The Very Best Men in Greek Mythology
By Maggie Yuan
Nearly every classics student that I’ve met was obsessed with Greco-Roman mythology as a child. It didn’t matter whether we read D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths or Percy Jackson, we were all fascinated by this ancient world filled with trickster gods and dashing heroes. But looking back, the stories themselves were pretty intense for a readership of children…
The Anatolian Connection: Traditional Epithets of Apollo in the Iliad
By Garrett Lincoln Ashlock
Ever since Milman Parry’s foundational study on Homer’s use of traditional epithets, L’Épithète traditionnelle dans Homère (1928), scholars have recognized that Homer relied on an ancient deposit of epithetic formulae due to the form of his dactylic hexameter…
Athens and Its Allies
By Daniel Stein
In March of 2021, Discentes published an article by Andrew Liu entitled “Athens: Cruel Imperial Power or Falsely Maligned?” It argued that the fifth century Athenian Empire was “a cruel imperial power” that maintained a “regime of control . . . based on fear and intimidation, not willing compliance” over subject peoples, concluding, “it is hard to argue that the Athenians were not a cruel and hated empire.”[1] This essay will take the opposing position. I argue that the Empire was not universally hated…
Seneca Minor, Epistles, CIV.XVI–XX
By Hadleigh Zinsner
Seneca the Younger’s Moral Letters, written and published in the final years of his life, have often been considered the philosopher’s finest contribution to the Western canon, if only for the clarity they have provided future historians in dissecting the core tenets of Stoicism. For example, Letter 104, which I have translated below, expresses the importance of ἀπάθεια, or indifference, towards one’s surroundings…
Plague and Politics: The Combination of Disease and Narrative in Thucydides’ History
By Joshua Rose
At this point in the Covid-19 Pandemic, it should be unnecessary to reiterate just how devastating the virus has been over the past several years. And yet, even rolling past the third year of masks and intermittent lockdowns, we are constantly given new updates on the serious toll Covid has taken. One particularly grim new statistic shows that the US death toll from Covid will soon reach one million people…