<p>This dissertation is a study of the use of Homeric diction in the epigrams of Posidippus of Pella. I place the poetry in the context of the aesthetic and scholarly interests of Ptolemaic Alexandria and I provide a stylistic and intertextual analysis of the use of Homer in these 3^rd century BCE epigrams. In the subgenres of amatory and sepulchral epigrams, the repetition of Homeric diction in combination with particular <i> topoi</i> and themes in the poems of Posidippus and other epigrammatists becomes a literary trope. In other cases, Posidippus incorporates more complex thematic allusion to Homer and, by doing so, displays awareness of the self-reflexive and self-annotating experience of reading poetry. The repetition of Homeric diction within sections of the Milan papyrus reinforces arguments for cohesive structure within the &lambda;&iota;&thetas;&iota;&kappa;[special characters omitted] and o&iota;&omega;&nu;o&sigma;&kappa;o&pi;&iota;&kappa;[special characters omitted] sections. What this study of Homeric diction reveals is that Posidippus&rsquo; choice of <i>topoi</i> and themes are distinguished by the way he incorporates Homeric references and thematic allusion. Other poets share his <i> topoi</i> and his themes and sometimes even his Homeric diction, but these three elements rarely match the complexity in Posidippus. The combinations are what differentiate Posidippus&rsquo; stylistic tendences from other Hellenistic epigrammatists. </p>

<p> This thesis investigates the role that <i>furor</i> and other negative emotional states have on Aeneas' mission in the <i>Aeneid</i>. The role of the Fates is to enact change on a large scale, and this is achieved through destruction, which is caused by mortal and immortal agents manipulated by emotion. While Aeneas is trained to control his desires in the first half of the epic, in the second his rage and passions are spurred by supernatural forces. </p><p> This study will discuss the major plot points where emotion and rage interact with the main goal of Aeneas and the Fates. Included is a linguistic analysis wherein key prototypical terms - <i>fatum, amor</i>, and <i> furor</i> - are arranged visually on graphs that show their placements line-by-line and locations relative to each other. The contention is that at various points, <i>fatum</i> causes <i>amor</i> which leads to <i>furor</i>, which leads to change, and thus <i> fatum</i>.</p>

<p> In this dissertation, I explore the intertextual dialogue between two fifth century Attic playwrights, the comedian Aristophanes and the tragedian Euripides, and the influence that each had on the development of the other's characteristic style, or 'brand' (&chi;&alpha;&rho;&alpha;&kappa;&tau;&eta;&rho;). Scholarship on the two playwrights has tended to focus almost exclusively on the transgression of generic boundaries. But studies of paratragedy and parody in Aristophanic comedy and comic elements in late Euripidean tragedy fail to take into consideration the fact that in addition to appropriating material widely across genres, Aristophanes and Euripides also seem to have shared a specific mutual interest in each other's work. I propose a refinement to the traditional model and argue that the two playwrights mutually drew inspiration from each other's differing interpretations of similar themes and motifs. </p><p> Over the period of two decades, the comedian and the tragedian gradually expanded a common repertoire from which they responsively developed variations on the same themes. Each sequence of variations on a theme begins with an Aristophanic running gag mocking a recurring tendency in Euripides' tragedies. Euripides tended to respond to Aristophanes' variations on his themes by embracing and continuing to employ the tropes that Aristophanes had singled out as being characteristically Euripidean. My study focuses primarily on Aristophanes' <i>Acharnians</i> and <i>Thesmophoriazusae </i> and Euripides' <i>Helen</i> and <i>Bacchae</i>. I argue that this exploration of shared thematic material was for both Aristophanes and Euripides an endeavor that was especially productive of their unique brands. </p>

<p> The dissertation explores the phenomenon of long-running border wars, which are believed to have been ubiquitous in Archaic Greece. Two most famous confrontations are examined in depth: the war between Eretria and Chalcis over the Lelantine Plain, and the struggle between Sparta and Argos over the territory of Thyreatis. It is suggested that in the Archaic period these disputed territories were contested in recurrent ritual battles. The battles took place in the framework of peace agreement between the neighboring cities, so that the disputed territory constituted a sacred common space for the opposing cities. The participants in ritual battles belonged to the social class of <i> hippeis,</i> for whom the battles both expressed their local identity and reaffirmed the Panhellenic values, underlying aristocratic inter-<i> polis</i> ties. The ritual battles reenacted mythical destructive confrontations, which were imagined to result in death of all combatants; however, the ritual battle themselves, which were normally non-lethal, were led according to strict rules and represented the enactment of the hoplite ideal. The tradition of the aristocratic ritual battles began to break down in the middle of the sixth century, when, following the adoption of a more aggressive style of warfare, the border territories that had been ritually contested became annexed by one city-state. However, the myths of confrontations between neighboring cities did not lose their ideological power. In the Classical period, these myths constituted a contested ideological territory in the inter- and intra-<i>polis</i> struggles between democratic and oligarchic political camps. In particular, the myths about the confrontation between neighboring cities were adopted by democratic regimes as their foundational narratives. </p>