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A popular theme in the archaic visual tradition must have shocked its viewers with its evocation of what has been called the most violent sentiment in the Iliad: Achilles appears to fulfill his threat to cut up Hector’s flesh and eat it raw (Segal 1971: 38 on Il. 22.345-54). On closer examination, it becomes clear that the image actually adheres more closely to the epic narrative of the ransom. Priam has come to ransom Hector’s body and Achilles’ participation in the dais or properly ordered feast suggests a favorable outcome.

Few plays have seen the political reality of 5^th-century Athens encroach more unceremoniously on the tragic stage than the Euripidean Orestes. Frequently deplored for its glaring ‘anachronisms’ (cf. Porter 1994 with Easterling 1985) this tragedy is set in a quasi-democratic polis, where decision-making remains in the hands of the people. The eponymous hero is tried not at a solemn, aetiological congress of gods and men, but an ordinary judicial session of the assembly.

‘Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.’

Karl Schmitt, Political Theology

In the Fasti, Ovid gives a detailed account of the mysterious Robigalia. He describes his encounter with the Flamen Quirinalis performing the rites for Robigo, and quotes the priest's address to this destructive deity known for harming crops (Fast. 4.905–942). The Flamen Quirinalis entreats Robigo to cause weapons to rust, but to leave farm tools and crops unharmed (Fast. 4.921–930).

More than any other Latin poem, Ovid’s Fasti has been mined for evidence about the bizarre complex of beliefs and practices we call “Roman religion” (Hejduk 2009: 45-46). Yet those using Ovid as a source should consider not only the biases of a poet facing imminent or recent exile, but also the particular slant of the elegiac Fasti compared with its rough contemporary, the epic Metamorphoses (Hinds 1987: 99-134).

Religion, and in particular the cult of Apollo, loomed large in Octavian-Augustus' socio-political transformation of Rome.

This paper examines Horace’s exploration of his own and the emperor’s poetic image as priest and as a figure of connection to the divine. I argue that Horace’s works allow us a glimpse into a more dynamic reception of the Augustan takeover and transformation of religious powers among contemporaries in Rome.

In this paper, I propose to discuss nature and the human in ancient Greek medicine through a parallel with notions of organicism in German idealism, with a focus on Friedrich Schelling. The unifying thread of the discussion will be questions formulated at the intersections of new materialism and the life sciences (e.g. Adrian Johnston, Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, 2015) and more particularly the question of the emergence of subjectivity as a denaturalized instance that nevertheless remains immanent to physical substance.

This paper considers how Greek and Roman writers distinguish human and animal olfaction. I show that an episode from Diodorus Siculus’ Library enriches smell theory while questioning how normative categories—especially human and nonhuman, male and female—are constructed.

The study of zoopharmacognosy (animal self-medication) offers insight into the development of ancient pharmacopias. Most studies are based on the observation of wild animals who appear to be intentionally engaging in therapeutic behaviors. For instance, researchers observed chimpanzees choosing the bitter pith and leaves of non-nutritive plants apparently to control parasites and noted that humans in the region also used the same plants medicinally.