Nature’s Prominence

Nature’s Prominence
By Imaan Ansari and Caroline Pantzer

We prepared a poem centered around the myth of Daedalus and Icarus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. We focused on the phrase, “nātūram novat,” meaning “he altered nature,” and explored how Daedalus’ desire to alter nature affected both characters throughout the story. Daedalus yearns to be a master craftsman, overstepping his status as a mortal to create wings for his son Icarus, who ultimately “flies too close to the sun” and dies. In our poem, we retell the story of Daedalus and Icarus, displaying how “nātūram novat” becomes incorporated into their journey.

Romanus Graecisans: How The Emergence of Rome Impacted The Greeks

Romanus Graecisans: How The Emergence of Rome Impacted The Greeks
By Frederick Frostwick

The expansion of the Roman empire into the east under Augustus both represents the largest growth of the city’s power up to that point and reveals the issue of integrating the Greek-speaking colonies freshly under Roman rule. How the newly conquered Greeks identified their sense of ‘self’ and how their Roman overlords maintained rule of law in the region through a new language of diplomacy…

The Oresteia: Entanglement in Nets and Blood

The Oresteia: Entanglement in Nets and Blood
By Citlali Diaz

The Oresteia, written by Aesychlus, is composed of three separate plays, each of which focuses the attention on the different characters involved in the same conflict of violence. Whether it is Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, or The Eumenides, regardless of the focus on Clytemnestra, Orestes, or the Furies, the Oresteia as a whole highlights the consequences which arise out of intrafamilial bloodshed…

Bulls, Borders, and Banknotes: Europa and the Shaping of a Modern European Identity

Bulls, Borders, and Banknotes: Europa and the Shaping of a Modern European Identity
By Jason Huang

Recent scholarship on the geography and geopolitics of the European Union (EU) has found the entity to be much more territorially complicated than its name suggests. A quick glance at a map of the EU today reveals that, quite paradoxically, not all European regions are a part of the EU and that not all EU territories are within continental Europe…

The Triumph of Life over Death

The Triumph of Life over Death
By Kailia Utley

Exploring the influence of Classical Antiquity on the Italian Renaissance in art pieces that commemorate the lives of prominent individuals such as the Emperors Constantine and Titus from the Roman Empire, and the humanist scholars Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppuni from the Florentine Renaissance.

Kindred

Kindred
By Citlali Meritxell Diaz

Niobe and Medea were both mothers who, through their actions, brought about their own children’s end. Mocking Leto for only having two children, Niobe attracted the goddess’ wrath, resulting in the death of her fourteen children at the hands of Apollo and Artemis, Leto’s progeny. Similarly, Medea’s own wrath against her unfaithful husband struck down her children. She killed their children and his new wife, leaving him effaced in his bloodline…

Dido’s Ambiguous Depictions: Powerless or Empowered?

Dido’s Ambiguous Depictions: Powerless or Empowered?
By Caroline Pantzer

Did Roman audiences view powerful female characters of myth and literature in a dismissive, simplistic manner? Or did they understand and appreciate the complexity and ambiguity of such figures? In writing the Aeneid between 30–19 BC, Vergil places himself as an author within the epic tradition’s pre-existing “literary canon” of powerful, intelligent female characters…

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

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…

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

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…

Roman Matrons and Sexual Morality at the Convivium

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…