Classics

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A Contemporary Cartoon Epic: Classical Reception and Homeric Epic in Bone by Jeff Smith
(2017) Weissman, Hannah; Sigelman, Asya C.; Stevens, Ben
This thesis explores the connection between ancient epic and contemporary comics using Bone by Jeff Smith as a case study. The theoretical framework of the paper draws from reception studies to frame comparisons between Bone and ancient epic. The paper explores the genre of epic, using ancient and contemporary scholars to produce a working definition of the genre. It creates a distinction between whether works fall into the epic genre and whether works are themselves epics. Then, it compares the formal elements of Homeric epic with comics and investigates key similarities between the two media. There are five main categories that define whether a work is an epic: content (addressed in the discussion of genre), performativity, perspective, use of character types, and seriality. Finally, it applies the connections from the previous chapters to two comic adaptations of the Homeric epics, Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower and The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds. This study lays a foundation for looking at comics as epic, and thus opens up the idea of epic for a broader range of reception studies.
A Feminist Exploration of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Euripides’ Elektra
(2023) Pak, Celine; Farmer, Matthew C.
This paper engages with two Black feminist theorists, Audre Lorde and Saidiya Hartman, in order to identify a liberatory methodology with which one can create a positive reading of Elektra and Clytemnestra, the two central female figures within Euripides’ Elektra. The paper focuses particularly on the effects of language and narrative on one’s perceived reality, and attempts to center each woman’s words, even as their words and narratives affect one another. In doing so, the final goal of the paper is to look at the mother-daughter relationship between the two characters as a whole, and the tragic effects of that relationship that inundate the play.
A Slippery Matter: Reproduction and a Radical Hierarchy of Gender in the Apocryphon of John
(2018) Eduardo Espinoza, Cristian; Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III, 1970-
In this thesis I argue that the “Gnostic” text the Apocryphon of John expresses a radical hierarchy of gender previously unexplored in this manner. It is unique even among its fellow “Gnostic” texts and its high valuation of androgyny at the top of this hierarchy is an unexpected extension of the via eminentiae method of describing an ineffable God. By analyzing the series of reproductions within its narrative, I argue that the shifts in the gender of its characters is a manifestation of the ontological slippage involved in the very process of reproduction. I also argue that its language of consent serves as an anti-slippage mechanism. My findings lead me to also assert a new understanding of the Divine Triad instead of its traditional configuration.
Aeneas in the New World: Reshaping the Interpretive Motif in Barlow's Columbiad
(2010) Carroll, Thomas Eliot; Mulligan, Bret
Barlow's Columbiad evokes Virgil's Aeneid by using the motifs of revelation and interpretation to explore the role of the past in informing the present. Virgil creates an opposition between Aeneas, who receives prophecies and signs but is prevented from interpreting them by his shock and fear, and his father Anchises, who interprets the prophecies and guides the Trojans. Aeneas learns to use his father's interpretive ritual but must utilize this technique to craft forward-looking interpretations and lead his people into the unknown, in order to fulfill his destiny. This combination of traditional ritual with a progressive outlook reflects symbolically the new political circumstances of Virgil's Rome. In the Columbiad, Columbus views scenes from early American history, and presents Hesper with the problems and criticisms he sees in the nation's development, relying on Hesper to explain them. Through their intermittent dialogue, the two advocate cyclical and linear models of historical development, respectively. Hesper's interpretation of mankind's progressive improvement prevails, reflecting Barlow's vision of post-revolutionary America as distinct from and improving upon its Old World predecessors. The two epics' common motif reveals the complexity of Columbus' character and reinforces Barlow's democratic message.
Amazons in the Amphora: Traces of the Defeated Other in Wonder Woman Comics
(2010) Pollack, Lara; Roberts, Deborah H.; Mulligan, Bret
References to the Amazons, a mythical race of warrior women, are widespread in ancient literature. They were generally represented as a defeated Other in their relations with the Greeks, reaffirming the patriarchal nature of Greek society. Amazons have also been received into modern literature, with the most prominent example being Wonder Woman, a comic book character created by William Marston in the early 1940s. Wonder Woman has generally been hailed as a feminist icon. The widespread representation of bondage and other sadomasochistic elements throughout the Wonder Woman comics, however, argue that she and other female characters are still represented as a defeated Other, retaining traces of the misogyny widespread in ancient accounts of Amazons.
An Old Tale Sung Again: Hadestown as Reception of Classical Myth
(2023) Crocket, Maria Rose; Sigelman, Asya C.
In this thesis I argue that the 2019 Broadway musical Hadestown is a work of classical reception and I will analyse how it uses the myths of Orpheus & Eurydice and Hades & Persephone to create a story reimagined for modern audiences. Through this paper I will chart the progression of these two myths over time to show how they were distinct in their earliest tellings and were drawn together over time, first through connections in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and then Hadestown tying them together even more. I then move into an analysis of the musical, showing the ways that it entwines the myths together through the storylines of the two main couples and looking at how aspects from the ancient tradition of the myths were included and expanded upon in this modern retelling. This paper also includes a discussion of the power of poetry/song, both in the ancient tradition (looked at specifically in Ovid’s version of the Orpheus myth), along with how this theme appears in Hadestown through both the figure of Orpheus and the story being told through the form of a musical.
Analyzing the Aeneid and its Translations with Topic Models and Word Embeddings
(2022) Langen, Carter; Kuper, Charles; Grissom, Alvin
We review new advances in word embeddings and apply them to cross-lingual literary analysis of Latin and English translations of Latin. We introduce word embeddings, summarize the developments to them that allow them to be trained from small data, on morphologically rich languages, and cross-lingually in detail. We also review Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and Polylingual Topic Models. We then use these models to analyze Vergil's Aeneid and the John Dryden, John Conington, and Theodor Williams translations into English.
Anaphoric and Proximate Reference: Reflexive Forms in Classical Greek
(1988) Null, Amy
Bene dicendi scientia: “The power of speech/To stir men’s blood”? Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
(2007) Baratz, Katharine; Mulligan, Bret
Blowing in the Wind: The Effect of Translation on Ecclesiastes' Breath Motif
(2015) Kohrman-Glaser, Eliana; Sigelman, Asya C.
This thesis discusses the translation of the Septuagint Ecclesiastes as an example of the most literal style of translation in the Septuagint. By examining the breath motif in the Hebrew text of Ecclesiastes and evaluating how the Greek translation preserves or fails to preserve its components, it is possible to analyses the merits of this translation style in maintaining a motif created by repeated words and images. I find that this literal translation style is the most effective way to translate such a text, and should not be dismissed simply because it reads awkwardly.
Canine Connections: Perceptions of Dogs and Dog Symbolism in Homer and Hesiod
(2023) Neuschotz, Alexander J.; Mulligan, Bret
This thesis traces the discussion of dogs in Homer and Hesiod first from a narrative point of view, including their role in what I call canine-based tonal transitioning, wherein they draw the focus away from any preceding dominant emotion or theme in order to establish a tone that is consistent with episodes to follow; their narrative significance; their capacity for foreshadowing; and their reflective properties. These reflective properties naturally lead into a treatment of dogs in the context of moral judgements, including the role of gender on which aspects of dogs are emphasized in human comparisons, and a consideration of the use of canine traits in insults and compliments. In particular, this thesis considers the consequences of Pandora, the first woman, being said to have a “bitchy” mind. Lastly, this thesis combines the preceding discussions, along with other observations, in the formulation of my Canine Manifold Theory, which develops a holistic picture of dogs in antiquity by tracing patterns between differing but locally-consistent portrayals.
Capies, Tu Modo Tende Plagas: Repetition and Inversion of the Hunting Metaphor in Roman Love Elegy
(1999) Durham, Alexandra
Cicero and the Lion's Roar: An Examination of Churchill's Use of Ciceronian Rhetoric to Justify WWII and Motivate the Allies
(2014) Reale, Gabriel; Roberts, Deborah H.
Both Cicero and Winston Churchill are considered titans of rhetoric, but only once before have the two been put into scholarly dialogue with one another. Sir Harold Nicolson and his friends sat down to determine whether or not Churchill lived up to the standards set by Cicero in his De Oratore. I intend to expand upon this article to make a more detailed and accurate comparison between the two, and I will show that Churchill was indeed a Ciceronian orator. In order to demonstrate this point, I will draw from the two authors' speeches and their other works in which they discuss their process and philosophy.
Complex Unity: “Self” and Deliberation in Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad
(2008) Lebowitz, Willy
My thesis concerns scenes of deliberation in the Homeric epics. The language of psychological motivation that Homer employs is vastly different from our own. The goal of this thesis is to attempt to understand the complex nature of the Homeric "self" (if there is such a thing) and to remove years of philosophical misinterpretations from our analysis of the Homeric corpus.
Corrupted and Corrupting: Thucydides' Critique of Democracy in the Sicilian Expedition
(2021) Fanikos, Jack; Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III, 1970-
In Books VI and VII of his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides writes his account of the Sicilian Expedition, a massive Athenian campaign in Sicily against Syracuse, its allies, and, eventually, Peloponnesian reinforcements. While it is a military campaign, Thucydides' portrayal is political as well. Athenian commanders make decisions on the battlefield that will have political implications for them in the future. Thucydides uses this military and political environment to level a specific criticism against the democracy at Athens. Throughout his account, Thucydides argues that democracy pressures and corrupts military leaders because, if they are to retain their prominent positions, they must prioritize the political considerations over military ones. In this environment, the individual leaders matter less than the democratic system because they will all have the same political considerations. One of the prominent political considerations is how to please the people. To please the people, military leaders make decisions based on what the people believe or would believe to be true rather than what is actually true, and as a result, they often underestimate their enemies and over estimate their own military capacities. This pattern is most easily discernible by examining four moments in the Sicilian campaign: the debate on whether to send an army, the attack on Epipolae, the debate on whether to retreat after Epipolae, and the army's final retreat and collapse. In each of these examples, the Athenian leaders Alcibiades, Nicias, and Demosthenes make errors because they try to please the people rather than make sound military decisions.
Dangerous Fugues: Sirens, Divas, and the Dangerous Voice
(2012) Silverblank, Hannah; Mulligan, Bret; Roberts, Deborah H.
The Sirens first appear in Book XII of Homer's Odyssey, and from this episode has emerged a tradition of the dangerously seductive and powerful feminine singing voice. In this essay, I argue that the Sirenic tradition can be identified in the music videos of the American pop divas Madonna and Lady Gaga, in which the singers' voices contain Sirenic qualities but also transcend the power of the ancient Sirens. I use reception theory and Helene Cixous' “The Laugh of the Medusa” to explore the ways in which the voices of ancient Sirens are silenced, arguing that pop divas channel this Sirenic voice in order to move outside of its expressive confines and limitations. I locate four primary sources of danger in the song of the Homeric Sirens. First, the Sirenic voice threatens bodily harm to its listeners, who die upon hearing the song. Additionally, this voice threatens the temporality of the primary narrative, as the Sirens offer the pleasure of a song with an alternative temporality that is incommensurable with that of the Odyssey itself. Next, the temptation of the voice offers a fatal distraction from and thus destruction of the hero's voyage. Finally, I argue that the Sirens' song beckons its listeners to indulge desires that threaten the social stability and economy for the song's male listeners. This section about the danger of the Sirens is followed by an exploration of the mortal female voices in the “Cupid and Psyche” episode of Apuleius' Metamorphoses, wherein the different female characters speak in Sirenic tones and thus offer a mirror to the Homeric rendering of the Sirens. Having traced these dangers through ancient accounts of the Sirens, I briefly discuss other ancient female characters with dangerous voices in Greek and Roman literature, including Medusa, the Furies, the Bacchantes, Scylla, Philomela, Echo, Cassandra, Medea, Circe, and various witches. The essay then moves toward its analysis of the vocal and visual poetics in Madonna's “Bedtime Story” video and Lady Gaga's “Telephone” video. Here, I argue that Madonna's video invokes Sirenic imagery to inscribe power within the voice of the singer, but also to ultimately reject the Sirenic tradition. Through the interactions between the visual, sonic, and lyrical elements of the text, Madonna's “Bedtime Story” enacts a performance of Cixous' écriture féminine in a way that re-characterizes the danger of the Sirens and works to create and claim a new kind of power for the feminine voice. Next, I analyze Lady Gaga's “Telephone,” and I suggest that the two divas in the video also employ Sirenic themes in order to reject a certain mode of listening to the powerful feminine voice, using écriture féminine to break out of the Sirenic tradition and to migrate toward an unspecified, anonymous elsewhere. Where “Bedtime Story” both uses and rejects the Sirenic tradition in the formulation and performance of écriture féminine, the “Telephone” video speaks in écriture féminine in order to defy the limitations placed upon the diva and to posit a new but unknown potential for the feminine voice.
Divine Embodiment and Cosmic Tragedy in Prometheus Desmotes
(2011) Reisman, Asher Jacob; Roberts, Deborah H.
In this thesis I posit a new reading of the dramatic structure of Prometheus Desmotes, in which the textual and visual features of the play's performance are principally oriented towards the impression of a keen awareness of Prometheus' body in the attention of the audience. This impression is initially produced by the horrific violence of the prologue. This opening scene describes the body of Prometheus and its violation in the unrelentingly corporal terms from the language of human embodiment, while also powerfully affirming his immortality and godhood in the extent to which the violence surpasses all human endurance. These features of Prometheus' body (pitiable physical suffering and divinity) are sounded in a corresponding and intensified manner in the play's cataclysmic finale and more finely articulated and reiterated through the play's otherwise static middle by comparison to other figures whose bodies will share some but never all of these attributes. The significance of this conceptual depiction of a divine body is made clearer by situating Desmotes in relation to its chief predecessors, Homer and Hesiod, in the literary treatment of divine bodies and divine existence more generally. The revisions Desmotes makes to these earlier views is to amplify the prominence of divine violence and suffering and to destabilize the narrative structures which govern it; overturning Homer's program of an Olympus existing in blissful stasis and Hesiod's Zeus-centered cosmic history. These changes open the possibility for genuine tragedy among the gods. Desmotes demonstrates the profound power of such a tragedy first in its long, complex meditation on the body of Prometheus, broken and eternal, and also in the cosmic alterity it envisions in the drama's apocalyptic finale.
Educatio et alimenta puellis: Munificence or political tricks of emperors?
(2009) Derbew, Sarah; Germany, Robert
I aim to explore Trajan's motive for providing grand munificence to poor girls by examining depictions of poor girls on coins and his arch in Beneventum. I also explore the use of education as part of this political agenda of emperors to create this debt. Through my examinations, I suggest that Trajan used his munificence to create an obligatory debt to reduce the possibility of poor girls gaining freedom and autonomy. Emperors depended on these poor girls because when they became older, they had the ability to populate the Empire with their children. Their children then could become laborers and soldiers, or future vessels of more children for the Roman Empire.
Exchange and Agency in Northern Roman Britain: The Native Sites of Fairy Knowe and Leckie Brochs
(2023) McAnally, Cullen; Baker, Catherine
The brochs of Fairy Knowe and Leckie, native sites in Northern Britain occupied during the Roman period, provide a valuable archaeological case study of native responses to the Roman occupation. The archaeological record of the sites demonstrates a variable approach to the adoption of Roman goods that preserved certain forms of craftwork while adapting others to take advantage of the availability of new materials.
Founding Figures: A Comparative Analysis Between Rome's Romulus and China's Huangdi
(2020) Blood-Cheney, Claire; Mulligan, Bret
By studying the Greco-Roman worlds and their literature in relation to other cultures, we can develop a more complex and holistic understanding of the ways in which ancient civilizations developed and interacted. Although Sino-Roman studies are only just beginning to gain exposure, the social and cultural aspects of the two civilizations have received comparably less attention than other subjects. To further this development, this thesis will compare the foundation myth of Romulus and the legend of Huangdi as told in two fundamental historical texts, Livy's Ab Urbe Condita and Sima Qian's Shiji, respectively. Specifically, I will be exploring the context in which these figures came to be leaders, their characteristics, and the relationship between these myths and cultural identity. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the growing number of Sino-Roman comparative studies, respond to the call to broaden the field of classics, and draw attention to the cultural values that are revealed by looking at the founding figures. Foundation myths are culturally fundamental as they reveal psychological tendencies and cultural values. Despite the significant distance between the two empires, based on the foundation myths of Huangdi and Romulus, the ancient Chinese and Romans had similar expectations for their rulers. Shared features of the two founding figures include divine association, military exploits, a divided state, brotherly rivalry, and the need for expansion. When compared together, the quasi-historical figures of Romulus and Huangdi provide a cultural link between –– as well as a new lens into –– the rise of China and Rome that has yet to be explored.

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