Papers
Jonathan L. Ready - "The Textualization of Homeric Epic by Means of Dictation"
The textualized versions of Homeric epic that stemmed from a process of dictation should be understood as co-creations of the poet, scribe, and collector. The evidence provided by numerous modern-day instances of the textualization of an oral traditional work supports this inference.
Lee E. Patterson - "Antony and Armenia"
Antony is commonly credited with incorporating Armenia as a Roman province. Those who make this claim, however, must face not only a lack of direct evidence for such an annexation but the absence of a plausible explanation when the historical context is fully revealed. Antony’s desire to return triumphantly one day to Rome explains his handling of Armenia, whose reduction he justified by removing its ostensibly treacherous king. The evidence collectively suggests that Antony afterwards envisioned Armenia as a future client state, which would be consistent with his treatment of other regions of the Near East earlier in his career.
Veronica S.-R. Shi and Llewelyn Morgan - "A Tale of Two Carthages: History and Allusive Topography in Virgil’s Libyan Harbor (Aen. 1.159-69)"
Although Virgil’s description of the Libyan harbor at Aeneid 1.159– 69 is generally thought to be a poetic invention, some readers in antiquity, according to Servius’s commentary, believed the harbor to be modeled after the port of Carthago Nova in southern Spain. This paper argues for the merit of this reading by exploring how a topographical allusion to Carthago Nova, the site of a famous siege during the Second Punic War, activates historical memories that have rich implications for the narrative and thematic concerns of Books 1 and 4 of the Aeneid.
K. Paul Bednarowski - "Dido and the Motif of Deception in Aeneid 2 and 3"
This paper examines how stories of deceit in Aeneid 2 and 3 influence perceptions of the relationship between Aeneas and Dido. Aeneid 1 explicitly addresses Dido’s being deceived by Venus but also raises the possibility of Dido’s deceiving Aeneas with the help of Juno. Deception scenes in Aeneas’s account of the fall of Troy and of his subsequent wanderings keep the framing deceptions in mind, propose ethical evaluations for them, and generate suspense by suggesting that Aeneas and Venus will succeed in deceiving Dido one moment and that Dido and Juno will deceive Aeneas the next.
Anne-Marie Lewis - "The Flight of the Dodonian Nymphs and the Identity of the Stella Fugata (Ov. Fast. 4.390)"
Ovid’s reference to the stella fugata in Fast. 4.390 is commonly interpreted as a description of stars departing from the sky at sunrise or possibly as a reference to the planet Venus. Astronomical terminology, astronomical placements for April 10 (the day on which the stella fugata appears), and the interplay among astronomical description, mythology, and narrative in the entry for this day suggest rather that the stella fugata is Aldebaran (α Tauri), the brightest star in the Hyades. This conclusion provides further evidence for the accuracy of astronomical allusions to the fixed constellations and stars in the Fasti.
Lauren Donovan Ginsberg - "Don’t Stand So Close to Me: Antigone’s Pietas in Seneca’s Phoenissae"
Seneca’s Phoenissae imbues Antigone’s canonical pietas with elegiac associations. Her appeals to her father recycle familiar topoi from amatory poetry, especially the amator’s pledge to follow (sequor) the beloved anywhere. Her father, in turn, is often disturbed by her physical proximity and attempts to escape further incestuous temptation (timeo post matrem omnia). In the end, however, Oedipus capitulates to his daughter’s elegiac rhetoric and responds to her in similarly amatory terms. In this way Seneca subverts the loyalty that defined Antigone in prior literary treatments to create the potential for an incestuous sequel to his earlier tragedy of Thebes.