Modern Americans look to the Founding Fathers for advice and inspiration in a number of areas, including politics, law, and religion. In a time when there is an intense focus on the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the study of the classical languages stands in a perilous situation, we can look back once more to the Founding Fathers to provide a foundation for the importance of the classical languages. The respect and importance that the Founding Fathers placed on the great works of Latin and Ancient Greek can help to support the relevance of Classics not only in the modern world, but also in American education, in particular. Furthermore, this paper, by demonstrating that the canon is not fixed, but changes with each new generation in each particular societal environment, should help all educators better understand and respond to the changes that have occurred and will occur in the American canon of Latin literature.

This thesis examines the prologues of all the Euripidean plays except Iphigenia in Aulis and Rhesus. It is divided between discussion of the monologues and discussion of the scene or scenes which followed it but preceded the parodos. The following elements were identified as common to the standard Euripidean form: Self-Identification, Identification of Location, Description of the Prehistory of the Drama, Identification of the Current Crisis, and Prediction of Future Events. These, in addition to several other less prominent elements of the Euripidean prologue, are discussed in detail. The thesis attempts to define the standard form and position of these elements. It also contains discussion of Euripides' choice of prologists and the various forms that the prologue could take.

Feasting has always been an important cultural activity in the Aegean Bronze Age; however, it is during the Mycenaean period in the Late Bronze Age when feasting appears to facilitate the elites' hold and manipulation of the social hierarchy. At this time, the palatial centers were the political, economic, and religious seats of the Mycenaean world, used to host particular feasting events tied to religious ritual. The feast was a dynamic event that associated the elite with religious ritual in the form of a procession and sacrifice as the iconography of the Pylian frescoes, textual evidence from the Linear B tablets, and archaeological evidence suggests. These events, for the most part, seem to have been inclusive while certain parts were more selective regarding who could participate. This further distinguished the Mycenaean elites in front of a wider audience of individuals and subjects attending the feast and associated events, working to maintain stability in the social hierarchy. The built environment was particularly important for distinguishing those participating in feasting events as it added to the event's grandeur with the monumentality of the space, and restricted those able to participate with regard to smaller locales that had a low capacity and narrower entryways preventing accessibility. With Mycenae and Pylos as case studies, this research uses spatial analyses to see how inclusive potential feasting locales were.

The purpose of this study was to explore how wealthy, upper class Roman authors use the themes of wealth and poverty in their works and to assess the information that they provide us about the realities of being poor in the ancient world. The focus of the study was on the novels of Petronius and Apuleius, two authors from the first two centuries CE. I ultimately argue that while we can extract some information about the poor from these two novels, we must be cautious and consider how literary themes and traditions influenced the representation of wealth and poverty in them. Chapter one reviews scholarship on poverty in the ancient world. This chapter moves beyond the few general studies on ancient poverty to discuss other perspectives such as legal issues involving the poor, the health and diet of the larger Roman populace, land and housing considerations, depictions of the poor in art, and views of the poor in Christian texts. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize current research on ancient poverty and to provide context for the remaining chapters. Chapter two focuses on Petronius’ Satyrica. This novel has a reputation for being a realistic portrayal of low-life culture. The main characters are of limited means and are liars and thieves. Trimalchio, the famous portrayal of the nouveaux-riche freedman, is perhaps the most well known character in the novel. This chapter examines Petronius’ portrayal of the poor and asks why he portrays them as squalid, ugly, and immoral. Moreover, the chapter also investigates how Petronius portrays the rich and argues that he is just as critical of the rich as he is of the poor. Chapter three analyzes Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, with some comparison also to his Apology, which contains a philosophical encomium of poverty. The Metamorphoses ends with the main character, Lucius, becoming a devotee to the gods Isis and Osiris. Scholars are divided on how we ought to interpret the ending of novel. This chapter argues that Apuleius’ portrayal of poverty suggests a satirical intention by having Lucius become a religious devotee. The novel is not a story of redemption, as some have argued.

Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans (Dialogi Meretricii) are fifteen short dialogues set in classical Athens. The Dialogues depict exchanges between courtesans and between courtesans and their clients. Dialogues of the Courtesans is part of a larger body of Greek literature featuring courtesans that begins with the first attested use of hetaira (ἑταίρα) for courtesan in Herodotus' Histories (2.134) and includes Attic oratory, philosophical dialogue, Hellenistic epigram, and New Comedy. Though Lucian borrows from this body of literature, especially from New Comedy, to craft his fictional world of courtesans, this dissertation illustrates how Lucian's depiction is unlike all previous representations. Lucian gives his courtesans a voice and places the focus of the dialogues on their lives and experiences rather than on the experiences of male characters. Moreover, Dialogues of the Courtesans features unpleasant aspects of a courtesan's life not often emphasized in other ancient Greek literature. These differences set his courtesans apart not only from depictions in previous literature but also from those of Lucian's closer contemporaries in the Second Sophistic. While other Second Sophistic portrayals of hetairai often feature witty, beautiful, flashy, and rich women, Lucian calls attention to the difficulties actual courtesans would have faced such as poverty, violence, and falling in love with an unattainable man. Lucian's use of traditional literary elements to create such a strikingly different picture of courtesan life displays his ability to assimilate and manipulate the tropes of courtesan literature effectively.

ARISTOTLE ON MATERIAL DISPOSITIONS IN METEOROLOGY IV Tiberiu M. Popa, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2005 The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: to elucidate crucial aspects of an important but somewhat understudied Aristotelian text, the fourth book of his Meteorology, and, implicitly, to contribute to a deeper understanding of Aristotles treatment of dispositions. Meteorology IV is concerned to a great extent with the properties of organic and inorganic homogeneous materials. The first chapter of my dissertation is meant to clarify the structure of this text, to demonstrate by appealing to a few new arguments that Meteorology IV is to be attributed to Aristotle and to point out that, contrary to most scholarship on this topic, not all homogeneous materials (homoiomerç) are mixtures. I subsequently build on these preliminaries and address three major questions in the next chapters: What are material dispositions, according to Meteorology IV? How does Aristotle account for the emergence of dispositional properties in uniform materials? What role do dispositions play in the context of Aristotles scientific method? I answer the first question chiefly by distinguishing in the Aristotelian text between what one might call today dispositional differentiae (e.g. solubility) and categorical properties corresponding to them (a particular composition or microstructure) and conclude that dispositions are not reducible to categorical features in Aristotle's 'chemistry', but are properties, perceived as being part of a homogeneous material's nature (in a non-teleological context). The emergence of dispositions in the homoiomerç receives a more articulate treatment in Meteorology IV than in any other Aristotelian work, but its limitations point to Aristotle's preference not to engage in pure speculation, when he cannot rely on an acceptable degree of probability or plausibility; his treatment of the emergence of dispositions points (in virtue of an understood conditional necessity) to the link between his 'chemistry' and his biological corpus. Finally, I give prominence to the central role of dispositions in Aristotle's method of division and in his effort to gain insight into the composition and microstructure of homogeneous bodies. These aspects of the scientific method deployed in Meteorology IV also emphasize the dominant functions of this treatise and its place within the Aristotelian oeuvre.

This dissertation makes the claim that Homer's landscape descriptions comment on the action of Odysseus' homecoming through echoes and cross-references. Even descriptive passages such as the loca amoena of Elysium in Book 4, the Gardens of Alcinous in Book 7, and Goat Island in Book 9 do not effect a cessation of the action of the narrative, but rather contribute to its furtherance by characterizing Odysseus' ethic of nostos in terms of his rejection of an array of locales. Geography appropriate for mortals is distinguished from that appropriate to gods by the pronounced emphasis in the former on generation and cyclic renewal, which requires that imperfections such as precipitation and the necessity for labor be introduced into even the most amoena of loca inhabited by mortals. Landscape assists the poet in articulating through physical geography Odysseus' vested interest in the generational continuity of his mortal household and the immortality of his fame. Unlike Menelaus, who serves as Odysseus' foil, Odysseus possesses an ethos of toil and self-sufficiency, virtues demonstrated in the final reunion with Laertes in the gardens of Book 24. Chapters are devoted to the proem, the Telemachy, dawn scenes, the succession of landscapes portrayed in Books 5-7 (Odysseus' journey from Ogygia to the palace of Alcinous), the Apologue, Book 13 and the description of Ithaca, and the Gardens of Laertes in Book 24.

This dissertation starts with chapters on the legends of Medea and the dramatic analysis of Medea centred on the filicide and the magic chariot, in which I argue that Medea is portrayed mostly as a positive figure, not a heartless demon, and Euripides is not a misogynist as some have argued. The center piece of the dissertation are the English and Chinese (Mandarin) translations of Medea. In Chinese translation, I aim to produce a lucid, literal and faithful prose translation of the Greek original. So far, the only available Chinese translation of Medea is that by Luo Niansheng, first published in 1938 and reprinted in 2004. My translation, utilizing the more recent editions of Greek text and commentaries, is a more up-to-date translation in modern Chinese. The Chinese translation is followed by a commentary written for the benefit of Chinese readers. The commentary is focused on the linguistic and cultural differences encountered in translating ancient Greek into modern Chinese. The perceivable difficulties Chinese audiences would face viewing Greek tragedy are discussed and some general theatrical differences between Chinese operas and Greek tragedy are explained, using the examples of Chinese adaptations of Greek tragedy in recent years. I conclude that Greek tragedy can be a source of both confusion and fascination for Chinese audiences. In explaining the linguistic, cultural and theatrical context of Greek tragedy and Medea, I hope Chinese readers and audiences will gain a better understanding of Medea and appreciate more the immense power of Euripides words.

Aeneid 1 presents the Romans as the lords of the world, and the heirs of a destined imperium sine fine (1.279-282). In a stunning deviation from the normal epic conventions, Anchises in his prophecy calls them out by name, tuRomane (6.851), addressing everyone from Aeneas illustrious descendant Augustus down to the humblest member of the poems audience. In the Aeneid, the people cannot afford to serve as they do in Homeric poetry more or less solely as accessories to the sense of fame and honor (the kleos) of individual heroes. In an epic in which the man in the crowd of both past and present has a stake, the Trojan people, as the precursors of the Roman people, must serve as a character in their own right. To this end, an analysis of the attributes of the various crowds of the Aeneid reveals that they more closely resemble the dangerous and unruly crowds of Romes history than any of the fanciful crowds of the epic universe. This affinity is clear from the outset: the first simile of the poem compares the calming of the upstart winds by Neptune to the calming of an ignobile vulgus by a respected statesman (Aeneid 1.148-153). In his picture of the Trojans, the soon to be incorporated Italians, and other crowds, both human and divine, Vergil has painted a comprehensive picture of the quest to found the Roman race (Romanam condere gentem, 1.33) by telling the story of the ancestors of that race, the sometimes ignobile vulgus who are destined to become the rerum dominos. In the realm of epic poetry, the crowds of Vergil are exceptional. With a better picture of this entity that plays so decisive a role in the history of the nation, the Aeneid can be viewed not merely as an Augustan epic, but a fully Roman one.

Who was Jocelyn? Did Lamartine's hero have a human counterpart? The question has tantalized readers ever since the kindly priest first crept into their hearts. The vivid reality of his life suggests the possibility of having dwelt in a world of actualities as well as in a realm of make-believe.