Classics

Uncovered Euripides fragments are ‘kind of a big deal’

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Uncovered Euripides fragments are ‘kind of a big deal’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/01/2024 - 00:00

Clay Bonnyman Evans

CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics scholars identify previously unknown fragments of two lost tragedies by Greek tragedian Euripides

After months of intense scrutiny, two �鶹ӰԺ scholars have deciphered and interpreted what they believe to be the most significant new fragments of works by classical Greek tragedian Euripides in more than half a century.

In November 2022, Basem Gehad, an archaeologist with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, sent a papyrus unearthed at the ancient site of Philadelphia in Egypt to Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, assistant professor of classics. The two scholars have also recently discovered the upper half of a colossal statue of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II in their joint excavation project at Hermopolis Magna.

She began to pore over the high-resolution photo of the papyrus (Egyptian law prohibits physically removing any artifact from the country), scrutinizing its 98 lines.

CU �鶹ӰԺ classicists Yvona Trnka-Amrhein (left) and John Gibert (right) spent months studying a small square of papyrus and became confident it contains previously unknown material from two fragmentary Euripides plays, Polyidus and Ino.

“It was very clearly tragedy,” she says.

Using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, a comprehensive, digitized database of ancient Greek texts maintained by the University of California, Irvine, Trnka-Amrhein confirmed she was looking at previously unknown excerpts from mostly lost Euripidean plays.

“After more digging, I realized I should call in an expert in Euripides fragments,” she says. “Luckily, my mentor in the department is just that!”

Working together, Trnka-Amrhein and renowned classics Professor John Gibert embarked on many months of grueling work, meticulously poring over a high-resolution photo of the 10.5-square-inch papyrus. They made out words and ensured that the words they thought they were seeing fit the norms of tragic style and meter.

Eventually, they became confident that they were working with new material from two fragmentary Euripides plays, Polyidus and Ino. Twenty-two of the lines were previously known in slightly varied versions, but “80 percent was brand-new stuff,” Gibert says.

“We don’t think there has been a find of this significance since the 1960s,” he says.

“This is a large and unusual papyrus for this day and age,” Trnka-Amrhein says. “It’s kind of a big deal in the field.”

Retelling a Cretan myth

Polyidus retells an ancient Cretan myth in which King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë demand that the eponymous seer resurrect their son Glaucus after he drowns in a vat of honey.

“Actually, it has a relatively happy ending. It’s not one of these tragedies where everyone winds up dead,” Trnka-Amrhein says: Polyidus is able to revive the boy using an herb he previously saw one snake use to revive another.

The papyrus contains part of a scene in which Minos and Polyidus debate the morality of resurrecting the dead, she says.

A marble statuette of Euripides, found in 1704 CE in the Esquiline Hill at Rome and dated to the 2nd century CE, lists several of the tragedian's works on the back panel. It is on display at the Louvre-Lens Museum in France. (Photo: Pierre André/Wikimedia Commons)

Ino came close to being one of Euripides’ best-known plays, Gibert says. Part of the text was inscribed on cliffs in Armenia that were destroyed in modern conflict. Fortunately, early 20th-century Russian scholars had preserved the images in drawings.

The eponymous character is an aunt of the Greek god Dionysus and part of the royal family of Thebes. In previously known fragments of a related play, Ino is an evil stepmother intent on killing her husband the Thessalian king’s children from a previous marriage. The new fragment introduces a new plot, Trnka-Amrhein says.

“Another woman is the evil stepmother, and Ino is the victim,” she says. “The third wife of the king is trying to eliminate Ino’s children. … Ino turns the tables on her, causing her to kill her own children and commit suicide. It’s a more traditional tragedy: death, mayhem, suicide.”

Of course, in matters of ancient Greek, there is always room for interpretation, and such bold claims will receive careful scrutiny from other experts. Gibert and Trnka-Amrhein decided not to pull any punches with their conclusions.

“We could play it safe,” Gibert says. “We are establishing a solid foundation, and on top of that we are sticking our necks out a little.”

They’ve already entered the gauntlet of scrutiny, making their case to 13 experts in Washington, D.C., in June and having their first edition of the fragment accepted for publication in August.

On Sept. 14, they will host the Ninth Fountain Symposium on the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus, supported by long-time �鶹ӰԺ resident and classics enthusiast Dr. Celia M. Fountain. The day-long event will feature three illustrious experts: Professor Paul Schubert, a Swiss specialist in papyrology; specialist in ancient Greek literature and drama Laura Swift of Oxford University; and Professor Sarah Iles Johnston, an expert in Greek religion, goddesses and magic from the Ohio State University. They will be joined by Trnka-Amrhein, Gibert and Associate Professor of Classics Laurialan Reitzammer.

“In a departure, instead of having the guests give hour-long papers, we’re going to present for 20 to 25 minutes each, in pairs, in dialogue, followed by Q-and-A,” Gibert says.

And as the academic year gets underway, Gibert says he and Trnka-Amrhein will “take the show on the road” to such places as Dartmouth and Harvard.

“John’s contacts and readers in the Euripides world have given us reassurance we’re not going to have too much pie on our faces,” Trnka-Amrhein says. “We feel extremely lucky to have worked on this material and look forward to the world’s reactions.”

Top image: A marble bas-relief show Euripides (seated), a standing woman holding out a theater mask to him (left) and the god Dionysus (right), dated to between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, from the Misthos collection in the Istanbul (Turkey) Archaeological Museum. (Photo: John-Grégoire/Wikimedia Commons)

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CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics scholars identify previously unknown fragments of two lost tragedies by Greek tragedian Euripides.

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Archaeologists unearth top half of Ramesses II

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:59:17 +0000

Archaeologists unearth top half of Ramesses II Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/17/2024 - 10:59

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Team co-led by CU �鶹ӰԺ classics researcher unearths the upper portion of a huge, ancient pharaonic statue whose lower half was discovered in 1930; Ramessess II was immortalized in Percy Bysshe Shelly’s ‘Ozymandias’

In 1930, German archaeologist Günther Roeder unearthed the lower half of an enormous statue depicting pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, ruler of Egypt some 12 centuries before the common era.

Nearly a century later, an Egyptian-American archaeological team co-led by Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, assistant professor of classics at the �鶹ӰԺ, discovered the upper portion of the enormous statue while conducting research in the ruins of the ancient city of Hermopolis, about 150 miles south of Cairo.

The 12.5-foot-long upper half depicts the pharaoh seated and wearing a double crown and headdress topped with a royal cobra. The researchers determined that the complete statue would have stood approximately 23 feet tall when it was erected.

Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, CU �鶹ӰԺ assistant professor of classics, co-led an Egyptian-American archaeological team that discovered the upper portion of a statue of Ramesses II.

“We knew it might be there, but we were not specifically looking for it,” says Trnka-Amrhein, who teamed up with Basem Gehad, an archaeologist with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. “It was plausible that the rest of the statue might be there, but it was a total surprise. … Getting the text was amazing.”

Trnka-Amrhein, a specialist in papyri whose PhD dissertation at Harvard University examined a “mostly lost Greek novel” about a pharaoh, had been eager to conduct research in Egypt since researching them at Oxford University as a graduate student.

In 2022, Gehad offered her access to conduct research on a papyrus that turned out to be 98 lines containing “substantial excerpts” of two lost works by Greek playwright Euripides. She soon brought in CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics Professor John Gibert, a specialist in tragedy, to continue research on that unusual find.

After the two met, Gehad asked her to co-lead a team of field researchers at Hermopolis. Gehad submitted a proposal and obtained all the necessary permissions to begin work at the site. Theirs was the first major excavation at the site since one led by the British Museum in the 1980s.

“Hermopolis is the second-most productive site for Greek papyri,” Trnka-Amrhein says. “In addition to research, our goal is to preserve the site and make it a viable part of the Egyptian economy.”

Clues to Egypt's history

Trnka-Amrhein was in the United States awaiting the birth of a child when the piece was discovered in a face-down position in January. She and her teammates were thrilled but had to temper their excitement pending further excavation.

“One problem with Hermopolis is that it’s close to the Nile (River). After (the building of) the (the 1902-built) Aswan Low Dam, the water table became a huge issue. There was no guarantee that the stone would be OK. Sometimes sandstone is uncovered that is basically just sand or degraded limestone,” Trnka-Amrhein says. “It could have just been a lump of rock.”

A bas-relief of Ramesses II on his chariot during the Battle of Kadesh on the south wall in the Hypostyle Hall of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt. (Photo: Diego Delso)

Additional excavation revealed that the pharaonic face was remarkably well preserved. The team even found traces of ancient blue and yellow pigment that can be analyzed to deepen their understanding of the time period and the circumstances of the statue’s creation; Gehad specializes in paintings of the Greco-Roman period.

“It will be quite exciting to have a scientific analysis of the pigment,” Trnka-Amrhein says, noting that soil mixed in with the paint will also be scrutinized for clues to Egypt’s history.

Ramesses II is one of the few Egyptian pharaohs widely known to non-experts in the Western world. He was the inspiration for Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem, “Ozymandias,” was played by Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille’s movie The Ten Commandments and voiced by actor Ralph Fiennes in the animated movie The Prince of Egypt.

The lower half of the statue remains at the site and Gehad has submitted a proposal to reunite the two pieces, which Trnka-Amrhein expects will be approved. It’s uncertain what would happen to a reassembled statue, but it would likely remain at the site or be placed in a museum, she says.

In the meantime, the team continues intensive study of the piece, and she hopes they will publish a paper on their work sometime this year. Trnka-Amrhein says she hopes to involve more CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate students in the project as it proceeds.

“I came to CU after finishing my PhD because the Classics Department is a really great place where everyone is willing to think outside the box; it’s less canonical than typical classics departments,” she says. “I love Homer and Virgil, but it’s fun to do other things, too.”

Top image: The recently discovered top portion of a limestone statue of Ramesses II unearthed by an Egyptian-U.S. archaeological mission in Al Ashmunein, south of Minya, Egypt. (Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

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Team co-led by CU �鶹ӰԺ classics researcher unearths the upper portion of a huge, ancient pharaonic statue whose lower half was discovered in 1930; Ramessess II was immortalized in Percy Bysshe Shelly’s ‘Ozymandias.'

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CU �鶹ӰԺ alum is challenging sacred economic shibboleths

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:59:55 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum is challenging sacred economic shibboleths Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/14/2024 - 08:59

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Nick Romeo’s ‘The Alternative’ uses real-world examples to push back on ‘unempirical dogmas’ of modern economics

Following World War II, economists in the West began to compare their field to natural sciences, physics and chemistry, perpetuating a set of enduring ideas that slowly ossified into the rigid, pessimistic dogma of neoliberal capitalism.

Ideas such as the need for extremely high executive compensation; the inevitability of unemployment and insecure housing; and beliefs that people are inherently selfish, profit should always be maximized, private markets are superior to public ones, harmful externalities are a necessary byproduct of economic growth, and others flourished.

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum Nick Romeo argued that modern economics is “misunderstood as analogous to physics or chemistry, when it’s more properly located within political philosophy.”

“These are unempirical dogmas that are treated as laws of the universe,” says journalist, author and �鶹ӰԺ graduate Nick Romeo (MAClassics’14, MFAEngl’12), who teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Modern economics is “misunderstood as analogous to physics or chemistry, when it’s more properly located within political philosophy.”

That technocratic approach to economics washes out critical ethical and political questions that are—or should be—at the center of the discipline, Romeo says. He notes that for most of history, economics was the province of political philosophy, examined and argued by such historical giants as Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.

“That is a much healthier and accurate way to understand the discipline. … Economists don’t have a monopoly on insight, and political philosophy is potentially in a better position to be more insightful,” he says.

Diverse solutions

Romeo has been honing his own intellectual chops for years, first as an undergraduate at Northwestern University and later as a graduate student at CU �鶹ӰԺ. He’s also spent years living in Greece with his wife, Grace Erny, MA Classics, 2014, an archaeologist he met in �鶹ӰԺ. He’s also become a nationally respected writer, publishing in such publications at The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

In his new book, “The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy” (PublicAffairs), he explores real-world examples from around the globe that challenge “some of the sacred shibboleths and economic dogmas of neoliberal capitalism.”

“The eight cases studies in ‘The Alternative’ present diverse solutions to the problems of paltry wages, rampant unemployment, unstable housing and exploitative labor practices,” according to a review in The Washington Post, calling it “a brisk and sensible book that details bold and ingenious proposals in measured tones.”

The first chapter zeroes in on the problem of economics education, which was almost exclusively taught through unchallenged dogma until recent decades.

“The American economist Paul Samuelson once said, ‘I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws, as long as I get to write the economic textbooks,’” Romeo says. “We need to change economics education and what counts as cultural ‘common sense.’”

Nick Romeo's The Alternative explores real-world examples from around the globe that challenge “some of the sacred shibboleths and economic dogmas of neoliberal capitalism.”

He goes on to examine a job-guarantee program in Austria; climate-focused budgeting in Norway; the Well-Paid Maids cleaning service in Washington, D.C., which pays its employees $22 an hour and provides generous paid time off and benefits; a cooperative in Spain that restricts executive compensation to no more than six times that of workers and gives every worker a vote; and other examples of innovative, progressive capitalism.

“Everything I am describing already exists. Many times, these problems are presented as an inevitable feature of the universe, or certainly the American economy, that we can’t get rid of without entirely dismantling capitalism and adopting communism,” Romeo says.

Trying new ideas

While he recognizes traditional critiques of such efforts—they can’t scale, for instance—he suggests that that hasn’t been tried, and stranger things have happened.

“Many things we take for granted today once seemed really farfetched and controversial—the 40-hour work week, eliminating child labor, occupational and environmental legislation, worker safety rules,” he says.

When hard-core libertarians argue against such widely accepted adaptations, and even pass laws to undermine them, such as the recent loosening of child-labor laws in some states, they’re not making a good-faith argument, Romeo says.

“I think if you asked a lot of those folks if they would like to have their kids work in dangerous factories or live in a town where the water is unsafe, it would be hard to find someone truly committed to those views when they are directly impacted,” he says.

Romeo continues to write for The New Yorker and other publications on a wide variety of subjects and teach at Berkeley. He says he’s “developing a few ideas” for his next book.

During his time at CU �鶹ӰԺ, Romeo was particularly impressed with the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics and Society, which “engages students with the essential questions of human existence, and links those issues with the ethical practices of science and engineering,” noting the work of Hardy Fredricksmeyer and Wayne Ambler.

“It’s a hidden gem, almost like a shadow department, and the teachers are excellent,” he says. “They have to interact with engineers, always bringing their best. They can’t assume everybody is interested, so they have to know a good way to reach them.”

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntamj5A46jU]

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Nick Romeo’s ‘The Alternative’ uses real-world examples to push back on ‘unempirical dogmas’ of modern economics.

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The Iliad’s ‘alien familiarity’ gets a makeover

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:50:03 +0000

The Iliad’s ‘alien familiarity’ gets a makeover Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/28/2023 - 09:50

Clay Bonnyman Evans

In a critically acclaimed new translation of The Iliad, CU �鶹ӰԺ classics Professor Laurialan Reitzammer sees the enduring relevance of Homer

It’s not easy to create a work of literature that truly lasts. Many authors considered the brightest lights of the 20^th century are now virtually unknown, while countless critically acclaimed novels fade into oblivion once they slide too far down TheNew York Times bestseller list.

So, it’s no little feat that The Iliad and The Odyssey—attributed to the ancient Greek writer Homer, but the product of a thousand-year oral tradition—are not only read and studied nearly three millennia after their creation, but still generate excitement among both critics and readers.

Enter Emily Wilson, a University of Pennsylvania classicist who earned rave reviews for her 2017 English translation of The Odyssey.

“In the history of Odyssey translations, few have exerted such a cultural influence that they become ‘classics’ in their own right,” one critic wrote. “I predict that Emily Wilson will win a place in this roll-call of the most significant translations of the poem in history.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ classicist Laurialan Reitzammer notes The Iliad's enduring relevance may stem, in part, from how it reflects the real world's complexity and messiness.

The enthusiasm and plaudits have continued with the release of Wilson’s translation of The Iliad (W.W. Norton & Co.) in September, which TheWashington Post called “a genuine page-turner,” despite its reputation as the considerably more challenging of Homer’s two famous epic poems.

Not everyone’s a fan, of course. Some critics and scholars have balked at her modern sensibilities, word choices and even the meter of her translations.

But whatever the translation, Homer clearly remains relevant all these centuries later. Why does the work continue to speak to modern audiences?

“Because some things don’t change—we still have war, unfortunately, and (The Iliad) doesn’t really take a side; it shows that everyone is human, the cost of war, what violence does to people and what is left behind when people die,” says Laurialan Reitzammer, associate professor of classics at the �鶹ӰԺ. “The end of the poem is about grief and pain, big issues that speak to us all.”

Yet The Iliad complicates that sense of familiarity with its portrait of a “deeply alien, radically foreign” culture, Reitzammer says.

She points to a famous episode in which Hector stands on the walls of Troy and prays to the gods that his infant son will grow up to “kill his enemies and bring home the bloody spoils”—not exactly the first impulse of most contemporary parents when trying to sooth a crying baby. Hector feels utterly compelled to go to war to maintain his status, and his wife agrees, though both understand that she will be violated and enslaved, and his own child will be hurled from the same high walls, as a result.

“These moments are about the glory of the warrior and violence. … Yet the end of the poem is a scene of lamentation in which three women speak about what it means to lose Hector,” Reitzammer says.

Having read The Iliad in English and the original Greek dozens of times over the past three decades, Reitzammer also is struck by how different facets of the poem have shone through or faded away with each new season of her life.

For example, when she first read the poem as an undergraduate, she took little notice of Achilles’ mother, the minor goddess Thetis, who seeks intervention by Zeus, the big dog of the Greek pantheon, when her valiant warrior son comes to her for help.

“She was really involved in his life. In a lot of ways, she was the first ‘helicopter mom’,” Reitzammer says with a laugh.

Yet now that she’s been a mother herself for some 13 years, Reitzammer better understands the powerful impulse to protect and help one’s children.

“We see ourselves in this epic, but in different ways each time, because we ourselves change,” she says.

Wilson has chafed at oft-made, well-intended praise for being the first woman to translate, and providing the first “feminist” translation, of Homer into English, which generated a backlash on social media (no doubt by many who had not read the book) accusing her of being “woke.”

“It may be the first non-misogynistic translation,” Reitzammer notes wryly.

"Achilles Defeating Hector" by Peter Paul Rubens (1630-1632)

For example, she praises Wilson's avoidance of words like “servant” or “maid” to describe the enslaved women slaughtered by Odysseus upon returning from his eponymous journey, a translation of a Greek word usually rendered as “sluts” or “disobedient maids.”

She praises Wilson’s careful choices in bringing Homer to a modern audience without diluting his potency or poetry. She points to Wilson’s use of “cataclysmic” wrath for a Greek word that similarly has four syllables describing Achilles’ rage in the first lines of the poem, usually translated as “destructive.”

“It defamiliarizes ‘destructive’ and makes us think of a washing over, torrential violence, being flooded with emotions, and flooded with rage that will have such dire consequences,” Reitzammer says.

“(Wilson’s) attention to these kinds of things shows why we need new translations,” Reitzammer says. “We don’t see things the way someone in 1950 or even 2000 saw them.”

The fact that women in Homer’s time were viewed as objects and property is part of what gives The Iliad its “alien nature,” she says.

“I think (Homer) is worth reading,” she says, “in part because our own culture has deeply embedded misogyny.”

And rather than flatly rejecting Homer because of offensive norms held by a culture so far removed in space and time, Reitzammer argues that studying his work can help students think about modern societal ills.

“When teaching ancient Greek literature, especially fifth^-century Athenian literature, I get to have intense conversations with students about gender or citizenship or immigration, in the context of a culture from thousands of years ago,” she says. “My hope is that they will come back to modern times and think about our modern constructions in different ways.”

Reading Homer may be uncomfortable, Reitzammer says, but it’s a valid reflection of the real world’s complexity and messiness. And that’s another reason we’re still reading, translating and arguing over his work.

“(The Iliad) offers this complexity, celebrating the warrior, then showing us what is left behind,” she says. “It’s so much harder to hold different strands and perspectives at once than to have just one perspective.”

Top image: "Hektor wirft Paris seine Weichlichkeit vor" by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1786)

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In a critically acclaimed new translation of The Iliad, CU �鶹ӰԺ classics Professor Laurialan Reitzammer sees the enduring relevance of Homer.

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Finding the authentic and counterfeit in medieval art

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:03:42 +0000

Finding the authentic and counterfeit in medieval art Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 14:03

In his Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 28, Professor Kirk Ambrose will discuss how institutions used art to authenticate religious relics, as well as condemn counterfeiting

During the Middle Ages in Europe, religious relics were highly prized—not just by individuals, but also by institutions. Possessing them could bolster prestige and wealth, as well as enhance spiritual credibility.

So, the temptation to forge relics and make fake claims about them was strong. In fact, the years between 1000 and 1150 CE are called the “golden age of medieval forgery.”

How did institutions strengthen their claims to possess authentic relics? Kirk Ambrose, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of classics and founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, will explore this question in a Distinguished Research Lecture from 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 28, with a question-and-answer session and reception following.

Kirk Ambrose will give a Distinguished Research Lecture at 4 p.m. Nov. 28.

Ambrose will discuss relics and authenticity claims through the example of the French monastery of Sainte-Foy, Conques, examining how this community used the visual arts to advance their claims and condemn those who engaged in counterfeiting.

�鶹ӰԺ Kirk Ambrose

Ambrose earned master’s and doctorate degrees in the history of art from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, after earning a bachelor’s degree in art history from Oberlin College.

He specializes in the art and architecture of medieval Europe and has published four books and dozens of scholarly articles on the topic. In partnership with Steven Martonis, exhibitions manager in the CU Art Museum, he curated two exhibitions on the art of the American West at the CU Art Museum, including “Pioneers: Women Artists in �鶹ӰԺ, 1898-1950,” which was the basis for a feature-length documentary film. He served seven years as the chair of the Department of Art and Art History and a term as editor-in-chief of The Art Bulletin, the journal of record for art historians in the United States.

Among other research projects, Ambrose is working on a book provisionally titled The Frailty of Eyes, which connects medieval studies and art history with the rich theoretical concerns of disability studies. His published books include The Marvellous and the Monstrous in the Sculpture of Twelfth-Century Europe and The Nave Sculpture of Vézelay: The Art of Monastic Viewing.

In 2019, Ambrose helped launch the CU �鶹ӰԺ Center for Teaching and Learning, which develops and supports CU’s teaching community of practice. Its foundations are grounded in research-based practices, inclusive pedagogy, and equitable assessment techniques.

“Much of my work as a medievalist has focused on the production and reception of knowledge within communities, especially monastic communities,” Ambrose told Lisa Lampert-Weissig of the University of California-San Diego. “I think that has positioned me to regard teaching less as an isolated activity of a teacher transmitting knowledge to a group of students, than as a deeply collaborative enterprise.

If you go

What: 122nd Distinguished Research Lecture: The Authentic and the Counterfeit in Medieval Art

Who: Professor Kirk Ambrose of the Department of Classics

When: 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28

Where: Chancellor’s Hall and Auditorium, CASE

“To my mind, this works on a number of levels. Teachers collaborate with their students to advance learning. Teachers collaborate with one another to share effective practices. And our center serves as a space that collaborates with units and specialists from across campus to support educators in achieving their goals.”

�鶹ӰԺ the Distinguished Research Lectureship

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors given by faculty to a faculty colleague at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Each year, the Research and Innovation Office requests nominations from faculty for this award, and a faculty review panel recommends one or more faculty members as recipients.

The lectureship honors tenured faculty members, research professors (associate or full) or adjoint professors who have been with CU �鶹ӰԺ for at least five years and are widely recognized for a distinguished body of academic or creative achievement and prominence, as well as contributions to the educational and service missions of CU �鶹ӰԺ. Each recipient typically gives a lecture in the fall or spring following selection and receives a $2,000 honorarium.

Ambrose and Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have been recognized with 2023-24 Distinguished Research Lectureships. Safran will deliver her Distinguished Research Lecture on Tuesday, March 12.

Top image: the reliquary statue of St. Foy (photo by Holly Hayes)

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In his Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 28, Professor Kirk Ambrose will discuss how institutions used art to authenticate religious relics, as well as condemn counterfeiting.

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Archaeologist, classicist wins NEH fellowship

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:51:15 +0000

Archaeologist, classicist wins NEH fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/04/2023 - 14:51

Dimitri Nakassis, classics professor and former ‘genius grant’ winner, lands support from National Endowment for the Humanities to complete paradigm-shifting study of ancient Greece

Dimitri Nakassis, an archaeologist and classicist at the �鶹ӰԺ, has landed a substantial grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to advance his paradigm-shifting study of ancient and Mycenaean Greece.

Nakassis, who is professor and chair of the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Classics and was a MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, has won a $60,000 NEH fellowship that will support his research and writing that will yield a book that will challenge the “historical periodization of ancient Greece and the historical construction of Mycenaean Greece as a unified, homogeneous world from 1650 to 1075 BCE.”

Nakassis’ project is titled “Reassembling Mycenaean Greece, ca. 1650–1075 BCE.” It is one of 204 humanities projects that will receive $28.1 million in grants this year.

Top of page: Mycenaean fresco from Mycenae (1250-1180 BCE). Archeaological Museum Mycenae. Above: Dimitri Nakassis (PhD Texas 2006) studies the material and textual production of early Greek communities, especially of the Mycenaean societies of Late Bronze Age Greece.

In documents outlining his plans, Nakassis notes that the stories that archaeologists tell about the past matter in the here and now. “Yet, although we know that ancient societies were complex and heterogeneous, we often present them as monolithic entities, even as simplifications and caricatures. We are conditioned to do so by a long tradition focused on isolating and studying individual cultures, a tradition that emerged from the search for national, ethnic and even racial origins,” he writes.

This way of thinking perpetuates “simplistic narratives in which such cultures are arranged serially across time to produce master narratives, like the rise of Western civilization,” he observes, adding: “But in order to understand the past productively and accurately, we require approaches that reject categories rooted in racial and ethnic essentialism and instead embrace the complexity of the past. If we use outmoded categories, we will tell outmoded stories.”

These problems appear specifically in the study of ancient Greece, Nakassis says, because people have traditionally imagined Classical Greece (ca. 480-323 BCE), and especially Athens, as the originator of so much: democracy, philosophy, tragedy and so on.

“In the master narratives that attempt to explain the emergence of the so-called ‘Greek miracle,’ the Mycenaean societies of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1650-1075 BCE) that preceded the Classical era have wrongly been reduced to a caricature: the oppressive, hierarchical, and centralized early state,” he observes.

Nakassis plans to use the NEH support to write Reassembling Mycenaean Greece, a book that will propose a new way of understanding the archaeology of mainland Greece in the Late Bronze Age.

“Its goals are to undermine the reductive role that Mycenaean Greece plays in Eurocentric master narratives and to unlock the enormous amount of new archaeological evidence has been published in recent years, but which has had little effect on our understanding of this critical phase in Greek (pre)history,” Nakassis writes.

I argue that a paradigm shift is needed to activate this data and transform the field. The shift is, in short, to eliminate the notion of a culturally homogeneous Mycenaean world and to replace it with a post-cultural archaeology that focuses on specific practices. We can trace the histories of these practices through time and space, and assemble them to produce rich, textured historical understandings.”

He adds: “I argue that a paradigm shift is needed to activate this data and transform the field. The shift is, in short, to eliminate the notion of a culturally homogeneous Mycenaean world and to replace it with a post-cultural archaeology that focuses on specific practices. We can trace the histories of these practices through time and space, and assemble them to produce rich, textured historical understandings.”

Nakassis has developed new methods for investigating individuals named in the administrative Linear B texts, and he argued from this evidence that Mycenaean society was far less hierarchical and much more dynamic than it had been considered in the past. He is the co-director of the Western Argolid Regional Project, an archaeological survey in southern Greece, and the Pylos Tablets Digital Project, a museum-based research project that makes use of computational photography and other techniques.

Nakassis holds an MA and PhD in classics from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the CU �鶹ӰԺ faculty in 2016. He won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship—also called a MacArthur “genius grant”— in 2015. Nakassis is one of nine CU �鶹ӰԺ professors to win the award.

NEH Fellowships are competitive awards granted to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody “exceptional research, rigorous analysis and clear writing.” Recipients must clearly articulate a project’s value to humanities scholars, general audiences or both. Nakassis is the 12^thCU �鶹ӰԺ professor to win an NEH fellowship.

Dimitri Nakassis, classics professor and former ‘genius grant’ winner, lands support from National Endowment for the Humanities to complete paradigm-shifting study of ancient Greece.

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Diane Conlin recognized as top archaeology teacher

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 15:30:47 +0000

Diane Conlin recognized as top archaeology teacher Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/20/2020 - 08:30

Clint Talbott

Specialist in art, architecture and archaeology of ancient Rome wins 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award from Archaeological Institute of America

Diane Conlin, associate professor of classics emerita at the �鶹ӰԺ, has joined a “small group of elite educators” who’ve been recognized as outstanding teachers in the field of archaeology.

Conlin has won the 2021 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) announced this week. She is one of 10 scholars whose work was recognized by the institute this year.

Conlin, who joined the CU �鶹ӰԺ faculty in 1998, has taught both in classics and art and art history and specializes in the art, architecture and archaeology of ancient Rome.

At the top of the page: A funerary inscription from Ara Pacis, wanted by Augustus to recall who his life and accomplishments. Rome, 9 AD. Above: Diane Conlin

She been routinely recognized for her teaching; she’s been named a CU President’s Teaching Scholar and has won the “Best Should Teach” Gold Award and the �鶹ӰԺ Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dimitri Nakassis, professor and chair of classics, noted that Conlin joins a small group of “elite educators” who have won the AIA teaching award.

He added, “This is a wonderful national and international recognition of what all of us here at CU have known for a long time: Professor Conlin is a superb educator.”

In a recent departmental newsletter, some of Conlin’s former students echoed that view:

“It really isn’t enough just to say that Diane Conlin is an outstanding professor,” observed Amelia Chouinard, who earned her BA in classics this year. “During my four years at the �鶹ӰԺ, she was a mentor, a counselor, a friend, and an inspiration to me and to so many others.”

Travis Rupp, who earned his MA in classics from CU �鶹ӰԺ in 2010 and now serves as a lecturer in the department, said he was deeply indebted to Conlin. Inspired by Conlin’s work on the Ara Pacis, a Roman altar to Pax, the goddess of peace, he applied to CU �鶹ӰԺ in 2008 hoping to study with her.

“She is an amazing mentor and aided in the academic success I have experienced over the last decade. She drove her students to be better writers, scholars and teachers,” Rupp said, adding that Conlin “inspired my lifelong dedication to the fields of archaeology and art history.”

Elspeth Dusinberre, a college professor of distinction in classics, said the award recognizes Conlin as the “nation’s outstanding teacher of archaeology at the college level.”

“Diane is electrifying in the classroom, whether teaching hundreds of students at the lower-division level or just a few in advanced graduate seminars,” Dusinberre said, adding that Conlin’s “engaged, involved approach to helping students learn” includes active learning projects such as designing a Roman house, building a mosaic and visiting local sculptors’ workshops, and including her students in organizing and attending international conferences.

Conlin led the charge in 2000-01 to create a new curriculum in classical archaeology, including a new undergraduate major and a new MA degree, Dusinberre said. Conlin also worked with Education Abroad to introduce a new archaeological field school in Rome, where she and teams of students excavated the monumental Villa of Maxentius over the course of many summers.

Conlin has collaborated closely with the CU Art Museum to teach multiple seminars using their collection of ancient coins—“work that has culminated not only in an extraordinarily valuable gift of ancient Roman coins to the museum … but also most recently in a remarkable new exhibit at the museum showcasing the ways ancient coins can be used to understand ancient art more broadly,” Dusinberre said.

She is an amazing mentor and aided in the academic success I have experienced over the last decade."

Dusinberre also praised Conlin for working closely with major donors to realize these projects, including the current loan of “stupendous Greek coins” to be displayed alongside the university’s “now remarkable collection of Roman coins.”

Dusinberre added: “Amidst all of this, she has mentored students and supervised theses, served for years as Classics’ Honors Council representative, and—a thing of great importance for me—been a wonderful colleague, mentor, friend and inspiration for her colleagues.”

“I am so psyched about this recognition,” Dusinberre said, adding: “Boy, does she deserve it.

Conlin herself said she was “thrilled and rather overwhelmed” by the latest award:

“The greatest gifts of my career have been the opportunities to share my passion for all things ancient Rome with generations of young scholars while also learning alongside them both in the classroom and in the field.”

She added: “I want to extend many heartfelt thanks to all of my amazing students over these past decades here at CU �鶹ӰԺ, and also to my super-talented, supportive colleagues in the Department of Classics and the Department of Art and Art History.”

Winners will be formally recognized at the AIA Awards Ceremony, which will take place during the virtual annual meeting in January.

Specialist in art, architecture and archaeology of ancient Rome wins 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award from Archaeological Institute of America.

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Studying classics is ‘deeply, utterly, fascinating and fun’

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:32:11 +0000

Studying classics is ‘deeply, utterly, fascinating and fun’ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/30/2020 - 10:32

Elspeth Dusinberre, new college professor of distinction, discusses the joy and relevance of the discipline

Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre has racked up more than a dozen awards for teaching and research, so it should surprise no one that she’d garner another. She, herself, however, is surprised.

Dusinberre, a professor of classics at the �鶹ӰԺ, has been named a 2020 Professor of Distinction in the College of Arts and Sciences, an honor she says she still can’t believe.

At the top of the page: Students in an Arts and Sciences History 1509 class at the Eaton Humanities Building. This photo was taking in early 2019 and does not represent current campus COVID-19 protocols. Above: Elspeth Dusinberre

Dusinberre is one of four professors to win this honorific this year. The others are Michelle Ellsworth of theatre and dance and Pieter Johnson, and Katharine N. Suding of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Dusinberre is interested in cultural interactions in Anatolia, particularly in the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE). Her first book, Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis (Cambridge 2003), focuses on the Lydian capital.

Her second book is a diachronic excavation monograph, Gordion Seals and Sealings: Individuals and Society (Philadelphia 2005). Her third book, Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia (Cambridge 2013), won the 2015 Wiseman Award, proposes a new model for understanding imperialism.

Among her other distinctions, Dusinberre has been named a President’s Teaching Scholar and a Distinguished Research Lecturer.

Dusinberre answered three questions from the Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine recently, and her responses follow:

Question: Much of your scholarly focus has been on cultural interactions in Anatolia; if you were to briefly tell an audience of high-school students why they should study the ancient world, and specifically the Achaemenid Persian Empire, what would you say?

Answer: Imperialism is something that defines many aspects of the modern world, our human interactions, various features of geopolitical systems, economics, communication and propaganda. This was true in antiquity as well as today.

The Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE) was the largest sociopolitical entity the world had yet seen, incorporating vast areas and widely disparate peoples within its bounds. Yet it remained remarkably stable and productive for 200 years, a timeframe that is about average for empires in human history—including ones much smaller and less complex than the Achaemenid Empire.

Studying how imperialism worked in antiquity can provide real insights into how humans have found different kinds of answers to fairly consistent problems throughout history. As well as being intrinsically interesting in its own right, it can also help us think more productively about what kinds of approaches might work best now.

Q: In the last decade, enrollment in disciplines in the arts and humanities has dropped nationwide; assuming you would like to reverse that trend, what argument would you make to prospective students about the value of a degree in classics?

Classics uses the tremendous diversity of the ancient Mediterranean world to consider a huge array of really important subjects and ideas."

A: Classics is the most useful thing anyone can study! And it is one of the most fun and rewarding areas of study, as well. Classics uses the tremendous diversity of the ancient Mediterranean world to consider a huge array of really important subjects and ideas.

It combines thinking about some of the world’s most beautiful and interesting literature with a careful study of language, philosophy, rhetoric, history, economics, law, religion, art, architecture, archaeology, trade, engineering, politics, gender, power structures and more.

Classics broadens our horizons, deepens our thinking, and provides us with language to be able to talk about ideas. It trains people in all kinds of disciplinary pursuits and skills, so that we can learn how to use many different kinds of evidence to think about a single problem. It requires us to analyze that evidence thoughtfully to develop valid interpretations. It requires us to grapple with the very stuff that makes us human. And it is deeply, utterly, fascinating and fun.

Q: The title “professor of distinction” is an honor reserved for scholars and artists of national and international distinction who are also recognized by their college peers as teachers and colleagues of exceptional talent; what is your reaction to winning this award?

A: I am flabbergasted and thrilled by the honor of being named a college professor of distinction! To be honest, I still can’t really believe it. I am also overwhelmed with gratitude to my colleagues, here at CU and elsewhere, who nominated me. It was a colossal amount of work on their part, and I am deeply moved and honored that they would invest such time and effort.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have the chance to be here at CU, to work with our outstanding students, and to share in the generosity as well as the brilliance of my extraordinary colleagues.

The newly named professors of distinction will give presentations on their research and scholarly work in spring 2021. Details about those presentations are coming.

Elspeth Dusinberre, new college professor of distinction, discusses the joy and relevance of the discipline.

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Budding Ciceros and Roman circusgoers unite

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 01:29:53 +0000

Budding Ciceros and Roman circusgoers unite Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/30/2020 - 19:29

Virtually, that is, as the CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics Department and Colorado Classics Association turns young people on to ancient Greece and Rome.

The Classics Department at the �鶹ӰԺ will (virtually) host students from across the state for Colorado Classics Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3.

As many as 250 middle school and high school students and teachers who share an interest in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds plan to attend. The event is designed to broaden students' horizons on the world of classical language and culture along with its intellectual challenges and enduring relevance to the modern world.

Dimitri Nakassis, chair of the CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics Department, said the event will include “a lively and diverse set of classes for the students.” The virtual format allows organizers to include expert colleagues from institutions across the state, including Colorado College, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Regis University.

Sessions topics and presenters include:

A Day at the Roman Circus, Isabel Köster, CU �鶹ӰԺ;
(in)Famous: Actors and Acting in Ancient Rome, Andrew Lund, Colorado College;
Write like Achilles, Elizabeth Bowman, CU �鶹ӰԺ;
The Art of Speaking Out: From Rome to Colorado, Brittney Szempruch, U.S. Air Force Academy;
Coquamus: Puls! Tim Smith, Loveland Classical Schools/Colorado Classics Association;
Riddles of the Sphinx, Travis Rupp, CU �鶹ӰԺ;
Classics...in Space!!!!! Clayton Schroer, Colorado College;
It’s Not Easy Conquering the World: The Roman Legions and the Second Punic War, Ian Oliver, Regis University;
Majoring in Classics... It’s Pretty Major, panel discussion.

This event is partly funded through a CU �鶹ӰԺ Outreach Award, which support research, teaching and creative work that connects with communities around Colorado and beyond. For more information, see the Classics Department’s schedule of events.

Virtually, that is, as the CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics Department and Colorado Classics Association turns young people on to ancient Greece and Rome

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Immortal influence brings classics community together

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:18:06 +0000

Immortal influence brings classics community together Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/24/2019 - 15:18

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Colorado Classics Day on Sept. 28 celebrates Latin, classical antiquity

The study of classical antiquity—the languages, literature, philosophy and history of the ancient Greeks and Romans—is not only literally foundational at the �鶹ӰԺ—it’s also alive and well.

Being the oldest department at the university, which was founded in 1876, Classics has, arguably, left its mark. Even now, nearly a century and a half after its inception, students entering Norlin Library, the flagship library of the CU system, pass beneath the words of Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest statesmen-philosophers: “He who knows his own generation remains always a child.”

And now the department is ready to share that mark with the broader Latin community.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Department of Classics, the Colorado Classics Association and the Colorado Junior Classical League will host Colorado Classics Day, which brings scores of Latin students and teachers to campus from schools around the state for a day of fellowship, learning and fun.

Tyler Lansford, a classics instructor, is helping to host this year's Colorado Classics Day.

“We have a flagship department nationally, and we take our responsibility to the state Latin community seriously,” Tyler Lansford, an instructor in the Department of Classics at CU �鶹ӰԺ, says. “We love to bring everybody together—high-school students, teachers, grad students, faculty—to share expertise.”

Student participants choose two morning sessions from a menu that includes “Life as a Gladiator,” “Roman Law: Worst. Haircut. Ever,” “Women Writers of Ancient Rome” and “Anatomy of a Temple.” At lunch, there is a Roman dress costume contest and a chance for students to chat with CU �鶹ӰԺ Classics faculty.

During the afternoon, teachers and faculty attend a meeting of the Colorado Classics Association while students participate in activities hosted by the Colorado Junior Classical League, including “Certamen, the game show of the Ancient World,” a javelin throw and “Versipellis” a version of the role-playing party game Werewolf (or Mafia), in Latin.

The events focus on Latin, for the simple reasons that ancient Greek is taught in few schools and has less direct relevance to modern Western languages and culture, Lansford says.

“There are almost no high schools in the country that teach ancient Greek. Greek is a step removed from the historical development of the western European languages,” he says. “By contrast, Latin is a central source of English, and has enormous relevance to students’ mastery of their native language.”

Half of the words in the English lexicon are derived from Latin or French, which, along with Italian and Spanish, is a direct descendant of the Roman tongue.

“Precision in word choice is immeasurably enhanced by some acquaintance with Latin,” Lansford says. “And it helps with the ability to express oneself in complete, coherent sentences. Latin syntax is not only exact but also beautifully transparent.”

In addition, Western writers and thinkers, including Shakespeare and the founding fathers of the United States, were deeply influenced by great Roman thinkers and writers.

Latin is not a dead language. It’s simply a language that has ceased to be mortal.”

To those who carp that Latin is a “dead” language, and therefore unworthy of study, Lansford responds, “Latin is not a dead language. It’s simply a language that has ceased to be mortal.”

The modern perception that studying Latin is somehow “elitist” flies in the face of history, Lansford argues.

“For so many centuries, the only people who got to study it were in fact privileged people, from the Renaissance to modern times,” he says. “In our day, offering Latin to everyone is the most democratic thing imaginable.”

And the notion, currently popular among some pundits and politicians, that studying humanities subjects such as Classics is of minimal use in the age of technology, Lansford points to the Cicero quote at Norlin Library.

“Contrary to the narrow, instrumental view of education, Cicero teaches us that many of our core values are embedded in the past and achievements of the past. We can’t expect a purely technical society to replenish itself spiritually and intellectually,” he says. “Latin anchors us in the bedrock of our history and values.”

This event is partly funded through a CU �鶹ӰԺ Outreach Award, which support research, teaching and creative work that connects with communities around Colorado and beyond. A full schedule of events can be found on the Colorado Classics Association's website.

Colorado Classics Day on Sept. 28 celebrates Latin, classical antiquity

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