Author: Discentes

A Walk-Through: Unraveling Ancient Cities with Technology

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A Walk-Through: Unraveling Ancient Cities with Technology
By Angela Nguyen

With the rise of new technologies, archaeology has become more collaborative and interdisciplinary within the sciences. Contemporary archaeology has developed to encompass techniques of engineering, geology, chemistry, and physics in innovative ways, connecting technology with traditional analysis to form a methodology that can unearth the human past more deeply. This article will explore three cutting-edge approaches that have made the exploration of archaeology more extensive than ever before.

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Orpheus as a Muse

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Orpheus as a Muse
By Maggie Yuan

What do a tragic love story, the Can-Can, and a critique on industrialization have in common? All are rooted in the ancient tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Everybody loves a good love story, and as far as the Greeks were concerned, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice represents a version of true and pure love devoid of any ill intentions. At the core of the story, however, is the importance of divine faith, even over such passion…

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Beyond Translation: The Benefits and Drawbacks of English-to-Latin Composition

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Beyond Translation: The Benefits and Drawbacks of English-to-Latin Composition
By Lily Nesvold

In an advanced Latin course my senior year of high school, my teacher gave the class an assignment that was deceptively simple: to compose four “correct” lines of dactylic hexameter, a quest which would result in an automatic “A” for the trimester. Naturally, we were all very excited about the grading scale for the task. What we failed to recognize was how difficult it would be…

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Wolf Humanities Center Visiting Fellow Profile: Dr. Christopher Parmenter

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Wolf Humanities Center Visiting Fellow Profile: Dr. Christopher Parmenter
By Luke Snyder

Based in Williams Hall, Penn’s Wolf Humanities Center selects a small group of fellows each year to participate in annual research projects. Bringing together a group of scholars from diverse backgrounds, the Wolf Humanities Center seeks to encourage interdisciplinary studies centered around a different theme each year. This year’s theme focuses on migration, an especially interesting topic for Dr. Christopher Parmenter, one of this year’s visiting fellows. 

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The Roman Sweet Tooth

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The Roman Sweet Tooth
By Angela Nguyen

The concept of dessert emerged after the end of the Roman Republic and overall, Ancient Roman desserts were simple and had multiple varieties such as fruit mixtures and baked goods. Many types of fruits were available, but sugar and honey were not always accessible. Popular fruits included…

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The Man in the Sky

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The Man in the Sky
By Aisha Daffeh

Every day was the same for Isaac.

He woke up, tossing his tattered gray duvet onto his bed. He stood in front of the mirror in his minuscule bedroom, delicately putting on his work uniform, which consisted of a T-shirt and brown khakis. He’d walk out into the hallway, taking note of the various parts of his house that needed repair—leaky roof, the broken bathroom door knob, the shattered floorboard…

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In the Courts: The Rhetoric of Athens and Today

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In the Courts: The Rhetoric of Athens and Today
Rhetoric’s Precedence over Evidence in Classical Athenian Courts
By Lauren Davis

I. Introduction
To many modern audiences, the charm of Ancient Greece lies in its image as an overflowing fountain of artistry and expression, the pantheon they worshipped a lingering memory of their magnificence. Their culture is, in some aspects, timeless—American architecture, literature, and language all a reflection of this ancient world. Yet even this highly romanticized view of our predecessors barely begins to skim the surface of how deeply embedded the arts were in daily life, particularly in the Classical Athens of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.E….

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