2014-2015 ACADEMIC YEAR
The Edinburgh Postgraduate Classics Seminar Series will begin in September 2016 and continue until April 2016.
If you are interested in speaking, or have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] with a topic, provisional title, and preferred dates.
THURSDAYS, 5.10 PM, ROOM G.200
7th May
Alison John (University of Edinburgh)
‘Teachers and Schools in Late Antique Gaul’ (Alison John)
30th April
Theresa Chresand (University of Cambridge)
‘Structural Manipulation in Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen: Foregrounding the Interpretive Process’
23rd April
Alana Newman (University of Edinburgh)
‘The Ptolemaic Queen as Star-Image’
2nd April
Jessica Lightfoot (University of Oxford)
‘Paradoxography, Pleasure and Profit in Gellius' Noctes Atticae’
26th March
Richard Evans (University of Edinburgh)
‘Shock and Awe: The Achaean koinon and Their Uses of Political Violence Against Poleis Communities c. 251-180 B.C'
In 223 B.C. joint Achaean and Macedonian forces captured the polis of Mantinea. There, while soldiers looted the cities wealth, the Achaeans slaughtered many prominent male citizens as the rest, including women and children, were led away in chains. Even the cities name did not escape destruction; Aratus, the Achaeans long-term strategos, promptly renamed the city in honour of the Macedonian king, Antigonea. Consequently, lovely ‘Mantinea’ and the Mantineans were no more.
Mantinea represents one, and perhaps the most extreme, of several examples of socio-political violence the Achaean koinon enacted against poleis citizenry who dared rebel, or resist, against the Achaean’s wider political goals. This presentation will explore how, under the banner of freedom, the Achaeans imposed their dominance upon other poleis within the Peloponnese; how some poleis resisted and, ultimately, how terror tactics, of extreme brutality, were employed to destroy what remained of any poleis’ ability to revolt.
19th March
Jennifer Hilder & Christopher Burden-Strevens (University of Glasgow)
‘Delivery in the Oratory of the Early First Century BCE’
Jennifer Hilder
The Rhetorica ad Herennium, an anonymous rhetorical handbook dating to the 80s BCE, claims that no one has written carefully about the delivery (pronuntatio) of an orator before (3.11.19). While stopping short of making delivery the most important of the five qualities an orator should have, the author describes it as having an ‘especially great usefulness’ (egregie magna utilitas) and being the part that should ‘in particular’ (magnopere) be prepared. But if no one had written such an account before, and the author admits he was not confident he would be able to take on such a task (3.15.27), why does he do it? In this paper, I will suggest that the author’s desire to provide a theoretical guide to delivery is a response to the oratory of recent decades. As a survey of orators in the FRRO (Fragments of Roman Republican Oratory) database shows, delivery was a marked feature of many performances and hence became a requirement for aspiring orators. From Marcus Antonius’ dramatic ripping open of Manlius Aquillius’ tunic (De orat. 2.194-9) to the ‘theatrical’ style of Sulpicius (Brut 203-4) and ‘artistic’ movements of Hortensius (Brut. 301-3), delivery was noted and notable. Examples of bad delivery are also found and connected with defeats, such as the lack of ‘power and abundance’ (vis atque copia) in Quintus Mucius Scaevola the Pontifex’s defence of Publius Rutilius Rufus (Brut. 113-5). By looking at how and where the ad Herennium’s account intersects with recent examples of delivery, I will argue that the rhetorical handbook reflects and engages with contemporary oratorical trends and in doing so implies the ways in which oratory was changing at the beginning of the first century BCE.
‘The Transmission of Rhetorical Persona and Rhetorical and Argumentative Strategy in the Late Republican Speeches of Cassius Dio’
Christopher Burden-Strevens
The third-century historian Cassius Dio wrote his 80-book History of the Roman state in a society in which the political imperative for public debate had been substantially replaced by more aesthetic motives. In the period known as the Second Sophistic, epideictic oratory served as a replacement for the kind of political discourse that Rome had known two centuries before Dio was born; the educated elites of the Early Empire had little opportunity to deliberate within the curia or before the people. They could, however, replicate that discourse in fictitious speeches upon historical themes set in democratic Athens or republican Rome, which they went to see performed or composed themselves. Cassius Dio’s work contains many such replicas. The four-decade period from the grant of extraordinary powers to Pompeius under the lex Gabinia in 67 BCE and the establishment of the Augustan Principate in 27 BCE represents only a small fragment of the millennium-long spatium historicum of the historian’s work; yet this short period contains all of his surviving political speeches. Throughout his narrative of the decline of the res publica, Dio paused on numerous occasions to transmit the rhetorical persona of orators of the Roman Republic other than Cicero – be that Pompeius declining the powers offered to him in a recusatio imperii, Caesar mollifying a Senate anxious at his increasing power in a speech in the curia, or Octavianus declaring his dubious restoration of the Republic following his victory at Actium. This paper will attempt to unpick these Late Republican speeches from the displayoriented fixation of the Second Sophistic, which has often caused modern scholars to underestimate their value in the historical reconstruction. This paper will instead treat the speeches that Dio includes in his narrative as historical artefacts that contribute to the nonCiceronian record of rhetorical strategy in the Late Republic. By focussing on the interplay between characterisation in speech and characterisation in the narrative, the similarity or dissimilarity of the rhetorical persona of Dio’s speakers with the record preserved in other writings, and the relationship in Dio between orator and audience, I will argue that the orations contained in the Roman History are an attempt by the historian to articulate not only what he believed Late Republican political actors to have said, but how they said it and why this succeeded. In a comparative discussion of the speeches given by these actors, I will demonstrate that different actors in the Roman History pursue different rhetorical and argumentative strategies that are presented by the historian as directly influencing the course of historical events, and which enable us to re-evaluate Dio’s work as a record of nonCiceronian oratory in the Late Republic.
12th March
Alberto Esu (University of Edinburgh)
‘Inter-institutional Relations in Greek City-States: the Assembly, the Council and the Delegation of Authority in the Decision-making Process’
This paper will focus on the delegation of power and the institutional relationship between the Council (Boulē) and the Assembly (Ekklēsia) in fifth-century Athens. The presence of councils and probouleutic magistrates is attested in many poleis across the Greek world. Their task was mostly that of preparing preliminary proposals to be voted by assemblies. The Athenian Boulē is the most well-documented Greek council, which played a fundamental role in the decision-making process through the task of probouleusis. The Athenian Council, however, could also have proper decisional power. By analysing the relevant legal clauses within two fifth-century decrees (SEG 10 64; IG I3 136), I will argue that the Assembly could transfer its final deliberative authority to the Council in order to exploit Council’s institutional expertise in particular matters. Moreover, it is argued that sovereignty was not exclusive of one single institution, rather, it was transferable, since the sovereign demos behave differently depending on the distinctive institutional context.
5th March
Leonardo Costantini (University of Leeds)
‘Understanding the Function of Magic in Apuleius’ Apologia’
In A.D. 158 the Platonic philosopher Apuleius of Madauros stood trial in Sabratha’s courtroom before Claudius Maximus, the proconsul of Africa. He was accused by the relatives of his wife’s deceased first husband of being an evil magus, and of having seduced the widow by means of his magical arts to lay his hands on her patrimony. In order to defend himself from these allegations – punishable by death under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis – Apuleius delivers a speech in which he counters these dangerous charges; at the core of his forensic strategy lies, as I hope to demonstrate, the twofold definition of the term magia: Apuleius distinguishes, in fact, between a pious-philosophical kind of magic, with which he sides, and a wicked-vulgar one (25.9-26.6). Before explaining the importance of Apuleius’ dichotomous interpretation of magia, it is essential to comprehend the different shades of meaning inherent in this term; these can be glimpsed in Pliny the Elder’s history of magic (NH 30.1-6), a source largely employed by Apuleius himself. The sophist exploits, therefore, a pre-existing semantic ambiguity of magia, modelling it on a Platonic pattern, which contrasts higher with lower concepts. When rebutting the prosecution’s case, this pattern is constantly operative and serves to ennoble Apuleius while disparaging his prosecutors. Furthermore, it frequently recurs in Apuleius’ prose and plays a particularly important role in the structure of the Metamorphoses, in which Isis’ celestial benevolence (11.13) allows the protagonist Lucius to re-acquire his human form after his transformation into donkey, provoked by his inauspicious dabbling in Thessalian magic (3.24). This study aims, therefore, to show the central function of the Platonising distinction between the two kinds of magic in the economy of theApologia, allowing Apuleius to free himself from the taint of wickedness without ever actually denying being a magus.
26th February
Claudia Baldassi (University of Edinburgh)
‘Archilochus, Telephus and the Brothers of Immortals’
This paper will deal with a fragmentary papyrus, published in 2004 by Obbink (P. Oxy. LXIX 4708); it tells the story of a secondary episode of the Trojan saga, the first disastrous expedition of the Achaeans against Troy. They believed they had come to Troy, but attacked the wrong city, ignoring that Telephus, son of Herakles, protected it. He easily repelled the invaders and they were forced to retreat to Greece. The author is likely Archilochus.I will focus on an interpretative problem concerning lines 13-15, where the author mentions, among the Achaeans, “sons and brothers” of immortals. Who could be called brother of an immortal? I will consider the – few – existing interpretations, from West and Nicolosi, and propose a tentative one of my own. Could this expression have something to do with the Dioscuri? Castor is the only one who could be legitimately called brother of an immortal – his twin Polydeuces. Their partecipation to the Trojan War is excluded by the Iliad (3, 234-244), but as long as they never arrive to Troy, nothing prevents them from at least trying to reach it. We only have some really faint traces in late sources of the Dioscuri chasing after their abducted sister; nonetheless, a connection is not as out of place as it could seem at first sight. Probably, nothing can be proved for certain yet, but this interpretation offers also a suggestive trail of questions and reflections on the topic of myth, its use in literature and the existence of lost versions of it.
12th February
William Mundy & Leo Mitchell (University of Manchester)
‘Professional Associations and their Impact on the Individual in Roman Egypt’
Aphrodisios and his many jobs: A new archive in the John Rylands Library.
William Mundy
As part of my thesis work, I am re-examining the first century papyri from Egypt in the collection of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. One of the largest and best-studied archives in this collection is the so-called ‘Petitions from Euhemeria’ archive (P.Ryl. II 124—152). New evidence, which I will elucidate in this paper, suggests that this archive is in fact larger than previously thought, and includes documents other than petitions, meaning that both the name and significance of the ‘Petitions…’ archive need to be rethought. The new papyri which I will discuss revolve around a previously unknown individual called Aphrodisios son of Asklepiades. This paper will attempt a prosopographical examination of this figure, shedding light on his life, his business activities, and his relationships to other people in the village of Euhemeria, a small rural settlement in the Arsinoite nome (modern Fayum). I will explore Aphrodisios’ links to several different areas of village life: his connection to the grapheion or ‘writing shop’; his involvement with a professional association of weavers; his work with his brother supplying hay to a local grain transporter; and his role managing the estate of Ammonios, a landowner residing in a different part of the nome. I will question in particular the assumption that Aphrodisios was employed by the association of weavers (P.Ryl. II 94 n. 1—3). Although there is evidence that there was a formal, organised association of this type in the village at the time, I will argue that Aphrodisios had a different working relationship with the group. Overall, my paper aims at a microhistorical focus on a single village, but one extending outwards to make wider points about land, work and the province of Egypt at an interesting moment in its history, the first decades after the Roman conquest.
Finding a use for papyri! A discussion of the applicability of papyri to studies of collegia in the wider Roman Empire
Leo Mitchell
My overall thesis aims to explore the function of collegia (that is, ‘associations’) within the Roman Empire and particularly to examine their social and economic ‘impact’. I am interested in how far individual members were able to benefit (both socially and economically) by being part of the collective organisation but even more so in how far (if at all) the collegia had an impact on the wider economy. In the past, research in this area has tended to dismiss the economic importance of collegia, as it has focused on the fact that they are emphatically not the same as other pre-industrial associations, such as formal mediaeval guilds and that, without this formal status, they would not be able to ‘act’ in markets. However, recent research has begun to examine the collegia within the confines of more heterodox economic theory, including New Institutional Economics. The fundamental tenet of this approach is that all institutions and organisations (both formal and informal) are important and examining the collegia through this lens demonstrates several ways in which they could have had an impact, despite not being formally recognised as guilds. Unfortunately, the detail available in inscriptions is often limited, thus narrowing the scope of such an approach. There is more hope, however, in Egyptian papyri, which provide a wealth of supplementary data relevant to associations – Of course, using Egyptian papyri to ‘speak’ for the rest of the empire is well established to be a flawed method, due to the diversity of the empire and of Egypt especially. Accordingly, this paper will compare the data that we can glean from papyri with that from the epigraphic evidence and will argue that the similarities are more than sufficient to warrant using this evidence in support of an NIE approach.
5th February
Paul Jarvis (University of Edinburgh)
‘M. Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus – Adoption, Problems, and Imperial Prospects’
One of the sons-in-law of Marcus Aurelius was M. Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus, who was married to Fadilla. This paper re-examines his supposed adoption by Peducaeus Stloga. There are two other possible reasons that he carries the unusual nomen Peducaeus: i) he inherited the nomen from his father, who acquired it through adoption; or ii) he inherited the nomen through his grandfather’s maternal ancestry. The question of Peducaeus’ adoption and connections is significant in the context of the time: the rebellion of Avidius Cassius forced Marcus to advance quickly his succession plans for Commodus. Peducaeus was also the nephew of Lucius Verus (and may at one time have been his closest male heir), and perhaps connected to the ill-starred Pedanii. I hope to show that, adopted or not, he was an important factor in Marcus’ dynastic calculations. Peducaeus’ status and marriage provide a glimpse of the astute, long-term scheming of Marcus to ensure the succession of his chosen heir.
29th January
Emma Nichsolson (Newcastle University)
‘The Decisiveness of the Last Two Macedonian Kings’
It has recently been argued by Boris Dreyer that the ancient Macedonian kings, Philip V (221-179 BC) and his son Perseus (179-168 BC) were ‘unable to act when decisive action was demanded’. For Philip, it is a claim based on two episodes within Polybius’ Histories – his failure to make use of a chance to capture Alexandria in Egypt (Polyb.16.10), and his hesitation when having to face executing one of his sons (Polyb. 23.10.12-13). For Perseus, who is accused of being even more indecisive than his father, his refusal to keep to obligations towards hired barbarian tribes, his spendthrift nature, his loss of nerve in battle, and the fact that he did not burn his documents after his defeat by the Romans at Pydna are all cited as proof of this characteristic.
This paper, however, will attempt to refute this claim. Only two passages within Polybius’ Histories are used by Dreyer to substantiate the assertion that Philip was indecisive at crucial moments, and shortcomings can be found in both of these examples. The evidence for this characteristic in Perseus is also problematic as it does not necessarily reveal moments of indecision, but also ruthlessness, stinginess, cowardice and despair. Moreover many of the examples are based off judgements made by Polybius in pursuit of producing a didactic and cohesive work, and will be tainted by his own interpretation of events.
22nd January
Fraser Reed (University of Edinburgh)
‘Diocletianopolis: An Archaeological Assessment of the Urbes Thraciae in Late Antiquity’
Although the study of Late Antiquity has experienced a great deal of growth in recent years, there is still relatively little attention given to the economically and strategically important provinces of central and southern Thrace. In recent years, most studies of urbanism in this region have focused on the Danubian frontier area. These studies, however, are inherently shaped by the heavily-militarized nature of the limes and its direct opposition to external threats to the empire. These factors cannot be assumed for cities located in the more distant provinces of Thrace, south of the Balkan mountain range. This paper presents Diocletianopolis, one of the cities of central Thrace, in an attempt to understand the character and development of urban centres in the region. To this end, I analyze the archaeological remains of the major public and military structures at Diocletianopolis, such as basilicas, baths, barracks, fortifications, and the city’s amphitheatre. Used in conjunction with literary evidence, these archaeological results make it clear that Diocletianopolis was integrated into the military organization of Thrace, despite its distance from the actual frontier. Moreover, the city itself seems to have continued to function into the sixth century – much longer than its counterparts to the north.
27th November
Mariamne Briggs (University of Edinburgh)
The Metamorphoses of Statius’ Thebaid in Medieval Ireland
ABSTRACT: There are a great number of changes to Statius' Thebaid in the medieval Irish prose translation Togail na Tebe, ('The Destruction of Thebes') (c.12th century). The foremost of these is the inclusion of the Cadmus legend from Ovid's Metamorphoses at the beginning of the narrative (lines 12-75), replacing the first 46 lines of Statius' epic poem. This paper will explore the implications of losing Statius' limes carminis and recusatio to the Thebaid's epic themes, how Ovid's Cadmus legend can be seen to develop Togail na Tebe as a unique medieval historical narrative, and whether the themes of the Irish tale reflect those set out by the original poet(s).
20th November
Ulriika Vihervalli (Cardiff University)
Heard it through the Grapevine: The Vandals and Sexual (Sur)realism in Salvian of Marseilles
ABSTRACT: When the Vandals crossed over from Hispania to North Africa in 429 AD, a new era began in African history that would last until the fall of the Vandal kingdom in 534. As a multi-ethnic, polyglotic group, the Vandals made various impressions on their contemporaries while their takeover of Africa received many a shocked response. This paper focuses on one writer who offers a peculiar approach to the Vandals, depicting them as heroes instead of enemies. Salvian of Marseilles, writing in 440s Southern Gaul, included an account of Vandal sexual customs and habits in his De gubernatione Dei (On the Government of God), a work that sought to prove that God was actively punishing Christians for their wicked ways. In this work Salvian paints the Vandals as chaste heretics who make no use of prostitutes, are not tempted by homosexual acts, and are content in monogamous marriages. This paper studies the fallacy of this construction, placing Salvian’s work alongside other fifth century writers in a study of alterity and Christian moralistic discourse. While some historians have used Salvian’s work to hypothesise on the existence of strict sexual customs amongst the Vandals, the paper seeks to rebuke this claim with an examination of Salvian’s sources as well as with a recontextualisation of Salvian’s surroundings.
13th November
Douglas Underwood (University of St Andrews)
Public Monuments and Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity: A View from the West
ABSTRACT: The disappearance of public monuments in late antiquity has long been seen as an indicator of the decline and fall of the Roman city. While recent conceptions of late antiquity have stressed the transformation of such forms of urban expression, it remains true that many classical building types disappeared over this period. Yet, as the archaeological evidence for late antique urban development has improved over the last 30 years, a new view is emerging, which acknowledges the rather complex histories of use, maintenance and reuse in public buildings in this period. Accordingly, this paper will survey the history of a representative selection of non-religious public buildings in the cities of the late antique western Mediterranean: Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa. Specifically, it will examine the evidence for the use, repair and disuse of bath complexes and spectacle buildings from c. 300 to 600 CE. This survey, incorporating the most recent excavations and studies on these buildings, will first show that the history of these buildings does not reflect a linear process of decline and disappearance. Rather, there was considerable variation of the patterns of use and disuse of public monuments between each building type and even between neighboring cities. This examination will also show that there was very little difference between the individual western provinces and that history of these monuments must be put into a boarder framework cultural and economic trends. It will conclude that ties to imperial power and patronage became one of the most important elements in the survival or disappearance of the ‘classical’ city in this period of shifting political and social structures.
6th November
Elizabeth Allman (University of Bristol)
Ovid's Pygmalion: Reading Fragments of Narrative
ABSTRACT: In this paper I will examine one of Ovid's most celebrated stories, that of Pygmalion and his statue (Metamorphoses 10.243-97), with specific focus on the role of the reading process within the episode, exploring how readers construct meaning from a fragmented narrative. The predominant view of Pygmalion in contemporary scholarship is that he acts as a figure for Ovid as artist and author of the Metamorphoses, and that the creation of Pygmalion's ivory statue subsequently serves as a metaphor for Ovid's own creative process. However, in this paper I argue that Pygmalion is more importantly a reader who reads (and misreads) his own work of art.I will argue that Pygmalion's statue is fragmented both physically (in pieces of ivory) and poetically. Given that the greater part of the narrative on the act of viewing – or as I argue, reading – rather than on the act of creation, I aim to show how Pygmalion 'pieces together' the fragments of his statue, as a metaphor for reading the text, a figure for the construction of its meaning. The story of the statue's vivification is thus revealed to be the story of Pygmalion's ‘reading’ (or misreading) of his statue. I hope to demonstrate through my own close reading of this episode the importance of the role of fragmentation within the reading process, and how within Ovid's Metamorphoses readers are directed to construct meaning from fragments.
30th October
Sebastiano Bertolini (University of Edinburgh)
Hegemon of Thasos fr. 1 Br. - New Philological Hypotheses and (Con-)textual Considerations
ABSTRACT: The fact that Aristotle, in his Poetics, saw Homer not only as the father of epic through the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey, but also as the author of the Margites, seems to prove that mock epic was composed alongside serious epic poetry throughout the history of Greek Literature. This attribution highlights a close connection between these different sides of epic poetry, on which the philological and literary criticism appears to have devoted an inadequate attention. In this framework, the personality of Hegemon of Thasos (5th BC) assumes a particular importance, not only in the light of the fundamental evidence by Aristotle, who considered him as the inventor of parodic poetry in Greece, but also because his only existing fragment (fr. 1 Br.) could represent an exemplum of many typical features of the Eposparodie genre. In my paper I will try to collocate Hegemon’s personality and poetic work in the historical dimension of Greek Epic parody. This will be achieved through the analysis of the scarce evidence about his life and the in-depth literary and philological examination of his only existing fragment (fr. 1 Br.), which will highlight the quintessential characteristics of Eposparodie and its possible relations with other comic genres (such as the contemporaneous, theatrical performances). Moreover, it will show how a wider knowledge of parodic literature could provide further information on its epic hypotext: through the “reversal” of the parodic contents, it is possible to gain numerous insights into the model itself and its reception.
23rd October
Xavier Murray-Pollock (University College London)
The Fasti’s Callisto: Catasterism Aesthetics and Narratives in Ovid
ABSTRACT: Whether studying the Metamorphoses or the Fasti, works which are concerned with time, origins, and social memory, appearances of Callisto in each make for a useful, comparative study. This paper examines the implications of Callisto and other catasterism myths in terms of the construction and programme of Ovid's calendar, and the ways in which such stellifications reveal his aesthetic and programmatic values as well as important aspects of what we might call the author's 'narrative voice'. While reading the Fasti's Callisto tale alongside the Metamorphoses' version, it will be argued that catastarism tales are instrumental in encrypting meaning and symbolism (signa) into constellations (also termed signa). It is these signa as both stars and signs which connect the otherwise unrelated vignettes and individuals tales of the Fasti to one another, thereby forming the calendar's programme. The symbolism of Callisto's tale is divided into two aspects: the symbolism of Callisto herself, and the symbolism of the forces and agents which act upon her. In the first instance, it will be suggested that Callisto's transformation form puella to ursa squalida insults Ovid's principle of aesthetic refinement which is found in the civilising genealogy of the Ars Amatoria, and that her eventual catasterism serves as a correction which restores her to her rightful status and beauty. Secondly, since Callisto receives a restitution in the Fasti which compliments Ovid's aesthetic principles, it will be argued that Ovid's portrayal of the forces working upon Callisto, including the vague descriptions of the crimen and raptus, forms an integral part of Ovid's narrative technique, in which named characters of the Metamorphoses' version are overlooked so the author might establish himself as the agent of the catasterism and so claim catasteric authority on matters of time, astronomy, and memory.
16th October
Bryant Kirkland (Yale University/University College London)
More than Malice: Toward a New Reception of Plutarch's Herodotus
ABSTRACT: This paper proposes new strategies for studying the reception of Herodotus in Plutarch. I argue for a reading of Plutarch’s On the Malice of Herodotus that zooms in on certain biographic strategies present in the work. Rather than taking the treatise to be a vituperative prosecution (Seavey 1991) or a text primarily about ancient historiography (Marincola 1994), we might rather understand it as a contorted, pointed version of a Life, in which Plutarch privileges Herodotus’ (un-)ethical “signs of the soul” (τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς σημεῖα, Alex. 1), the better to set in relief Plutarch’s own. I discuss Plutarch’s psychologizing techniques, his isolation of exemplary (or counter-examplary) deeds, and his interest in continuity of character, both of Herodotus and of figures from the Histories. With reference to select Parallel Lives, I show how On the Malice of Herodotus partakes of rhetorical strategies endemic to that genre. Strict focus, however, on the Malice risks blinkering our perspective on other ways in which Herodotus was appropriated and repurposed in Plutarch. Accordingly, in the paper’s last pages, and in the spirit of recent studies positing more radical visions of ancient reception (Hunter 2014 and in particular Priestley 2014), I sketch out how we might begin a more comprehensive, trope-centered treatment of Herodoteanism in Plutarch.
9th October
Panel on Failure: Sarah Cassidy (University of Edinburgh) and Matteo Barbato (University of Edinburgh)
Sarah Cassidy: Star Cross'd Lovers: The Failure of Medea and Jason's Relationship in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica
ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to explore the wealth of marriage imagery that can be seen throughout Medea's appearances in the Argonautica. This imagery, it will be argued, hints towards the eventual failure of Medea's marriage to Jason. From Medea's first appearance in the Argonautica to her last the theme of marriage surrounds her. The imagery that Apollonius uses, however, often subverts the theme of marriage and shows itself to be unsuitable in the contexts in which it is found. For example, marital imagery is often juxtaposed with elements of grief, death, or warfare. In addition, features of wedding ritual occur throughout the poem in Medea's actions, but often appearing alongside warped or unsuitable elements (the use of peplos as a quasi-veil instead of the more traditional kalyptre at 4.1661, for example). With the exception of the actual wedding of Medea and Jason at 4.1128- 1169, scholars have mostly neglected to integrate this warped imagery into interpretations of the epic as a whole, and especially the development of Medea as a character.This paper seeks to draw together these occurrences and consider their overall effect and purpose. First, I will outline the Medea passages in which marriage imagery plays an important role. Second, I will discuss the ways in which this imagery subverts traditional ideas of marriage to produce warped or tainted marriage scenes. I will use a selection of examples to show how Apollonius repeatedly subverts the marriage imagery that pervades the text. Finally, I will conclude by discussing how this subversion hints at the eventual failure of Jason and Medea's relationship and the unpleasant events that will unfold in the future (seen in, most notably, Euripides' Medea).
Matteo Barbato: The failure of persuasion: a case of weak rhetoric in Euripides’ Children of Heracles
ABSTRACT: One of the most characteristic features of Euripides’ poetry is its strong involvement with rhetoric, and his plays often include skilfully crafted speeches. The author’s familiarity with the subject, however, appears even more strikingly when he brings unconvincing orators on the stage and consciously reverses successful rhetorical habits. The paper will take as an example the rhetorical agon between the Herald and Iolaus in the Children of Heracles (134-231). The confrontation results in the crushing defeat of the Herald, since Iolaus is able to persuade Demophon, king of Athens, to grant help to the suppliant Heracleidae (237-252). Such an outcome is reflected in the different construction of the two speeches, directly aiming at depicting the Herald as a bad orator. By drawing parallels from deliberative and forensic speeches, I will thus argue that Euripides is programmatically making the Herald rely on arguments of proven ineffectiveness in the actual rhetorical practice. Such is the case of his cynical and inappropriate appeal to kerdos (“personal gain”), a theme that the orators only use when trying to portray their opponents in a bad light. Moreover, the weakness of the arguments employed by the Herald is evident from a comparison with Iolaus’ speech. The latter is specifically designed to be a persuasive piece of rhetoric and relies on values which were well- established in the Athenian community, such as the obligation to reciprocate favours to benefactors. Because of Euripides’ intentional “sabotage” of his speech, the Herald is thus doomed to lose in the verbal battlefield of deliberative discourse, and his failure must have been perceived by the Athenian audience not only as plausible but even as necessary.
2nd October
Gary Vos (University of Edinburgh)
Structural Poetics and Platonic Myth: The Phaedrus and Symposium in Theocritus’ Seventh Idyll and Vergil’s Sixth Eclogue
ABSTRACT: It is generally acknowledged that Theocritus’ seventh Idyll engages with Plato’s Phaedrus and also serves as the primary intertextual model of Vergil’s sixth Eclogue. Yet the philosophical import of the Platonic intertext, and its thematic relations to parallel discussions in the Symposium and Republic, for our understanding of these poems has not been extensively treated. This paper seeks to redress the balance by placing Idyll 7 and Eclogue 6 in the context of Plato’s views on poetry and imitation through the modern literary-theoretical concepts of structuralist poetics and mimetic desire. It will be argued that in the Phaedrus, Symposium, and Republic Plato himself laid the groundwork for his own (intertextual) reception.
25th September
Belinda Washington (University of Edinburgh)
Arcadius was Dead to Begin With: The Structural Differences between Socrates’ and Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical Histories
ABSTRACT: Socrates and Sozomen wrote their Ecclesiastical Histories during the reign of the Eastern Augustus Theodosius II (408-50). Sozomen aimed to cover the same period as Socrates’ history and very often these accounts are strikingly similar. However, differences emerge in their narratives of the conflict between John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia – events which unfurled in the reign of Theodosius’ father Arcadius (383-408). The subtle differences reveal Socrates’ and Sozomen’s divergent attitudes not only to that conflict but also to that between Theodosius II’s own wife Eudocia and his sister Pulcheria. In this paper I will look at the differences in structure and emphasis between Socrates’ and Sozomen’s accounts of the conflict between John Chrysostom and Eudoxia. I will examine how this reveals a divergent attitude towards the reigns of Arcadius and Theodosius: firstly through their presentation of Chrysostom and secondly their references to imperial women.
The Edinburgh Postgraduate Classics Seminar Series will begin in September 2016 and continue until April 2016.
If you are interested in speaking, or have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] with a topic, provisional title, and preferred dates.
THURSDAYS, 5.10 PM, ROOM G.200
7th May
Alison John (University of Edinburgh)
‘Teachers and Schools in Late Antique Gaul’ (Alison John)
30th April
Theresa Chresand (University of Cambridge)
‘Structural Manipulation in Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen: Foregrounding the Interpretive Process’
23rd April
Alana Newman (University of Edinburgh)
‘The Ptolemaic Queen as Star-Image’
2nd April
Jessica Lightfoot (University of Oxford)
‘Paradoxography, Pleasure and Profit in Gellius' Noctes Atticae’
26th March
Richard Evans (University of Edinburgh)
‘Shock and Awe: The Achaean koinon and Their Uses of Political Violence Against Poleis Communities c. 251-180 B.C'
In 223 B.C. joint Achaean and Macedonian forces captured the polis of Mantinea. There, while soldiers looted the cities wealth, the Achaeans slaughtered many prominent male citizens as the rest, including women and children, were led away in chains. Even the cities name did not escape destruction; Aratus, the Achaeans long-term strategos, promptly renamed the city in honour of the Macedonian king, Antigonea. Consequently, lovely ‘Mantinea’ and the Mantineans were no more.
Mantinea represents one, and perhaps the most extreme, of several examples of socio-political violence the Achaean koinon enacted against poleis citizenry who dared rebel, or resist, against the Achaean’s wider political goals. This presentation will explore how, under the banner of freedom, the Achaeans imposed their dominance upon other poleis within the Peloponnese; how some poleis resisted and, ultimately, how terror tactics, of extreme brutality, were employed to destroy what remained of any poleis’ ability to revolt.
19th March
Jennifer Hilder & Christopher Burden-Strevens (University of Glasgow)
‘Delivery in the Oratory of the Early First Century BCE’
Jennifer Hilder
The Rhetorica ad Herennium, an anonymous rhetorical handbook dating to the 80s BCE, claims that no one has written carefully about the delivery (pronuntatio) of an orator before (3.11.19). While stopping short of making delivery the most important of the five qualities an orator should have, the author describes it as having an ‘especially great usefulness’ (egregie magna utilitas) and being the part that should ‘in particular’ (magnopere) be prepared. But if no one had written such an account before, and the author admits he was not confident he would be able to take on such a task (3.15.27), why does he do it? In this paper, I will suggest that the author’s desire to provide a theoretical guide to delivery is a response to the oratory of recent decades. As a survey of orators in the FRRO (Fragments of Roman Republican Oratory) database shows, delivery was a marked feature of many performances and hence became a requirement for aspiring orators. From Marcus Antonius’ dramatic ripping open of Manlius Aquillius’ tunic (De orat. 2.194-9) to the ‘theatrical’ style of Sulpicius (Brut 203-4) and ‘artistic’ movements of Hortensius (Brut. 301-3), delivery was noted and notable. Examples of bad delivery are also found and connected with defeats, such as the lack of ‘power and abundance’ (vis atque copia) in Quintus Mucius Scaevola the Pontifex’s defence of Publius Rutilius Rufus (Brut. 113-5). By looking at how and where the ad Herennium’s account intersects with recent examples of delivery, I will argue that the rhetorical handbook reflects and engages with contemporary oratorical trends and in doing so implies the ways in which oratory was changing at the beginning of the first century BCE.
‘The Transmission of Rhetorical Persona and Rhetorical and Argumentative Strategy in the Late Republican Speeches of Cassius Dio’
Christopher Burden-Strevens
The third-century historian Cassius Dio wrote his 80-book History of the Roman state in a society in which the political imperative for public debate had been substantially replaced by more aesthetic motives. In the period known as the Second Sophistic, epideictic oratory served as a replacement for the kind of political discourse that Rome had known two centuries before Dio was born; the educated elites of the Early Empire had little opportunity to deliberate within the curia or before the people. They could, however, replicate that discourse in fictitious speeches upon historical themes set in democratic Athens or republican Rome, which they went to see performed or composed themselves. Cassius Dio’s work contains many such replicas. The four-decade period from the grant of extraordinary powers to Pompeius under the lex Gabinia in 67 BCE and the establishment of the Augustan Principate in 27 BCE represents only a small fragment of the millennium-long spatium historicum of the historian’s work; yet this short period contains all of his surviving political speeches. Throughout his narrative of the decline of the res publica, Dio paused on numerous occasions to transmit the rhetorical persona of orators of the Roman Republic other than Cicero – be that Pompeius declining the powers offered to him in a recusatio imperii, Caesar mollifying a Senate anxious at his increasing power in a speech in the curia, or Octavianus declaring his dubious restoration of the Republic following his victory at Actium. This paper will attempt to unpick these Late Republican speeches from the displayoriented fixation of the Second Sophistic, which has often caused modern scholars to underestimate their value in the historical reconstruction. This paper will instead treat the speeches that Dio includes in his narrative as historical artefacts that contribute to the nonCiceronian record of rhetorical strategy in the Late Republic. By focussing on the interplay between characterisation in speech and characterisation in the narrative, the similarity or dissimilarity of the rhetorical persona of Dio’s speakers with the record preserved in other writings, and the relationship in Dio between orator and audience, I will argue that the orations contained in the Roman History are an attempt by the historian to articulate not only what he believed Late Republican political actors to have said, but how they said it and why this succeeded. In a comparative discussion of the speeches given by these actors, I will demonstrate that different actors in the Roman History pursue different rhetorical and argumentative strategies that are presented by the historian as directly influencing the course of historical events, and which enable us to re-evaluate Dio’s work as a record of nonCiceronian oratory in the Late Republic.
12th March
Alberto Esu (University of Edinburgh)
‘Inter-institutional Relations in Greek City-States: the Assembly, the Council and the Delegation of Authority in the Decision-making Process’
This paper will focus on the delegation of power and the institutional relationship between the Council (Boulē) and the Assembly (Ekklēsia) in fifth-century Athens. The presence of councils and probouleutic magistrates is attested in many poleis across the Greek world. Their task was mostly that of preparing preliminary proposals to be voted by assemblies. The Athenian Boulē is the most well-documented Greek council, which played a fundamental role in the decision-making process through the task of probouleusis. The Athenian Council, however, could also have proper decisional power. By analysing the relevant legal clauses within two fifth-century decrees (SEG 10 64; IG I3 136), I will argue that the Assembly could transfer its final deliberative authority to the Council in order to exploit Council’s institutional expertise in particular matters. Moreover, it is argued that sovereignty was not exclusive of one single institution, rather, it was transferable, since the sovereign demos behave differently depending on the distinctive institutional context.
5th March
Leonardo Costantini (University of Leeds)
‘Understanding the Function of Magic in Apuleius’ Apologia’
In A.D. 158 the Platonic philosopher Apuleius of Madauros stood trial in Sabratha’s courtroom before Claudius Maximus, the proconsul of Africa. He was accused by the relatives of his wife’s deceased first husband of being an evil magus, and of having seduced the widow by means of his magical arts to lay his hands on her patrimony. In order to defend himself from these allegations – punishable by death under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis – Apuleius delivers a speech in which he counters these dangerous charges; at the core of his forensic strategy lies, as I hope to demonstrate, the twofold definition of the term magia: Apuleius distinguishes, in fact, between a pious-philosophical kind of magic, with which he sides, and a wicked-vulgar one (25.9-26.6). Before explaining the importance of Apuleius’ dichotomous interpretation of magia, it is essential to comprehend the different shades of meaning inherent in this term; these can be glimpsed in Pliny the Elder’s history of magic (NH 30.1-6), a source largely employed by Apuleius himself. The sophist exploits, therefore, a pre-existing semantic ambiguity of magia, modelling it on a Platonic pattern, which contrasts higher with lower concepts. When rebutting the prosecution’s case, this pattern is constantly operative and serves to ennoble Apuleius while disparaging his prosecutors. Furthermore, it frequently recurs in Apuleius’ prose and plays a particularly important role in the structure of the Metamorphoses, in which Isis’ celestial benevolence (11.13) allows the protagonist Lucius to re-acquire his human form after his transformation into donkey, provoked by his inauspicious dabbling in Thessalian magic (3.24). This study aims, therefore, to show the central function of the Platonising distinction between the two kinds of magic in the economy of theApologia, allowing Apuleius to free himself from the taint of wickedness without ever actually denying being a magus.
26th February
Claudia Baldassi (University of Edinburgh)
‘Archilochus, Telephus and the Brothers of Immortals’
This paper will deal with a fragmentary papyrus, published in 2004 by Obbink (P. Oxy. LXIX 4708); it tells the story of a secondary episode of the Trojan saga, the first disastrous expedition of the Achaeans against Troy. They believed they had come to Troy, but attacked the wrong city, ignoring that Telephus, son of Herakles, protected it. He easily repelled the invaders and they were forced to retreat to Greece. The author is likely Archilochus.I will focus on an interpretative problem concerning lines 13-15, where the author mentions, among the Achaeans, “sons and brothers” of immortals. Who could be called brother of an immortal? I will consider the – few – existing interpretations, from West and Nicolosi, and propose a tentative one of my own. Could this expression have something to do with the Dioscuri? Castor is the only one who could be legitimately called brother of an immortal – his twin Polydeuces. Their partecipation to the Trojan War is excluded by the Iliad (3, 234-244), but as long as they never arrive to Troy, nothing prevents them from at least trying to reach it. We only have some really faint traces in late sources of the Dioscuri chasing after their abducted sister; nonetheless, a connection is not as out of place as it could seem at first sight. Probably, nothing can be proved for certain yet, but this interpretation offers also a suggestive trail of questions and reflections on the topic of myth, its use in literature and the existence of lost versions of it.
12th February
William Mundy & Leo Mitchell (University of Manchester)
‘Professional Associations and their Impact on the Individual in Roman Egypt’
Aphrodisios and his many jobs: A new archive in the John Rylands Library.
William Mundy
As part of my thesis work, I am re-examining the first century papyri from Egypt in the collection of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. One of the largest and best-studied archives in this collection is the so-called ‘Petitions from Euhemeria’ archive (P.Ryl. II 124—152). New evidence, which I will elucidate in this paper, suggests that this archive is in fact larger than previously thought, and includes documents other than petitions, meaning that both the name and significance of the ‘Petitions…’ archive need to be rethought. The new papyri which I will discuss revolve around a previously unknown individual called Aphrodisios son of Asklepiades. This paper will attempt a prosopographical examination of this figure, shedding light on his life, his business activities, and his relationships to other people in the village of Euhemeria, a small rural settlement in the Arsinoite nome (modern Fayum). I will explore Aphrodisios’ links to several different areas of village life: his connection to the grapheion or ‘writing shop’; his involvement with a professional association of weavers; his work with his brother supplying hay to a local grain transporter; and his role managing the estate of Ammonios, a landowner residing in a different part of the nome. I will question in particular the assumption that Aphrodisios was employed by the association of weavers (P.Ryl. II 94 n. 1—3). Although there is evidence that there was a formal, organised association of this type in the village at the time, I will argue that Aphrodisios had a different working relationship with the group. Overall, my paper aims at a microhistorical focus on a single village, but one extending outwards to make wider points about land, work and the province of Egypt at an interesting moment in its history, the first decades after the Roman conquest.
Finding a use for papyri! A discussion of the applicability of papyri to studies of collegia in the wider Roman Empire
Leo Mitchell
My overall thesis aims to explore the function of collegia (that is, ‘associations’) within the Roman Empire and particularly to examine their social and economic ‘impact’. I am interested in how far individual members were able to benefit (both socially and economically) by being part of the collective organisation but even more so in how far (if at all) the collegia had an impact on the wider economy. In the past, research in this area has tended to dismiss the economic importance of collegia, as it has focused on the fact that they are emphatically not the same as other pre-industrial associations, such as formal mediaeval guilds and that, without this formal status, they would not be able to ‘act’ in markets. However, recent research has begun to examine the collegia within the confines of more heterodox economic theory, including New Institutional Economics. The fundamental tenet of this approach is that all institutions and organisations (both formal and informal) are important and examining the collegia through this lens demonstrates several ways in which they could have had an impact, despite not being formally recognised as guilds. Unfortunately, the detail available in inscriptions is often limited, thus narrowing the scope of such an approach. There is more hope, however, in Egyptian papyri, which provide a wealth of supplementary data relevant to associations – Of course, using Egyptian papyri to ‘speak’ for the rest of the empire is well established to be a flawed method, due to the diversity of the empire and of Egypt especially. Accordingly, this paper will compare the data that we can glean from papyri with that from the epigraphic evidence and will argue that the similarities are more than sufficient to warrant using this evidence in support of an NIE approach.
5th February
Paul Jarvis (University of Edinburgh)
‘M. Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus – Adoption, Problems, and Imperial Prospects’
One of the sons-in-law of Marcus Aurelius was M. Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus, who was married to Fadilla. This paper re-examines his supposed adoption by Peducaeus Stloga. There are two other possible reasons that he carries the unusual nomen Peducaeus: i) he inherited the nomen from his father, who acquired it through adoption; or ii) he inherited the nomen through his grandfather’s maternal ancestry. The question of Peducaeus’ adoption and connections is significant in the context of the time: the rebellion of Avidius Cassius forced Marcus to advance quickly his succession plans for Commodus. Peducaeus was also the nephew of Lucius Verus (and may at one time have been his closest male heir), and perhaps connected to the ill-starred Pedanii. I hope to show that, adopted or not, he was an important factor in Marcus’ dynastic calculations. Peducaeus’ status and marriage provide a glimpse of the astute, long-term scheming of Marcus to ensure the succession of his chosen heir.
29th January
Emma Nichsolson (Newcastle University)
‘The Decisiveness of the Last Two Macedonian Kings’
It has recently been argued by Boris Dreyer that the ancient Macedonian kings, Philip V (221-179 BC) and his son Perseus (179-168 BC) were ‘unable to act when decisive action was demanded’. For Philip, it is a claim based on two episodes within Polybius’ Histories – his failure to make use of a chance to capture Alexandria in Egypt (Polyb.16.10), and his hesitation when having to face executing one of his sons (Polyb. 23.10.12-13). For Perseus, who is accused of being even more indecisive than his father, his refusal to keep to obligations towards hired barbarian tribes, his spendthrift nature, his loss of nerve in battle, and the fact that he did not burn his documents after his defeat by the Romans at Pydna are all cited as proof of this characteristic.
This paper, however, will attempt to refute this claim. Only two passages within Polybius’ Histories are used by Dreyer to substantiate the assertion that Philip was indecisive at crucial moments, and shortcomings can be found in both of these examples. The evidence for this characteristic in Perseus is also problematic as it does not necessarily reveal moments of indecision, but also ruthlessness, stinginess, cowardice and despair. Moreover many of the examples are based off judgements made by Polybius in pursuit of producing a didactic and cohesive work, and will be tainted by his own interpretation of events.
22nd January
Fraser Reed (University of Edinburgh)
‘Diocletianopolis: An Archaeological Assessment of the Urbes Thraciae in Late Antiquity’
Although the study of Late Antiquity has experienced a great deal of growth in recent years, there is still relatively little attention given to the economically and strategically important provinces of central and southern Thrace. In recent years, most studies of urbanism in this region have focused on the Danubian frontier area. These studies, however, are inherently shaped by the heavily-militarized nature of the limes and its direct opposition to external threats to the empire. These factors cannot be assumed for cities located in the more distant provinces of Thrace, south of the Balkan mountain range. This paper presents Diocletianopolis, one of the cities of central Thrace, in an attempt to understand the character and development of urban centres in the region. To this end, I analyze the archaeological remains of the major public and military structures at Diocletianopolis, such as basilicas, baths, barracks, fortifications, and the city’s amphitheatre. Used in conjunction with literary evidence, these archaeological results make it clear that Diocletianopolis was integrated into the military organization of Thrace, despite its distance from the actual frontier. Moreover, the city itself seems to have continued to function into the sixth century – much longer than its counterparts to the north.
27th November
Mariamne Briggs (University of Edinburgh)
The Metamorphoses of Statius’ Thebaid in Medieval Ireland
ABSTRACT: There are a great number of changes to Statius' Thebaid in the medieval Irish prose translation Togail na Tebe, ('The Destruction of Thebes') (c.12th century). The foremost of these is the inclusion of the Cadmus legend from Ovid's Metamorphoses at the beginning of the narrative (lines 12-75), replacing the first 46 lines of Statius' epic poem. This paper will explore the implications of losing Statius' limes carminis and recusatio to the Thebaid's epic themes, how Ovid's Cadmus legend can be seen to develop Togail na Tebe as a unique medieval historical narrative, and whether the themes of the Irish tale reflect those set out by the original poet(s).
20th November
Ulriika Vihervalli (Cardiff University)
Heard it through the Grapevine: The Vandals and Sexual (Sur)realism in Salvian of Marseilles
ABSTRACT: When the Vandals crossed over from Hispania to North Africa in 429 AD, a new era began in African history that would last until the fall of the Vandal kingdom in 534. As a multi-ethnic, polyglotic group, the Vandals made various impressions on their contemporaries while their takeover of Africa received many a shocked response. This paper focuses on one writer who offers a peculiar approach to the Vandals, depicting them as heroes instead of enemies. Salvian of Marseilles, writing in 440s Southern Gaul, included an account of Vandal sexual customs and habits in his De gubernatione Dei (On the Government of God), a work that sought to prove that God was actively punishing Christians for their wicked ways. In this work Salvian paints the Vandals as chaste heretics who make no use of prostitutes, are not tempted by homosexual acts, and are content in monogamous marriages. This paper studies the fallacy of this construction, placing Salvian’s work alongside other fifth century writers in a study of alterity and Christian moralistic discourse. While some historians have used Salvian’s work to hypothesise on the existence of strict sexual customs amongst the Vandals, the paper seeks to rebuke this claim with an examination of Salvian’s sources as well as with a recontextualisation of Salvian’s surroundings.
13th November
Douglas Underwood (University of St Andrews)
Public Monuments and Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity: A View from the West
ABSTRACT: The disappearance of public monuments in late antiquity has long been seen as an indicator of the decline and fall of the Roman city. While recent conceptions of late antiquity have stressed the transformation of such forms of urban expression, it remains true that many classical building types disappeared over this period. Yet, as the archaeological evidence for late antique urban development has improved over the last 30 years, a new view is emerging, which acknowledges the rather complex histories of use, maintenance and reuse in public buildings in this period. Accordingly, this paper will survey the history of a representative selection of non-religious public buildings in the cities of the late antique western Mediterranean: Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa. Specifically, it will examine the evidence for the use, repair and disuse of bath complexes and spectacle buildings from c. 300 to 600 CE. This survey, incorporating the most recent excavations and studies on these buildings, will first show that the history of these buildings does not reflect a linear process of decline and disappearance. Rather, there was considerable variation of the patterns of use and disuse of public monuments between each building type and even between neighboring cities. This examination will also show that there was very little difference between the individual western provinces and that history of these monuments must be put into a boarder framework cultural and economic trends. It will conclude that ties to imperial power and patronage became one of the most important elements in the survival or disappearance of the ‘classical’ city in this period of shifting political and social structures.
6th November
Elizabeth Allman (University of Bristol)
Ovid's Pygmalion: Reading Fragments of Narrative
ABSTRACT: In this paper I will examine one of Ovid's most celebrated stories, that of Pygmalion and his statue (Metamorphoses 10.243-97), with specific focus on the role of the reading process within the episode, exploring how readers construct meaning from a fragmented narrative. The predominant view of Pygmalion in contemporary scholarship is that he acts as a figure for Ovid as artist and author of the Metamorphoses, and that the creation of Pygmalion's ivory statue subsequently serves as a metaphor for Ovid's own creative process. However, in this paper I argue that Pygmalion is more importantly a reader who reads (and misreads) his own work of art.I will argue that Pygmalion's statue is fragmented both physically (in pieces of ivory) and poetically. Given that the greater part of the narrative on the act of viewing – or as I argue, reading – rather than on the act of creation, I aim to show how Pygmalion 'pieces together' the fragments of his statue, as a metaphor for reading the text, a figure for the construction of its meaning. The story of the statue's vivification is thus revealed to be the story of Pygmalion's ‘reading’ (or misreading) of his statue. I hope to demonstrate through my own close reading of this episode the importance of the role of fragmentation within the reading process, and how within Ovid's Metamorphoses readers are directed to construct meaning from fragments.
30th October
Sebastiano Bertolini (University of Edinburgh)
Hegemon of Thasos fr. 1 Br. - New Philological Hypotheses and (Con-)textual Considerations
ABSTRACT: The fact that Aristotle, in his Poetics, saw Homer not only as the father of epic through the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey, but also as the author of the Margites, seems to prove that mock epic was composed alongside serious epic poetry throughout the history of Greek Literature. This attribution highlights a close connection between these different sides of epic poetry, on which the philological and literary criticism appears to have devoted an inadequate attention. In this framework, the personality of Hegemon of Thasos (5th BC) assumes a particular importance, not only in the light of the fundamental evidence by Aristotle, who considered him as the inventor of parodic poetry in Greece, but also because his only existing fragment (fr. 1 Br.) could represent an exemplum of many typical features of the Eposparodie genre. In my paper I will try to collocate Hegemon’s personality and poetic work in the historical dimension of Greek Epic parody. This will be achieved through the analysis of the scarce evidence about his life and the in-depth literary and philological examination of his only existing fragment (fr. 1 Br.), which will highlight the quintessential characteristics of Eposparodie and its possible relations with other comic genres (such as the contemporaneous, theatrical performances). Moreover, it will show how a wider knowledge of parodic literature could provide further information on its epic hypotext: through the “reversal” of the parodic contents, it is possible to gain numerous insights into the model itself and its reception.
23rd October
Xavier Murray-Pollock (University College London)
The Fasti’s Callisto: Catasterism Aesthetics and Narratives in Ovid
ABSTRACT: Whether studying the Metamorphoses or the Fasti, works which are concerned with time, origins, and social memory, appearances of Callisto in each make for a useful, comparative study. This paper examines the implications of Callisto and other catasterism myths in terms of the construction and programme of Ovid's calendar, and the ways in which such stellifications reveal his aesthetic and programmatic values as well as important aspects of what we might call the author's 'narrative voice'. While reading the Fasti's Callisto tale alongside the Metamorphoses' version, it will be argued that catastarism tales are instrumental in encrypting meaning and symbolism (signa) into constellations (also termed signa). It is these signa as both stars and signs which connect the otherwise unrelated vignettes and individuals tales of the Fasti to one another, thereby forming the calendar's programme. The symbolism of Callisto's tale is divided into two aspects: the symbolism of Callisto herself, and the symbolism of the forces and agents which act upon her. In the first instance, it will be suggested that Callisto's transformation form puella to ursa squalida insults Ovid's principle of aesthetic refinement which is found in the civilising genealogy of the Ars Amatoria, and that her eventual catasterism serves as a correction which restores her to her rightful status and beauty. Secondly, since Callisto receives a restitution in the Fasti which compliments Ovid's aesthetic principles, it will be argued that Ovid's portrayal of the forces working upon Callisto, including the vague descriptions of the crimen and raptus, forms an integral part of Ovid's narrative technique, in which named characters of the Metamorphoses' version are overlooked so the author might establish himself as the agent of the catasterism and so claim catasteric authority on matters of time, astronomy, and memory.
16th October
Bryant Kirkland (Yale University/University College London)
More than Malice: Toward a New Reception of Plutarch's Herodotus
ABSTRACT: This paper proposes new strategies for studying the reception of Herodotus in Plutarch. I argue for a reading of Plutarch’s On the Malice of Herodotus that zooms in on certain biographic strategies present in the work. Rather than taking the treatise to be a vituperative prosecution (Seavey 1991) or a text primarily about ancient historiography (Marincola 1994), we might rather understand it as a contorted, pointed version of a Life, in which Plutarch privileges Herodotus’ (un-)ethical “signs of the soul” (τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς σημεῖα, Alex. 1), the better to set in relief Plutarch’s own. I discuss Plutarch’s psychologizing techniques, his isolation of exemplary (or counter-examplary) deeds, and his interest in continuity of character, both of Herodotus and of figures from the Histories. With reference to select Parallel Lives, I show how On the Malice of Herodotus partakes of rhetorical strategies endemic to that genre. Strict focus, however, on the Malice risks blinkering our perspective on other ways in which Herodotus was appropriated and repurposed in Plutarch. Accordingly, in the paper’s last pages, and in the spirit of recent studies positing more radical visions of ancient reception (Hunter 2014 and in particular Priestley 2014), I sketch out how we might begin a more comprehensive, trope-centered treatment of Herodoteanism in Plutarch.
9th October
Panel on Failure: Sarah Cassidy (University of Edinburgh) and Matteo Barbato (University of Edinburgh)
Sarah Cassidy: Star Cross'd Lovers: The Failure of Medea and Jason's Relationship in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica
ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to explore the wealth of marriage imagery that can be seen throughout Medea's appearances in the Argonautica. This imagery, it will be argued, hints towards the eventual failure of Medea's marriage to Jason. From Medea's first appearance in the Argonautica to her last the theme of marriage surrounds her. The imagery that Apollonius uses, however, often subverts the theme of marriage and shows itself to be unsuitable in the contexts in which it is found. For example, marital imagery is often juxtaposed with elements of grief, death, or warfare. In addition, features of wedding ritual occur throughout the poem in Medea's actions, but often appearing alongside warped or unsuitable elements (the use of peplos as a quasi-veil instead of the more traditional kalyptre at 4.1661, for example). With the exception of the actual wedding of Medea and Jason at 4.1128- 1169, scholars have mostly neglected to integrate this warped imagery into interpretations of the epic as a whole, and especially the development of Medea as a character.This paper seeks to draw together these occurrences and consider their overall effect and purpose. First, I will outline the Medea passages in which marriage imagery plays an important role. Second, I will discuss the ways in which this imagery subverts traditional ideas of marriage to produce warped or tainted marriage scenes. I will use a selection of examples to show how Apollonius repeatedly subverts the marriage imagery that pervades the text. Finally, I will conclude by discussing how this subversion hints at the eventual failure of Jason and Medea's relationship and the unpleasant events that will unfold in the future (seen in, most notably, Euripides' Medea).
Matteo Barbato: The failure of persuasion: a case of weak rhetoric in Euripides’ Children of Heracles
ABSTRACT: One of the most characteristic features of Euripides’ poetry is its strong involvement with rhetoric, and his plays often include skilfully crafted speeches. The author’s familiarity with the subject, however, appears even more strikingly when he brings unconvincing orators on the stage and consciously reverses successful rhetorical habits. The paper will take as an example the rhetorical agon between the Herald and Iolaus in the Children of Heracles (134-231). The confrontation results in the crushing defeat of the Herald, since Iolaus is able to persuade Demophon, king of Athens, to grant help to the suppliant Heracleidae (237-252). Such an outcome is reflected in the different construction of the two speeches, directly aiming at depicting the Herald as a bad orator. By drawing parallels from deliberative and forensic speeches, I will thus argue that Euripides is programmatically making the Herald rely on arguments of proven ineffectiveness in the actual rhetorical practice. Such is the case of his cynical and inappropriate appeal to kerdos (“personal gain”), a theme that the orators only use when trying to portray their opponents in a bad light. Moreover, the weakness of the arguments employed by the Herald is evident from a comparison with Iolaus’ speech. The latter is specifically designed to be a persuasive piece of rhetoric and relies on values which were well- established in the Athenian community, such as the obligation to reciprocate favours to benefactors. Because of Euripides’ intentional “sabotage” of his speech, the Herald is thus doomed to lose in the verbal battlefield of deliberative discourse, and his failure must have been perceived by the Athenian audience not only as plausible but even as necessary.
2nd October
Gary Vos (University of Edinburgh)
Structural Poetics and Platonic Myth: The Phaedrus and Symposium in Theocritus’ Seventh Idyll and Vergil’s Sixth Eclogue
ABSTRACT: It is generally acknowledged that Theocritus’ seventh Idyll engages with Plato’s Phaedrus and also serves as the primary intertextual model of Vergil’s sixth Eclogue. Yet the philosophical import of the Platonic intertext, and its thematic relations to parallel discussions in the Symposium and Republic, for our understanding of these poems has not been extensively treated. This paper seeks to redress the balance by placing Idyll 7 and Eclogue 6 in the context of Plato’s views on poetry and imitation through the modern literary-theoretical concepts of structuralist poetics and mimetic desire. It will be argued that in the Phaedrus, Symposium, and Republic Plato himself laid the groundwork for his own (intertextual) reception.
25th September
Belinda Washington (University of Edinburgh)
Arcadius was Dead to Begin With: The Structural Differences between Socrates’ and Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical Histories
ABSTRACT: Socrates and Sozomen wrote their Ecclesiastical Histories during the reign of the Eastern Augustus Theodosius II (408-50). Sozomen aimed to cover the same period as Socrates’ history and very often these accounts are strikingly similar. However, differences emerge in their narratives of the conflict between John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia – events which unfurled in the reign of Theodosius’ father Arcadius (383-408). The subtle differences reveal Socrates’ and Sozomen’s divergent attitudes not only to that conflict but also to that between Theodosius II’s own wife Eudocia and his sister Pulcheria. In this paper I will look at the differences in structure and emphasis between Socrates’ and Sozomen’s accounts of the conflict between John Chrysostom and Eudoxia. I will examine how this reveals a divergent attitude towards the reigns of Arcadius and Theodosius: firstly through their presentation of Chrysostom and secondly their references to imperial women.