Month: October 2022

An Analysis of Fifty Days at Iliam
Oct 30

An Analysis of Fifty Days at Iliam

An Analysis of Fifty Days at Iliam
By Lily Nesvold

Fusing ancient storytelling and modern art, Fifty Days at Iliam is a ten-part canvas painting that uses a mixture of oil, crayon, and graphite. Based on Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad, it is permanently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This unique installation recalls a story that everyone knows, classicists and non-classicists alike, and its expression packs so much meaning into so few brushstrokes.

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Seeing Bearden's "Circe"
Oct 24

Seeing Bearden’s “Circe”

Seeing Bearden’s “Circe”
By Margaret Dunn

This visual essay was created for Race & Ethnicity in the Ancient World, a course taught by Professor Kate Meng Brassel. The class sought to uncover how ancient peoples perceived both themselves and others in regard to ethnic identity, and how those perceptions were used or appropriated in the modern era. This piece studies the work of Romare Bearden, the esteemed collagist known for…

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Catullus Carmen 5
Oct 9

Catullus Carmen 5

Catullus Carmen 5
By Dara Sanchez

Live, laugh, love. A unifying anthem for mothers across America. Yet, in Carmen 5, Catullus finds a way to enthrall us with his amorous descriptions of thousands of kisses. He reminds us of…

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The Thrill of Classical Languages
Oct 2

The Thrill of Classical Languages

The Thrill of Classical Languages
By Angela Nguyen

During the heat of the Florida summer, I find myself curled up in my air-conditioned bedroom, plunging into pages of Roman literature and unraveling a tedious but thrilling ancient language. Scanning the first sentence of Plautus’s Miles Gloriosus, I search for…

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