This thesis argues that sanctuaries of the gods played a significant role in the political life of the Greek polis in the archaic and classical periods, and that the politics of the period cannot be understood fully without consideration of religion. It uses the text of Herodotos as a source of evidence about the history and perceptions of the period, but also makes use of other literary and archaeological evidence, so that the resulting models may be considered generally useful for the study of the period. Ch. 1 lays out the background to the subject; ch. 2 is an analysis of the activities related to sanctuaries described by Herodotos; ch. 3 examines sanctuaries as the meeting places of federations of Greek states, as well as investigating the nature of sanctuaries as areas of bounded space, showing that political meetings were frequently, if not always, held in sanctuaries, and that this was perceived as allowing some divine influence on decisions; ch. 4 investigates the dedications made at sanctuaries by foreigners, as part of a diplomatic process, showing that they provided a means of access to the polis as well as the god; ch. 5 compares the dedication of booty at sanctuaries with the construction of the battlefield trophy; ch. 6 argues that Herodotos portrays divine intervention as always happening through sanctuaries; ch. 7 argues that Herodotos' frequent mentions of Delphi are a sign of its importance in Greek history, not his own interest; ch. 8 draws some of these ideas together and suggests some general explanations for the importance of sanctuaries, as providing symbolic control of access to the polis, and bestowing authority on decisions taken by assemblies. Finally it suggests that Herodotos's inclusion of religious matters in his histories increases his importance as a source and an historian.

Por meio da análise das ações de dois heróis de peças do teatro Ático antigo, o presente trabalho elabora uma comparação entre a construção de dois tipos de comportamento marginal, e entre as diferentes consequências advindas dessas condutas que se colocam à margem da sociedade dramática. Nesse sentido, a partir da caracterização da marginalidade do herói personagem-título, da tragédia de Eurípides, Hipólito, demonstrarei de que modo a escolha do rapaz pela virgindade está intrinsecamente ligada às consequências desgraçadas que se abatem sobre a casa de seu pai, Teseu. De fato, considero que porque Hipólito escolhe deliberadamente, ou seja, sem coerção física ou mental, viver à margem dos costumes de sua comunidade dramática, ele é completamente responsável por desencadear a vingança de Afrodite que arruinará a vida de sua família. Do mesmo modo, através da delimitação da atitude marginal do herói Diceópolis, da comédia de Aristófanes, Acarnenses, elaborarei de que modo da escolha que o personagem faz pela paz privada, transgressora em relação à decisão da maioria dos cidadãos pela continuidade da guerra, decorrem as consequências etílicas, sexuais e gastronômicas com as quais ele arca. Assim, o objetivo desse trabalho diz respeito a entrelaçar de que modo Hipólito é desgraçado por causa de suas ações marginais e o porquê Diceópolis é feliz graças à marginalidade de suas ações. E, em última instância, pretendo explicitar por quais vias tanto o personagem da tragédia quanto o personagem da comédia são responsáveis pelos frutos que colhem de seus modos de vida à margem. / Through an analysis of the actions of two heroes present in plays from the Ancient Attic drama, this work draws a comparison between the construction of two types of marginal behavior, as well as between the different consequences resulting from these behaviors. In this sense, following the characterization of the marginality of Hippolytus, the homonymous hero of Euripides tragedy, I shall demonstrate how the young mans choice for virginity is intrinsically related to the disgraceful consequences that befall Theseuss house. In fact, I consider that because Hippolytus deliberately chooses (i.e. without physical or mental coercion) to live outside his dramatic community refusing its customs, he is completely responsible for Aphrodites revenge, which ruins his family. In the same way, by delimiting the marginal attitude of Dikaiopolis, from Aristophanes comedy, Acharnians, I shall elucidate the manner in which the characters choice for private peace, transgressive of the majoritys decisions for the continuity of the war, is followed by ethylic, sexual and gastronomic consequences he is faced with. Hence, the aim of this thesis is the intertwining of the way Hippolytus is disgraceful because of his marginal actions and the reason why Dikaiopolis is happy thanks to this very marginality. And, lastly, I intend to cast light upon the ways by which both the tragedy and comedys characters are responsible for whatever they reap from their marginal ways of life.

Esta dissertação dedica-se ao estudo da persuasão nos discursos proferidos por Odisseu no canto XIV da Odisseia, levando em consideração a interação de três elementos:o orador, o auditório e a argumentação. É seu objetivo refletir sobre qual tese Odisseu busca compartilhar com seu público, Eumeu, e as estratégias de que se vale para atingir esse fim. / This dissertation is a study about the persuasion in Odysseus´ speeches in Odyssey XIV, observing three elements: the orator, the audience and the argumentation. My target is make a reflection about what idea Odysseus wants to share with his audience, Eumaios, and the strategies to do it.

The three works of Procopius of Caesarea, the History of the Wars, the Buildings and the Secret History, form a corpus which can be profitably studied as a whole. My thesis is a typology of the visual in Procopius’ corpus, which is embedded in a study of narrative technique. It concerns itself with the representation of material reality and the complex relationship between materiality and the text. It utilises the digressive and the descriptive as an indirect entry point to expose Procopius’ literary finesse and his use of poikilia. In the first half of this thesis, the main object of my study is the representation of the material world in Procopius. The first chapter is devoted to the first book of the Buildings as it depicts the city of Constantinople. The second chapter moves to the representation of space and the third chapter to that of objects of all sizes and kinds. From these three different angles, I demonstrate how the visual is deeply charged with both ideological and meta-textual intentions. The second half of the thesis goes beyond materiality to examine what I discuss as the imaginaire of Procopius. The fourth chapter examines the way violence is depicted in a material and spectacular manner as well as its meta-textual implications, and the fifth and final chapter addresses the omnipresence of the supernatural in the corpus as well as Procopius’ self-representation as narrator and character. While preoccupied to some extent with ideological and political concerns, this thesis is first and foremost centred on the text itself and how its relationship to the description of material culture throws light on a crucial author on the cusp between the classical and the medieval imaginaire, one of the most significant authors in Byzantine literary culture.

The thesis consists of three main sections: the Introduction, the text (with apparatus), and the Commentary. The Introduction begins with a survey of the available evidence for the poem’s date and authorship, before moving on to consider its generic affiliations and influences, focusing on two particular areas: its links with the ill-defined genre of παρῳδία, and its relationship to animal-narratives elsewhere in ancient literature (particularly fable) and visual art. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the poem’s style and metre, a brief tour of its Nachleben up to the 13th century, and a summary of the notoriously tangled manuscript tradition. The text is new, and differs substantially from both that of Allen (in the OCT) and of West (the most recent English edition). The apparatus, as explained in more detail on p. 117, is somewhere between the two: it takes into account the readings of only nine MSS from the 80-100 extant, and does not attempt to represent every single textual variation even among these nine, but it is much fuller than the minimalist apparatus of the Loeb. It aims to provide a useful source for scholars interested in the poem’s many and serious textual cruces, while remaining more succinct and user-friendly than the dense and sometimes baffling apparatus of Ludwich’s monumental 1896 edition. The text is followed by an English prose translation: this makes no claims to beauty, and is simply intended as a relatively literal guide to the sense of the Greek. The Commentary, finally, is twofold. Any commentary on the Batrachomyomachia will inevitably spend much space and ink on purely textual issues, and on the fundamental task of unearthing meaning from the dizzying range of wild and nonsensical variants available. Interspersed with these textual points, however, this commentary includes considerations of the poem not as a mechanics problem but as a sophisticated Hellenistic work of art – exploring its intertextualities, its characterisation, its dramatic effects, its dry sense of humour, and subjecting it to the serious literary analysis it has often been denied.

This thesis combines a philosophical interpretation of Epicurean attitudes to language with literary analysis of the language of DRN. Chapters 1-2 describe Epicurean attitudes to diachronic and synchronic linguistic phenomena. In the first chapter I claim that the Epicurean account of the first stage of the development of language involves pre-rational humans acting under a ‘strong’ form of compulsion. The analogies with which Lucretius describes this process were motivated by a structural similarity between the Epicurean accounts of phylogenetic and ontogenetic psychology. Chapter 2 explores the Epicurean account of word use and recognition, central to which are ‘conceptions’. These are attitudes which express propositions; they are not mental images. Προλήψεις, a special class of conception, are self-evidently true basic beliefs about how objects in the world are categorized which, alongside the non-doxastic criteria of perceptions and feelings, play a foundational role in enquiry. Chapter 3 offers a reconstruction of an Epicurean theory of metaphor. Metaphor, for Epicureans, involves the subordination of additional conceptions to words to create secondary meanings. Secondary meanings are to be understood by referring back to primary meanings. Accordingly, Lucretius’ use of metaphor regularly involves the juxtaposition in the text of primary and secondary uses of terms. An account of conceptual metaphor in DRN is given in which the various conceptual domains from which Lucretius draws his metaphorical language are mapped and explored. Chapter 4 presents a new argument against ‘atomological’ readings of Lucretius’ atoms/letters analogies. Lucretian implicit etymologies involve the illustration, via juxtaposition, of language change across time. This is fully in keeping with the Epicurean account of language development. Chapter 5 describes Lucretius’ reflections on and interactions with the Greek language. I suggest that the study of lexical Hellenisms in DRN must be sensitive to the distinction between lexical borrowing and linguistic code-switching. I then give an account of morphological calquing in the poem, presenting it as a significant but overlooked strategy for Lucretian vocabulary-formation.

The study of old age in the humanities has developed significantly in the last few decades, but there is still much scope for progress. This thesis, therefore, seeks to contribute to the growing academic discourse in this area by considering ageing as it is represented in ancient Greek theatre. At the same time, it seeks to take its place within Classical Studies by developing new readings of the plays. To develop a context for its analysis, this study begins with consideration of the contemporary demographics, social position, and stage portrayal of old age, and following this dedicates a chapter to each of the four surviving fifth century dramatists. In Aiskhylos’ Agamemnon, old age emerges as a crucial element in choral self-identity, and an important component of the authority that they display. Following this, the thesis considers the chorus of Euripides’ Herakles, in particular its use of metadramatic language, and the impact this has on plot-development and the representation of their age. The next chapter, on Oidipous Koloneus, shifts to consideration of the protagonist. The old age of Oidipous emerges as a powerful driver of his mental and spiritual power, and forms a striking background to the exploration of his character. The final chapter of the thesis examines how mechanisms of renewal that old men undergo in Aristophanes’ comedies (Knights, Akharnians, Peace, Wasps, Birds) differ across the dramas, and the impact this difference has on their interpretations. Such reassessments of ancient dramatic texts through the lens of old age can provide significant insight into the complexity of old men’s characterisations and of their involvement in the dramas. At the same time (from a gerontological perspective), this thesis’ analysis contributes to the developing discussion of the history of ageing, and highlights the differences between the ancient and modern worlds in this respect.

This research project investigates the relationship between pain and the practices of explaining and narrating it to others. Current scholarship argues that the representation of suffering became, during the Imperial period, an increasingly effective and popular strategy for cultivating authority and that this explains the success of Christian culture’s representation of itself as a community of sufferers. One criticism of this approach is that the experience of pain has often been assumed, rather than analysed. Here, I investigate the nature of pain by attending to its intimate relationship with language; pain was connected to the strategies used to communicate that experience to others. I will show that writers throughout the Imperial period were concerned with questions about how to communicate pain and how that act of communication shaped, managed, and alleviated the experience. I investigate this culture along three axes. Part 1, ‘The Sublime Representation of Pain’, investigates the way different authors thought about the capacity of sublime language and rhetorical techniques such as enargeia to effectively communicate pain. I argue that for writers such as Longinus, the sublime offers an opportunity to replicate the traumatic experience of the pain sufferer in the audience or listener—pain is narrated to the audience through a traumatic communicative mode. Contrarily, I show how authors such as Plutarch and Galen were particularly concerned to desublimate the representation of pain, reducing the affective power of images of pain by promoting the audience’s conscious engagement with the text or representational medium. Part 2, ‘Medical Narratives’, examines a conflict between Galen and Aristides over the way language and narrative signified or referred to painful experiences. I show how both writers negotiate the way pain destroys and transcends ordered, structured, narrative by engaging in a process of narrative translation. I will illuminate the difference between scientific, diagnostic narratives which explain and rationalise pain experiences (in the case of Galen) and those which attempt to give witness to the nebulous, ineffable qualities of pain. In Part 3, ‘Narrating Cures’ I investigate ancient practices of psychotherapy. I show how various philosophical consolations were underpinned by an understanding of the power of pain to continually return and overwhelm the individual. I show further that the Greek romances engage in a type of talking cure: the novels use narration and story-telling to help assert the protagonists’ distance from their past traumatic experiences and, thus, allow the individual to overcome their painful past.

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a tragédia Helena de Eurípides e sua reinterpretação do mito de Helena. Para tanto, está dividida em duas partes, sendo a primeira um estudo e a segunda uma tradução completa da tragédia em versos. O estudo tem dois capítulos: o primeiro aborda o problema do gênero dramático da peça e alguns aspectos de sua encenação; e o segundo discute imagens tradicionais do mito de Homero a Eurípides, enfatizando a síntese da composição euripideana. / This thesis focuses on the tragedy Helen by Euripides and its reinterpretation of the Helen myth. It is divided in two parts. The first one contains a study and the second offers a complete verse translation of the tragedy. The study presents two chapters. The first deals with the problem of Helens dramatic genre and some aspects of its staging. The second discusses traditional images of the myth from Homer to Euripides, emphasizing the synthesis of the Euripidean composition.

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a tragédia Helena de Eurípides e sua reinterpretação do mito de Helena. Para tanto, está dividida em duas partes, sendo a primeira um estudo e a segunda uma tradução completa da tragédia em versos. O estudo tem dois capítulos: o primeiro aborda o problema do gênero dramático da peça e alguns aspectos de sua encenação; e o segundo discute imagens tradicionais do mito de Homero a Eurípides, enfatizando a síntese da composição euripideana. / This thesis focuses on the tragedy Helen by Euripides and its reinterpretation of the Helen myth. It is divided in two parts. The first one contains a study and the second offers a complete verse translation of the tragedy. The study presents two chapters. The first deals with the problem of Helens dramatic genre and some aspects of its staging. The second discusses traditional images of the myth from Homer to Euripides, emphasizing the synthesis of the Euripidean composition.