Books by Suzanne Lye
Oxford University Press, 2024
"Life / Afterlife: Revolution and Reflection in the Ancient Greek Underworld from Homer to Lucian... more "Life / Afterlife: Revolution and Reflection in the Ancient Greek Underworld from Homer to Lucian" explores the mechanics, function, and impact of ancient Greek Underworld scenes, a unique and ancient form of embedded storytelling appearing across time and genres. This book approaches Underworld scenes as a special register of language that acts as a narrative space outside of chronological time to reflect on important themes and issues in a frame narrative. This book argues that Underworld scenes use hypertextual poetics to embed authorial commentary by creating networks of texts that act as para-narratives, which provide additional information to engage audiences in the interpretative process of a given work. Life / Afterlife traces the development, evolution, and application of Underworld scenes through the works of such authors as Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Plato, Vergil, and Lucian to show how each used afterlife depictions featuring mythic and historical figures as commentaries to communicate a call to action for their audiences in response to cultural, religious, and political changes in their worlds. Using the network of Underworld scenes, authors could reinforce and challenge traditional religious and cultural beliefs and practices by presenting the long-term, cosmic effect of actions in life on an individual’s post-death experience. From ancient to modern times, Underworld scenes have helped authors and audiences define the essential qualities of a “good life” for different social, political, and religious groups and their societies.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
"To Starve and To Curse: Women's Anger in Ancient Greek Literature and Magic" is a monograph-leng... more "To Starve and To Curse: Women's Anger in Ancient Greek Literature and Magic" is a monograph-length project that investigates women’s anger in the ancient world. In this book, I argue that female figures in ancient Greek sources (8th B.C.E.-4th C.E.) use two primary strategies to express anger and retaliate against enemies (mostly men) who had personally injured them: withdrawal of resources and magic. Moments in ancient Greek sources that give testament to female anger crystallize the junctures at which women resisted the roles and rules placed on them by societal expectation, even when their actions led to violence and bodily harm to themselves and others. Case studies featuring “angry women” show us the ways in which ancient Greek power structures tried to constrain, limit, and devalue the expression and impact of women’s anger, a pattern we see repeated throughout the long time frame of the ancient Greek world and which continues through to our contemporary discourse in how journalists, authors, and pundits frame and discuss women’s anger and action in modern times when describing movements fueled by female anger, such as the MeToo Movement, the 2017 Women’s March, and the 2020 Moms United for Black Lives protests. Bestseller books like Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad (2018), about the history of modern feminist political movements, and Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger (2018), about how societies exclude anger from “good womanhood,” further underscore the appetite for studies such as mine about women’s anger and resistance in different historical contexts.
As Audre Lorde has written, “Anger is loaded with information and energy.” Through my study, I propose frames of analysis to unpack the information and hidden codes in portrayals of women’s anger in ancient Greece (8th B.C.E.-5th C.E.). Women’s anger, often devastating, provided necessary impetus and multiple avenues, including magic, for allowing women to assert agency and take control of their own destinies. By comparing episodes featuring women's anger in literary and archaeological sources, I demonstrate that angry women portrayed in ancient Greek sources, whether mythical or real, used similar templates for action, which allowed them to assert themselves as individuals and to reset the patriarchal boundaries that constrained them.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Publications by Suzanne Lye
Transactions of the American Philological Association , 2023
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Homer, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Oxford Handbook of Hesiod, 2018
This chapter discusses how Hesiod's misogyny and portrayal of gender reflect power differentials ... more This chapter discusses how Hesiod's misogyny and portrayal of gender reflect power differentials between characters in his epics.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Once and Future Antiquities in Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2018
This book chapter focuses on the influence and reception of ancient Greek mythology into Hayao Mi... more This book chapter focuses on the influence and reception of ancient Greek mythology into Hayao Miyazaki's Japanese film "Spirited Away." The chapter appears in Once and Future Antiquities in Science Fiction and Fantasy, eds. Brett Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens (Bloomsbury 2018).
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Classical World (Issue 109.2 - Winter 2016), Feb 2016
In Heliodorus’ Aithiopika, a 4th century C.E. novel, the dichotomy between the Greek West and the... more In Heliodorus’ Aithiopika, a 4th century C.E. novel, the dichotomy between the Greek West and the non-Greek East is a pervasive theme, which surfaces in various forms throughout the narrative and is apparent in the author’s elaborate descriptions of the foreigners, geographical features, and languages that the protagonists Charikleia and Theagenes encounter. The most direct treatment of this theme, however, is in the Arsake episode of Book 7. Arsake is the sister of the Persian king and wife of his satrap Oroondates who is stationed in Memphis, Egypt. While her husband is away at war against the Ethiopians, Arsake rules Memphis, issuing decrees and judgments, with the full support of her people. In this episode, each character "performs" the roles of Greek, non-Greek, male, and female to varying degrees of success, demonstrating the fluidity of these categories. I argue that the main function of Arsake’s character in the Aithiopika is to address these polarities of East vs. West and female vs. male. While Arsake and Theagenes enact the archetypal East vs. West separation, Charikleia’s character represents a more nuanced and complex relationship between East and West. Nevertheless, each character takes turns meeting and subverting the expectations of their ethnic and gender identities. Thus, characters can act more or less “manly” or “Greek,” depending on their immediate situations and regardless of actual gender or ethnic identity. I further argue that the novel presents gender as the more fixed category of the two but that every character operates within a wide range, often contradicting the expectations of the reader. By privileging Charikleia’s hybridity of gender and ethnicity, the Arsake episode may suggest a fourth-century C.E. shift in attitudes towards both the East/West and female/male oppositions.
The article is available at the following link: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/classical_world/toc/clw.109.2.html
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
HELLENISTICA GRONINGANA 16, 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Revue de Philosophie Ancienne, 2009
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Anthropological Research, 1998
... Ricardo Godoy Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7305Ni... more ... Ricardo Godoy Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7305Nicholas Brokaw Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences ... subjects pictures of birds, mammals, plants, or plant parts from the books by Ridgely and Gwynne (1989), Emmons (1990 ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Book Reviews by Suzanne Lye
Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2014
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Classical World, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Invited Talks by Suzanne Lye
Our Voices: A Conference for Inclusive Classics Pedagogy, Columbia University, New York City, NY, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Department of Classical Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, 2019
This paper investigates two strategies that female figures in ancient Greek texts use to express ... more This paper investigates two strategies that female figures in ancient Greek texts use to express anger and retaliate against those who have personally injured them: deprivation and magic. Both of these strategies base their efficacy in enacting harm to bodies in response to acute emotional distress. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, for example, the goddess Demeter refuses to let the grain grow in protest for her daughter’s kidnapping, which in turn creates a crisis of hunger in both mortal and immortal societies. In Euripides’ Hippolytus, Phaedra avenges unrequited love for her stepson through an escalation of attacks on her own body, which ultimately leads to his demise. Phaedra responds to the shame she feels by committing suicide, and before that to the depression brought forth by unrequited love through starvation. In multiple versions of her myth, Medea’s anger at her treatment by the men around her causes her to lash out, whether against Jason in Euripides’ Medea through the murder of her children or against her father in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica through the dismemberment of her brother. In a real-world example from the Greek Magical Papyri, a woman named Artemisie commissions a lead curse tablet against the father of her daughter, appealing to the supernatural to punish him for not giving their child a proper burial (PGM XL). In these and other cases, women refuse to accept the decisions and roles meted out by the men who have legal authority over them. Although they initially act within traditional boundaries, they eventually find that they must resort to employing incursions against vulnerable bodies – their own and others – often through the manipulation of supernatural forces. Whether through direct or indirect attack, women in our ancient Greek sources use their anger to fuel action, to assert themselves as individuals, and to reset the boundaries that constrain them.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
"Death and Dying" class, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Crossing Over: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Death, Bryn Mawr College, 2019
This presentation discussed the narrative uses of Underworld Scenes in Homer and Plato.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
CHS Online Open House, 2019
This presentation gives an overview of Ancient Magic and Religion in the Greco-Roman world. It wa... more This presentation gives an overview of Ancient Magic and Religion in the Greco-Roman world. It was delivered for the Kosmos Society of the Center for Hellenic Studies for their CHS Online Open House series.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
7th Faculty Showcase on Teaching (Steal-My-Idea Panel), UNC Center for Faculty Excellence, 2018
This presentation discussed how to create collaborative, tailored syllabi for large and small cla... more This presentation discussed how to create collaborative, tailored syllabi for large and small classes as a way to foster an inclusive learning environment.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Brandeis College, Boston, MA, 2017
Have you ever wondered why there are Underworld scenes in ancient Greek literature? This talk dis... more Have you ever wondered why there are Underworld scenes in ancient Greek literature? This talk discusses the function, purpose, and attributes of Underworld scenes in the Homeric epics. It was presented at Brandeis College.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Books by Suzanne Lye
As Audre Lorde has written, “Anger is loaded with information and energy.” Through my study, I propose frames of analysis to unpack the information and hidden codes in portrayals of women’s anger in ancient Greece (8th B.C.E.-5th C.E.). Women’s anger, often devastating, provided necessary impetus and multiple avenues, including magic, for allowing women to assert agency and take control of their own destinies. By comparing episodes featuring women's anger in literary and archaeological sources, I demonstrate that angry women portrayed in ancient Greek sources, whether mythical or real, used similar templates for action, which allowed them to assert themselves as individuals and to reset the patriarchal boundaries that constrained them.
Publications by Suzanne Lye
The article is available at the following link: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/classical_world/toc/clw.109.2.html
Book Reviews by Suzanne Lye
Invited Talks by Suzanne Lye
Website: https://ourvoicesinclassics.com/conference-materials-and-resources/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmdIe4IUr3LZG_DVRF_y1-M8eM6P44Ezi
As Audre Lorde has written, “Anger is loaded with information and energy.” Through my study, I propose frames of analysis to unpack the information and hidden codes in portrayals of women’s anger in ancient Greece (8th B.C.E.-5th C.E.). Women’s anger, often devastating, provided necessary impetus and multiple avenues, including magic, for allowing women to assert agency and take control of their own destinies. By comparing episodes featuring women's anger in literary and archaeological sources, I demonstrate that angry women portrayed in ancient Greek sources, whether mythical or real, used similar templates for action, which allowed them to assert themselves as individuals and to reset the patriarchal boundaries that constrained them.
The article is available at the following link: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/classical_world/toc/clw.109.2.html
Website: https://ourvoicesinclassics.com/conference-materials-and-resources/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmdIe4IUr3LZG_DVRF_y1-M8eM6P44Ezi
This paper uses case studies drawn from both literary and documentary sources. In the first section, I discuss Demeter, Calypso, and Circe as Archaic prototypes for women’s anger and examine specific tropes their stories establish for the expression of female anger. These goddesses’ withdrawal to the edges of divine society represents disengagement from activities that reinforce the rule of Zeus. In the second section, I look at an Athenian court speech by Antiphon, featuring a wife accused of accidentally poisoning her husband when giving him a love charm to keep his affections. In the third section, I look at the myths of Medea and the Lemnian women as cautionary tales of female anger that show male anxiety over female agency and over their use of magic and violence to challenge their male relatives’ behaviors. Both Apollonius Rhodius and Euripides, in the Argonautica and Medea, respectively, portray fake compliance and ultimately violent expressions of anger by women using magic and covert operations.
In the final section, I look at evidence of female anger in binding spells and curse tablets, magical tools that offered direct challenges to power structures that regularly subordinated women’s desires to men’s romantic whims and financial control. The first case study illustrating aggressive female magic features Simaetha performing a magical ritual against her wayward lover, which gives him the option of returning to her or dying, should her spell fail (Theocritus’ Idyll 2). While this is a literary scene, it mimics magical rituals found in actual spells commissioned by women in a similar position. In the corpus of erotic spells, there are five extant with definitively female users who engage in binding spells against male victims. The spells, though few, indicate that everyday women had access to such magic – and used it. Real women thus are shown to engage in a type of aggressive erotic magic originally thought by scholars to be the realm of men or literary heroines (Pachoumi 2013; Faraone 2001). In one of the most striking cases of female anger in the magical sources, a woman named Artemisie asks the gods to punish the father of their deceased daughter for depriving their child of proper burial rites (PGM XL). The women who enact these spells are engaging in a pattern of dissent that echoes the actions of Demeter, Calypso, and Circe from centuries earlier. They demonstrate the persistence of both withdrawal and magic as effective strategies for women to express their anger. As a result, these women put pressure on patriarchal structures to make space for female agency and desires.
One of the biggest challenges for creating a more inclusive classroom is breaking up traditional forms of conveying information (the syllabus) and assessing knowledge (exams, papers, discussions). As one of the first introductions to a course, the syllabus itself is often a barrier to student enrollment and engagement. Creating a dynamic teaching and learning environment involves re-thinking our notions of not only course content but also course format and expectations. To that end, this talk discusses strategies for building a collaborative syllabus and using course assessments to create a mindset that “centers the margins” and gives students a greater stake in course content. In this talk, I share specific strategies and “game-based” activities that have worked for large lecture classes, small seminars, and everything in between. With small adjustments, we can build inclusivity into our course syllabi and assessments by making questions and discussions about gender, class, and ethnicity part of the fundamental framework of the course experience. Here are links to materials from this presentation and from the other presenters on the panel: https://www.amypistone.com/2019-scs-workshop-centering-the-margins-creating-inclusive-syllabi/
As information and stories moved from oral to written and, now, digital formats, new challenges and opportunities have arisen for the consumption and interpretation of content. Although the idea of the “commentary” might have pre-dated the written word, the “commentary” as a genre became formalized and tangible only after the invention of the physical text. While “writing” fixes a text, the contexts in which that text is embedded change with the progression of time. A text is a snapshot of a narrative that is attached to a certain moment in time. A “commentary,” on the other hand, is a meta-text whose purpose is to address the diachronic drift between the author, text, and audience.
Historically, commentaries have attempted to bridge the temporal gap by suggesting meanings and references that would otherwise be lost or overlooked by readers diachronically distant from the text’s original context. Most commentaries were written well after their target texts and rarely, if ever, by a text’s original author. Commentaries by Hellenistic scholars, originally on papyrus rolls, were copied and transferred as marginal and intra-linear notations called scholia to a newer technology, the codex.
With social media and the hashtag protocol, commentaries have moved closer to synchronicity with their target texts. #Commentary was invented for social media but has deep roots in the commentary tradition. By using “hashtag comments,” authors can interpret and tag their own digital content to make it searchable and to indicate their desired interpretations. #Commentary thus aligns with the scholarly goals of exegesis and the commentary tradition by interpreting and analyzing a piece of text to make it understandable to an audience. Through #Commentary, however, authors eliminate the middle man, whether expert scholar or casual user, and can communicate both textually and meta-textually directly to their audiences.
For the conference proceedings, click here: https://teachingleadershipthruclassics.wordpress.com/panels/pedagogy-and-praxis/
Demeter’s reaction to the forced marriage of her daughter and Rhea’s appearance in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter highlight the mother-daughter bond as a subversive challenge to patriarchal rule. At the beginning of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Zeus asserts his right as patriarch to make a marriage contract for Persephone without the knowledge of her mother. Demeter rejects this arrangement, just as her own mother Rhea rejected the actions of Cronus. The story of Demeter in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter mirrors Rhea’s story of motherhood in Hesiod’s Theogony. Both goddesses rebel against patriarchal rule due to threats to their offspring. When their children are taken away, they are each described as plunging into deep depression, which makes them flee the company of their peers – Rhea feels “insufferable grief” (πένθος ἄλαστον, Theogony 467) and Demeter feels “pain” (ἄχος, H.H.Dem. 90) upon having Persephone forcibly taken away. Additionally, the retaliation of both goddesses against their kings comes in the form of holding back their reproductive powers. Rhea flees to her parents and hides her youngest child Zeus on Crete, ending her fertility as the consort of Cronus. Likewise, Demeter finds refuge in the land of mortals at Eleusis and stops the fertility of the earth and production of the harvest (H.H.Dem. 305-309). Their defiance against the desires of their male rulers poses a serious challenge to existing power structures. Rhea’s rebellion against Cronus’ consumption of their children eventually leads to the overthrow of the Titans. Demeter’s refusal to return to Olympus even after Zeus sends Iris and the other gods to summon her with promises of extra honors, or timai (314-328) similarly threatens to unravel Zeus’ rule by destroying the human race and removing the timai of the other gods (310-312). Zeus averts this disaster by yielding to Demeter’s request for the return of her daughter, thus honoring the mother-daughter bond. This, however, is not enough, so he sends their mother Rhea to persuade her. Zeus gains Demeter’s compliance not only by yielding to her demand but also by relying on the closeness of a mother-daughter relationship. Rhea’s arrival is the final step in Zeus’ recompense to Demeter, and the latter’s pleasure at seeing her mother immediately returns the earth’s productivity (457), which Persephone’s return alone did not accomplish. Demeter’s joy at seeing her mother Rhea is matched by the joy her own daughter Persephone displays (434-437). At the end of the poem, Demeter is both mother and daughter for her triumphant return to Olympus. Rhea’s presence in the poem underscores the strength of the mother-daughter relationship and proposes a longer frame of matrilineal identities as integral to interpreting the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
Bibliography Cited
Foley, Helene P. . 1994. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretative Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
This paper explores the mechanics of how Homer creates imaginary katabaseis in Underworld scenes by linking them to famous myths of heroic katabasis. I examine how Homer’s Underworlds connect to each other and to famous stories of katabasis so that audiences associate non-katabatic afterlife scenes with katabaseis. I focus particularly on analogies and allusions to katabaseis in the episodes of Odysseus’ necromancy (Ody. 11), the descent of the suitors’ souls (Ody. 24.1-204), Menelaus’ blessed afterlife (Ody. 4.560-569), and Patroclus’ ghostly visitation (Il. 23.69-74). In these scenes, the poet recalls katabatic afterlife narratives as “shadow narratives” or para-narratives that influence the audience’s “reading” of these scenes as heroic katabasis. I demonstrate how, through well-placed allusions, Odysseus near the Underworld in the Nekuia became conflated with Herakles in the Underworld, thus leading to Odysseus’ elevation to the ranks of katabatic hero. Finally, I argue that the influence of this episode and the authority of the Homeric poems de-specialized the meaning of the term “katabasis” so that it later became associated with almost all stories containing encounters with the chthonic realm.
The juxtaposition of darkness and women occurs in both epics. When Odysseus enters the Underworld landscape, the greatest concern for him and his mother’s soul is his survival after the removal of those visual features – light, the sun, sky, and stars – that signify location and the passage of time (Ody. 11.11-19; 11.155-156). Similarly, Aeneas’ encounter with Dido is set up as a struggle between his desire to keep her in sight and her desire to fade into invisibility (Aen. 6.440-476). By witnessing the effects of their actions on their female loved ones, both Odysseus and Aeneas come to understand the stakes of their heroic journeys. In the blind space of the Underworld, each hero is able to see his past in sharp relief outside of chronological time so he can contemplate the significance of his choices. By leaving their pasts hidden from sight in the Underworld, Odysseus and Aeneas experience a rebirth into the visual world, ready to claim their heroic identities.
Although the presence of an Underworld episode in a narrative can be interpreted simply as an artistic plot device which delays the action of the story, I argue that authors use scenes of the Underworld and its inhabitants to provide a multivalent commentary of cultural, social, and literary traditions on both the narrative and textual levels. Further, I suggest that the reason Underworld episodes are particularly suited to this type of commentary is that, through diachronic collapse, the imaginative space of the Underworld removes the tensions of chronology, genealogy, and geography, which are present in narrative or textual realities that are anchored in time and space. Moreover, at the textual level, the variations in emphasis between Underworld accounts in texts of different historical times periods offer insights into diachronic differences between authors. To demonstrate the literary uses of Underworld episodes, I focus on two authors, Homer and Lucian, who belong to very different historical, political, and cultural periods but who give similarly extended accounts of journeys to the Underworld, which deal directly with questions of diachrony, synchrony, and anachrony.
Both Homer and Lucian highlight the temporal flexibility and lack of temporal markers in the Underworld, where time seems to fold in on itself and shifts away from the chronological. The eternal “now” of the Underworld, far from being static, displays a dynamic interplay between past, present, and future. This allows an author not only to summarize past events or foreshadow future ones that are relevant to the story, but also to force his audience implicitly and explicitly to reflect on his innovations of well-known myths in light of competing and perhaps more traditional narratives. In Underworld scenes, both protagonists and readers lose their sense of time, since multiple times and texts are intentionally juxtaposed. For example, in Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus learns about past events, such as the death of his mother and Agamemnon, and at the same time collects predictions about the future from the seer Teiresias (Ody. 11). When Odysseus sails to meet the shades, the overall plot of the Odyssey comes to a standstill, while he lingers and hears the stories of his former comrades and family. Although there is a “before” and “after” to Odysseus’ journey to the land of the dead, time becomes distorted during his visit, since the alternation of day and night is unmarked (Ody. 11.13-19). The Underworld scenes in Lucian work similarly, consciously imitating and innovating Homer’s account of the world of the dead. In the True History, for example, Lucian presents a sequence of events in the Underworld, which maps very closely to those in the Odyssey, inviting the audience to compare the two versions directly. Lucian’s hero, like Odysseus, arrives by ship, learns of past and future events, has extended conversations with famous literary figures, and leaves reluctantly.
In these works, the stories of the realm of the dead allude to past events and incorporate narratives outside of the direct action of the poem to create a dialogue across myths and texts. In this way, Homer and Lucian use the temporal synchronicity in the Underworld to activate and overlay several narratives at once so that they all coincide and compete with the main narrative. The audience is taken out of chronological sequence and given an opportunity to contemplate the protagonists’ plight through comparison with others whose stories provide alternative narratives. In addition, the physical description of the Underworld space and the re-telling of well-known myths highlight an author’s ingenuity at connecting and weaving his present narrative to established traditions. Further, a shift in the emphasis within an Underworld scene by an author may give signs of diachronic factors affecting a literary work. Whereas the Odyssey’s Underworld features only aristocratic warrior-heroes, that of Lucian’s True History and The Downward Journey (or The Tyrant) introduce a wide range of characters of different social and political classes.
In Greek literature, tradition and innovation compete directly in accounts of the Underworld because artifacts and characters from different historical, cultural, and social milieus are forced into a single space in which diachronic events become synchronous. While the insertion of an Underworld episode may cause a story’s characters to become lost in time, this literary device also situates a story’s text in its diachronic context by providing insights into its period’s values and opening intertextual dialogues across time.
As an author, Procopius was faced with a new kind of powerful female who did not fit the mold of previous Roman matrona and empresses, as described by historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius. In his descriptions of Theodora in the Secret History, Procopius calls on the usual stereotypes of powerful Roman women used by Latin historians and writers, such as an association with magic, a history on the stage, general lasciviousness, and perverse domestic practices; however, he fails to show that any of these qualities were detrimental to her status. In fact, Procopius’ account of her past as a performer and prostitute underscores Theodora’s early influence over her husband Justinian and the law: in order to marry her, Justinian had to change the Julian law prohibiting marriage between a man of senatorial rank and a woman who was formerly on the stage. Similarly, in his official history, Procopius presents Theodora as Justinian’s chief advisor and the protector of imperial power during the Nika Revolt (532 C.E.), the main internal threat to Justinian’s rule (History of the Wars I, 24.33-37). Further evidence of Theodora’s influence comes from Justinian legal sources, especially those aimed at promoting women’s rights. In Novellae Constitutiones 8.1 (535 C.E.), new laws of the Corpus Juris, which were added to Justinian’s law code, Justinian remarks that he was advised in his plans by his partner and wife Theodora (haec omnia apud nos cogitantes et hic quoque participem consilii sumentes eam quae a deo data nobis est reverentissimam coniugem). In addition to these overt references in the legal code, Theodora’s power was displayed overtly in the well-known mosaic in San Vitale, Ravenna, where she is depicted as a ruler bringing gifts to Christ in an image which exactly mirrors that of Justinian, who is also bringing gifts.
In this paper, I argue that Theodora’s power and influence were real and openly advertised by the court for political ends. I further argue that, in Procopius’ Secret History, we see an author struggling to fit Theodora within the generic tradition of imperial biography and the stereotypes of powerful women that go back to Cicero’s Clodia, Tacitus’ Livia, and Suetonius’ Agrippina the Younger. Moreover, we see Procopius failing miserably in this attempt because, unlike these other women, she held power that was openly sanctioned, supported, and enforced by the imperial and religious power structures of the day.
As with all borders, contact and movement between each side was a possibility. Although the trip to Hades was generally uni-directional, there are examples throughout ancient literature of those who have made the return journey to the world of the living and reported their experiences. In this paper, I look at examples in ancient literature of the discourse between the worlds of the living and the dead as an effort to define the border between both the geographical and mental realities of those two realms. Further, I analyze episodes of specific contact between the living and dead at the borders with Hades.
Even though ancient authors describe its geography and relate stories of interaction between the living and dead, Hades’ borders remained fluid and undefined. As a result, discussions of Hades and its borders were opportunities for authors to express their societies’ attitudes towards outsiders, fearful opponents, ancestors, and death in general. The borders of Hades became a space where the ancients negotiated and defined ideas about life, death, and the afterlife.
Orpheus and Medea counterbalance each other as magical helpers of Jason. Orpheus’ music and ritual magic dominate the first half of the poem, Medea’s witchcraft the final two books. I show that in books 1 and 2, Orpheus’ magic functions as the propitiatory, as well as apotropaic, response to violence. Just as in the initial departure episode where Orpheus famously casts a spell with his music to avert a potentially violent encounter among the Argonauts (1.460-518), I argue that in the Cyzicus episode Orpheus’ magic is an equivalent propitiatory response to the heinous violence that has taken place when the Argonauts inadvertently kill their host, the king of the Doliones (1.961-1077). Likewise, I argue that Orpheus’ musical celebration of Polydeuces’ victory over Amycus, king of the Bebrycians, also functions as another propitiatory act that atones for the violent slaughter of the Bebrycians (2.1-163). In both cases the defeat of the king is linked to the annihilation of chthonic entities occupying the region.
In the last two books, Orpheus in his function as averter and propitiator is gradually replaced by Medea as her deployment of magic in the poem moves from being indirect in book 3 to direct in book 4. In the Colchian episode she merely instructs Jason how to use the magical potion to protect himself, and in the Circe episode (4.662-752), she manipulates the situation so that her aunt Circe uses magic to purify Jason and herself for Apsyrtus’ murder. It is not until Medea marries Jason on Drepane that she uses magic herself. After her marriage, Medea uses her magic to defeat Talos, the last remnant of chthonic order (4.1638-1688). Moreover, while Medea is gradually acquiring an active role as Jason’s magical helper, Orpheus’ capacity in the same role is waning.
Some of Orpheus’ last moments as a prominent presence in the poem are in the Sirens episode, where he overpowers the enchanting song of the Sirens by the loudness of his music (4.885-919), and at the marriage of Jason and Medea, where his music is a key component of the ceremony that ultimately averts a battle between the Colchians and Argonauts (4.1128-1164). His disappearance as a magical figure coincides with the elevation of Medea’s magical role. In the end, their separate identities and roles overlap with Medea becoming as Greek as she possibly can (through her marriage to Jason and practice of Greek rituals) and ultimately assuming Orpheus’ role as magical helper in the narrative. What Apollonius implies by all this, I suggest, is that the non-Greek chthonic order which is associated with Medea, must somehow be incorporated into a holistic, Argonautic cosmogony, one that accommodates both Greek and non-Greek perspectives. As their roles intertwine in the poem, Orpheus becomes Medea and Medea Orpheus. By the end of the Argonautica, the two figures represent a new convergence of Greek and non-Greek cultures, a hybrid which is emblematic of Apollonius’ own poem and multicultural world.
Website: https://ourvoicesinclassics.com/conference-materials-and-resources/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmdIe4IUr3LZG_DVRF_y1-M8eM6P44Ezi
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learningfellows/2017/02/01/a-living-language-latin-1-at-play/
Building successful teams and learning environments requires the ability to develop expertise and communicate that expertise in a way that others find receptive. To do this, one must learn not only rhetorical speaking but also (and more importantly) "rhetorical listening." Both of these skills allow people to understand and internalize their own and others' perspective through a dynamic exchange of information, which occurs through a combination of alone time and face-to-face time. This workshop offers specific tools for 1) developing individual initiative through ownership of given tasks and 2) building points of contact between people through shared tasks and goals. The workshop treats learning and leadership as intertwined processes that create cultural competence and cultural connections.
This workshop discusses the philosophies and processes of designing language and civilization courses which incorporate aspects of leadership training – from developing activities that teach basic communication and decision-making skills to embedding a reflective process that translates into effective learning and leadership. I use the Classics classroom as an example, but the strategies I discuss can extend into other courses focused on real-time problem-solving, critical thinking, and vibrant discussion. (December 2017)
In general, this workshop focuses on how to build an interactive classroom and work experience that maximizes individuals' particular talents and skills. Participants will gain the following:
1) Lesson plans for developing student leadership and cultural competence,
2) Samples of interactive games that give opportunities for leadership practice,
3) Ideas for classroom projects that foster and encourage reflections on leadership and inclusivity,
4) Leadership philosophies and techniques to help students discover their leadership styles and how to use those to create cultures of competence with their classmates and teammates
For the conference proceedings, click here: https://teachingleadershipthruclassics.wordpress.com/panels/pedagogy-and-praxis/
https://youtu.be/F7NkdDNqEJ0?list=FLRLuNYKzJt428CBEvdsBrCQ
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ws7xfhhwa7tle12/Wearable%20Magic%20-%20CLAS%2089%20-%20Final%20Project.mov?dl=0
https://phonos.home.blog/
Click here to see the show and the final script: https://youtu.be/OyCgh0DHgn8.
Puppet bow: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cnmyc05jlukhijt/The%20Murder%20of%20Eratosthenes%20-%20Class%20Bow.MOV?dl=0
After the conclusion of the class, students hosted a "Learning Showcase," which was a community outreach event featuring the final projects. At this event, students discussed how their objects helped them understand Greek and Roman cultures and ancient practices related to religion and magic.
The projects, art installation, and learning showcase were funded by an “experiential learning” grant through a new initiative by Dartmouth's Center for Advanced Learning (DCAL).
The following are pictures of the objects and public displays as well as sample media:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/12U24qTreIVpBthi1
The following presentation is from a group that did “Magical Cures and Cosmetics” inspired by our weeks on love and healing/protective magic. They created the following hilarious video and brochure:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_YzREqBSzQ&list=FLRLuNYKzJt428CBEvdsBrCQ&index=1&t=0s
Brochure:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kpsickswrxw9dd9/Cures%20%26%20Cosmetics%20-%20Midas%20Brochure.pdf?dl=0
https://soundcloud.com/user-704650293
To read more about this class, visit https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learningfellows/2017/02/01/a-living-language-latin-1-at-play/
https://youtu.be/Ec5-V5qYefY?list=FLRLuNYKzJt428CBEvdsBrCQ
Performance of "Poseidon"
https://youtu.be/UpKsp2Wwr_k?list=FLRLuNYKzJt428CBEvdsBrCQ
Discussion/Inspiration for "Poseidon"
https://youtu.be/t6FyyK58S_Y?list=FLRLuNYKzJt428CBEvdsBrCQ
https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/caroline-cheung/blog-interview-suzanne-lye-recipient-wcc-2020%E2%80%932021-leadership-award
This blog post was produced by the Women’s Classical Caucus (WCC) as part of a 3-part series. The WCC was founded in 1972 and is one of the oldest SCS-affiliated groups as well as the largest. The WCC seeks to incorporate feminist perspectives in the study and teaching of ancient Mediterranean cultures and strives to advance equity and diversity within the profession of Classics.
Article:
https://thewell.unc.edu/2020/10/09/beam-keeps-tar-heels-creating/
Interview:
https://eidolon.pub/tending-our-field-and-our-future-6f5db22ca6aa
SCS-WCC COVID-19 Relief Fund (information & donation links):
http://wccaucus.org/covid-19-relief-fund/
https://endeavors.unc.edu/the-magic-of-classics/
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learningfellows/2017/02/01/a-living-language-latin-1-at-play/