Month: December 2023

Telemachus, Heredity, and the Persistent Weirdness of Parent-Child Relationships

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Telemachus, Heredity, and the Persistent Weirdness of Parent-Child Relationships
By Natalie Dean

Poets such as Sappho and Pindar garnered plenty of attention during their lifetimes, but many of them also led rich afterlives in which they continue to influence the world of poetry. In the current pop culture scene, works inspired by or retelling Greek and Roman myths are very popular, including loosely inspired children’s books such as the Percy Jackson series and edgy, politically relevant retellings such as the musical Hadestown…

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Bull and Bull-Leaping Iconography: Knossos, Tell el-Dab’a, and Beyond

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Bull and Bull-Leaping Iconography: Knossos, Tell el-Dab’a, and Beyond
By Anna Keneally

Since Arthur Evans’s discovery of the bull leaping mural at the Palatial Complex at Knossos in 1900, scholars have worked to understand the phenomenon of bull leaping, which has been documented widely, in some capacity, throughout the ancient Mediterranean basin. Through my research, I have identified patterns and parallels between many forms of bull leaping iconography, which suggests a greater interconnectivity and continuity of theme and style within these images…

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Roman Matrons and Sexual Morality at the Convivium

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Roman Matrons and Sexual Morality at the Convivium
By Erin Schott

Scholarly uncertainty abounds concerning Roman banqueting practices, but one of the largest gray areas is the role of women at feasts (convivia). Katherine Dunbabin and William Slater devote a single paragraph to women in their nearly thirty-page overview of Roman dining, describing the evidence as “minimal.” The lack of evidence available to reconstruct essential aspects of women’s lives, such as how they ate, is deeply problematic. It suggests that scholars might at least delve into what minimal evidence is available…

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Emily Wilson’s The Iliad Book Launch  

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Emily Wilson’s The Iliad Book Launch  
By Riley Glickman

Following the success of her translation of The Odyssey, Penn’s favorite translator and resident celebrity classicist is back! Tuesday, September 26 marked the launch of Emily Wilson’s new book, a translation of The Iliad. The Free Library of Philadelphia in Center City hosted the book launch with a discussion, followed by a book signing for those who attended. The moderator of the talk was Penn’s very own Professor Murgnahan. Through Professor Murgnahan’s carefully guided questions, the packed auditorium spent an hour listening intently…

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The Faces of Psyche

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The Faces of Psyche
By Sophia Woo

The conception of gender is heavily influenced by the societal and cultural approaches to the term at a particular place and time. The Cambridge Dictionary defines gender as the socially constructed way of behaving and the expectations for certain groups of people in society, namely, men and women

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