Long after their initial composition, the texts of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer were characterized by an enduring cycle of textual fixity and plasticity. As witnessed by the ―wild‖ papyri of Egypt and the marginalia of ...
In Lucian’s Philosophies for Sale, representatives of various philosophical
schools are paraded in front of buyers in the manner of a slave auction. One buyer
carefully considers in turn the ‘purchase’ of a Pythagorean, ...
Plutarch writes in his biography of Pyrrhus that after the Battle of Beneventum, the
former ruler of Sicily looked upon the land and spoke the following words, “ὦ φίλοι,
Καρχηδονίοις καὶ Ῥωμαίοις παλαίστραν” (“My friends, ...
Vergil’s Aeneid has enjoyed continuous popularity with readers, scholarly and otherwise,
since even before its publication following the poet’s death in 19 B.C.E.1 From antiquity to the
present day, the portions of ...
That the Iliadic Hector possesses a pair of epithet-phrases—ÜEktorow éndrofÒnoio and
ÜEktorow flppodãμoio—that violate Milman Parry’s law of economy has been known since
Parry invented his law of economy. He addressed ...
Death was no stranger to the ancient Athenian audience of tragedy. Especially during the
period of the Peloponnesian War, they faced the stark realities and consequences of plague,
starvation, and near constant debilitating ...
Archilochus’ life and the lethal effects of his poetry are legendary. Lycambes, having
promised his daughter Neoboule in marriage to Archilochus, breaks his oath. Archilochus writes
venomous iambics against Lycambes and ...
Although Persius tackles a variety of themes in his six satires – the contemporary
literary climate, religion, overindulgence, self-knowledge, and self-sufficiency – a
culinary thread runs through all of them and serves ...
Claudian‘s De Raptu Proserpinae, an unfinished epic poem which treats the god of the underworld‘s abduction of the eponymous maiden and her mother‘s frantic search for her missing daughter, is a departure from the poet‘s ...
The aim of this thesis is to give a new reading of sections 1.16-18 of Anselm of Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo (published in 1098) that argues against the almost unanimous opinion of previous interpreters that this passage ...
This 2012 master’s thesis argues, contra the previous work of Karl Popper and Gregory Vlastos,
that the role of philosophical eros, and love more broadly, in Plato’s political philosophy is
worthwhile and beneficial for ...
This thesis argues that a combination of inspired and didactic poetry, a combination of metaphysical content and ethical nature should be considered when discussing Proclus' Works and Days Commentary.
In CHAPTER I, I briefly review previous scholarship that focuses on mimesis in classical literature. I argue in CHAPTER II that Seneca’s plays strongly display mimetic syntax, a feature previously ascribed to his poetic ...
In my thesis I explore the implications of this shift in the focus of the Iliad from the μῆνις
of Achilles against Agamemnon to the opposition between Hector and Achilles. I examine the
implications of the plot-shift ...
Sophocles’ Electra ends with the chorus’ declaration that the House of Atreus is now free.
ὦ σπέρμ᾽ Ἀτρέως, ὡς πολλὰ παθὸν
δι᾽ ἐλευθερίας μόλις ἐξῆλθες
τῇ νῦν ὁρμῇ τελεωθέν. Sophocles, Electra 1508-1510
O seed of Atreus, ...
In this study I employ a literary approach to analyze the poet’s presentation of Demeter
and Aphrodite as divine representatives of gender paradigm in the Homeric Hymns to Demeter and Aphrodite. To begin, the notion of ...
There have been numerous studies concerning piracy as an occupation by such renown scholars as Henry Ormerod and Erich Ziebarth, who consider piracy to be an unambiguous trend that occurred throughout history up through ...
Helen of Troy, arguably the most famous adulteress in literature, has captivated audiences
for millennia. She stands at the crux of many intellectual debates which were occurring in Classical Athens, such as the unresolvable ...
Lucan's Pharsalia has been noted for many things: violent battles, lengthy and formal
speeches, failed, if unusual, prophecies, even the frequent personal interjections of its narrator. The mutiny scenes in Books 5 and ...
The satires of Persius are famously humorless. As Heinsius suggests, the dearth of humor may derive from the satirist’s adherence to the staid ways of Stoicism, since, at first blush, Stoicism and laughter would seem to ...