Friday 11 July 2025, 12:00 – 14:00
Panels and abstracts
Class and Classics in Scotland
Location: United College, School I
Chair: Reise Watson, (University of St Andrews )
Class and Classics in Scotland
Reise Watson (University of St Andrews)
The paper shall start with an autobiographical introduction – in which I will discuss socio-economic inequality and an academic experience familiar to many working-class students. I will also discuss the rising calls for working-class representation and the need to be aware of socio-economic inequality within Scottish universities After this the discussion will follow an optimistic path. I will discuss how the EDIC and staff collaborated to create the NWCC St Andrews. I will thus discuss the efforts of open-forums, presentations, and our own Student-Staff Survey (there will be a review of the survey’s findings). Furthermore, we will discuss our outreach plans for visiting secondary schools in Scotland and giving talks, where we will present Classics (most secondary-school students in Scotland don’t even know what Classics is). I will then discuss the dialogue of the issue today, as we are seeing a positive change and upwards trend of working-class representation and opportunity in the field. The discussion will close with a review of our progress at St Andrews, how that can influence other institutions, and what we hope to achieve further.
Paper
Scottish Classics Transformed
Henry Stead (University of St Andrews)
“Scotland has long had, what is a desideratum in England, an open ladder for meritorious talent; and until the endowment of secondary education has been so organised that every lad of moderate abilities, however poor, shall be able, if he desires it, to have the training of the secondary school, the outer gate of the University… must be kept open; otherwise many meritorious persons, now actively and usefully engaged in learned professions, must have been excluded at the very outset.” So spoke Professor Lewis Campbell (University of St Andrews) in 1876 to the Royal Commission ’Appointed to inquire into the Universities of Scotland’ (Report, Vol 2, 1878, p. 835). In homage to Christopher Stray, who unveiled the study of English classical education (1830-1960) in his Classics Transformed (1998), this paper will focus on the rich tradition of Scottish classical education, revealing its impressive antiquity and discussing key pressures that changed the course of its fate. It will attempt to provide the broad historical basis of the panel’s general questions, namely: How did we get here? and What is to be done?
Paper
Fairer Scotland Data: Pushing for Policy Change
Lilah Grace Canevaro (University of Edinburgh)
In this paper I pick up on one key recommendation of the 2024 UK Class in Classics Report: collecting class background data on university staff and students. This data is needed to identify structural barriers, differentials in educational and career progression, and the extent of the class pay gap. Class is not a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010, despite campaigns to have it added. The Equality Act also includes the socioeconomic duty (SED), but it is separated out from the characteristics. Because it is not ‘on the list’, it is often ignored. Yet the SED came into force in Scotland as the Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD) in 2018, requiring certain public bodies to consider how their decisions may reduce inequalities caused by socio-economic disadvantage. Scotland is arguably closer to protecting class than is England. Yet the separating out of class in the Act is reflected in how class is treated in action – including in universities. It is not on the EDI agenda we strive to mainstream. Class data is not collected along with EDI data. This lack of data collection creates a blind spot in our EDI approach that cannot continue.
Paper
Quo Vadis? The Relationship between schools and universities in the campaign to revive Classics teaching in Scotland
Alex Imrie (University of Edinburgh)
It can be an intimidating experience arriving at university to study Classics from the Scottish educational system. With no local teacher training centres offering classical subjects, access to the discipline remains incredibly uneven, and the number of senior pupils presented annually for exams represents only a fraction of that seen in elsewhere. This situation is changing, however, with teachers and others enjoying particular success in expanding the provision of Classical Studies, and with plans afoot to bolster Latin.This paper will offer some initial reflections on the implications of such growth for the Scottish university sector, and the potential hurdles faced by Scottish-based university entrants in classical subjects. It will approach the subject from the perspective of the curricular disjoint which currently exists (with university level courses, particularly in Latin, fitting more comfortably with the GCSE/A-Level curriculum than that of the Scottish Qualifications Authority). It will thus pose the question of whether recent success in the state secondary sector, predicated as it is on egalitarianism, represents a problem in the making for tertiary Classics provision. Ultimately this paper will ask how far Scottish-based universities have a duty to cater more of their offerings to students arriving from their local communities.
Paper
Classic(ist)s at the Crossroads: Cultural Identity and East Asian Classicists
Location: United College, Quad Room 31
Chair: Jinyu Liu, (Emory University )
Asian Classicism and the Making of Contemporary Canons
Alexia Wang (Harvard University)
In recent years, we have witnessed a rising interest in Asian reception in classical studies and the success of Asian authors in the international literary circle. Their award-winning compositions incorporate classical allusions at various levels, showing us the vitality of Greco-Roman literary traditions and their still-lively impact on making contemporary canons.In this paper, I will mainly discuss the Homeric elements in the poems of Vietnamese American author Ocean Vuong, and the creative reflections on Platonic philosophy that are presented in Greek Lessons by Han Kang. These two acclaimed authors have successfully grafted classical allusions into their individualised contexts. Legacies from ancient Greece not only promote their international dissemination, but also provide them with an invisible but powerful interlocutor, from which they built their profound contemplations on trauma and disabilities, including but not limited to their Asian odyssey of trespassing the borders of languages, and the limits of speaking (glossa). Their innovative explorations have further facilitated the decolonisation and globalisation of classical antiquity, which demonstrates the great values and future potential of Asian classicism that deserves attention from the Classics discipline, and the need for more interdisciplinary studies in collaboration with East Asian studies and comparative literature.
Paper
Bounded Body and Boundless Nature – A Comparative Study of Sappho fr. 58 and early Chinese Lyrics of Old Age
Pei He (New York University)
This paper explores the expression of aging and mortality in Sappho’s Fragment 58 and the Chinese lyric collection Nineteen Old Poems. By adopting a comparative approach, the study examines differences in poetic modes of expression and their underlying cultural contexts. Sappho’s depiction foregrounds the body, contrasting with the Chinese lyricists’ externalization of feelings through nature. The paper argues that these contrasting approaches reflect broader distinctions between the metaphoric poetics of Greek tradition and the metonymic devices of Chinese literature, particularly the concept of xing, an affective image that integrates human emotions with the natural world.By tracing these poetic differences to the cosmological and philosophical orientations of their respective cultures, the paper situates Greek lyric in a metaphorical framework that often uses nature as a foil or metaphor for human experience, while Chinese lyric reflects an internally cohesive worldview emphasizing interconnectedness. Finally, this paper revisits interpretations of Sappho Fragment 58, offering a fresh perspective on the symbolic role of natural elements in Sappho’s text in the poem’s implied immortality and disembodiment. Through the comparison, the study highlights the duality of Sappho’s imagery: simultaneously celebrating the enduring legacy of poetic creation while lamenting the physical degradation inherent in aging.
Paper
Zhu Xiang and his Classical Muses: Translation and Literary Interactions
Xiyuan Meng (University of St Andrews)
Zhu Xiang is widely recognised as one of the most important scholar-poets who pioneered in modernising Chinese poetry and translating Greek and Latin literature into Chinese. This paper ambitions to answer three interrelated questions: first, on the level of individual poems, how does Zhu Xiang incorporate his translation of classical texts with the new forms of Chinese poetry; and second, how the study of classics informs Zhu Xiang’s own literary creation; and more importantly, what role does Classics play in forming a literary circle. This paper balances literary evidence with correspondence evidence and aims to situate Zhu Xiang’s career as a translator-poet within his social/literary interactions. In this paper, I will first showcase an important mistranslation which, to the best of my knowledge, no one has noticed before, where Zhu Xiang mistakes Thomas Campion’s My Sweetest Lesbia as the original Latin poem of Catullus. After that, I will be discussing is Zhu Xiang’s address to Homer and Aeschylus in the eponymous Chinese poems. I will also argue that Zhu Xiang’s correspondence testifies the formation of his own approach to literature and reflects upon the common experience as an oversea student who studies classical and modern literature in the Anglophone world.
Paper
Changes and challenges: Classical studies and teaching in Japan
Miku Sueyoshi (University of Bern / The Octopus Society)
My paper aims to discuss 1) some ‘Asian’ aspects that have helped me as a student, and could help anyone navigate the vast ocean of Greek and Roman civilisations, and 2) the limitations I am facing as an active tutor who teaches Latin to Japanese school students. The first part is dedicated to a rather positive dimension of being an Asian classicist: a profound feeling of familiarity towards the notion of polytheism. I will go into how a typical Japanese could be exposed to the polytheistic culture in their daily lives without any awareness of it, how this peculiar upbringing has inconspicuously supported me through my academic life, and how I could suggest it bring new insights to our discipline. The second part, on the contrary, focuses on some challenges I am trying to tackle as a teacher who works for an A-Level tutoring service in Japan and is in charge of introducing complete beginners to the world of Classics. It is in the hope to stimulate inspiring discussions on effective (and, occasionally, ineffective) methods of teaching young generations full of curiosity that I present this topic in one of the largest conferences of Classics in the UK.
Paper
Greek Prose I
Location: United College, School III
Chair: Hannah Baldwin, (Royal Holloway, University of London )
The Reception of the Wise Counselor: Homeric and Archaic Wisdom in Isocratean Rhetoric
Eleni Alexandri (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
This paper examines the reception of Homeric and archaic moral traditions in the rhetorical and pedagogical project of Isocrates. It argues that Isocrates appropriates the figure of the sophos—the wise counselor of epic and gnomic poetry—as part of a broader strategy to establish his authority as a moral and civic educator. Central to this reception is his interpretation of phronesis as euboulia (good counsel), which becomes a defining component of rhetorical excellence. While later philosophical treatments of phronesis in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics have received substantial attention, this paper highlights Isocrates’ unique integration of practical wisdom into a rhetorical framework, in which the ability to speak well is equated with the ability to think well. In adopting this stance, Isocrates aligns himself with the ethical tradition of archaic poetry, engaging with the moral exhortations found in the works of Theognis, Solon, Hesiod, and other wisdom poets. By identifying with the poetic tradition, he reclaims and reconfigures archaic wisdom for the needs of classical civic life. The paper thus contributes to the study of classical reception, rhetorical ethics, and the transmission of moral paradigms from archaic to classical antiquity.
Workshop
The Didactic Role of Examples in Platonic Dialogues: A Reappraisal
Iuliia Burtceva (University of Technology Nuremberg)
This paper explores the didactic function of examples in Platonic dialogues, addressing a notable gap in scholarship. While previous scholarship has focused on specific types of examples, such as mathematical or letter ones, or those explicitly theorised in Sophistes and Politikos, this study delves into the seemingly simplistic instances involving artisans, animals, or body parts predominantly found in aporetic and virtue dialogues. Often overlooked or dismissed as mere illustrations, these examples in fact are crucial for philosophical and pedagogical methods employed by Socrates.The research investigates the epistemological status of examples in the process of knowledge acquisition and their function in transitioning from concrete instances to the essence of concepts, reflecting on Plato’s methodological approach. This study further explores whether these examples provide substantive content to arguments, examining their cumulative, complementary, additive, progressively escalating, cyclically repetitive, or contrasting nature.This presentation will offer a glimpse into the detailed analyses performed, focusing on how selected examples from these dialogues substantiate different facets of argumentation and contribute to the broader dialectical objectives of each dialogue, underpinning their central importance in Plato’s pedagogical strategy.
Paper
Speaking to sole rulers: the rhetoric of intellectual authority in Isocrates and his contemporaries
Li Li (King’s College London)
Although the Athenians of the 4th century BCE lived under democracy, kings or tyrants remained important political figures in the Greek world, and one-man rule was a core topic in the political debates of intellectuals. It is particularly noteworthy that there are works by Athenians presenting the interactions between intellectuals and sole rulers, such as Isocrates’ To Philip, To Nicocles, Plato’s The Seventh Letter; Xenophon’s Hiero; and Speusippus’ Letter to Philip. These works show different postures and strategies of speaking to or advising sole rulers, and reflect different conceptions of the role and identity of intellectuals in politics.This paper centers on Isocrates, examining how he presented his engagement with sole rulers in speeches and shaped his rhetorical persona through the engagements, and how it contributes to his intellectual authority in the political area. Furthermore, it compares Isocrates’ approach with those of other writers or the figures they depicted engaging with sole rulers to reveal the broader cultural context and competitive dynamics, as well as the originality of Isocrates’ rhetorical self-construction, especially that oriented at the Athenian audience.
Paper
Homer I
Location: Swallowgate, Seminar Room 3
Chair: Lauren Heilman, (University of Birmingham )
Palaces and Pigsties: generating meaning in the human and animal spaces of the Odyssey.
Rosie Sykes (University of Sydney)
This paper traces correspondences between the descriptions of human dwellings and of animal shelters across the Odyssey. It proposes that a conflation of human and animal spaces occurs in Odysseus’ home prior to the slaughter of the suitors: this contributes (although perhaps deliberately imperfectly) to the dehumanisation of the suitors, and thus to the totalising quality of Odysseus’ victory. While there is nothing new in noting that the suitors are at times described in terms of animals, I propose that a network of comparisons between human and animal throughout the poem serve at times to confirm and at times to cast doubt on justifications for Odysseus’ murderous spree. These comparisons come into play not only in animal similes and scenes of sacrifice, but also in the poem’s seemingly mundane details about the layout of space and the keeping of animals.Borrowing the idea of ‘entanglement’, as applied to ancient Greek human, god and animal by Jeremy McInerney, I suggest that the Odyssey’s narrative brings out the troubling, dangerous side of this aspect of Greek religious thought, underscoring the perils of stooping to the animal level oneself in order to dehumanise opponents.
Paper
Conceptual Blending Theory and the Presentations of the Dead in Homer.
Bertie Norman (Roehampton university)
This paper examines the role that Conceptual Integration Theory (also called Conceptual Blending Theory or Blending) plays in the image-making of the dead in Homer. Fauconnier and Turner coined the term to describe a cognitive process where a person merges a series of mental images (inputs) together to conceptualise and imagine new scenarios. I argue that Homer merges the image of the embodied man and the last breath together to present a series of conceptions of post-mortem existence: namely that the dead person’s selfhood continues in the afterlife, that the shade is able to have the same life-like faculties as the living person and also be deficient and witless like the corpse. The significance of this study is twofold. First, it will explain the cognitive mechanisms that are responsible for Homeric world building and composition. Second, the model can explain cross-cultural parallels between Homeric and near eastern presentations of the dead, since Conceptual Blending Theory describes a universal process of human cognition.
Paper
Do you hate them enough to eat them? Anthropophagi as metaphor for hatred in the Iliad and its significance in a war context
Olivia Moller (Stellenbosch University)
In the Iliad, there are a handful of instances where characters use biting language in relation to human flesh or another character in the epic. These instances, beyond shocking the reader, allow for the character to express strong emotions, such as hatred, toward another character. This presentation will briefly discuss three selected instances of the language use and the significance of the text’s context, that of brutal war. The context is important for the discussion of these instances due to the unique breakdown of societal norms which allows for the use of ‘flesh-eating’ metaphors. While Cannibalism is often associated with barbarianism in a contemporary context, it is interesting to note that the Greeks had no singular word for the act. Thus, the use of this metaphor in the Iliad by figures such as Achilles (a Greek hero), Hera (a goddess), and Hecuba (a Trojan queen) could potentially be a vehicle for communicating something more nuanced than generally assumed. Ultimately, these characters’ use of ‘flesh-eating’ metaphors can be related to power dynamics innate to warfare, and the description of war itself as inherently cannibalistic identifies it as the entity responsible for the perpetuation of cycles of hatred and destruction.
Paper
‘Daimoni, in you among all women’: Recovering the Kleos of Homer’s Heroines
Eirene Allen (Institute for Classics Education), Eirene Allen (Institute for Classics Education)
In modern reception, Homer’s heroines have too often been dismissed as props who move men toward their κλέος but have no share in it themselves. Yet Homer portrays them as essential heroic figures. Helen weaves the story of the Trojan war. Andromache possesses grief so powerful that it can generate eternal memory. Penelope’s ‘heart of iron’ enables her to shape the return of her husband, achieved through ‘weaving’, literally and metaphorically, two critical schemes.Misconceptions about feminine heroes have been fuelled, to a degree, by the challenge of translating a key word in the Greek text, δαίμων, which Gregory Nagy defines as an immortal force, god or hero, capable of shaping mortal outcomes. This paper will track the use of δαίμων in four pivotal scenes: Helen and Aphrodite’s interaction in Iliad 3, Andromache and Hector’s interaction in Iliad 6, and Penelope and Odysseus’ interactions in Odyssey 19 and 23. In the process, this paper will argue that Homer portrays all three women being as essential to the institution of epic as are the warrior heroes. Each in her own way ‘weaves’ the institution of epic, not only conveying epic fame (κλέος) but possessing it in her own right.
Paper
Maritime
Location: United College, School V
Chair: Alex Elliott, (Independent )
New Perspectives on the Location of Ἴκτιν of Diodorus Siculus
Ben Sumpter (Cornwall Archaeological Society)
Ἴκτιν – or Ictis – features prominently in the earliest piece of written history concerning the British Isles, that of Pytheas of Massalia, dating from around 2300yrs ago. Ictis was the place were British tin from Cornwall and Devon was shipped before being sold to merchants and transported to the continent and mediterranean. A multidisciplinary study has been undertaken to evaluate the location of Ictis, the first since 1970, considering themes of toponymy, phonology, textual criticism, paleo-geomorphology and the classical disciplines. Critical analysis of Diodorus’ text reveal axioms by which to test evidence. The effects of Glacio-isostatic adjustment on steric sea level are considered for the first time, as well as new phonological and archaeological evidence. There is a strong agreement between independent sources that associate Ἴκτιν with the “Ουηκτίς” of Ptolemy, referring to the Isle of Wight. Diodorus’ inter-tidal criteria are found to match the geomorphology of the Wight hinterland, in particular Portsea, Hayling, Thorny and Selsea Islands. Wight’s central roll as a trading hub throughout history, including for metalliferous commodities, is considered in this context. The results of the paper aim to glimpse light on a two thousand year old mystery and propose questions for future studies.
Paper
Fleets of War or Fleets of Corn? Reassessing the Naval Forces of the Vandal Kingdom
Alex Elliott (Independent)
For almost a century, the Vandal Kingdom (439 – 534 CE) was the most feared naval power of the Mediterranean world. Literary sources describe various far-flung naval raids which, from the kingdom’s capital of Carthage, impacted coastal communities in both the western and eastern Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic. Yet, despite this fearsome ancient reputation, Vandal naval power has often been downplayed or even outright dismissed in modern scholarship. Instead, these naval successes have typically been viewed as more of an indication of Roman weakness rather than Vandal strength. As such, the Vandals have often been treated as little more than opportune raiders who, through the seizure of the Carthage grain fleet, were able to take advantage of an empire collapsing around them. This paper aims to challenge this view, reassessing both the origins of Vandal naval resources and the extent of their capabilities at sea. Through the incorporation of more modern understandings of ancient military and naval organisation, this paper will reexamine the fleets and types of ships employed by both the Vandals and the Roman Empire during the period in question. From this approach, a more balanced understanding of Vandal naval power will be provided.
Paper
Lies, Damned Lies, and Ship-tistics: Modelling Mediterranean Economic Activity Through Shipwrecks
Rowan Munnery ()
Charts showing the rise and fall of Mediterranean shipwrecks have become a widely accepted proxy for ancient economic activity, particularly emphasizing the Roman imperial peak and late antique decline. However, the biases in data collection, preservation, and presentation significantly affect their reliability. This paper uses the 2021 MAPS dataset to highlight four key issues with such charts. First, uneven archaeological survey coverage amplifies certain regional trends while overlooking others. Second, aggregating data across the entire Mediterranean conceals significant regional differences, especially between east and west. Third, dating imprecision and inconsistent temporal resolution can radically alter perceived turning points in economic narratives. Finally, shifts in material culture—especially between perishable and durable cargoes—affect what survives underwater, distorting the archaeological record. These factors show that shipwreck frequency data, while valuable, must be critically assessed. More broadly, the paper argues that historians should approach statistical visualizations with caution, especially when underlying uncertainties are not adequately addressed.
Paper
Modern Novel I
Location: United College, Quad Room 30
Chair: David Larmour, (Texas Tech University )
Against Happiness: A Comparative Reading of Euripides’ Medea and Papadiamantis’ The Murderess
Afroditi Angelopoulou (University of Southern California)
This paper proposes a comparative reading of Euripides’ Medea and Alexandros Papadiamantis’ The Murderess as what Sara Ahmed calls “unhappy archives” (Ahmed 2010a, 12)—namely as texts that challenge the history of happiness by considering those who are traditionally banished from it (viz. “the troublemakers, wretches, strangers, dissenters, killers of joy”; Ahmed 2010b, 573). In particular, the Medea’s concern with the semantics of (un)happiness is made manifest by the way the various related terms (olbos, eudaimonia, eutuchia, dustuchia, sumphora, etc.) pervade the dramatic narrative. Through its eponymous protagonist, who opts for “permanent pain” and “misfortune” (Med. 1245; 1250), the Euripidean tragedy highlights, as well as interrogates, the gendered discourse of happiness. Similarly, the central figure of The Murderess, Frankojannou, who bears striking similarities to the Euripidean heroine (see, e.g., Hatzimavroudi 2007), offers a radical redefinition of the term (“disaster is happiness”), by determining that “nothing is exactly what it seems” (36, 446). Ultimately, both texts put on center stage the struggle against the family as the “happy object” (Ahmed 2010a, 21), fundamentally questioning the pleasure arising from our proximity to what has been traditionally deemed a constituent element of the good life.
Paper
It simply doesn’t matter: metempsychosis ‘from the Greek’ in James Joyce’s Ulysses
Robin Fodor (University of St Andrews)
Homeric allusions in James Joyce’s ‘monster-novel’ Ulysses have been by turns defended or written off as an ‘intellectual practical Joke’ (McGrath 1986). This paper addresses another category of classical receptions, of topics pondered or discussed by the characters, bringing their own cultural backgrounds and spheres of understanding to the concept of life after death. ‘Metempsychosis’ – i.e. the transmigration of souls, or rebirth – has been well received by Joyce scholars, but the concept’s classical intertexts have previously been ignored. The protagonist Leopold Bloom defines it in the text as ‘from the Greek’; Joyce also depicts metempsychosis in action, as it is imagined by various characters, and this can be traced intertextually back through allusions to Ovid’s depiction of Pythagoras in Metamorphoses, Aristotle’s conception of entelechy in De Anima, and other texts from the Renaissance which themselves engaged in classical reception to form their depictions. As these intertexts contrast with allusions to contemporary spiritualist movements, metempsychosis offers fertile ground to examine what people of many different classical education standards understood ‘from the Greek’ to mean in Dublin in 1904.
Paper
Narcissus in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
Fotini Gkotzampasopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
In this paper, I will highlight the influence of the story of Narcissus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (3.318-510) (1st century) on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (19th century). Narcissus and Dorian appear as vain young men, who are captivated by their own beauty upon seeing its reflection in the fountain and the portrait. Subsequently, they exhibit arrogance, “move” on the edge of self-awareness and are being lead to their downfall: Narcissus to death and transformation (3.404-5, 509) and Dorian to suicide (p. 247-8). Both stories are enriched with erotic, elegiac and romantic aspects, the motif of locus amoenus, the ancient Greek moral scheme of hubris, ate, nemesis and tisis etc. Wilde was deeply classicist. With aestheticism as his primary tool, which aligns with elegy, achieves a reimagining of the story of Narcissus. Both Narcissus and Dorian embody the perfect image of the modern “ego”. The influence will be examined through the common motifs: (1) beauty, youth and arrogance, (2) Echo, (3) passion and reflection, (4) self-awareness and delusion and (5) downfall. Moreover, another interpretation of the works reveals the imprint of the artist in both stories; the artist identifies with the respective authors, both were innovative for their time.
Paper
The Panathenaea: Sensory Experiences and Cognitive Approaches I
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 1
Chairs: Ellie Mackin Roberts and Ben Cassell, (University of Bristol and King’s College London )
Reflecting the Snake: The constellation Draco and Agency Detection in the Panathenaea
Amy Arden (University of Leicester)
The symbol of the snake was prevalent throughout the Greater and Lesser Panathenaea, including a celestial monument to Athena, the constellation Draco. Myth tells that Athena snatched the snake during the Gigantomachy and hurled it into the sky where it remains a symbol of her prowess. Archaeoastronomical research has demonstrated that the Panathenaea occurred when the head of Draco reached its astronomical culmination (Boutsikas 2020) and would have formed an impressive sight (of cult significance) in the northern sky, seen from the Acropolis.On the ground below, the Panathenaic Way was lined with celebrants carrying torches, which would have been especially notable during the torch race from the Groves of Academus (northwest of the Dipylon Gate). The path of the race, connecting with the Way, runs in a straight line until it curves around the terrain of the Acropolis. The neck and head of Draco are shaped very similarly, and the constellation’s position at culmination would have reflected the torch-illuminated Way below, creating competing lateral focuses (C. Wood, forthcoming). Consequently, the citizens in the Panathenaic procession, and particularly the participants of the Torch Races, created a mirror image of the Draco constellation, as seen from the Acropolis.
Paper
Time’s Sacred Thread: Chronoception and Ritual Labour in the Weaving of the Panathenaic Peplos
Ellie Mackin Roberts (University of Bristol)
This paper examines the temporal dimensions of ritual weaving of Athena’s peplos by the arrhephoroi and ergastinai, arguing that this nine-month process created distinct modes of chronoception mediating between sacred and mundane time. Through analysis of ancient sources and theoretical frameworks of ritual temporality, this study demonstrates how the measured pace of weaving generated a unique temporal experience transcending ordinary chronological time.The investigation centres on three interconnected aspects: the relationship between feminine ritual labour and sacred time; embodied experience of repetitive weaving as temporal marking; and integration of natural, ritual, and craft-based temporal frameworks. Drawing upon archaeological evidence, literary sources, and contemporary theories of craft, this paper proposes that peplos weaving structured individual and collective experiences of time in ancient Athens. The isolation and focused labour of the weaving party created a temporal bubble parallel to, yet separate from, ordinary civic time – a displacement essential to the ritual’s efficacy. The rhythm of weaving movements created bodily engagement with time, transforming abstract ritual requirements into lived embodied experience.This analysis contributes to broader discussions about craft, ritual, and temporal experience in ancient societies, offering new perspectives on how sacred objects acquired ritual potency through temporal conditions of creation.
Paper
Sensing the ‘might of the gods’: Embodied cognition and arousal in the Panathenaic apobatai.
Ben Cassell (King’s College London)
The apobatic race is understood as being one of the more visually arresting and physically exertive of the Panathenaic athletic contests. The race is likewise discussed as having Erichthonios as its recognized founder, commemorating the invention of the chariot and symbolically celebrating Athenian citizenship in general. In this paper, through an examination of the textual, visual, and archaeological sources, I consider the apobatic race in relation to the sensory-cognitive experiences afforded by both observing and performing this event. Specific theoretical models relating to de-centering, emotional arousal, and costly signalling in ritual contexts will be considered in line with the emerging understanding of the role of mirror neurons in sport spectators and group cohesion. Moreover, rather than simply acting as a performative symbol of Athenian foundational age, a core aspect to this argument will be that rather than simply alluding to Erichthonios, the apobatai would have specifically referenced Athena fighting the Gigantomachy via the adoption of set poses and actions. Experiencing this race, would ‘simulate the might of the gods’ (Dem, Erotic, 61.64) and an interaction with the cultural memory of the Gigantomachy at an sensory-motor level and bringing performer, audience, king and goddess into an embodied alignment.
Paper
Queer I
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 3
Chair: Millie Marriott, (University of Bristol )
The Evolution of the Intersex Narrative: The Myth of Becoming Hermaphroditus
Thomas Barrett (Royal Holloway University of London)
The Evolution of the Intersex Narrative: The Myth of Becoming HermaphroditusThis paper explores the (surprising lack of) evolution of the intersex narrative, starting with the impact Ovid’s myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis in Book IV of the Metamorphoses has had on three twenty-first century intertexts: Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex (2002), Kathleen Winter’s Annabel (2011) and Abigail Tarttelin’s Golden Boy (2013). Whilst there has been a resurgence of interest in queer narratives and the reclamation of queer mythology, Ovid’s Hermaphroditus (and intersex narratives) are comparatively lacking in both study and creative receptions. What is prevalent, from Ovid to now, is the shift from simply being intersex as a valid and natural state of being to becoming intersex through sexual violence as a rite of passage or even creation. Whether it is the Metamorphoses or Golden Boy, intersex characters are either created or validated through horrific experiences; this paper explores why that is and argues for a greater interest and care when reading or creating receptions of Hermaphroditus as it is through stories that we develop empathy and an understanding of those around us, how we learn to accept or reject those who are different, bringing Ovid into the twenty-first century.
Paper
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Role of Classical Myth in the Construction of Queer London
Jamie Doughty (SOAS)
In 1886, for reasons unknown, a statue of Antinous – Roman Emperor Hadrian’s adolescent lover – replaced a Gladiatorial statue atop University College London’s front portico. As Foucault tells us, it was at exactly this time that homosexuality began to assume a distinct cultural form within Victorian London and, within this development, Antinous played an essential role as the beau-ideal London’s burgeoning queer community. While ostensibly a liberatory figure within early homosexual discourse, the relatively sparse information available concerning the historical Antinous allowed for cultural convictions concerning race, empire, self-sacrifice and even internalised homophobia to be imported into his figuration. This narrative complicates the otherwise-innocuous installation of his likeness on UCL’s portico, raising essential questions about the history, politics and presence of queerness in 19th century London. In building on Saadiya Hartman’s method of fabulation, this paper seeks to push the narrative we can tell of lives both Anitous his Victorian devotees beyond the limits of the colonised and redacted archive available to us. In doing so, I seek to speculate upon what his presence among the public architecture of London’s principle educational institution could have meant for those who placed him there and can mean those who meat him there today.
Paper
Neo-Latin and Classics Reception in “Autobiography of an Androgyne”
Lee Lanzillotta (American University of Rome)
The 1918 English-language Autobiography of an Androgyne by the pseudonymous Ralph Werther, a self-identified androgyne or fairy and professional journalist who wrote multiple memoirs in defense of himself and others struggling with their sexuality and gender identity, remains under-researched. This extends to the author’s conspicuous use of Latin, which creates a further barrier in a time in which few aside from specialists are trained to read the language. While the book is primarily in English, individual Latin words, phrases, and brief passages in Latin are found throughout the work. Even a contemporaneous review of Autobiography notes his use of the language, describing the facts of Werther’s private life as being “set forth in a peculiar mixture of English and Latin.” Latin most often appears within a sexual context, with one of the longest sections of uninterrupted Latin being a description of one of the sexual assaults Werther suffered. In this paper I will endeavor to demonstrate that his use of Latin and Classical references, most blatantly his interest in the myth of the Hermaphrodite, relates to his desire to legitimize himself to a hostile society and, more specifically, in the eyes of the medical profession.
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“When Bear Left Bear”: Queer Ursine Assemblages in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 2 and Joanna Newsom’s ‘Monkey and Bear’
Izzy Levy (Independent scholar)
Consider the dancing bear, that contradictory combination of gendered attributes — a lumbering, hairy beast domesticated into delicate movements and frilly costume. This paper offers a queer reading of two such bear-women, ancient and contemporary: Callisto of Ovid’s Metamorphoses 2.401-531 and the eponymous Bear of American folk musician Joanna Newsom’s ‘Monkey and Bear’ (2006). This parallel is not a claim of genealogical reception that positions Newsom’s text as a linear inheritor of Ovid’s Callisto. Rather, I practice the situated and associative assemblage theory of reception for which Marchella Ward (2019) has advocated. This paper intertwines close readings of both texts with Ward’s interventions into reception theory, Jack Halberstam’s queer critical work on animal figuration (2020), and Roman literary and natural historical sources on (she-)bears. Thus, I present Callisto and Bear’s narratives as mutually illuminating, shining a light on the cross-temporal queer potentialities of the (she-)bear as a figure for women’s gender non-conformity — and its avenues for resistance to violent reprisals — in both Classical and contemporary contexts.
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The Reception of Classical Material Culture: Pedagogical Approaches in UK Universities
Location: Papers — Swallowgate, Seminar Room 4.
Handling session — St Martyrs Kirk, Napier Reading Room.
Chair: Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis and Lenia Kouneni, (University of St Andrews )
Please register in advance:
Places are limited. Please sign up for this session at the registration desk in the Younger Hall from 09:30 – 11:30.
Teaching Material Receptions Through Theory and Practice
Shelley Hales (University of Bristol)
This paper explains approaches to teaching reception of material culture in a department in which literary reception has ruled supreme since the 1990s. We have no units dedicated to material reception. Instead, units that approach visual and material culture blend ancient and modern with increasing theoretical sophistication as students progress.Flipping the emphasis from ‘classical tradition’ or ‘history of archaeology’ to reception has important implications for the classroom. Students enact reception by exploring their own responses, creating opportunities for active learning and authentic assessment. First years create exhibition catalogues, practising close visual analysis whilst reflecting on the relationship between the assembled pieces and the display contexts they have devised. Second years exploit the idea of Rome as palimpsest by plotting virtual tours between two ancient buildings at a point in time of their choosing. Third years create policy documents, design tour packages and make synopses of their own creative reception of Pompeii’s ‘last days’.Teaching material culture inextricably from reception ties allows students to see the ‘real world’ applicability of theory; empowers them to insert themselves into that reception story; and accelerates the development of their critical responses to contemporary presentations and interpretations of classical culture.
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Teaching Classical Reception through the Classical Tradition: revaluating the legacy of Aby Warburg in teaching histories of classical art today
Edmund Thomas (Durham University)
Classical Reception is now the dominant pedagogical model for teaching about the persistence of classical culture. By contrast, older understandings of classically influenced art and architecture have been defined by Aby Warburg’s paradigm of an enduring classical tradition. The module I teach in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, home to the Durham Centre for Classical Reception, aims to help students deal with these potentially contradictory approaches and to understand the endurance and diversity of our classical heritage not only in terms of individual encounters between artist and source, taking account of gender, sexuality, and race, but also in terms of a longstanding tradition, as successively defined from Alberti to Panofsky.The two assignments for the module lead students to engage directly with these issues, confronting what Carrie Vout calls the “battleground”, “misappropriation”, and “contested narrative” of classical art: first, a broad-based, inclusive exhibition of works selected from different periods that reflect on a common classical theme and provoke comparisons; and second, an in-depth analysis of a single work, its contexts, and encounters with “the Classical”. This paper assesses how teaching from both perspectives supports a dynamic view of the visual endurance of the classical world.
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‘Teaching Classical Reception: a View from Art History’
Caroline van Eck (University of Cambridge)
Abstract to be uploaded.
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Handling session in the University of St Andrews Special Collections
Lenia Kouneni (University of St Andrews), Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis (University of St Andrews)
This is a handling session, part of the panel The Reception of Classical Material Culture: Pedagogical approaches in UK Universities, led by Lenia Kouneni and Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, showcasing holdings of the University of St Andrews collections used in teaching by the Schools of Classics and Art History. Items include Grand Tour journals and artists’ sketch books, printed material including Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei, plaster cameos collected in Italy, a miniature plaster cast of the frieze of Bassae by John Henning, a Tassie cameo portrait and nineteenth-century photographs of classical sites. We will discuss how we have used these objects in a variety of modules and levels. We will also discuss student feedback on these sessions and site visits, teasing out how these feature in the students’ learning journeys, especially in a Scottish educational context. First and second year undergraduate students at Scottish universities have the opportunity and flexibility to take modules outside of their specialised pathways. This brings into our classrooms diverse learners, creating both challenges and opportunities for students and lecturers.
Handling session
Religion
Location: United College, School II
Chair: Rebecca Hachamovitch, (University of St Andrews )
Cognition and the Trustworthiness of Roman Divination
Rebecca Hachamovitch (University of St Andrews)
To what extent did the Romans of the Republic view divinatory rituals as trustworthy sources of information? Was divination trustworthy only to those who ‘believed’ in its religious underpinnings? This paper offers an interdisciplinary approach to these questions grounded in cognitive science.The matter of ‘belief’ in ancient religion has long been a contentious issue in Classics. On divination, scholarship rarely distinguishes between ‘reasons to consult divination’ and ‘reasons to believe divined information is accurate.’ Focusing on the latter, this paper explores how these rituals could increase Roman audiences’ estimation of divination’s ability to produce reliable and truthful information. By framing divination as an informational technology subject to cognitive mechanisms of epistemic vigilance and exploring how the ritual methods may have skewed audiences’ perceptions of epistemic value, we can investigate whether belief in ritual efficacy necessarily relies on religious ‘belief’ in divine involvement in the ritual. This paper investigates how cues of ostensive detachment, the quasi-empiricism of ritual science, the historical tradition of CrEDs (Credibility Enhancing Displays), and overrepresented ritual success could inflate audience perceptions. This approach allows the realistically heterogenous degrees of Roman ‘belief’ to coexist with the widespread consultation of different types of divination across diverse demographics.
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Μία πόλιϛ, δύο ὄψειϛ. Encounters in Late Antique Alexandria: The Two Worlds of the Female Philosopher Hypatia and Bishop Cyril
Soraya Sophie Schwensow (University of Oxford)
Throughout classical reception, Hypatia of Alexandria has acquired an almost mythical status, symbolic for various movements. Often contrasted with Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, she is portrayed as his ideological opponent. By examining and comparing their respective viewpoints, this claim is reassessed, while also gaining an understanding of the conflict surrounding them and revealing parallels to modern religious disputes. In an environment where political, economic, and external factors led to a decline in tolerance, Hypatia and Cyril were distinguished by their views on legal and economic changes under Christian emperors, as well as the destruction of the Serapeum in AD 392. Cyril, aligned with the Christian Church, benefited from and frequently promoted these changes. In contrast, Hypatia, in her advisory role, sided with the city government, seeking to control outbreaks of violence. Their direct interaction was limited, occurring mainly through Egypt’s prefect, Orestes.Despite these differences, Hypatia and Cyril shared striking similarities in their abilities as intellectuals, their prestige, and their positions as leaders with a wide sphere of influence. Furthermore, Neoplatonism – practised by Hypatia – and Christianity had many parallels. As contemporaries in Alexandria, their lives intersected, and their differences may not have been as significant as they appear at first.
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Membra Moribunda: Limbs and their Bodies in Proba’s Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi
Ruth Mitchell-Fox (University of Cambridge)
This paper seeks to find meaningful resonance between the fragmented body parts depicted in Proba’s Cento Vergilianus and the fragmented (‘membral’) poetics of cento itself. It so doing, it builds towards a novel way of understanding the theological function of biblical cento in its fourth-century context. Moving past scholarly preoccupation with Proba’s role as the paradigmatic ‘weaver’ of centos, I reframe cento not as ‘stitching’ fragmented Virgilian lines into a cohesive unity, but rather revelling in its own fragmentariness. For example, Proba’s limbs become the conduit through which divine inspiration is mediated, and various forms of limb (serpentine, arboreal and human) bind together key soteriological events in a form of pseudo-typology.Drawing on Derrida’s theoretical framework in Le Toucher, Proba’s Cento Vergilianus can be understood as presenting the corporeal limb and centonic line together as ‘approximating’ the body of the (in)corporeal Christian God, reflecting on the ultimately fragmentary and incomplete nature of mortal, poetic representation.
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A New Shrine of the Egyptian Gods in Athens
Brian Martens (University of St Andrews)
A votive assemblage was excavated in 1947 from a well located on the north slope of the Areopagos, Athens, within the zone of the Agora Excavations. The material, largely unpublished, was discarded from a local shrine in the mid to late 3rd century CE, presumably during cleanup operations following the Herulian sack in 267 CE. The assemblage includes several striking pieces of marble statuary: a gilded head of a goddess, possibly carved in the 4th century BCE; a small-scale head of a herm, given a waxy polish by generations of worshippers; a small-scale head of Aphrodite; and an intact statuette of Herakles. In addition, nearly 40 terracotta lamps (some oversized), small votive vessels, and a range of terracotta figurines were found in the deposit. My research identifies the material as belonging to a nearby shrine of the Egyptian Gods. The gilded head is provisionally identified as the cult image of Isis, transformed from an older image of Aphrodite. This paper concludes by situating the assemblage within the Athenian cults of the Egyptian gods more widely.
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Renaissance Reception I
Location: Younger Hall, Stewart Room
Chair: Francesco Sironi, (Università degli Studi di Milano / Liceo Statale “Antonio Banfi” )
Rewriting Empire: Translating Ubertino Carrara’s Columbus: Carmen Epicum into English
Jordi Alonso (Louisiana State University)
Ubertino Carrara’s Columbus: Carmen Epicum (1715) is a 12-book Neo-Latin epic of over 9,000 hexameters that has never been translated into English. Composed by a Jesuit professor of rhetoric in Rome, the poem reimagines Christopher Columbus’s first voyage through the lens of classical epic, blending Classical imitatio with early modern anxieties about empire, environmental degradation, and cross-cultural exchange. Far from being a triumphalist celebration of conquest, Carrara’s Columbus centres on an explorer whose journey is prophesied to “tear into the sinews of the earth” (I.111–115), a striking metaphor for the disruptive and extractive consequences of exploration.Drawing on my ongoing work as the first translator of this epic, I explore the challenges of rendering Carrara’s layered language and hexametric structure for modern readers. Carrara’s language, rich in theatrical and architectural metaphors, invites his audience to grapple with the costs of empire, presenting Columbus’s voyage as both an extraordinary feat and an act of hubris that runs, at first, counter to god’s plan. The poem’s Christian and pagan imagery reflects the complexities of Jesuit thought in an age defined by exploration and conquest.
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New World Geographies: Sepúlveda’s Translation of Politics 7.7
Ashley Lance (University of Cambridge)
Juan Gínes Sepúlveda, born in 1490 near Cordoba, was a scholar of Aristotle and the rhetorical arm of the Spanish monarchy’s attempts to justify and subjugate Indigenous peoples. His status as a scholar on Aristotle and his arguments for the enslavement of Indigenous peoples collided through his writings – first by a Latin translation of Aristotle’s Politics and second, through a series of debates known as the Valladolid debates. In these debates, Sepúlveda creates a complex and nuanced argument in favor of Spain – utilizing Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery. This paper seeks to unpack the relationship between his translation and the arguments he advanced during the debates. I will point to Sepúlveda’s translation and commentary on Politics 7.7, where Aristotle attributes certain character traits to particular places. In his commentary, he locates Spain as one of the areas Aristotle thinks provides the best character traits for citizens. I will use this as a pivotal moment where Sepúlveda leaps from being a careful scholar of Aristotle to an advocate for imperial and colonial Spain. From here, this paper contends that there is a strong and crucial connection between his commentary and arguments on the superiority of Spaniards over Indigenous people.
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Translating the Phaedrus in the 15th century: the case of Leonardo Bruni
Salvatore Pettrone (Sapienza University of Rome / University of St Andrews)
Plato is undoubtedly the classical author with the liveliest tradition in Humanism: his early presence at the beginning of the 15th century, as well as the translations of his dialogues by Leonardo Bruni testify his legacy. One of the major dialogues of Plato, the Phaedrus, was translated for the first time by Bruni himself: this version occupies a relevant position, as attested by the 39 codices that I have been able to catalogue. Completed in the first half of 1424, the work was labelled by his critic, the humanist Ambrogio Traversari as a deforme fragmentum, due to its fragmentary translation, which completely omits the final part, an excursus on the history of rhetoric and its function. Bruni reduced significant portions of the dialogue, with the omissions of the Lysias’s speech (summarised in codices with recitatio orationis Lysie satis longa), some inversions and the insertion of the myth of the winged chariot in an unexpected passage. The aim of this paper is to present this unedited translation, explaining how Bruni translated the Greek text and what he understood of the Platonic philosophy contained in the Phaedrus, by choosing particular words and excluding/censoring important passages of the dialogue.
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Roman Imperial History
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 4
Chair: Paolo Costa, (University of Genoa – Pontifical Biblical Institute )
The New Testament as a Source for Greco-Roman History A Critical Examination of Fresh Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Paolo Costa (University of Genoa – Pontifical Biblical Institute), Paolo Costa (University of Genoa – Pontifical Biblical Institute)
The presence of historically verifiable data within the New Testament has been acknowledged by exegetes since the Humanistic period. Some scholars regard it as an indicator of credibility, while others consider it a sign of fiction, arguing that such data do not warrant particular significance. For much of the 20th century, historical-critical exegetes, particularly Germanophone scholars, approached these data with considerable skepticism. Anglophone exegetes have traditionally been more confident in the veracity of these elements. The development in recent years has been the growing interest among scholars of Roman, Greek, and legal history in considering the New Testament as a reliable historical source. The aim of this paper is to critically present these numerous recent contributions by historians who interpret New Testament data as significant for reconstructing the social, political, and legal context of the early Roman Empire. This approach, which starts with the text to better reconstruct the context, is also valuable for exegetes, enabling them to revisit the text with a historically accurate perspective. Furthermore, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the presence of such data, particularly the importance of the application of Roman law, is crucial for understanding the relationships between Judaism and early Christianity.
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Pompeiian Mill-Bakeries: Spatial Organization and Social Interaction
Madeleine Rubin (University of St Andrews)
This paper examines bread production and the daily lives of those who worked in mill-bakeries during the first century CE. Bread was the staple food across the ancient Mediterranean; however, there is little textual evidence about those who produced the bread that fed the Roman Empire. The most significant body of evidence relating to the lives of mill-bakers is the archaeological remains of mill-bakeries from the city of Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. This paper analyzes the spatial organization of bread production within these mill-bakeries and applies the methodologies of spatial syntax – a theory of spatial relations developed by B. Hillier and J. Hanson – to determine patterns of movements within the mill-bakeries. By combining these methodologies with artistic and literary descriptions of Roman mill-bakeries, this paper provides insight into the lived experiences of the mill-bakers who fed the Roman Empire.
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Rabbis and Revolutionaries: History meets Theology
Anthony Sheppard (Independent Scholar)
My paper will provide a relatively simple illustration of the need to blend evidence from several specialisms to arrive at a rounded assessment of how Jews, Christians and others reacted to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by Roman forces in 70 CE. An article on this topic was published by me under the title ‘Rabbis and Revolutionaries: Dealing with the Destruction of the Second Temple’ in The Reform Jewish Quarterly (Central Conference of American Rabbis Journal), 71 (2024), 85-101.The substantive point most relevant to a classical audience is the suggestion that the diaspora revolt of 115-17 may have influenced Hadrian’s strategic decision to withdraw from Trajan’s eastern conquests.The specialisms involved are Roman History, New Testament studies, Apocalyptic Literature and Rabbinic Literature. Sources include inscriptions, papyri and coins, as well as literary material. A particular problem with Rabbinic Literature is that it is rarely possible to securely date comments and anecdotes about historical events. The original languages of the literary sources include Greek, Latin, and Hebrew/Aramaic and their dating ranges from the 1st to (at least) the 6th century CE.
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Maghrebian shadows in ancient Rome. Tracing North Africa’s Legacy in Ancient Rome From the Punic Wars to the African Emperors (146 BCE – 218 CE)
Fenna Visser (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Following growing scholarly interest in multiculturalism and (previously) marginalized groups, this research aims to situate people from North-African descent in ancient Rome by highlighting their multi-layered omnipresence in Roman society. From the Punic wars up until the African Emperors in the second century CE, the presence and position of people from North-African descent in ancient Rome evolved and developed. Initially, North-Africans were mainly part of the lower social classes in Rome, for example as prisoners of war. Gradually, more and more people managed to utilize their unique products and skills to establish successful commercial businesses in the city. Then, starting from the early Imperial period, many North-African writers, senators and even emperors made for a strong political and cultural dominance in the second century CE. In sum, this research highlights the integral and impactful presence of North-Africans in all layers of the Roman economic, political and social domains. This foregrounding of an often marginalized urban minority in ancient Rome can contribute to the newly emerged paradigm of decoloniality and Critical Ancient World Studies, which attempts to counter the assumption of the universal value of a (historical) ‘West’, criticize Eurocentrism and provide a more global perspective on ancient history.
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We Will Rock you I: New Contexts and Approaches for Latin Epigraphy
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 2
Chair: Katharina Korthaus, (Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca )
Amoris ignes si sentires, mulio / magis properares ut videres Venerem. Gender, genre, and epigraphic writing in Pompeii’s erotic poetry.
Alessandra Tafaro (British School at Rome)
With the exception of a few named authors, epigraphic poems survive as intentionally anonymous. The absence of the canonising forces of a named author and manuscript transmission spurred scholars to identify epigraphic poetry as ‘popular’, ‘testimony to an aspiration, almost painful, towards culture’ (Courtney: 1995). Examination of archaeological contexts, however, transforms scholarly perceptions of epigraphic texts as evidence of the ‘less educated’. Precisely because inscriptions are anonymous, anyone from any social standing could claim authorship over these texts.By bridging the gulf between literary criticism and studies in visual and material culture, this paper investigates anonymity as a theoretical framework with which to reconsider poetic production in relation to status, class, and gender. Since the production of epigraphic texts was controlled by men, uncovering authentic female authors has proved challenging. By examining a set of erotic graffiti written in a female voice from Pompeii, the paper will explore how anonymous authorship redefines our perspectives on gender negotiations and gender performances in early-imperial epigraphic culture. Via analysis of two main case-studies, CIL IV 5296 and CIL IV 8873, the paper will interrogate the political assumptions at play in the still common practice of interpreting female writers as male authors in disguise.
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Buried Poems: A Literary Approach to the Monument of the Statilii
Grace Funsten (University of Pittsburgh)
The Monument of the Statilii was a subterranean columbarium near Rome that served enslaved and freed people in the familia of Titus Statilius Taurus (cos. 11 CE). Remarkably, ten verse epitaphs have survived among its extant inscriptions, more than three times the number of poems found in any other columbarium. My project focuses on these verse inscriptions to consider how literary display functioned as a commemorative strategy within the community served by the Monument of the Statilii. Some extant poems from this columbarium display distinct literary ambitions through allusions to Augustan poetry. For example, CIL 6.6502 opens with a clear reference to Propertius 4.11.1. This epitaph’s literary engagement is in dialogue with the emphasis on reading and writing that appears in many other epitaphs in the columbarium through verse and through job titles, such as secretaries (CIL 6.6273), shorthand writers (CIL 6.6224), and copyists (CIL 6.6314-15). Literary skill appears as a clear method of commemorative display within this community. The verse epitaphs of the Monument of the Statilii thus offer us a glimpse of the poetic traditions of enslaved and freed people at Rome, as well as an opportunity to more fully understand the value of poetry to this community.
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Fire and Water: Dedicatory Inscriptions and the Worship of Vulcan in Roman Gaul
Sisi Xie (University of Edinburgh), Sisi Xie (University of Edinburgh)
Roman Gaul has been noted for its advancement in metallurgy in the pre-Roman era. It is no surprise that the smith god Vulcan, who was brought to the Gallic lands after the conquest of Rome, enjoyed greater popularity. Across the Gallic provinces,18 dedicatory inscriptions to Vulcan have been documented, constituting the largest epigraphic corpus outside Italy in the western Roman provinces. These inscriptions reveal Vulcan’s particular association with port communities, such as Nantes and Narbonne, as well as midland regions like Sens and Lyon. Drawing on the comprehensive and regional epigraphical corpora in France, as well as cultic objects that primarily consist of bronze and terracotta statuettes, this study aims to reconstruct the worship of Vulcan in the Gallic provinces, uncovering the participants in Vulcan’s cult and the associated ritual practices. An overview of the findspots of items bearing Vulcan’s image or dedicatory inscriptions, combining both the epigraphical and iconographical evidence, might offer a picture of the distribution pattern of the cult of Vulcan. This integrated approach will reveal Vulcan’s role within the religious landscape of Roman Gaul and his connections to the region’s maritime activities.
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“Hello from the other side”: deceased husband and wife in conversation on a funerary altar from Imperial Rome
Davide Massimo (University of Nottingham), Davide Massimo (Univeristy of Nottingham)
This paper will focus on a funerary altar from Rome (CIL VI 12652/IGUR III 1250, mid-1st cent. AD), dedicated to the freedman Atimetus and his wife Claudia Homoneia. This is an exceptionally elaborate monument with prose and verse inscriptions in Latin and Greek, which are distributed on three different sides of the altar. The poetic sections display a complex interplay of speaking voices. A poem in Greek is uttered in the speaking voice of Claudia Homoneia, while the Latin one is far more complex: we find in order an address of the woman to the passer-by, a reply from the passer-by to the woman, an address by Atimetus to his wife, and then a response of the woman to Atimetus. After highlighting the literary sophistication of the text, which presents clear debts to the Greek and Latin poetic tradition, the paper will then turn on the monument in its entirety. How are we to interpret this complex game of languages and voices displayed on the monument? How does it present the two deceased, and how would the passer-by have reacted to this exceptional altar? And can we find any parallel for such complex bilingual monuments in similar contexts?
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