Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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This thesis is an analysis of the aromatics industries in the Ancient Near East in the 3rd millennium BCE with a particular focus on the records from the archive of the e2-mi2 ("House of the Woman"...Show moreThis thesis is an analysis of the aromatics industries in the Ancient Near East in the 3rd millennium BCE with a particular focus on the records from the archive of the e2-mi2 ("House of the Woman") in Girsu (modern Tello). The topic of aromatics production, the people involved in it, and the materials used has been studied extensively through the records of later periods (Ur III onwards), but earlier sources have largely been unused, citing their relative scarcity as a reason. In this sense, this thesis collects the earlier sources and makes them available for discussion. The main research questions are: who were the people involved in the aromatics production in Girsu? What were their tasks other than making scented substances? To what extent are the sources of Girsu representative in a broader context? The methods used are those of social history. A corpus of sources is presented and analyzed, with particular emphasis on the people's social status, activities, and the way in which the documentary practices of Ancient Mesopotamia shape our knowledge about this period. The result is a description of diverse practices, with locally specific characteristics, nonetheless all being a part of a wider, shared tradition of production and use of aromatics.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
Natalie Haynes' 2019 novel A Thousand Ships (ATS) rewrites several classical texts from a female perspective. In doing so, the novel specifically engages with the epic genre and the epic tradition....Show moreNatalie Haynes' 2019 novel A Thousand Ships (ATS) rewrites several classical texts from a female perspective. In doing so, the novel specifically engages with the epic genre and the epic tradition. Inspired by the field of reception studies, this thesis aims to describe the (re)definition of epic offered in ATS, to understand where it comes from, and to critically assess it in the face of the ancient text(s) it is based on.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
The "Vita Sancti Mansueti episcopi Tullensis", the life of Saint Mansuetus, the first bishop of Toul, was written in the 10th century by the scholar and monk Adso of Montier-en-Der. The author...Show moreThe "Vita Sancti Mansueti episcopi Tullensis", the life of Saint Mansuetus, the first bishop of Toul, was written in the 10th century by the scholar and monk Adso of Montier-en-Der. The author himself reveals that he lacked information about the saint, which means that a considerable part of the life of Mansuetus was probably invented. This thesis is concerned with a possible guideline Adso had to follow when creating the life of Saint Mansuetus - the expectations of the commissioner of the work Bishop Gerhard of Toul. Therefore, this thesis approaches the Vita Mansueti by looking at the political, historical and cultural context in which it was written and asks the following: How did Adso construct a convincing story that would satisfy his commissioner bishop Gerhard of Toul? What strategies did he use to fulfill his assignment and what purpose do these strategies serve?Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
Athena's aegis, her characteristic magical garment, often features a scaly texture, a fringe of snakes, or the head of the gorgon Medusa. These attributes sometimes make Athena look like a hybrid...Show moreAthena's aegis, her characteristic magical garment, often features a scaly texture, a fringe of snakes, or the head of the gorgon Medusa. These attributes sometimes make Athena look like a hybrid monster in ancient Greek art and literature. This thesis explores the scope of literary and artistic representations of Athena in which her aegis constructs her body as a monstrous, boundary-crossing hybrid. I explore four contexts or themes in which Athena’s body interacts with the monstrous through the medium of the aegis: gender, costume, monster battles, and image ontologies. In each context, the monstrous aegis places Athena’s body in multiple categories simultaneously: masculine and feminine, hybrid and humanoid, god and monster, image and moving body. It is an agent of transformation. I argue that this polymorphism grants Athena a similar fantastical or unrealistic body to a hybrid monster. She is an excellent vector for artistic and literary explorations of the nature, limits, and transgression of cultural and ontological taxonomies. Rather than only signifying dominion over the monstrous, as is conventionally argued, the hybridity of the aegis allows Athena to function in a similar fashion to a monster.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
In Spec. 3.1-6 the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE-49 CE) describes the ascent of the soul to heavens to "see God", a topic well-known from Plato. Philo, however, does...Show moreIn Spec. 3.1-6 the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE-49 CE) describes the ascent of the soul to heavens to "see God", a topic well-known from Plato. Philo, however, does not only use the concept for reasons of epistemology, but also to reflect about a personal experience that some scholars have labelled as a "mystic experience" and which had a tremendous impact on later neo-Platonic and Christian literature. The thesis explores several aspects of the passage, comparing its epistemological relevance by looking at its Platonic base, while a striking Ciceronian parallel allows reflection on the human aspects and a philosopher's duty between otium and negotium. The main question of this thesis’ "close reading" of the selected texts is "how does Philo as Jewish-Hellenistic thinker evaluate the role of God and human beings regarding seeing God?". In sum, this thesis presents an extensive contextualising discussion of Philo of Alexandria’s claim about heavenly ascent. By putting an emphasis on the distinct Philonian preoccupations and motivation, this thesis attempts to arrive at a novel way of understanding Spec. 3.1-6Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
Deze scriptie onderzoekt de ontwikkeling in de karakterisering van het personage Pompeius tijdens de verschillende fasen van de Romeinse burgeroorlog in het historische epos Bellum Civile van...Show moreDeze scriptie onderzoekt de ontwikkeling in de karakterisering van het personage Pompeius tijdens de verschillende fasen van de Romeinse burgeroorlog in het historische epos Bellum Civile van Marcus Annaeus Lucanus.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
The objective of this research is to gain insight into why some deified persons in Classical and early Hellenistic Greece, more specifically in the 100-year period after the Peloponnesian war,...Show moreThe objective of this research is to gain insight into why some deified persons in Classical and early Hellenistic Greece, more specifically in the 100-year period after the Peloponnesian war, received divine cult while others received hero cult. For the purpose of this research, I will be analyzing case studies of deifications concerning divine as well as heroic cults in order to determine what the criteria are for a divine cult and successfully becoming a god. What I deem successful is that the deified person in question is not viewed “as if a god” or on “godlike status” but is viewed as an actual god. For the purpose of this, the research question 'why are some deifications of living mortals succesful, while others are not?’ has been formulated. To find an answer to this question, the following sub-questions have been drawn up: first, what are cults and what is deification? Second, what are the criteria for deified, living mortals to receive divine cult? Third, what are the criteria for the worshippers?Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
2023-03-02T00:00:00Z
The response of Greek literature to Roman domination varied through different eras, authors and texts. During the so-called “Second Sophistic”, the renewed interest of the literate Greek elite for...Show moreThe response of Greek literature to Roman domination varied through different eras, authors and texts. During the so-called “Second Sophistic”, the renewed interest of the literate Greek elite for the accomplishments of the classical past led to a renegotiation of the relationship with Rome. The present paper examines the role of Rome in the Panathenaicus of Aelius Aristides. Basing my analysis on the rhetorical device of “figured speech”, I examine the rhetorical function of Rome inside the speech, its relationship with Athens, as well as the emerging stance of Aristides towards Roman rulership. I support that Aristides downsizes the status of Rome to extoll the greatness of Athens, while at the same time giving voice to his general hesitation towards the empire by highlighting the Greek cultural preeminence over the Romans. In this way, I hope to cover the relevant research gap, since scholarship on the relationship of Aristides with Rome is predominantly based on the homonymous oration, while the Panathenaicus has been mostly analyzed on the base of Athenian religious preeminence over the emperor.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
2023-08-30T00:00:00Z
The Ancient South Arabian languages (ASA = Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic and Ḥaḍramitic) have traditionally been classified as South Semitic and since Nebes (1994) as Central Semitic, based on the...Show moreThe Ancient South Arabian languages (ASA = Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic and Ḥaḍramitic) have traditionally been classified as South Semitic and since Nebes (1994) as Central Semitic, based on the imperfect pattern of Sabaic in weak verbs, such as 2-W/Y. By analyzing inscriptions of all ASA languages from the CSAI-database, applying roughly the same method as Nebes (1994), this study does not only verify Nebes' conclusions for Sabaic, but also shows that not all ASA languages share the same imperfect pattern. Minaic is non-Central Semitic using the imperfect pattern *yVqattVl; the synchronic Qatabanic pattern b-yqtl could have originated from either *yVqtVl(u) or *yVqattVl(u); for Ḥaḍramitic the evidence is inconclusive. Therefore, ASA is no homogeneous group and the individual ASA languages should be reclassified within the Semitic language family.Show less
