Abstracts of the Joint CACW-CAPN
conference in Victoria B.C. February 18-19, 2005
Presenter Ross, Charles
Purdue University
Comparative Literature
Title Augury and the Undecidability Topos in
Statius's Thebaid
Abstract This paper looks to determine Statius's
understanding of the irrational by comparing Statius's use of auguries
and other methods of predicting the future with one of the poet's
favorite topoi. In either case Statius seems to distance himself from
the fumblings of his Grecian characters. The Argives refuse to abide by
the negative omens discerned by the prophet Amphiaraus. The Thebans are
relieved, in their misery, by Tiresias's predictions that they will not
lose in the war between Polynices and Eteocles. Yet the narrative voice
of the poem lambasts both sides for seeking to predict the future on
the grounds that it is somehow unworkmanlike, un-Roman, unmanly to do
so. That voice seems to prefer the rational, and so it is not
surprising that Statius often inflicts uncertainties on his characters,
particularly Adrastus, who wonders, for example, where Apollo resides
(at the end of book one) and whether Hypsipyle is a goddess. The paper
will also suggest, briefly, what appeal Statius's hectoring tone had
for later writers like Dante or Milton
Presenter Kindt, Julia C.
The University of Chicago
Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts
Title Knowledge, Knowing, and Spotting the Blind Spot
Knowledge and Reflection in Accounts of Oracle Consultations
Abstract Accounts of oracle consultations depict
interpretation. However, at the same time, these stories require
interpretation themselves. In my paper I investigate how these two
receptive levels might be related to each other. I outline what kind of
knowledge oracle stories communicate and how they communicate it. I
show that the continuing scholarly debate about the existence or
non-existence of a chasm, vapours, and a frantic priestess Pythia is
irrelevant to the nature of the oracular discourse and its
transmission. The knowledge communicated in these stories is not
irrational nor is it induced by intoxication of the Pythia, but is deep
and reflective and communicates strong notions of order.
Presenter Feldman, Sarah E.
University of Victoria, Philosophy
Title Oracular modes of knowing in Presocratic
philosophy
Abstract Early Greek philosophy makes frequent use of
the dichotomy between contingent, incomplete human knowledge and
perfect, divine knowledge. My thesis is that these two types of
knowledge are not mutually exclusive for the Presocratics and are often
collapsed into one another in a subjective state of "oracular knowing"
- that is, a simultaneous state of knowing and not-knowing. In general,
a philosopher's use of oracular modes of knowing indicates either: a) a
gap between desired knowledge and available epistemic tools, or b) a
belief in a species of knowledge which is not rationally/linguistically
expressible. The three main traits of oracular knowledge I will be
isolating in this paper are: a) an absence of social, historical, or
deductive context b) a straining of traditional linguistic forms c) an
attempt to both acknowledge and bridge the gap between human and divine
realms
Find in program
Presenter Nice, Alex T
Reed College/University of the Witwatersrand
Department of Classics
Title Erudition, Antiquarianism, and Exploitation:
Roman Responses to Diviners and Divination in the Second Century B.C.
Abstract Rome's expansion throughout the
Mediterranean in the Late Third and Early Second Centuries B.C.
resulted in an influx of foreign cults and divinatory practices. This
paper examines Roman responses to forms of divination alien to the
customary rituals of the Roman state. For some members of the Roman
elite the influx of ideas was an opportunity for the broadening of
their intellectual horizons, for others it implied a recourse to
antiquarianism and a strengthening of Rome's habitual religious
rituals. For yet others this meant an opportunity for exploitation,
whereby a special relationship with the divine could be cultivated to
further one's own political aspirations. In all cases the inevitable
outcome was a reshaping of Roman thoughts on religion and divination
which foreshadows the developments in religious thought and practice
that characterise the final years of the Roman Republic a century
later.
Presenter Robinson, Annabel
University of Regina
Title Hungry at the banquet of reason: Jane Harrison
and the irrational
Abstract Influenced by Gilbert Murray, and
particularly by his translations of Euripides, Jane Harrison
appropriated personally his "lesson" of the Bacchae, that there are in
the world "things, not of reason, but both below and above it" which we
tend to worship, and which can either bring bliss or tear us to shreds.
Underlying much of Harrison's writing is a glorification of the sub- or
supra-rational, and scorn for the purely rational. This paper will
explore to what extent she herself was irrational in espousing the
irrational in religion.
Presenter Todd, Robert B
University of British Columbia, Classics
Title E.R. Dodds and the Irrational
Abstract E.R. Dodds is the scholar most associated
with the modern study of the irrational in antiquity; in this paper I
would draw on some recent publications of mine and add new material in
order to define the range and sources of Dodds' interest in this
subject.
Presenter Bocci, Nicole J
University of Calgary
Department of Greek and Roman Studies
Title Analyzing Alexander the Great
Abstract Later in his life Alexander the Great
appears to have experienced a change in his personality. He became more
aware of portents and divine signs, but more importantly he became wary
of his closest companions. As he progressed east, Alexander raged
against some of his closest friends, fearing that they were in a
conspiracy against him. Some such examples are his murdering of Cleitus
the Black, Parmenio, and Callisthenes. It is also important to note
that at this time Alexander's drinking continued to increase as well.
This paper will look at Alexander's actions to see what they may imply
about his mental state. It will take into account modern day diagnoses
such as posttraumatic stress disorder and manic depression to see if
Alexander potentially suffered from one of them. It is a look at
Alexander's behavior towards the end of his life in the light of modern
day psychiatric diagnoses.
Presenter Cazes, Helene J
University of Victoria
Department of French
Title How Greek poets can teach reason according to
Henricus Stephanus II
Abstract As of the first collection of Greek verse
for the youth, published at the imitation of Erasmus in the late
1560's, to the monumental anthologies of Epic poets (1566), Epigrammata
(1570), Moral excerpts and Presocratic Poets (1573), the undefatigable
editor and humanist Henri Estienne (1531-1598) never ceases to plead
the cause of Poets in term of rationality and reason : according to the
lengthy prefaces that he devotes to the topic, Greek poetry contains
more sense and philosophy than would be expected from their apparent
fictionality. For the humanist, the meaning of poetry is not only to be
found in the myth or the fable, as taught by ancient philosophers, but
also in the reaction triggered in the reader's mind. Thus, on the model
of the "Apology for Herodotus", the editor offers an "apology for
poets" and defines the new notion of "poesis philosophia". This very
notion would be the core of my paper.
Presenter Nelson, Max G.
University of Windsor
Classical and Modern Languages
Title Magic and the Rational
Abstract In 1951 E. R. Dodds' series of Sather
Classical Lectures was published in his justly famous work The Greeks
and the Irrational. Dodds never really defined what he meant by "the
irrational", but he certainly understood it to include such things as
poetic inspiration, the prediction of the future, and the practice of
magic. However, the study of ancient magic has come a long way in the
last fifty years and some basic assumptions about it have drastically
changed. For one, the inefficacy of magical rites used to be taken for
granted; now scholars have shown that magic probably often did work,
though in different ways than the ancients may have thought.
Furthermore, magic used to be defined as fundamentally irrational;
however now magic is often viewed as a rational, albeit non-scientific,
means of using knowledge concerning occult causal links in the world to
attain one's personal goals.
Presenter 1 George, Demetra
Kepler College
Presenter 2 Wilson, Malcolm
University of Oregon
Title The de Decubitu: the Contexts of Rationality
Abstract The de Decubitu is a astrological-medical
guide intended to help physicians diagnose patients based on the time
of their 'decumbiture', the time they go to bed on account of their
illness (hence its Latin title de Decubitu). As a fusion of Greek and
Egyptian, elite and common, ideas, and as the focus of astronomy,
astrology and medicine, it serves as an excellent source for
distinguishing the patterns of ancient rationality. I shall argue that
the rationality displayed in the text, to the extent that it is a
useful concept at all, is deeply multivalent and dependent on a variety
of social and cultural factors.
Presenter Morand, Anne-France
Institut romand d'Histoire de la medecine et de la sante publique,
Faculte de medecine, Universite de Lausanne
University of Victoria, Greek and Roman Studies
Title Ancient medicine: ancient rationality and
modern pseudo-rationality
Abstract The theory of humours, which asserts that
four or more bodily liquids presided over health and illness, played an
prominent role in ancient medicine : a perfect balance of the humours
was necessary for good health; humoural imbalance was thought to be the
cause of various illnesses. From a modern medical point of view,
humoural theories are thought to be fundamentally incorrect. My aim in
this talk is to contrast rational elements in ancient medical thought
with the pseudo-rational views of modern historians of medicine. I
shall show that modern constructions of humoural theories are often so
simplified and draw on so many different sources that they are simply
wrong. Furthermore, the elaboration of humoural theories during the
Middle Ages distorts the accounts of ancient humoural theories. I shall
emphasize that, because contemporary medical thought dismisses these
theories, historians of medicine also avoid them or deal with them
unsatisfactorily.
Presenter Mason, Hugh J
University of Toronto
Classics
Title Rational Paradox: The explanation of false
death in the Ancient Novel.
Abstract A characteristic feature of the ancient
novel os its concentration on dramatic paradoxes such as false death,
kindly pirates or virginity preserved even in a brothel. This paper
will explore some supposedly "rational" explanations of "false death"
in ancient novels, including Chariton 1.8 (lack of food caused a
resumption of respiration, blocked by a kick to the stomach); King
Apollonius of Tyre 26 (breathing obstructed by congealed blood due to
severe cold; cured by application of heat); Apuleius 10.11 and Xenophon
of Ephesus 3.7 (death-resembling sleep caused by a drug -mandragora) I
plan to focus on the novelists' choice of such "rational" explanation
as to an external (divine?) causation; and on the medical conidition of
"suspended animation" that is used to rationalize these paradoxes.
Presenter Irwin, M. Eleanor
University of Toronto at Scarborough
Humanities
Title Flower power in medicine and magic
Abstract From Homer on, certain plants had mysterious
healing properties known to the experts and shared with the few, like
nepenthe given to Helen in Egypt along with knowledge of its use to
ease pain. Those in the know were often on the edge of society - women,
foreigners or not-completely-human like Cheiron the centaur from whom
many heroes learned herbal medicine. There was a deliberate attempt to
control access as illustrated by stories told by the 'root-cutters' of
strange (irrational) behaviour practiced by those who gathered
medicinal plants. But many herbal treatments have a rational
explanation, appreciated more today than in the past. I will explore
both irrational and rational components of Greek herbal medicine.
Presenter Harms, Paul J
University of Calgary, Greek and Roman Studies
Title Aretaeus and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Abstract I will begin with a brief summary of the
arguments of Ludwig Edelstein and Danielle Gourevitch, who claim that
Graeco-Roman physicians readily and commonly aided sick people to die.
More recently this view has been put forth by Paul Carrick and Darrel
Amundsen. I will then briefly point out what I think are problematic
elements in their arguments. Lastly I will focus on Aretaeus'
sympathetic approach to his patients. In particular I will examine
passages which highlight his position on physician assisted suicide.
Aretaeus clearly stands in opposition to the kind of physician
Edelstein and Gourevitch claim was commonplace.
Presenter Connors, Catherine
University of Washington, Classics
Title The geography of rage in Apuleius'
Metamorphoses.
Abstract Apuleius' Metamorphoses imports many epic
elements into its prose fiction. Its hero Lucius is a dangerously
curious wanderer, like Odysseus. He eventually finds his way to Rome,
like Aeneas. As in epic, divine anger is in one way or another central
to all the episodes of the story as Lucius tells it. This paper will
explore the ways in which anger operates throughout the novel. Of
particular interest is the portrayal of Venus as the deity whose rage
drives the inset narrative of Psyche and Cupid. Apuleius' descriptions
of Venus' rage are modelled on Vergil's account of Juno's rage against
Venus, Aeneas and the future of Rome in the Aeneid. In place of the
Aeneid's Juno vs. Venus contest, the novel constructs a world in which
divine anger of specifically Roman imperial dimensions must give way
before the benevolence of Isis which transcends imperial space and time.
Presenter Keith, Alison M.
Victoria College,
University of Toronto,
Classics and Women's Studies
Title Anger and Theban Civil War in Ovid's
Metamorphoses and Statius' Thebaid
Abstract Both Ovid and Statius associate the madness
of civil war with a Theban myth of origins. Thus although the oracle of
Apollo at Delphi instructs the Phoenician Cadmus to found Thebes in
Ovid's Metamorphoses (3.10-13), the actual foundation of the city is
predicated not on reason and piety but on rage and battle-lust as
Cadmus must slay the Dragon of Mars (Met. 3.25-94) and watch the
Spartoi engage in bloody civil war (Met. 3.101-25). These origins in
battle frenzy leave their mark on both the site and its inhabitants,
leaving Thebes open to recurrent outbreaks of anger and civil war. My
paper examines the rage that motivates individual members of the house
of Cadmus as both a genealogical inheritance (in Ovid's Theban
narrative of Met. 3-4) and a literary legacy (in Statius' Thebaid) from
the Ovidian Dragon of Mars, and also considers the landscapes of Thebes
as a geography of madness.
Presenter Fitch, John G.
University of Victoria
Dept. of Greek & Roman Studies
Title Passion, Death, and the Nature of (Senecan)
Tragedy
Abstract This paper pays tribute to Otto Regenbogen's
classic essay "Schmerz und Tod in den Tragödien Senecas" of
1927/28. The passions which dominate Seneca's tragedies are often based
on a sense of pain and hurt, and particularly on a sense of damaged
selfhood. (Dolor can refer both to such pain and to the anger that
arises from it.) Another dominating aspect of the plays is their focus
on death and the world of death, which is closely associated with the
passions. Death repeatedly invades the world of the living, and
threatens or destroys the young in particular. The plays' intense focus
on dolor and death carries through into their notoriously harsh
endings. Critics often make the assumption that tragedy properly offers
some final healing or resolution of suffering. But tragedy has many
potentials, one of which is to present starkly and forcefully the pain
of human existence.
Presenter Pollio, David M.
Christopher Newport University
Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures,
Title Interpreting Madness: Plato's Division of the
Soul and Vergil's Amata and Turnus
Abstract Scholars have argued that Amata and Turnus
are naturally predisposed to the madness and violence that Allecto
instills in them in Aeneid 7. Recently, however, scholars, treating the
gods as characters (instead of symbols), have argued that Allecto's
actions are "real" within the Aeneid's fictive universe and, therefore,
that Amata and Turnus may be considered victims, not necessarily
villains. I will apply Plato's conception of the soul (especially as
outlined in Republic 4) to explain how an ancient audience may have
understood and reacted to the irrational madness that engulfs Amata and
Turnus. I will demonstrate (1) that Allecto corrupts their passion -
"the natural auxiliary of reason" (441a) - so that it works in concert
with the irrational element of their souls and (2) that Vergil
intimates Turnus' innocence by having him both recognize that he has
acted irrationally (12.645-9, 665-71) and accept the justness of
Aeneas' punishment (12.931); Turnus, unlike Amata, "hears the voice of
the shepherd, that is, reason, bidding his dog bark no more" (440d).
Presenter Creese, David E.
University of British Columbia, Classical, Near Eastern & Religious
Studies
Title MULES, SEMITONES AND LUKEWARM COFFEE:
(IR)RATIONALITY AND MUSICAL PERCEPTION IN GREEK HARMONICS
Abstract For Greek musical theorists, rationality, in
the sense of a musical interval being expressible "en logois arithm'n",
was a key debating point. So-called "Pythagorean" harmonicists held
that numerical relationships underlie the differences between notes.
How could such theorists respond to others who asserted that musical
intervals are constituted by qualitative, not quantitative,
differences? Or that there might exist some intervals the voice can
produce and the ear perceive, but which cannot be expressed by
numerical ratio? Do such "irrational" intervals have a musical identity
at all? Is rationality an attribute of the harmonic? The paper will
examine the answers to these questions proposed by a certain Panaetius
the Younger, whose only surviving work is a fragment preserved by
Porphyry in his commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics (65.21-67.10 D�ring).
Panaetius' argument, in many respects unique in antiquity, involves
admitting the necessity of rational analysis of musical intervals while
denying ratios any logical priority, and attempts to preserve the
definition of an interval as a "blend" (krasis) which is perceived
qualitatively.
Presenter Oleson, John P.
University of Victoria
Greek and Roman Studies
Title Well-Pumps for Dummies: Was there a Roman
Tradition of Popular, Sub-Literary Engineering Manuals?
Abstract Upper-class Roman intellectuals were aware
of the need for the transmission of technical information to the
working classes directly engaged in crafts and manufacturing. Pliny the
Elder states that he wrote his Natural History for the "great crowd of
farmers, artisans, and those who have time for these pursuits" (praef.
1). The Natural History is unwieldy, and most craftsmen would have
found the information contained in it of no help in their day-to-day
activities. But Pliny cites numerous sources of information and says he
perused "about 2,000 books" to collect his "20,000 facts" from "100
authors" (praef. 17). Could some of these books have been practical
manuals concerned with every-day technical challenges, such as building
a concrete wall, laying out cog-wheels for a water-mill, or making a
well pump? The relatively high level of basic literacy in the Roman
empire, combined with the expanding economy of the first two centuries
A.C., probably fostered the spread of some craft techniques and
innovations in popular written form - particularly in the European
provinces, manuals with straightforward text accompanied by
illustrations or diagrams. Although these hypothetical sub-literary
technical manuals have been lost, occasional mention of such
commentarii (handbooks) survives, and it is possible that their
influence can be traced in the artifacts created by the artisans who
used them. This paper proposes that striking similarities in design and
dimensions linking many of the wood-block force-pumps used in domestic
wells in the Western Roman provinces can only be explained by the
influence of such a manual, now lost, concerned with the techniques of
domestic water supply. This particular technology is well-suited to
such methods of transmission.
Presenter Nikolic, Milo
University of Victoria
Greek and Roman Studies
Title Bridges, Bends, and Bubbling Bellies: A New
Look at Vitruvius' Vocabulary
Abstract Book 8 of de architectura by Vitruvius
contains the only surviving ancient text that describes in some detail
gravity-flow water pipelines, also known as inverted siphons. The
relevant passage is notoriously difficult to translate. Attempts to
reconcile the text with archaeological evidence seem to have further
exacerbated the problem even to an extent that some modern scholars
claim that Vitruvius did not understand what he was writing about. The
physical behaviour of water and residual air in such systems is
problematic indeed, even by modern scientific standards. Based on an
examination of the fluid mechanical properties of pipelines, this paper
investigates a few key terms from Vitruvius' description that may have
been mistranslated in the past. Perhaps he understood the systems
better than we give him credit for.
Presenter 1 Williams, Burma P
Independent Scholar
Presenter 2 Williams, Richard S.
Washington State University,
Dept of History
Title PEBBLES & CALCULATORS: Thoughts on Roman
Computing
Abstract At Caerleon, Wales, a number of bone disks
were found in the archaeological dig at the Roman camp of Isca.
Although sometimes considered to be gaming pieces, the large number and
uniformity of the pieces leads us to conclude that these are more
likely markers (calculi) for Roman board abaci. Three metal devices
about the size of 4x6 cards are designated as Roman "hand abaci," and
are often noted as the major means by which Romans calculated. From
personal inspection of the size and operation of the Paris abacus, we
conclude that these are novelty items that do not seem very practical.
We suggest that the normal method of Roman computing beyond finger
calculation, thus seems to be boards or tables using the bone markers
rather than metal abaci. This is an example of needing to look at the
"minor" pieces from archaeology as clues to major trends in social and
economic history.
Presenter Keyser, Paul T
IBM Watson Research Center
Title (Un)Natural Accounts in Herodotos and Thucydides
Abstract The Hippokratic corpus and the fragments of
writers categorized as "presocratics" by Diels have been deployed
extensively in debates about rationality, science, and tradition,
scholars studying Herodotos and Thucydides have positioned their
debates differently, as, e.g., an issue of historical accuracy, a
tradition going back at least to Dionysios of Halikarnassos' invective
against his countryman's status as father of history. I will argue for
an independent approach opened up by considering the copious evidence
for how Herodotos and Thucydides treated natural science and numbers.
Thucydides employs a rhetoric of reliability, but his treatment of
numbers and phenomena can be shown to be very traditional, whereas
Herodotos often reports on, partially accepts, or even intellectually
engages with contemporary natural-philosophic debates. The contrast of
their social origins, the one a general from a wealthy family of an
ethnically-exclusivist town, the other a widely-traveled merchant from
a polyglot colony, may not be irrelevant.
Presenter Kukkonen, Taneli
University of Victoria
Dept. of Philosophy
Title The Waking Life of Reason: A Brief History of
Rationality according to Aristotle
Abstract Anaxogaras' claim to fame lies in positing
reason as principle (arkhe) and cause (aitia). According to Aristotle,
this made him appear sane in comparison with the doddering statements
of his predecessors (Met. 1.3). Even so, Aristotle - like Socrates
before him - professes dissatisfaction with Anaxogaras' actual
offerings, while other thinkers - notably those of the school of Elea -
are chastised for not speaking reasonably at all. What is at stake
here? I propose to examine in detail what Aristotle has to say about
the presence and absence of rationality in earlier Greek thought.
Find in program
Presenter Harris, John
University of Alberta
Title Divine Madness and Human Sanity in Plato's
Phaedrus
Abstract Plato's Phaedrus is famed for its
rehabilitation of the power of madness. In particular, Socrates claims
that "the greatest of goods come to us through madness, provided that
it is bestowed by divine gift" (244a6-8; trans. C. Rowe). This
all-important proviso implies an opposite: non-divine madness. The only
explicit opposite, however, is "human sanity" (244d4-5). So when
Socrates argues that mania must be distinguished, and argues for
"divine madness" in contradistinction to "human sanity", a further,
albeit implicit, opposition is suggested: "divine sanity" and "human
madness". In the course of this paper I will argue that, from the
divine perspective, "human sanity" and "human madness" are to be
regarded as virtually one and the same thing. And from the human
perspective so too are "divine madness" and "divine sanity". In short,
"madness" and "sanity", be it from the human or divine perspective, are
simply two sides of the same coin.
Presenter Chew, Kristina
Seton Hall University
Department of English and Honors Program
Title Irrationality in Plato: Stupidity and Madness
Abstract Irrationality in Plato's philosophy is
characterized not only as madness or mania, but also as stupidity
(amathia), as a lack of intelligence. In modern medicine and
psychology, madness as a mental disability (such as schizophrenia) is
distinguished from cognitive disabilities such as mental retardation.
Are being crazy and lacking intelligence conceived of as the same
condition in antiquity? In Plato's Timaeus, the soul that lacks reason
is the lower type of soul that is subject to the appetite. Madness and
stupidity are types of "folly" and are diseases of the soul, which does
not see or hear "correctly" and is unable to use reason (86b-c).
Incorrect seeing and hearing are also a feature of a stupid person who
makes false judgments and speaks mindlessly in the Theaetetus (195a).
Irrationality in Plato is thus conceived of as a disorder and disabling
of the senses of sight and of hearing.
Presenter Adluri, Vishwa
New York University, Philosophy
Title Initiation into the Mysteries: Experience of
the Irrational in Plato
Abstract In my paper, I will contrast two scholarly
interpretations of the language of initiation in Plato's Gorgias. In
the first interpretation, Socrates is the rational "Enlightenment"
critic of the "old religion." He is an iconoclast and a scientific
truth-seeker (e.g. Janko). In the alternate view, Socrates is engaged
in a religious reformation (e.g. Riedwig). Socrates, I argue, operates
within this philosophical-religious framework. His criticism of the
Sophists is more than merely epistemological. The individualistic,
experiential component of Socratic philosophy is manifest in the divine
commandment "know thyself." The Delphic journey of knowledge is not
only rational. The language of initiation is neither a mere metaphor
nor a literal call to religious conversion. It is an inscription
marking the "sacred experience" which philosophy must preserve, a task
at which the Sophists have deplorably failed. The vocabulary of
initiation modulates Socratic teaching on a surprisingly mortal level:
one that preserves the existential, ethical, and eschatological
["irrational"] concerns of the philosopher, amid his rational
scientific, "sophistic", and skeptical philosophical practices.
Presenter Morrissey, Christopher S.
Simon Fraser University
Department of Humanities
Title Aristotle on Conspiracy Theories
Abstract This paper argues that the Aristotelian
conception of politics is the antithesis to conspiratorial thinking.
Aristotle's analysis of regime types in Politics III aims to make a
rational analysis of tyranny by seeing it in its distinct forms. In
contrast, conspiratorial thinking is a mode of theorizing born of
resentment. It is characterized by the irrational search for scapegoats
to bear the burden of resentment. This mode of thinking postulates a
universal regime type ('master' vs. 'slave') in the place of
Aristotle's discernment of multiple regime forms. Aristotle's
discussion of how the best regime naturally comes into being (Politics
IV-VI), however, shows some awareness of the political offices and
powers of office that can be abused by political factions demanding
scapegoats. He therefore advocates the mixed regime as a rational
response to this potential danger posed by irrationality.
Link to paper http://www.sfu.ca/nomoi/
Presenter Mirhady, David
Simon Fraser University
Humanities
Title Anger in the Athenian Courts
Abstract Following up investigations pursued by
Danielle S. Allen (The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing
in Democratic Athens. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000),
this paper will examine tensions between rationality and irrationality
in arguments made by Athenian litigants in order to win the judges'
anger to their side. In several passages in his Phaedrus and Gorgias,
Plato denigrates the manipulations of irrational emotions in Athens'
law courts. And while Aristotle shared some of his misgivings, he
ultimately put emotions in the centre of rhetorical theory. For
Aristotle the anger of the law courts was the paradigmatic instance of
anger, which he understood to have both rational and irrational
elements. While most of Athens' surviving forensic speeches accept
anger, this paper will devote more tie to speeches, such as Antiphon 5,
where the judges are urged to mitigate its effects.
Link to paper http://www.sfu.ca/classics
Presenter Mamoojee, Abdool-hack
Lakehead University, Faculty of Humanities (Emeritus)
Title INEFFABLE AND UNSPEAKABLE NAMES IN CICERO'S
SPEECHES
Abstract Systematic avoidance of certain names is an
aspect of Cicero's rhetorical manipulation of Roman nomenclature in his
public discourse. Reticence on ladylike women, a token of discretion to
the ineffable, turns into sardonic innuendo with scandalous Clodia in
'Pro Caelio' and notorious Fulvia in 'Philippics'. For men on the
orator's hit-list -Clodius, Piso and Gabinius in the 'Post Reditum'
speeches, and the anonymous prosecutor in 'Pro Balbo'- persistent
evasions, an extreme among naming options, bespeak utter disdain of the
unspeakable. Name-refusal is explored here in more depth, marginally
skimmed in an earlier presentation on Cicero's rhetorical nomenclature
as a whole.
Presenter Golden, Mark
University of Winnipeg
Department of Classics
Title Rationality, Reckoning and Parental Mourning in
Antiquity
Abstract Parental mourning in high mortality
populations (such as ancient Greece and Rome) has continued to attract
debate since my contribution ("Did the ANcient Care When Their Children
Died?") in Greece and Rome 35 (1988). How did individual mothers and
fathers bear up under the strain of frequent loss? How did communities
function amidst continuous grieving? Answers to such questions often
invoke rational considerations and the discourse of investment,
reckoning the benefits of having children and the costs of losing them.
In this paper, I review some recent discussions, making two points in
particular. (1) (1) Rationality in this area (as in others) is
determined culturally. (2) The gendered division of labour -- mothers
bore the brunt of mourning children as well as of bearing them --
allowed public life in the ancient city to carry on.
Presenter Shoichet, Jillian G.
University of Victoria
Greek and Roman Studies Department
Title Reading between the Lines: Oral-cultural
responses to writing and literacy
Abstract Rosalind Thomas has suggested that literacy
is not a single, definable skill with specific, limited uses and
foreseeable effects. Rather, the way a culture applies writing and
literacy depends on the society and customs already in existence. If
this is true, we should be able to broaden our understanding of an oral
culture and the relationship between orality and literacy by examining
how the oral culture makes use of writing. A consensus is emerging
among scholars that early writing in Greece exhibits oral-cultural
features that had been in use for centuries as part of oral
performance. An examination of the literature from other primarily oral
cultures may indicate that these cultures, too, applied literacy in
service to their own oral traditions. Using a passage from Herodotus'
Histories and examples from Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, I consider
what this might mean for our understanding of oral cultures and early
literate traditions.
Presenter Burke, Brendan
University of Victoria
Greek and Roman Studies
Title Hittite Throne-Cult and the Phrygian Highlands
Abstract This paper examines the Phrygian sanctuary
of Dumrek to suggest links between Phrygian cult places and the Hittite
divinity Halmasuit, identified as "the deified throne". Hittite culture
may have had a more profound effect on the Iron Age Phrygians than
previously believed. Recent excavations have narrowed the chronological
divide between the Hittites and Phrygians in central Anatolia, and this
paper will focus on cult activity and possible continuity. The site of
Dumrek was intensively surveyed in 1996 and was primarily used as an
open air sanctuary during the Early and Middle Phrygian periods, ca.
900-550 BC. At least eleven stepped thrones have been mapped at Dumrek,
along with rock-cut platforms and niches. Elsewhere in the Phrygian
highlands stepped monuments comparable to Dumrek are found at Midas
City and Tekoren. Rather than interpreting these monuments as "cultic
furniture" upon which an anthropomorphized divinity would sit, this
paper proposes that the thrones were representations of a divinity,
perhaps derived from Halmasuitt, the embodiment of "the deified throne"
from the Hittite pantheon
Presenter Dethloff, Craig R.
Independent Scholar
Title Personification and Metarepresentation.
Abstract Accounting for the ability of the ancient
Greeks to represent natural phenomena or abstract virtues as human
beings has always proved challenging, and nowhere is the problem more
pronounced than in the case of Hestia. How the Greeks were capable of
raising this "common object" to the level of a divinity has puzzled
scholars for centuries. In this paper I treat how Hestia and other
'pale personifications' are products of the same cognitive strategy of
metarepresentation routinely employed by human beings to decode
everyday communications. Grasping that someone or something is trying
to communicate involves first attributing intents, beliefs and desires
to that person or object. Only by this method can then otherwise
incomprehensible statements or utterances be decoded as to what they
really mean. By assuming that the hearth was Hestia, the Greeks were
not then acting irrationally, rather they were just using the most
convenient cognitive tool at hand to explain very real phenomena.
Presenter Cousland, J.R.C.
University of British Columbia,
Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Title "KAI SU?": The mosaic of the Evil Eye from
Antioch
Abstract The Hatay Museum in Antakya, Turkey houses
an intriguing mosaic featuring the Evil Eye. The museum catalogue
describes it as follows: "From Antakya, 2nd cent. A.D. The Evil Eye is
depicted as a huge eye being attacked by several animals. The one man
in the picture, who has turned his back on this scene, is horned and is
carrying forked spits in his hands." While this scene has a number of
analogues in Anatolia, it is particularly interesting for the animals
that it depicts as attacking the eye. At least four of them, the crow,
scorpion, serpent, and dog also feature commonly in Mithraic reliefs.
This paper will examine these correlations in iconography and determine
whether there is any potential connection between this mosaic and
Mithraic and zodiacal imagery.
Presenter Sherwood, Kathleen D
University of British Columbia
Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Title Dedications Ancient and Modern
Abstract An unusual form of votive appears in the
corpus of terracotta dedications from the Sanctuary of Demeter on the
acropolis of Mytilene on Lesbos--a rectangular plaque with eyes within
a naiskos frame. Such dedications are rarely found in their original
context, and are not mentioned in ancient texts. How then might we
create a model in order to explore how these votives may have
functioned in a religious context in antiquity? This paper will use the
theoretical approach of ethnoarchaeology in order to examine the role
such votives might have played in ancient Greek religion. Using modern
ethnographical data and examples, this presentation will explore such
topics as the manufacture and sale of these items, their placement and
use within a sacred context, and the intentions of the dedicators as
they make an offering to their deities. Such a comparison, and the
establishment of a model based on the modern evidence, may allow for an
understanding of the purpose and placement of similar votives in Greek
sanctuaries in antiquity.
Presenter Miles, Anthony M
University of Colorado at Boulder
Department of Classics
Title Egeria and Apotheosis: Function and Fornication
Abstract The abstract functions of individual Roman
gods are expressed in the feminine gender and later become personified
as female companions. This abstract feminine is the origin of Romulus'
wife Hora and Numa's companion Egeria and the cause of their nebulous
biographies. Hora's origin as the abstraction of the power of religious
persuasion is clearer than that Egeria as the abstraction of
establishment of religious rites. An etymological examination of
semantics in Roman religious terminology restores Egeria as a function
of Numa, allowing her to maintain her unspecified marital status
without weakening her efficacy. Furthermore, this abstraction explains
both the marital status of Numa and his exclusion from the celestial
pairs. Numa's function is establishing rites, but his wife is not the
same as his function. Numa does not apotheosize because his role in
establishing rites is a terrestrial activity, but the power to grant
petitioners' supplications requires Romulus' apotheosis.
Presenter Frazer, Brian L. W.
University of California-Berkeley
Classics
Title Roma Recidiva: an agricultural metaphor at Livy
6.1
Abstract Livy employs a striking agricultural
metaphor, in book VI.1 at the juncture between the first pentad and the
remainder of his history. Livy's work and the Roman state begin anew;
the republic is reborn (renatae) in a more luxuriant (laetius) and more
fruitful (feracius) incarnation. Camillus, in addition to being the
conditor alter, is also a vine-prop, adminiculum, of the Roman state.
This paper will explore Livy's agricultural metaphor primarily through
Pliny the Elder's Natural History, attending closely to the many
portents which have to do with trees, vines, and, significantly, regime
change in Rome. This agricultural metaphor informs aspects of the
Gallic sack of Rome.
Presenter Porter, John R.
University of Saskatchewan, Department of History
Title A Tomb with a View: Petronius' Widow of Ephesus
and the Ancient Satiric Tradition
Abstract At first glance, Eumolpos' humorous tale of
the Widow of Ephesus (Sat. 110.6-113.4) would appear to tie rather
seamlessly into the ancient satiric tradition. Although motivated by a
desire to amuse and entertain rather than by Juvenalian indignatio, its
condemnation of women's wantonness displays a number of affinities with
the treatment of women in Juvenal 6, particularly in its emphasis on
the perverse manner in which even the best of that sex will betray
their "natural" roles and expected loyalties. On closer examination,
the tale's true roots are found to lie not in satire but in a
long-standing tradition of comic adultery tales, which inform not only
the particular elements of Eumolpos' account but also its spirit and,
in particular, the presentation of the Widow herself. Petronius'
humorous reworking of this comic tradition adds to the hilarity of
Eumolpos' anecdote, but also highlights the curiously ambiguous picture
of the Widow presented by the tale.
Link to paper
http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/widow/widowframes/
Presenter Littlewood, Cedric A. J.
University of Victoria, Department of Greek and Roman Studies
Title Horace and the Political Rhetoric of Seneca's
Thyestes
Abstract no abstract is available
Presenter Quartarone, Lorina
University of St. Thomas
Modern and Classical Languages
Title Furor and Irony in the Aeneid
Abstract Therefore, if we understand the poem as
metaphorically presenting the civilization which the Romans constructed
and Augustus used to keep furor in its place (as the vision of Furor in
book 1 suggests) as the collective social structure, created through
human reason and industry, which to some degree confines human
instinct, emotion, and irrational behavior, we must understand as well
that Vergil offers the ironic perspective that that structure, in
effect, not only confines furor but actually employs it in its
foundation.
Presenter Lawall, Mark L
University of Manitoba
Classics Department
Title Ignorance is part of the equation: Problems in
making sense of ancient commerce.
Abstract Study of antiquity would be much simplified
if we could be sure that the objects of our study behaved in rational
ways. A review of ancient textual sources related to the question of
economic decision-making reveals ancient difficulties gaining accurate
intelligence. Nevertheless, modern scholars often assume that other
aspects of ancient economic behavior will follow rational expectations.
For example, a certain level of standardization in commercial
containers has been widely advocated for very sound, logical reasons.
Actual measurements do not bear out a consistent interest in such
desirable precision on the part of the Greeks. Likewise, the modern
classification of ancient containers depends on assumptions of an
underlying rationale to serve as a structure for choices of shape and
changes in shape through time. Evidence gained in recent decades
reveals disturbing complexities. Difficulties lie as much with
scholar's dependence on rationality as with irrationality among ancient
Greeks.
Presenter Klapecki, Derek V
University of Victoria
Title Geography and Environment in the Early
Development of Stymphalos
Abstract While Stymphalos is best known as the
location of Herakles' sixth labour, its history stretches from
Mycenaean times to the Roman Empire. Pausanias, in his description of
the Late Classical city, mentions that "It is said that it (Stymphalos)
was originally founded on another site, and not on that of the modern
city" (Paus8.22.1). Drawing on Hector William's investigations at
Stymphalos, this paper will attempt to unravel the relatively unknown
early history of this rural Arkadian city by examining the evidence for
Pre-Classical occupation. The result will show that despite extensive
work at the site, much investigation still needs to be done in order to
reveal the full history of Stymphalos.
Presenter 1 De Angelis, Franco
The University of British Columbia
Dept. of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Presenter 2 Papaioannou, Maria
The University of British Columbia
Dept. of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Title One Size Fits All: 8th-century Houses in Greek
Sicily
Abstract Excavations conducted in the early Greek
settlements of Sicily since the end of the World War II have revealed
an intriguing pattern of domestic architecture that requires
explanation. At Megara Hyblaea, Syracuse, Naxos, and Heloros, the
8th-century houses consist of a single room with sides averaging
between 4 and 4.5 m. Such regional uniformity has never been adequately
addressed. There are grounds for suggesting that both internal and
external forces of a social and economic nature may have played a role
in dictating the size of these structures.
Presenter Williams, Hector
University of British Columbia
Classical Studies
Title Gladiators of Lesbos
Abstract Excavations by UBC at ancient Mytilene
between 1984-1994 revealed a number of representations of gladiators of
the first and second centuries after Christ, particularly a lead
figurine of a retiarius and a number of relief lamps. There are also
little known marble reliefs of gladiators built into the castle walls
and on display in the local museum as well as theatre that was
converted for gladiatorial and wild beast shows. This paper will
summarize the evidence and show how it fits into our growing knowledge
of gladiatorial activity in the eastern Mediterranean.
Presenter Weir, Robert G.A.
University of Windsor
Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Title Fake!?: the Purpose and Use of Counterfeit
Coins in the Greek World
Abstract The Greeks began counterfeiting coins very
shortly after the invention of coinage, usually by plating a base-metal
core with the appropriate precious metal (e.g. Herodotos 3.56). This
intriguing phenomenon was widespread (plated coins of most poleis are
known) but was most frequently encountered in a few particular times
and places (e.g. in 5th-3rd c. BC Magna Graecia). But what is one to
make of this counterfeiting? Whereas the ancient testimonia do not
unequivocally condemn the forgeries themselves as worthless, they do
agree that plated coins are the product of a deviant purpose:
counterfeits are an evil, but a necessary one. The modern scholarship
is similarly inconsistent when it comes to identifying the
counterfeiters and stating their purpose. This paper will both survey
the life-cycle of plated counterfeits from manufacture to circulation
and attempt to bring some order to a very heterogeneous phenomenon by
stressing the common denominators that characterise its occurrence in
various times and places.
Presenter Al-Maini, Doug
University College of the Cariboo, Philosophy
Title Truth in Myth and History
Abstract The rise of rationalism in ancient Greece
places the traditional mythic backdrop to polis-culture under a variety
of pressures, one facet of which is expressed in the relationship
between myth and history. If we maintain that the Greeks did at one
point accept the veracity of mythical explanations of past events, then
the arrival of a self-consciously "historical" narrative betrays some
degree of dissatisfaction with myth. As an example of this, we see
Plato having his character Phaedrus demand of Socrates whether he
believes in the truth of the mythical explanation of the fate of
Orithyia, especially when this is compared to more naturalistic
narratives (Phdr. 229c-d). But if myth becomes unacceptable as an
account of what actually happened, then what role is myth to play in
society? With the hope of gaining some understanding of how the
rationalists among the Greeks answered this question, I shall explore
the use of myth when it appears alongside seemingly more
historically-oriented examinations in the writings of Herodotus,
Thucydides, and Plato.
Presenter Pownall, Frances
University of Alberta
Department of History and Classics
Title Apollo as Culture-Hero: Rationalizations in
Ephorus
Abstract Despite his professed intention to avoid the
mythological period, Ephorus of Cyme includes in his universal history
an account of the foundation of the Delphic oracle. In his narrative of
the myth of Apollo's establishment at Delphi, Ephorus includes a number
of rationalizations, including those of Themis, Tityus, and Python.
These rationalizations all serve the purpose of emphasizing the moral
and civilizing mission of Apollo. In his role as a culture-hero,
Ephorus' Apollo appears to be modelled upon Isocrates' Evagoras,
indicating that there may in fact be some truth behind the tradition in
antiquity that Ephorus was a student at Isocrates' school.
Presenter Nicholson, Nigel
Reed College
Classics
Title Psaumis, Camarina, and the Rhetoric of
Foundation
Abstract Among Pindar's Odes. Olympian 4, for Psaumis
of Camarina, has one of the stranger endings. To demonstrate the
importance of testing, Pindar describes the victory of the youthful,
though gray-haired, Erginus in a running competition held in front of
Hypsipyle, the queen of the Lemnian women. This paper will argue that
this narrative must be understood within the context of the recent
re-foundation of Camarina, and that it serves to legitimate both the
re-foundation of the city and Psaumis' rule over it. The ode itself was
part of a consistent strategy of self-representation on Psaumis' part
that drew especially on the strategies of the earlier Sicilian tyrant
Hieron: like Hieron, Psaumis directed considerable resources to
equestrian competition, celebrated any victories won with victory odes
and perhaps even a coin issue, and represented himself as a
founder-figure, rather than simply a king.
Presenter Chew, Kathryn S
California State University, Long Beach
Department of Comparative World Literature and Classics
Title Dogma, the imperialist answer to rationality
Abstract For the ancient Greeks and Romans
rationality/irrationality were culturally constructed conceptual
categories that denoted power. "Irrational" did not mean "not using
reason" but "not thinking like we do" - it was a way to mark outsiders.
For instance, early Christian martyrs behaved in ways that the Romans
deemed irrational, but which were completely congruous with Christian
ideology. Early Christianity intuitively recognized the relativity of
"correct thought", and its term dogma reflects this. Dogma refers to
what seems good to the designated group. Dogma in no way appeals to
reason, and thus is pragmatically more problematic: independent thought
equals heresy. Why dogma? Early Christianity perceived society as more
diversified than the binary "us" (rational) vs "them" (irrational) of
the Greeks and Romans - there were non-Christians as well as every type
of heretic. The means to imperialism in this more complex arena was to
make a division between "who knows" and "who doesn't know".
Presenter Cooper, Craig R
University of Winnipeg
Classics
Title Myth and History and their place in biography
Abstract At the beginning of Theseus (1.1-2),
Plutarch compares himself to geographers who have reached the outer
limits of the known world and what lies beyond is fabulous and tragic,
with nothing credible or clear. He hopes, with Lives of Theseus and
Romulus, "to cleanse out the mythic and make it submit to reason and
take on the appearance of historia" (Thes. 1.4-5). But because the
"mythic" stubbornly refuses to "mingle with the probable" Plutarch begs
"for kind readers who will graciously accept archaiolgia" (Thes. 1.3).
In this paper I would like to explore Plutarch's approach to myth. In
these lives he both follows and departs from the historian's method of
treating myth. This ambivalence can been explained by his approach to
biography, which is rooted in history but aims at revealing character.
Presenter Germany, Robert
University of Chicago
Classics Dept.
Title Mimetic Contagion in Terence's Eunuch
Abstract In antiquity, as today, one of the most
pressing concerns surrounding art's reception is that viewing subjects
will be pulled into mimesis of what they see. In this discourse of
imitative modes of response, the rationality/irrationality dualism is
parallel to the distinction between, on the one hand, persuasive,
exemplary effect and, on the other, compulsory, quasi-magical affect.
In this paper, I focus on Terence's Eunuch and an erotic painting that
reaches outside its frame to instigate a rape. A reading of the
rapist's respose as rational emulation is complicated by a fuller
awareness of the play's sophisticated metatheatrical treatment of the
painting's role as a new "script" for both rapist and victim. The
painting also serves as a figure for the dangerously adhesive nature of
role-playing in the Eunuch, as in several cases the dramatic art of the
characters' deceptions steps outside its own boundaries and becomes
indistinguishable from reality.
Presenter Purchase, Philip
University of Southern California
Classics Department
Title Theocritus and the Landscape of Persuasion
Abstract In the pastoral theater of Theocritus' first
Idyll we witness a set of variations on performance and persuasion.
This paper asks two related questions. How might the terms of dramatic
criticism draw out the ethics of relationship in this poem, and what
are the ethical parameters of a poem notably concerned with the
transformative impact of communicative acts? If Epicureanism offers a
philosophical landscape for Theocritus' tracking of the bounds of
propriety, the conceptual centrality of death shared with
psychoanalytic ethics builds a bridge to contiguous territory. Daphnis'
striving for transcendence suggests a taste for the tragic discourse of
catharsis and sublimation--while the tragic hero/heroine of
psychoanalysis stands as an unfolding of desire beyond the rational,
Daphnis as embryonic tragedian is defined by his attempt to delimit the
self. Comic material in the frame, meanwhile, draws the audience into
the oscillating process of self-assertion and self-abnegation. It is
the goatherd who mediates these positions and points to the active duty
of the pastoral audience.
Presenter Horky, P. Sidney
University of Southern California
Department of Classics
Title The Tragic Imprint: Psychosomatic Affect in the
Works of Gorgias, Plato, and Aristotle
Abstract Owing to Platonic philosophy, the definition
of rhetoric has been an activity fraught with obscurity and laden with
negative valuation; it eludes formal definition despite attempts at
indirect or amplified substantiation in the works of Plato. Perhaps
this is no surprise given the position rhetoric is assigned in Plato's
works: it is antithetical to philosophical inquiry, sickness (pathe or
nosos) to the soul. Nevertheless, several Plutarchean fragments aid in
reconstructing possible sophistic definitions of rhetoric (attributed
to Gorgias) with reference to two phenomena not commonly associated in
scholarship on rhetoric: affection (to paschein) and the "tragic style"
(tov tragikov). Surprisingly, there is some ground of agreement between
Gorgias, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch on this element of rhetoric: it
psychosomatically affects its audience. The aim of this presentation is
to explain the physiological affect of the "tragic style" in three
authors: Gorgias (Encomium of Helen), Plato (Phaedrus/Gorgias) and
Aristotle (De Anima/Rhetoric).
Presenter Fox, Matthew W
St. Peter's College, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and
Literatures
Title Tortoises, lyres, thelxis: the transformative
magic of musical instruments
Abstract In the archaic/early classical periods the
tortoiseshell lyre was a potent symbolic ritual object (symbol in
Victor Turner's sense, a multivocal object condensing many references,
from physical, to cosmic, to normative, into a single "cognitive and
affective field"). The Homeric hymn to Hermes articulates in narrative
form the many poles of reference that were invested in the ritually
transformed tortoise-become-lyre. The hymn's myth roots the lyre's
making into basic divine creative forces (especially eros and
metis/dolos); it recapitulates cosmogony. As the "feast's companion"
the lyre produces the chief socially valued affects, desire, sleep, and
conviviality (eros, hupnos, euphrosune). Thus it acquires exchange
value for Apollo's cattle, creating a world where material and
immaterial wealth circulate. The hymn is thus a potent origin myth for
the aoidos, whose occupation was to summon up the "magic" (thelxis) of
song and music to enchant the senses of feasters and ward off
disruptive forces.
Presenter Chrol, E. Del
University of Southern California
Classics Department
Title Ethical Aesthetics: Ovid and the Political
Impact of Affect
Abstract Do lovers make poetry, or poetry lovers?
Positioning his work within a didactic, anti-neoteric tradition, Ovid
claims a subservient role to his muse in Ars Amatoria. The Ars espouses
a natural pararational knowledge, its generic elegiac conventions
mirroring innate structures in its readers, thereby effecting three
orders of amatory subjects: intentional readers seeking instruction,
their unwitting enamorata, and new erotic poets. When confronted with
the implications of his iuvenalia, namely fame, status, and exile,
Ovid's Tristic persona retrojects a masterly rationality throughout his
corpus; recuses muse, affect, and impressionable audience; and realigns
himself with traditional theories of poetic production. This paper
treats the character of Phaedra in Heroides as exemplary of the opposed
anxieties expressed by the narrators of Ars Amatoria and Tristia over
the mystification of style and the affective power of poetry on writers
and readers.
Presenter Moss, Brian W
University of Victoria, Greek and Roman Studies
Title Εἶπε τις, Ἡράκλειτε: Three Homeric Hapaxes in
Callimachus 34 (A.P. 7.80)
Abstract Although Callimachus 34 has been subject to
academic interest, there has been little scholarshp on the Homeric
allusions in this funerary epigram. Of particular importance to our
understanding of the poem is Callimachus' use of Homeric hapaxes.
Callimachus employs these specific Homeric references to effectively
link the memorialized subject, Heraclitus, with two Homeric heroes,
Odysseus and Hector. By doing so, the poet introduces another layer of
meaning into his short memorial for a dead friend. This discussion will
identify those hapaxes and will examine how these allusions influence
our reading of Callimachus 34.
Presenter Capra, Raymond L.
Fordham University, Classics Dept.
Title Herakles and the far ends of the earth
Abstract This paper will investigate the transmission
of myth and the creation of history in the classical tradition, with a
focus on Greek literature's treatment of Herakles as pater generum
barbarorum, father of barbarian peoples. Herodotus (Histories 4.8-10)
tells a story of the Herculean origin of the Scythians that is
attributed to the Greeks of Pontus and is preferred to the rational
explanation of the poet Aristeas in the epic Arimaspea. The recurrence
of this topos was a symbol for the expansion of Greek culture and its
awareness of other cultures. The predominance and development of this
theme in literature reflects the manner in which the Greeks
incorporated foreign peoples into their perception of the world by
subordinating the origins of other, seemingly younger nations to their
own mythology and so asserting their own cultural superiority.
Presenter Reid, Heather A.
University of Victoria
Interdisciplinary Studies
Title Sacred Marriage and Female Initiation in
Antiquity
Abstract The mystical consummation of a God with a
woman is a well-understood and essential ingredient in the theological
recipe of Christian religion. Antiquity, however, may offer its own
versions of "Sacred Marriage" in the context of myth and cult
practices. A little- known Jewish Hellenistic romance known as "Asneth"
may give us an archetypal example of the Sacred Marriage in antiquity
as well as female initiation in preparation for the Sacred Marriage.
The story is based on the Old Testament characters of Joseph the
Patriarch and Potiphar's daughter, Asneth, mentioned in Genesis.
Ancient but specific iconography in this story may offer scholars a
close glimpse of cult practice in Classical Antiquity, including a
mystical dream sequence chiasmically placed in the centre of the tale.
The Story of Asneth may offer a glimpse of the irrational in antiquity.
Presenter 1 Westra, Haijo J
University of Calgary
Greek and Roman Studies
Presenter 2 Nikolic, Milo
University of Victoria
Greek and Roman Studies
Title The Logic of Myth: Hesiod's Myth of the Races
Abstract As Vernant argued, there is no simple
process of "gradual deterioration" in the Hesiodic version of the myth
of the races (cf. Querbach [l985] 7): the insertion of the heroic age
and the division of the iron age into two phases are not gratuitous,
but lead to a scheme of comparison which extends beyond the comparison
between the two members of each pair to a much wider scheme of analysis
in terms of analogy and antithesis. The structure forms the basis of a
ring composition with its characteristic central pivot ( here located
at the interstices of bronze and heroic), pointing to the functions of
symmetry in archaic thought as a logical ordering structure in addition
to being an aesthetic and mnemonic device. This structure shows the
operation of two modes of thought, analogy and antithesis, in answering
the basic question: How was human life once different or the same?
Presenter Stocking, Charles H
UCLA Classics
Title Aesthetic Conflict and Dramatic Resolution:
Discursive and Presentational Symbolism within Aristophanes' Frogs
Abstract This paper sets out to explore the
distinction between Aeschylus and Euripides, as they are characterized
by Aristophanes within the Frogs, through the modern aesthetic
categories of presentational and discursive symbolism. Such categories
may contribute to an ancient understanding of the dichotomy between
rationality and irrationality and are essential for interpretation of
the Frogs. Dionysos' initial desire within the play can be
characterized as irrational and therefore corresponds to a desire for a
presentational poet, Aeschylus. The very nature of this desire,
therefore, is in opposition to the discursive art of Euripides even in
its nascent stages. Thus the conflict between poets is also a
psychological conflict for the figure of Dionysos. This aesthetic
conflict and its resolution within the Frogs have great social and
philosophical significance in so far as Aristophanes associates the
rational discursive symbolism of Euripides with the figure of Socrates
at the conclusion of the play.
Presenter Sou, Derek
University of Victoria
Title The Interpretation of δεισιδαιμονια in
Theophrastus' Characters 16
Abstract Although Theophrastus wrote Characters over
2,300 years ago, much of that work still aptly describes people today.
However, the character entitled Δεισιδαιμονιας or Superstition can be
set apart from this generalization, as this character cannot be
interpreted outside of Greek religious practice. I will substantiate
this claim by considering the examples of δεισιδαιμονια that
Theophrastus provides in relation to other Greek literary works and the
modern interpretation of Greek thought. Despite the elusive nature of
superstition in general, I maintain that Greek superstition in the late
fourth century B.C. can be defined and that it bears little resemblance
to modern examples of superstition.
Presenter Anagnostou-Laoutides, Evangelia
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Title The Madness of the δυσεροι
Abstract My paper will examine the nature of those
characterised in Hellenistic lovers that suffer a passion of an
unnatural ,epigrams and poetry as δυσεροι, or excessive nature
partaking to madness. The association of extreme passion with mythical
figures such as those of Heracles, Achilles, Orpheus and even the
Theocritean Daphnis will be explored and the view that their legends
bear initiatory elements with madness being one of these will be
supported. In addition, the aura of these totally irrational and
prominent lovers seems to have found its way in Latin poetry (elegy and
pastoral) where the enamoured often appear as the victims of magic.
Spellbound lovers that assume the characteristics of the δυσεροι often
suffer death or symbolic death like the initiates of numerous religious
ceremonies. Their irrationality has many parallels with the extreme
character of Near Eastern heroic figures who in their adventures also
deal with witchcraft frequently. Heroes of the calibre of Gilgamesh and
Dumuzi typically pose as maddened by passion for an object of desire or
for discovering the secret of life. I shall argue that derived from
Near Eastern ideas falling in love madly or falling in love to death
actually means falling in love with death. And that this is why
maddened lovers often experience a katabasis and assume a religious
role. A number of Roman elegiac motifs could be fully explained with
this view in mind; finally, the mythical figures mentioned above will
be associated with aspects of the Near Eastern shepherd kings whose
traits they exhibited down the centuries.
Presenter Wells, James B.
University of Idaho
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Title Pierre Bourdieu's "objective limits of
objectivism" and the Theme of Return in Pindar's Epinikia
Abstract The stream of linguistic anthropology that
has informed Homeric scholarship informs our understanding of epinician
poetics. The dominant response of Pindarists to the theme of return in
Pindar's epinikia is to identify it with the athlete's literal return
to his polis. Another prevailing view is that the return theme is a
surface realization in poetic performance of underlyingly ritual
practices. Both perspectives cohere on the basis of logics originating
in contexts external to epinician performance: the former, the logic of
modern narrative historiography; the latter, of structural
anthropology. A practice-centered method of philology establishes a
more authentic understanding of Pindar's use of the return-theme: the
Return Song story pattern of
Absence-Devastation-Return-Retribution-Marriage, which constitutes The
Odyssey, informs epinician performance, understood neither as a
strictly chronological continuum nor as the etic realization of an emic
geometry of cultural syntax, but as an event of artful communication
between Pindar and his audience.
Presenter Marshall, Toph
University of British Columbia
Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Title Mamet, Madness, and Masks: insights into
Athenian acting.
Abstract Scenes from Sophocles' Ajax and Euripides'
Heracles can serve as test cases for an examination of acting style:
how did fifth-century actors act 'mad'? To answer this, the most common
approach has been to consider scholia and other later secondary
sources. This fails to recognize the significant changes the acting
process underwent in the fourth century. My proposed solution is to
begin with David Mamet's accounts of characterization in modern
theatre. Mamet, an accomplished playwright and theoretician, provides
an insight that can be transposed onto the Athenian setting and which
proves especially applicable to masked acting. How, after all, can a
masked actor represent notions of psychological interiority such as are
demanded by scenes of madness? The result distills key elements of two
significant debates in tragic scholarship: the nature of
characterization (see Goldhill, Wiles, Gould, Easterling, and
Taplin)and the process of masked acting (see Wiles, Taplin, Halliwell,
Marshall, and Sifakis). Once rational explanations are abandoned for
the creation of character, even the most irrational excesses of Greek
tragedy make sense in performance.