D.Litt. et Phil. / The aim of the present thesis has been to examine the course of Christianity and civilization in the medieval kingdoms of Nubia, in relation to the developments in the Byzantine Empire during the same period; that is, to look into the direct and indirect influences exerted by Byzantium on Nubia, at both political and cultural level. The study departs from the observation that there is a significantly close parallelism between the Nubian and the Byzantine history. More specifically, following the 7th century Arabic expansion, the Christian statal entities of Nubia and the Byzantium seem to run a parallel course, with rather similar fluctuations. Thus, there is a time when, initially, both Byzantium and Nubia – to a varying degree and in different ways – rally their forces against the Arabic threat. This is followed by a period of prosperity and growth, leading up to the 11th century and, finally, from the 12th century onwards, starts a gradual decadence that reaches its breaking point with the overthrow of both the Byzantine Empire and the remaining Christian statal formations of Nubia by the Ottomans. By way of conclusion then, we will summarise the most important observations and assumptions the present research has led to. Firstly, throughout the course of this study, the main goal has been to examine in juxtaposition and to correlate the developments in Nubia and Byzantium, through their relations with the Islamic world and its activity in the Mediterranean, and to ascertain whether there are substantial and considerable interrelations. At what time, to what extent and in what way did the Byzantine-Islamic relations affect the course of the Medieval Christian Kingdoms of Nubia? While various hypotheses have been formulated regarding the interrelation between Byzantium and Nubia, the issue has not as yet been subjected to a thorough and long-term study. The present dissertation intends to fill in this gap in research, thus contributing to a better understanding of the Nubian history.

Due to the variety of its subjects, its calendar-based structure, and its tendency to escape the boundaries of genre Ovid’s Fasti can at times give the impression of a disjointed and repetitive text. A key element of the poem, which at times seems to exacerbate this impression, is the multiplicity of voices and characters that present its information and inhabit its landscapes. By analyzing the characterization of these internal narrators and the characters with whom they interact, both from their own perspective and as revealed by their actions, this project shows that the Fasti is not disjoined and repetitive but intricately interwoven and intent on showcasing the variant and multifocal nature of Roman legend and practice. One of the clearest points of divergence among the Fasti’s narrators is on a topic crucial to the poem as well as its historical and political context: Rome’s foundation. My dissertation demonstrates the above through a thorough analysis of key foundational figures in the poem and their depictions of the evolution of Rome, particularly in reference to its landscape, from its pre-foundational state to the time of Augustus. My analysis follows the variant tempora (times) of Roman foundational legend and their characteristic landscapes as represented by Janus, the poet’s narratorial persona, Evander, Carmentis, and Hercules throughout the Fasti. I trace how each of them attempts to assert his or her own version of Rome and her past through a competition of voices within the text. I focus particularly on elements of violence, sacrifice, foreignness, cyclical repetition, birth and destruction, and gendered power in Roman legend and foundation. I use several methodologies in my approach, appropriating some elements of narratology and gender studies while focusing particularly on frequently overlooked elements of the text, including representations of space, the senses, and interacting details of self-representation by internal narrators. Through an analysis of these five figures my study begins to demonstrate an as yet untried approach to an enigmatic text which contributes to its further understanding from both a literary and a political standpoint, especially in the way that the Fasti’s multiplicity of Roman foundational variants stands opposed to the attempted early imperial streamlining of Roman legend. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / February 19, 2019. / Fasti, Janus, Ovid, Roman foundation / Includes bibliographical references. / Laurel Fulkerson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Silvia Valisa, University Representative; Tim Stover, Committee Member; Jessica H. Clark, Committee Member.

This dissertation provides an overall interpretation of the 'Bellum Civile' based on the examination of an aspect completely neglected by previous scholarship: Lucan's literary adaptation of the cosmological dialectic of Love and Strife. According to a reading that has found favor over the last three decades, the poem is an unconventional epic that does not conform to Aristotelian norms: in order to portray his vision of cosmic dissolution, Lucan composes a poem characterized by fragmentation and disorder, lacking a conventional teleology, and whose narrative flow is constantly delayed. This study challenges such interpretation by illustrating that although Lucan invokes imagery of cosmic dissolution, he does so without altogether obliterating epic norms; rather, the 'Bellum Civile' transforms them from within in order to accomplish its purpose: namely, condemnation of the establishment of the Principate and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Greek and Roman thought traditionally construes Love and Strife as two contrasting forces that govern the universe: Love is constructive in its creative function, whereas Strife is deadly and, therefore, destructive; however, there is also a destructive form of Love, which causes distress and grief, and a constructive form of Strife, which urges individuals to improve the condition of humankind. In Greek and Latin epic these four forces are normally in balance: although war is the main theme of the genre, love is placed side by side with it, so as to hint at a regeneration after the destruction; and famous examples of destructive romances are counterbalanced by equally renowned cases of constructive conflicts. Vergil places himself within this tradition by writing an epic in which Love and Strife–in both their positive and negative instantiations–are perfectly balanced. In particular, in the 'Aeneid' the action of destructive forces is usually followed by that of constructive forces. This suits the political purpose of the poem, which celebrates the founding of Rome, and its re-founding thanks to Augustus. Lucan reverses this structure. He strategically removes constructive Love and Strife from the 'Bellum Civile', and increases the role of their destructive counterparts, in order to stage the irreversible annihilation and "de-founding" of Rome that follows the victory of Caesar and the consequent fall of the Republic. The main characters of the poem, in fact, are involved in ruinous romances; and all the elements that could mitigate the destructive force of Strife, such as 'virtus' and 'clementia', are deliberately neglected or perverted. Paradoxically, the only form of Love that finds space in the poem is the utterly destructive Love for Strife. Lucan, in fact, reverses the elegiac notion of 'militia amoris', and turns it into the more threatening 'amor militiae': instead of fighting for love, as the elegiac characters do, the epic characters of the 'Bellum Civile' love fighting; and if elegy describes love affairs as warfare, and lovers as soldiers, Lucan describes warfare as love affairs, and soldiers as lovers. This scheme is so groundbreaking that Lucan's epic successors inevitably have to deal with it, either to accept it, as Statius does, or to reject it and restore a more traditional–and Vergilian, so to speak–narrative structure, as Valerius Flaccus and Silius Italicus do. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / February 28, 2017. / Bellum Civile, Love, Lucan, Strife / Includes bibliographical references. / Tim Stover, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Levenson, University Representative; Laurel Fulkerson, Committee Member; Francis Cairns, Committee Member.

My dissertation is about the location of Hesiod's poetics in the spaces of the farm. One of my main assertions is that the farm consists of three spaces, those of cultivated, grazed, and wild nature. I argue that the poet and farmer exploit and fortify these productive zones in analogous ways. The farm is revealed to be a "poetic landscape" insofar as the processes of poetry, by their alignment with the georgic functions, are bound up in the farm's three spaces. Scholars in this area have focused either on the analogies between poetry and farming or on the space of the farm but they have not combined these two investigations (Chapter One). My thesis breaks new ground by converging these avenues of research. With the notion of the three spaces I make another contribution to scholarship by revealing in Hesiod's understanding of the farm a complexity that has gone unrecognized in previous related studies. Chapter Two further advances research by the explication of an ancient foundation for the three-fold aspect of the farm, namely a traditional view of the history of food acquisition, which is evident in the writings of Varro (De re rustica) and Dicaearchus (Bios Hellados, attested in Porphyry's De abstinentia ab esu animalium). In the third and fourth chapters, on the Theogony proem, I argue that the shepherd-farmer's and poet's analogous use of certain resources of Mt. Helicon situates Hesiod's poetics in the wild and grazed spaces of the farm. Part of my analysis establishes that poetry for Hesiod is a water-based pharmakon which heals the audience. Chapter Five, on the first half of the Works and Days, examines the role of justice and festivals in the poetry-farming analogies, which, in this case, involve all three spaces of the farm. In the sixth and final chapter, which addresses the agricultural calendar of the Works and Days, I refocus attention on water, particularly dew, as poetry's healing ingredient, but now one that binds the poetic process to the farm's cultivated space. My emphasis on water in the framework of the thesis makes another contribution to the relevant scholarship. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / December 9, 2016. / agriculture, analogy, farm, Hesiod, poetry, space / Includes bibliographical references. / Francis Cairns, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dennis Moore, University Representative; Laurel Fulkerson, Committee Member; Svetoslava Slaveva-Griffin, Committee Member.

This dissertation explores the nature and significance of fear in the works of Seneca the Younger. While a variety of emotions have already been examined within the writings of this author, fear remains largely neglected despite its prevalence and fundamental nature. This study contributes to work being done on themes shared across Seneca’s entire literary output, on the relevance of Stoicism to Seneca’s tragedies, and on emotions in the ancient world, especially within the writings of this extremely pertinent author. The project begins with the compilation of a theoretical De metu, based loosely on Seneca’s De ira, to show that a detailed understanding of Seneca’s conception of fear can be gleaned through careful analysis of material from across his corpus. Drawing on the over 1,200 references to fear from throughout Seneca’s corpus, this De metu lays out Seneca’s definition of fear and the causes, effects, and potential therapies he envisions for it. A De metu also allows for a closer comparison of anger and fear, two emotions that Seneca views as similar in both nature and in intensity. This fuller understanding of fear can then be applied to Seneca’s tragedies to see how his ideas of fear are transformed by the tragedic medium. The rest of the project deals with fear within the tragedies on both thematic and narrative levels. The first of these chapters argues that the nature of fear as presented in Seneca’s philosophical works has been adapted for thematic use within various elements of the tragedies. At some points the tragedies reflect his philosophical thinking, reinforcing the philosopher’s understanding of the emotion. More often, however, fear’s nature is distorted or embellished for literary effect, derailing the audience’s expectations of how this emotion functions. Seneca is willing to exceed or vary the nature of fear established in his philosophical works in order to create stronger dramatic effects and follow the conventions of this other genre. Some of the broader thematic uses of fear considered include how fear is used to create suspense, spectacle, and characterization; the use of therapy to combat fear; and what the common sources of fear are, with special focus on the fear of death and the afterlife. Evidence for these thematic uses of fear is drawn from all of Seneca’s tragedies, revealing the widespread relevance of this emotion. The final chapter argues that fear plays a significant role in shaping the situations of several main figures of Seneca’s plays; without a full understanding of fear, the nuance of Seneca’s commentary on these characters’ flaws, misfortunes, and ruling styles is incomplete. The presence of fear in Oedipus has already been noted in scholarship, yet a better understanding of Seneca’s ideal therapies for fear and the dangers fear poses shed more light on this play. In Thyestes, special attention must be paid to the emotions of Atreus and Thyestes: each brother experiences both fear and its related passion anger, and alternate between the two over the course of their plotting. Finally, Troades offers further insight into Seneca’s understanding of the relationship of fear and hope. Andromache and Hecuba endure similar circumstances, but while Hecuba experiences merely resignation, the survival of Andromache’s son drives her to hope and thus also to fear. Fear therefore plays a key role in the development of each of these plays. Ultimately, it is possible to determine not only how Seneca defines the nature of fear, but also to what extent and in what ways fear in the tragedies draws upon Seneca’s philosophy. Fear provides Seneca with a vital tool for creating successful and meaningful tragedies. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 12, 2019. / emotions, fear, Seneca, Stoicism, tragedy / Includes bibliographical references. / Tim Stover, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jamie Fumo, University Representative; Laurel Fulkerson, Committee Member; Erika Weiberg, Committee Member.

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published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy