military victories and furthered political agendas. Other spaces, such as the Templum Pacis, served religious and political purposes simultaneously. Spoils of war dedicated to the god(s) associated with the military victory were exhibited alongside artworks to memorialize the military victor's piousness and achievements. Private collections were shaped by the interests of the collector and became popular due to practices in...

Playing Offense: A Deeper Look into the Motivations and Significance of Sulla's March on Rome

Mon, 1 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000
In 88 BCE, Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla marched on his own city for the first time in the Roman Republic’s history to procure for himself political control that had been awarded to Gaius Marius. This paper examines not only the impact of this decision, but also some of the most important motivations behind it that help to shape the march’s significance. Specifically, narratives of Appian, Plutarch, and Velleius Paterculus, that describe this event, in conjunction with commentary from modern historian Allen M. Ward, are presented to illustrate that Sulla’s march on Rome was politically significant in that it set a precedent of violence against the state as a means to attain military command. However, it was not necessarily novel on its own: in fact, it was shaped by the Marian military reforms, Sulla's personal struggle for power in a rivalry with Marius, and the ongoing popular revolt against Roman authority during the Italian War.

Arguing for the Truth: The Conflict of Truth and Rhetoric and its Ramifications in Plato’s and Isocrates’ Educational Ideologies

Mon, 1 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If truth is absolute, how is it possible that people can argue for or against it? If truth is not absolute, on what is our existence predicated? Plato and Isocrates, two contemporaries in Classical Athens, took very different stands on the age-old problem of truth and the rhetorical manipulation of it. A close examination of Platonic dialogues and Isocrates’ speeches reveals that they had different understandings of the concept and purpose of truth. This fundamental divergence caused Plato and Isocrates to have disparate notions of rhetoric and even “philosophy”. Accordingly, they devised drastically different educational programs suited to their respective visions of truth and rhetoric, attempting to realize their competing ideals by means of pedagogy.

Cover

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000
Cover

Letter from the Editors

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

A proposed framework for Roman "chastity crimes": Pudicitia in early Imperial Literature

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Frequent concern over sexual ethics and behavior in Early Imperial Roman literature encompasses strict norms of what it means to be a good Roman man, woman, slave, soldier, or various other potentially overlapping identities, in a way that reveals the importance of ethical sexual behavior for the functioning of Rome. What to the modern imagination might simply be imagery of sexual indulgence and orgies is actually, at least in Roman literature, a complex system of expectations and measures working to keep individuals, families, and the city running smoothly. In patriarchal societies in which sexual morality is a concern, certain patterns of behavior are set in motion when a sexual transgression, typically implicating a woman, occurs. In early Imperial Roman literature, the operative category in cases of sexual deviance is pudicitia, or chastity.[1] This paper frames pudicitia governing over individuals and the city as a code, in comparison...

Socrates in Plato’s Symposium: a lover of wisdom who lacks wisdom on love

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Traditional interpretations of the Symposium tend to treat Socrates as Plato’s mouthpiece, interpreting the philosophical meaning of the text based on Socrates’ speech alone. The aim of this essay is to discern whether incorporating literary elements, such as Socrates’ characterization and interaction with other characters, into the interpretive process changes the philosophical meaning of the Symposium. For this purpose I examine two aspects of Socrates’ character: his physiology and psychology. I demonstrate how Socrates’ oddity poses a problem for the theory that he is a mouthpiece for Plato’s philosophy verbatim and suggests that, contrary to traditional interpretations, he has not completed the erotic ascent described by Diotima and hence does not possess complete knowledge of love. In my analysis I pay particular attention to the speech of Alcibiades and the interpretations of Martha Nussbaum and James McGuirk. I then conclude by demonstrating how an...

Gifts to Apollo: Tracking Delphi’s Changing Role through Dedicatory Practice

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This text analyzes the offerings dedicated to Delphi by autocrats during the site’s lifetime as a sanctuary to Apollo in order to understand Delphi’s role as perceived by Mediterranean powers, and how this role changed through time. Using a combined approach from the fields of art history and classics, the evidence for this paper comes primarily from visual analysis of surviving dedications, as well as study of ancient texts written by classical historians and ancient witnesses to Delphi, such as Herodotus. Through chronological examination of autocrats’ dedications to Delphi, from the site’s genesis as a religious sanctuary in the 8^th century BC until it’s decline under the Christian Roman Empire, this paper seeks to understand Delphi’s changing role and level of influence as perceived by both mainland Greeks and foreigners.

The Barbarian Dux Femina: A Study in Creating Boudicca

Tue, 9 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000
This paper will be concerned with unpacking the language employed by ancient historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio to create the foreign, rebellious queen, Boudicca. I will argue that Tacitus and Dio’s accounts each create a Boudicca that is more dynamic than simply a negative exempla. While there has been debate as to how legitamet Cassius Dio's account can be, and the extent to which Tacitus seriously portrays female characters, I believe that equally important history can be taken from the speech that both male writers put in the mouth of a female, savage queen. This paper will focus on each of the speeches given by Tacitus and Dio’s Boudiccas. It will then contextualize each author’s language by bringing in other materials concerned with women, sex, and gender in the ancient world.

Messenger, Prophet, Poet, Bee.

Mon, 8 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This paper seeks to explore the space that bees occupy within Greek religious practice. By exploring the appearance of bees within the visual and literary culture of Greek religion, I have tried to shine a little light onto a relatively untouched area of Greek religious culture.
Previous scholarship has taken the approach of a prosopography, referencing the appearance of bees without much analysis of their role or semiotics in Greek religious rites.

Instead, I have tried to present apian imagery and culture as a divine intermediary, able to confer divine gifts onto humankind. I have taken inspiration from some of my interests, including literature, philosophy, myth, and drama to paint a picture of the role of bees as messengers of prophecy and poetry.

I have concluded that bees operate as intermediaries of the divine, with the ability to transgress both the divine, the mortal, and the chthonic plane. They are akin to daimons, and platonic...

Letter from the Editors

Wed, 1 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

Bow Designs on Ancient Greek Vases

Sat, 14 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This research looks to investigate the designs of ancient bows depicted on ancient Greek pottery. The goal is to show that the bows most commonly shown are not native to the Greek mainland but rather are from both Scythia and Egypt. This has been done by examining a number of vases, pyramid friezes, and modern bow reconstructions. The common use of the Scythian design for archer characters in scenes of myth implies a familiarity with archery primarily through the Scythian mercenaries. The Egyptian acacia deflex bow design, while rare in vase depictions, directly corresponds to images on pyramids. The Egyptian angular composite bow appears in a rare case on a Greek vase, but its depiction is consistent with modern historical reconstructions. Through showing these non-native bow origins, this paper hopes to further demonstrate the worldly influences to archaic Greece.

The Roots of Morality: From Classical to Christian Eschatology

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000
The possibility of life after death has captured the imagination of different cultures and religions around the world, resulting in a wide variety of afterlife myths. Modern Western cultures tend to believe that an individual’s experience in the afterlife relies heavily upon the ethical behavior of an individual during their lifetime. This morality-based eschatology has roots in early Judeo-Christian thought – although Classical authors also placed an emphasis on ethical behavior in their understandings of the afterlife. This paper examines how the writings of Homer, Hesiod, Plato, and Virgil blended together with Biblical teachings from the Old and New Testament over the centuries. Thanks in part to later authors, such as Dante Alighieri, these differing worldviews came together to create the widespread modern belief that the virtuous go to heaven, and the wicked go to hell.

Assimilation or Destruction: The Christianization of Late Antique Statuary

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000
Abstract

The recent destruction of Palmyra sent shockwaves across the globe, as the days of religious fanaticism and outbursts of iconoclasm had largely been forgotten by the collective memory. Yet, such acts of destruction have long been a point of discussion (and contention) among scholars. In the centuries following the conversion from paganism to Christianity the fate of the pagan statuary was left in the hands of a newly Christian society, and to the processes of Christianization. Processes which acted either to assimilate the statue into the newly Christian cultural milieu or destroy the statue for its pagan nature. This paper will present an overview of the various attitudes, and responses, towards pagan statuary in late antiquity, and the ways in which recent scholarship has interpreted the processes of Christianization with renewed enthusiasm. Using the Hearst Herakles as a case study for the practice of Christianization, this paper will...

Tyrannos, Rhētōr, and Strategos: Herodotus' Athenian Artemisia

Mon, 9 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Portrayed as the charismatic Queen of Halicarnassus, shrewd adviser to the Xerxes, and fearless admiral at the Battle of Salamis, Herodotus' Artemisia boldly transgresses into the traditionally male-dominated spaces of tyrant, orator, and general. While some have interpreted Artemisia’s lack of punctilio as emblematic of a Persia so politically and culturally backwards that even women (viewed by Greeks as the inferior sex) were entrusted with authority, the significance of her narrative may be more complex. In light of recent scholarship about Herodotus’ generally favorable presentation of women, it appears that each of Artemisia’s three appearances - Histories 7.99, 8.68-69, and 8.87-88 – actually serve to liken the Queen to her Athenian foes. An interpretation of Artemisia as fundamentally Athenian reminds us that the rigid, binary association of a “feminine East” and a “masculine West” in Greek historiography should be called into question.
Portrayed as the...

Cover

Sun, 1 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000
Cover

Grotesque Forms: ἔρως and σῶμα in the Symposium

Sun, 1 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to examine the conception of the body and its relationship to desire articulated by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium. The paper begins by analyzing the progress of Aristophanes creation myth and determining the role of the body as origin, hindrance, and aid of love. Then the paper compares the account of Aristophanes to the experience of Alcibiades. Lastly the paper compares the account to the one put forward by Plato's Socrates via Diotima. Through this multi-step analysis, we reconstruct a unique conception of the body not found in other works by Plato and come to better understand the role of the body in Plato's account of desire as a whole.

Charting the Unknown: Alice Kober, Her Phonetic Chart, and the Decipherment of Linear B

Tue, 31 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000
This paper analyzes a phonetic chart of Linear B symbols found in the notebook of Dr. Alice E. Kober to understand how accurately she identified phonetic relationships between the signs and how this chart might have influenced Michael Ventris’s later decipherment. Of the 87 signs in Linear B, only twenty signs were plotted on Kober’s chart, and only ten of which were published in her 1948 article, “The Minoan Scripts: Fact and Theory”. The remaining ten signs had been written tentatively in pencil and remained unpublished. The only notes about how Kober created these charts were three assumptions she placed alongside her published chart, but no explanation was given about the remaining ten signs on her chart. By looking at the current, accepted phonetic values of each sign, one can identify possible reasons behind the placement of certain signs relative to others and the accuracy of Kober’s analysis. Then, I will examine some of Ventris’s phonetic charts and various writings to...

The Advantage of the Stronger: Hercules and Cacus in Vergil's Aeneid

Sat, 28 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The Hercules and Cacus episode in Book VIII highlights the problematic nature of Aeneas’ exploits throughout the Aeneid. Through the violence of Hercules, Vergil makes the reader question whether a story like the founding of Rome and its eventual imperial expansion can be as cut and dry as the story of a rugged hero slaughtering someone whose name literally means “evil one” might superficially seem. Calling into question Aeneas’ morality and his justification for settling in Italy in turn casts doubt on Augustus’ own means of attaining power.
The Hercules and Cacus episode is fundamental to our understanding of the Aeneid as a whole inasmuch as it brings up the question of right. The question of the rightful owner of Geryon’s cattle finds its parallel in Aeneas and Turnus’ dispute over betrothal to Lavinia, as well as in Augustus’ contested claim to rule Rome. The Italy of Hercules’ day, in which violence determines right, must be compared with...

First in Flight: Etruscan Winged "Demons"

Thu, 5 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Etruscan winged Underworld figures (commonly referred to as winged “demons”) represent one of the most fascinating and least understood aspects of funerary iconography in ancient Etruria. Their function, along with their origin, has long been the subject of scholarly debates. However, over the last two decades, scholars have begun to take a closer look at these chthonic figures. Recent scholarship has begun to provide answers to many of the most fundamental questions concerning their role, even if disagreements remain over their murky origins. Expanding on interpretations that have cast new light on how these winged (and non winged) Underworld figures functioned, questions concerning Etruscan religious beliefs and funerary ideology can now be reconsidered.

The Liminal and Universal: Changing Interpretations of Hekate

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Hekate is considered one of the most enigmatic figures of Greek religion. In the Theogony, she is referred to as a universal goddess. Nevertheless, her figure transforms into that of a chthonic figure, associated with witchcraft and the restless dead. This paper examines how Hekate’s role in the Greek pantheon has changed over time, and with what figures she has been syncretized or associated with in order to bring about such changes. In doing so, three images of the same goddess emerge: Hekate the universal life-bringing deity, Hekate the liminal goddess of the crossroads, and Hekate the chthonic overseer of witchcraft and angry spirits.

Letter From the Editors

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000
Letter From the Editors

Colors of Conquest: A Regional Survey of Hellenistic Wall Painting

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: Of all that survives in the form of artistic and architectural expression from the Hellenistic world, wall and panel painting are arguably the most underrepresented. In the case of painted wooden panels, or pinakes, that served as something akin to portable canvases for Greek and Hellenistic painters, the long span of over two thousand years has not been kind. Wooden panels, however, were not the only medium on which painters chose to apply their craft. A modest corpus of both painted friezes and painted panels has survived on the plastered walls of monumental Hellenistic tombs, from elite Hellenistic residences, and from mid to late first century BCE elite Roman domestic contexts. This paper undertakes a brief survey of these surviving remnants of the rich and prolific legacy of Hellenistic painting.

Letter from the Editors

Fri, 1 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book I, Lines 539 through 559

Fri, 1 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Ovid’s tales of metamorphoses are beautiful and terrifying. My introduction to Ovid was this tale, of Daphne and Apollo, in Latin. I was fascinated by the language swirling around Daphne’s metamorphosis into a tree while simultaneously horrified by the descriptions of Apollo’s advance. However, reading English translations, I was surprised by a glossing over of the terror Ovid’s transformed feel. One example is the translation of figura in line 547. Cassell’s lists possible translations as form, shape, figure, and size. But it is often translated as beauty.[1] Why is this, of all possible definitions, chosen? As we learn later, it is not Daphne’s beauty that is destroyed, but her body and her humanity; she becomes a splendid tree. Beauty implies a simple makeover, not a desperate cry for divine transformation into anything that will not attract rape.
This passage of Daphne’s tale works as a stand-alone...

Translation of Vergil's Aeneid -- Bk. II: XL-LVI

Fri, 1 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000
I originally translated Book II of Vergil’s Aeneid for my advanced placement Latin course in high school; two years later, I returned to the translation of the Aeneid for Professor Carrie Mowbray’s Latin course, which focused on an in-depth, thorough examination of the Aeneid (more specifically, Books I-VI) in both Latin and English. This excerpt taken from Book II has remained a favorite of mine for years, as the vivid imagery and language utilized allow readers to envision the most detailed of scenes. Vergil’s personification of the Trojan Horse is the prime reason this excerpt has always appealed to me. Of course, Laocoon’s famous line, “quidquid id est, timeo Danaos dona ferentis,” is oft-cited throughout ancient literature, on account of its structure and importance to the Aeneid’s plot. My translation aims to highlight the vivacity of Vergil’s poetry, in order to allow the readers to conjure up uniquely graphic and evocative scenes.

Dearest to be Man's Companion: Hermes, Divine Aid and Agency

Fri, 1 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This paper compares passages from Book 24 of the Iliad, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Odyssey and argues that Hermes's portrayal in archaic Greek literature is characterized by a high degree of sympathy for those under his guidance and a hands-on approach to divine intervention. In particular, parallels are drawn between Hermes's escorting of Priam to and from Achilles's camp, and his guidance of both Persephone and Herakles out of the underworld. These examples are contrasted with Hermes's role as a psychopomp and are used to argue that these texts display an understanding of divine aid that is not limited to mere function but which takes into account the personality and autonomous agency of individual deities.

A Tacitean Tragedy: Theatric Structure, Character, and Space in the Downfall of Messalina

Fri, 1 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The betrayal of Valeria Messalina, dramatically recounted by Tacitus in Annales 11.26-11.38, represents one of the greatest scandals of Emperor Claudius’ reign. Messalina’s boldness in choosing a new husband, Gaius Silius, in Claudius’ place and without his knowledge demonstrated the Emperor’s frailty in curbing the excesses of his own household. Tacitus’ account of the entire episode bears uncanny structural, conventional, and spatial resemblances to the customs of Greek tragedy – parallels which imbue the Messalina affair with a greater sense of didacticism and drama. It is through this tragedic lens that Tacitus, with his usual cynicism and disdain, successfully conveys how far the Principate had strayed from the idealized Augustan values upon which it was founded.

Letter From the Editors

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000
Letter From the Editors

Horace Ode 1.9

Sun, 14 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I originally translated Horace’s Ode 1.9 for a perfect translation exercise in Professor Ellen Oliensis’s “Lyric and Society” class. The poem has been a favorite of mine since I first read it because of its beautiful imagery and the way in which it melds several different scenes effectively into one piece. Particularly the first two stanzas struck me in their stark contrast of natural and human realms as did the last two stanzas which portray a sort of elusive intimacy that is completely different in setting and tone from the rest of the poem. My goals in translating were to remain close to the Latin, emphasizing details that stood out to me in Horace’s word choice, and to generally maintain the tone of each segment.

A Poetic Translation of Ecclesiastes, Chapters 9 & 10

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Chapters nine and ten of Ecclesiastes in the original Hebrew stand as the most fascinating and enjoyable chapters in the opinion of the translators. We therefore wanted to express that pleasure by adhering to the original Hebrew, for the most part, as literally as possible. Further, we suspect that we have found a way to best express the poetic prose of the Hebrew: we have expressed our translation in relatively strict iambic pentameter. We have broken the meter where it felt fitting to the translation and where it seemed otherwise impossible to adhere. Our translation differs in a few key respects from King James and other translations; we therefore hope that the reader will examine their favorite translation and compare it with ours. Familiarity with the rest of Ecclesiastes is not necessary to enjoy our excerpt. We have left the Hebrew side-by-side with our translation for further scrutiny.

Dead men tell no tales: Speaking, Death and Poetic Authority in Propertius Book IV

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Propertius begins his fourth book of poetry by claiming that he is a changed man. No more for him the pining after his domina, but instead he now styles himself as the ‘Roman Callimachus’, who is writing poetry in the service of his country (Roma, fave, tibi surgit opus IV.1.67). The fourth book of Propertius is notable for the cast of characters to whom the poet gives voice, and after a preliminary survey, the reader would be forgiven for thinking that Propertius was overtly obsessed with bringing the dead to life, particularly dead women.

This study explores the way in which these internal female narrators, including Arethusa, Cynthia, Acanthis and Cornelia, should be understood as mounting a narrative challenge to the wider context of Propertian poetics, using the performative acts of both writing and speech to claim their own authority. This represents a contrast not only with the wider historical and social reality of the poems,...

The Ionic Friezes of the Hephaisteion in the Athenian Agora

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Hephaisteion, the Doric temple of Hephaistos and Athena Ergane, crowning the Kolonos Agoraios hill (Fig.1), at the west side of the Athenian Agora, is the best preserved Doric temple from Antiquity. Despite its Doric order, the sculptural decoration of the Hephaisteion, which was constructed in the middle of the fifth century BC, included two continuous Ionic friezes set over the pronaos of the eastern side and the opisthodomos of the western side. Except for the Hephaisteion Ionic friezes, there are only two other cases preserved in Attica: one from the temple of Poseidon at Sounion and one from the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. However, only the Ionic friezes of the Hephaisteion have the unique advantage of being preserved in their original position on the temple, with only minor damage and alterations, so that their situation and function can be researched in situ. In this paper I examine in depth all the features of the Ionic friezes of the Hephaisteion,...

Parody and Paradox: Novelty and Canonicity in Lucian’s Verae Historiae

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Verae historiae is famous for its paradoxical claim both condemning Lucian’s literary predecessors for lying and also confessing to tell no truths itself. This paper attempts to tease out this contradictory parallel between Lucian’s own text and the texts of those he parodies even further, using a text’s/tradition’s ability to transmit truth as the grounds of comparison. Focusing on the Isle of the Blest and the whale episodes as moments of meta-literary importance, this paper finds Lucian’s text to parody the poetic tradition for its limited ability to transmit truth, to express its distance from that tradition, and yet nevertheless to highlight its own limitations in its communication of truth. In so doing, Lucian reflects upon the relationship between novelty and adherence to tradition present in the rhetoric of the Second Sophistic.

Letter from the Editors

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

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Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000
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Material culture in Late Antique Egypt: between pagan tradition and Christian assimilation.

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper will deal with the survival of material culture in Late Antique Egypt, focusing on the fourth and fifth centuries AD. I will survey the main issues related to the study of the pagan material world in Late Antique Egypt. These issues relate to the various objects at our disposal, which in some instances have been hard to date. Moreover, even when items have been ordered into temporal categories, it has been difficult to distinguish between “religious” and “neutral” usage of material culture. Then I will examine the state of fourth-century pagan Egyptian religion, arguing that, as a lack of epigraphical material indicates a steady decline of public cult, a particular phenomenon was taking place: the “privatisation” of pagan cults, as demonstrated by the case study of Karanis. In addition, I shall focus on both apotropaic and “neutral” usage, as attested by the development of amuletic objects from the fourth to the fifth century AD. Objects of personal adornment will...

Discovering Sources by Discerning Methods: Evidence for Tacitus' Annals I-VI

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000
Tacitus' Annals begins with an allusion to Sallust's Bellum Catilinae that makes manifest the Sallustian disposition of the historian. Tacitus declares, "Urbem Romam a principio reges habuere," and Sallust prefaces his monograph by stating, "Urbem Romam, sicuti ego accepi, condidere atque habuere initio Troiani." Yet, what is the role of facts, if Tacitus' delineation of a tyrant comports to Sallust's delineation of a conspirator? The purpose of this paper is to explore Tacitus' sources by interrogating his narrative technique.

The Wrath of Apollo

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000
A translation of lines 1-18 of Euripides' Alcestis done in the style of a graphic novel.

Translation of Catullus 51 and Sappho 31

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000
Catullus 51, “Ille mi par,” is Catullus’ translation and adaptation of Sappho’s poem “φαίνεταί μοι” (Sappho 31 by the Lobel and Voigt numbering). After translating Catullus 51 in a Latin Lyric class, I became very interested in comparing the two poems and investigating how Catullus used Sappho’s framework to express his own desire and longing for Lesbia. Here I submit a translation of Catullus 51 and one of Sappho 31, specifically intended to be read side by side. I have attempted to render a translation of each poem that will demonstrate both the areas in which Catullus nearly literally translates the Sappho, and the lines which are Catullus’ own invention. Of particular interest are the last four lines of Catullus’ poem, which end the poem on a restrained, dispassionate note that contrasts sharply with the strong emotion of the first three stanzas. The Sappho poem, by contrast, ends with a culmination of Sappho’s passion and a resolve for action. I present both poems for comparison,...

Augustus and Auctoritas

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to address the Republican precedent for Augustan auctoritas, with a particular focus on its role in legitimizing near-absolute rule in a State which continued to refer to itself as a res publica, and to its leader as an exceptionally authoritative princeps.

Letter from the Editors

Fri, 5 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

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Thu, 4 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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Cicero’s Self-Fashioning of Control in Att.14-13B1-2

Sat, 17 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The summer of 44 B.C. that followed the death of Julius Caesar was a time of political tension for Marcus Tullius Cicero. The future of his beloved Republic was unsure, and Cicero was confronted with the ambition and power of Mark Antony. The correspondences of Cicero’s Att. 14.13 (composed the month after Caesar’s death) illuminate Cicero’s thoughts leading to the openly, invective first Phillipic in the fall of that same year. This inquiry carefully examines Cicero’s complex self-fashioning in an essential passage of the correspondence (14.13B.1-2) to show how Cicero resists compromising his authority and dignitas from a seemingly disadvantageous position.

The Laudatio Turiae: A Source for Roman Political and Social History

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to provide an in-depth study of the late first century BC epigraphic source, the Laudatio Turiae, otherwise known as the Eulogy of Turia. This oddly under-studied document and artefact, this paper argues, can give us great insight into the social and political environment of the turbulent triumviral period, and also into that of the newly-formed Principate. The Laudatio Turiae is also valuable to modern scholarship as an example of the genre of laudatio funebris, providing us with one of only three surviving examples of this genre dedicated to women. As such, it can also be argued to be a significant source for our understanding of Roman women, both in terms of their role within the specific and pivotal period in which this source was created, and also in terms of more universal and enduring attitudes towards women and their place in society throughout the Roman world. This article looks to address the historical value of the Laudatio...

Callimachean Poetics

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000
A lively and eloquent piece exploring Hellenistic poet Callimachus' key aesthetic tenets and uncovering the profound legacy he left for the literary world we know today.

Carmina Tria

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

‘The wedding of Nisus and Euryalus’ is a hymnic ode after Catullus 61 which plays with the ideas of the shared tragic death of the youth joined in love. The sensory and visual language of death overlays with the images of wedding attendants and celebrations. ‘Our Lord on the Cross’ is from a set of reflections on the 14 Stations of the Cross, for which this was written for the twelfth station, ‘Jesus dies on the cross’. The lamentation includes sections translated from the Biblical book of Lamentations, while also voicing Our Lord’s own strained words on the cross as he watches passersby take little heed of his fate. ‘The pleasures of reading’ is a light parody on all of the places that literature can take us - if only we have sufficient room in our personal libraries to store all of these books!

Translations of Three Callimachus Epigrams (Epigrams 44, 59 and 42)

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Having first come across the name Callimachus in the opening line of Ezra Pound’s ‘Homage to Sextus Propertius’, I became enticed by the so called ‘shades of Callimachus’ described therein. His work carries such variety within it, from odes and hymns to critical discussions and the epigrams which are of particular interest to me, that I was surprised that nothing of his had ever invaded the prescribed texts in the course of my study of Classical literature. Here, I submit translations of Epigrams 41, 43 and 58 (as numbered by Pfeiffer). This small selection, to my mind at least, captures some of the tone and beauty of language evident in the sixty-four epigrams that are extant (the Byzantine encyclopaedia, Suda, numbers his epigrammatical works in the region of 800). What attracts me to these short writings, and to these particular three, is the atmospheric tone and substance of feeling created in such a brief number of lines, the essence of which one can only hope to communicate...

Hellenistic Jewelry & the Commoditization of Elite Greek Women

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The paper concentrates on Hellenistic jewelry, which dates from the fourth to first century BCE, and strives to answer the question: how do the different decorative functions of Hellenistic jewelry represent the various roles and social obligations of its elite Greek female wearers? Four thematic parallels exist between jewelry and women, including beauty, sexuality, fertility, and wealth. To examine these connections, this paper studies classical literary sources that focus on female sexuality and the social expectations of women. Examples include segments taken from the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the poetry of Sappho and Ibycus, an epithalamium, and Plutarch’s Life of Demetrius. The content of these sources are extracted and compared to the decorative functions of four Hellenistic jewelry pieces, which include an embellished necklace, pair of Eros earrings, diadem, and jewelry set. Based upon the research, physical attributes of Hellenistic jewelry reflect...

Poems in Various Meters

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000
I am a pseudo-intellectual, an ex-hellenophile, a washed out poet.

The Divine-Human Aporia in Presocratic Philosophy

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Presocratic philosophers of the 6^th and 5^th centuries B.C. have traditionally been interpreted simply as the prologue to the beginning of Western science and philosophy. The secondary literature produced by many 20^th and 21^st century philosophers insists that the primary accomplishment of the Presocratic movement was the decisive rejection of the mythic cosmos of Homer and Hesiod in favor of independent rational inquiry. This paper seeks to contest this interpretation, by drawing attention to the Hesiodic elements in Presocratic philosophy and theology. Far from banishing the divine from the cosmsos, the fragments and testimonia of the Milesians, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, the Pythagorean movement, and Empedocles evidence a desire to radicalize the traditional Hesiodic attributes of divinity: eternity, sovereignty, and justice. However in doing so, the Presocratics entangled themselves in the divine-human aporia that continues to...

Catullus and the Lyric Voice

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Lyric Voice can be explored to show the nexus of interlocutors clamouring to be heard in Catullus’ poetry, but ultimately, it is Catullus himself who frames and controls all interaction. In addressing his poems to specific people at specific times, Catullus attempts to be constantly present with the reader. He invites the reader to live the poem, to allow it to transcend the petty constraints of time and space, then elsewhere reminds the reader of the literary artifice which is innate in writing about writing. He points outside the poem, both to bring the readers into his world, but also to force them to recognise that it is fake and created. Playing with Sappho, Catullus recognises how liminal translation is, and questions the locus of the voice in that dialogue. Voice is most investigated through silence however, and Catullus explores everyone’s silences; those he addresses, the readers and even his own. Ultimately though, Catullus comes out on top, these are his poems,...

The Ultimate Romana Mors

Fri, 7 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The suicide of M. Porcius Cato at the end of the Roman Republic shifted the Roman attitude towards self-killing. Suicides before Cato were intended to avoid imminent shame or defeat; however, after the example of Cato, suicide became an act to be imitated: it was a means of achieving glory. This paper treats the evolution of suicide, before and after Cato, and the impact of his suicide.

Letter from the Editors

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

Letter from the Editors

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

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Thu, 6 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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Thu, 6 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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Evidence for Cultural Influence and Trade in the Coinage of the Western Kshatrapas

Wed, 1 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000
Occupying a pivotal spot on thenorth-west coast of India in the first centuries CE, the Kingdom of the WesternKshatrapas remains one of the most neglected parts of India’s ancient past. Asa key regional power, and part of the major ocean trade with Rome, this isunfortunate and deserves to be rectified. This piece, by Guy Bud, anUndergraduate at Oxford University, deals with the coins of the region and askswhat their stylistic aspects can tell us about the cultures which mixed in theregion at the time. Looking at the Roman, Hellenistic and local coinagetraditions, the article engaged with the idea of cultural transition andinfluence in this very singular context.

The Piraeus and the Panathenaia: Changing Customs in Late-Fifth Century Athens

Sat, 7 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The architecture of ancient Greece has been a field of interest since the 18^th century. Equally important to the Greeks of that time, if not more so, was urban planning. One example of this is the reconstruction and reconfiguration of Athens’ port, which coincided with the rise of Athenian democracy and empire. This paper explores the effects that the planning of Athens' port, the Piraeus, by Hippodamus of Miletus had on the celebrations of the Athenians during the Age of Pericles, specifically the Panathenaia. The paper uses a variety of sources, from archaeological evidence to contemporary political theory, to conclude that the rebuilt Piraeus had both directly and indirectly positive effects on Athenian civil identity into the late 500s BCE.

Comic Spaces and Plautus’ Rudens

Fri, 6 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000
While there has been a resurgence in the study of the much maligned genre of Roman Comedy, the majority of work has focused on points philological, socio-political, and on comic word-play. Among Plautus’ work, the Rudens stands alone as a play set outside a city, as the most prolific Roman comedic playwright takes us to the seaside for a classic whirlwind farce revolving around a lost daughter, a besotted lover, mistaken identities, and prostitutes. The unique setting of this play allows the modern audience an insight into the spatial tensions within the Roman mind, as we explore what happens where sea and land meet.

The Persian Alexander: The Numismatic Portraiture of the Pontic Dynasty

Fri, 6 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Hellenistic coinage is a popular topic in art historical research as it is an invaluable resource of information about the political relationship between Greek rulers and their subjects. However, most scholars have focused on the wealthier and more famous dynasties of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. Thus, there have been considerably fewer studies done on the artistic styles of the coins of the smaller outlying Hellenistic kingdoms. This paper analyzes the numismatic portraiture of the kings of Pontus, a peripheral kingdom located in northern Anatolia along the shores of the Black Sea. In order to evaluate the degree of similarity or difference in the Pontic kings’ modes of representation in relation to the traditional royal Hellenistic style, their coinage is compared to the numismatic depictions of Alexander the Great of Macedon. A careful art historical analysis reveals that Pontic portrait styles correlate with the individual political motivations and historical circumstances...

Thucydides' Mytilenean Debate: Fifth Century Rhetoric and its Representation

Wed, 8 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The paper will explain the significant contribution that Thucydides’ Mytilenean Debate makes to our understanding of fifth-century rhetoric and its representation: firstly, by vindicating Thucydides’ controversial methodology in his representation of speeches, of which this debate is paradigmatic; secondly, by illustrating the influence that the tradition of model forensic speeches had on these deliberative ones in form and content (i.e. arguments); and thirdly, by demonstrating the ambiguity of rhetoric’s dangerously powerful role in the political decision-making in Athens.

Letter from the Editors

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

The Declension of Bloom: Grammar, Diversion, and Union in Joyce’s Ulysses

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

James Joyce’s novel Ulysses applies the ambiguities of classical grammar and syntax to the English language in order to multiply meanings. He introduces the idea of subjective and objective genitives to illustrate the reciprocal love between a mother and a son. In addition, he declines the name of the character Bloom as a neuter noun rather than a masculine. Reading Bloom as a neuter character connects him to ideas of sterility and childlessness, since a sterile woman is also described in the book as being neuter. This conflation of the feminine and the neuter foreshadows Bloom’s transformation into a woman in the ‘Circe’ chapter, where his name is declined as a neuter noun. The flux of gender in this chapter is also seen in the character Bella/o, who switches between feminine and masculine pronouns. However, the necessity of the grammatical neuter circumscribing Bloom’s gender as simultaneously masculine and feminine is evidenced by the inability of Bella/o’s end-word...

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Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000
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Heroides 1 as a Programmatic Letter

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000
The Heroides is Ovid’s collection of verse letters between classical heroines and their lovers. The set of fifteen single letters and several paired letters begins with Penelope’s letter to her husband Odysseus, who has been gone from Ithaca for twenty years due to the Trojan War. While Odysseus’adventures were chronicled by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Ovid sets out to share Penelope’s perspective on, arguably, the eve of Odysseus’ return. However, Penelope’s letter is not just the first in the collection, it is a programmatic letter for the Heroides because it introduces the theme of the later letters, and it more closely follows epistolary style markers than the other letters. Penelope’s letter occurs in a situation that is more realistic than others in the collection, and so readers are persuaded to accept the later letters, even if the situations seem less plausible. Ovid’s interpretation of Homer’s Penelope also prepares readers...

Sea Monsters in Antiquity: A Classical and Zoological Investigation

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Sea monsters inspired both fascination and fear in the minds of the ancients. In this paper, I aim to examine several traditional monsters of antiquity with a multi-faceted approach that couples classical background with modern day zoological knowledge. Looking at the examples of the ketos and the sea serpent in Roman and Greek societies, I evaluate the scientific bases for representations of these monsters across of variety of media, from poetry to ceramics. Through the juxtaposition of the classical material and modern science, I seek to gain a greater understanding of the ancient conception of sea monsters and explain the way in which they were rationalized and depicted by ancient cultures. A closer look at extant literature, historical accounts, and artwork also helps to reveal a human sentiment towards the ocean and its denizens penetrating through time even into the modern day.

Epode 5 as a Response to Eclogue 4: The Anti-Augustan in Horace

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This paper offers a new reading of Horace’s Fifth Epode as a response to Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue. Vergil’s poem heralds a savior-child that will restore the Roman state, while Horace’s poem narrates the tale of a child captured and killed by witches. I argue that by pairing these two poems the reader uncovers a latent Horatian commentary on civil war and Roman leadership from the seemingly innocuous witch fable of Epode 5.
To my knowledge, a sound linking of these two contemporary poems has never been published. I draw a concrete link between Eclogue 4 and Epode 5 first through textual and then thematic comparison. Vergil says that his messiah will destroy poisonous plants and snakes (24-25) and these are the very two things that Horace’s child cannot overcome in the witch tale. Thematically, Eclogue 4 is centered in the ideas of birth and growth, the amicable integration of Eastern and Western cultures, and the natural peacefulness of the countryside. Epode 5 is concerned...

Witchy Woman: Power, Drugs, and Memory in the Odyssey

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
In the Odyssey of Homer, one recurring trope is the use of drugs by one character to gain power over another. The two most prominent examples of the trope are Helen and Circe. Helen uses a drug to assuage the grief of Telemachos, while Circe tries to use drugs to seduce and capture Odysseus and his men. Both drugs are described as causing men to forget their homes. At the same time, Helen uses rhetoric to rewrite history, and Circe is mysteriously able to narrate Odysseus’s future. A comparison of the two incidents, and of the women’s other deceptive actions, reveals that these memory-altering drugs are part of a more general pattern of divine women having the ability to manipulate reality, along with the constant threat their beauty poses to the familial stability of mortal men. When the analysis is broadened to include other uses of drugs in the poem—those of the Lotus-Eaters and of Odysseus—their significance becomes more complex. They are associated with the danger of forgetting...

The Political Nature of Plato’s Symposium

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
The dramatic setting of Plato’s Symposium obscures its function as a discourse that establishes the political philosophy of its author. The effort to identify the political within an ostensibly apolitical dialogue reflects the ancient attempt to use the casual and leisurely as a tool for prying open the more serious. I want to suggest that readings of the Symposium which do not attempt to uncover fully the political achieve only a partial understanding of Plato’s program within the work. I also want to establish the possibility that Plato relies on a historical and literary intertext with writers such as Thucydides and Aristophanes in order to key the reader into the underlying, and potentially dangerous, political nature of the dialogue. When such historical intertext goes unnoticed or is dismissed, the reader constructs, I submit, an insurmountable obstacle for the understanding of the work. On the other hand, only when the reader recognizes Plato’s use of historical material,...

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Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
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Letter from the Editors

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
Letter from the Editors

The Interface between Christian and Classical Tradition: An Examination of Logic in the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
Perhaps one of the most significant features of Late Antiquity is the diverse interaction between different ethno-religious groups. Alexandria, quite a cosmopolitan city during this time, was no exception, and a home for Jews, Christians and pagans alike. In Alexandria, interactions between these groups ranged from peaceful, scholastic exchange at academies to outbreaks of public violence, most notably the destruction of the Serapeum in 391. Further evidence of the tense interaction between these groups can be found in an examination of the city’s intellectual history: namely, Christians’ fraught relationship with the classical tradition. On one hand, Homer and other classical authors for over a century had formed the educational canon; on the other, these pagan works contained what Christians believed to be questionable morals. In this paper I examine the use of the logic tradition in the polemical writings of Cyril of Alexandria. Logic was developed primarily...

Catullus 51: Translated from Latin to English

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000
Catullus 51: Translated from Latin to English