Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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Throughout history people have tried to explain phenomena that were abstract to them, attributing to these events all kinds of reasons ranging from physical to supernatural ones. A system of shared...Show moreThroughout history people have tried to explain phenomena that were abstract to them, attributing to these events all kinds of reasons ranging from physical to supernatural ones. A system of shared beliefs and norms develops, guiding and explaining to them how to act and respond to all kinds of events, among which is death. How people behave after a death has occurred varies widely across cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of death held in ancient Mesopotamia and to try to find answers of how it came to be. The first two chapters are dedicated to providing an overview of the Mesopotamian concept of death. The remaining chapters of the current study analyse certain facets of the concept of death which can be traced back to environmental factors. The facets included are: the realm of death, examining its portrayal, location, hierarchy, and type of government; death and burial; the concept of death related to everyday life.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
open access
Were ancient Greek habitual drunks considered mentally ill? This thesis attempts to answer whether ancient Greek drinkers who did not drink according to the drinking rules of the social group they...Show moreWere ancient Greek habitual drunks considered mentally ill? This thesis attempts to answer whether ancient Greek drinkers who did not drink according to the drinking rules of the social group they belonged to (and did so in an excessive fashion) were viewed as behaving in a pathological way from a socio-cultural point of view (to stress: not from a bio-medical one). The study heavily depends on research from the social sciences that focuses on the social function of alcohol consumption, mainly Douglas 1987, and concludes by saying that in ancient Greece certain social conditions that are crucial for a a socio-cultural pathology of problematic drinking to develop were absent in ancient Greek society. Therefore, it appears as improbable that a socio-cultural pathology for 'problematic drinking' was already conceptualised in the ancient Greek world. The aim of the thesis primarily was to contribute to the field of Classics that studies ancient mental illnesses and to attempt to provide more information on the ancient Greek mind and social world. However, the findings also underline that alcoholism, the modern pathology for problematic drinking, should not be perceived as a universal concept, but as a relative one that depends heavily on the current milieu of the modern world.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
In 1573, the Spanish humanist Juan Latino wrote the Latin epic Austrias carmen, commissioned by the inquisitor Pedro de Deza. This is one of many literary celebrations of the Holy League victory...Show moreIn 1573, the Spanish humanist Juan Latino wrote the Latin epic Austrias carmen, commissioned by the inquisitor Pedro de Deza. This is one of many literary celebrations of the Holy League victory over an Ottoman fleet in the 1571 naval battle of Lepanto. This thesis deals with the work's depiction of the Ottomans: both its more generalised depiction of the Ottomans as a people, and its depiction of a specific Ottoman character, the admiral Ali Pasha. While at first glance, the work appears to paint the Ottomans in a hostile light, some scholars have argued that it also contains scenes that are more empathetic, even sympathetic to the Ottoman 'enemy'. By considering the epic's depiction of the Ottomans in light of its classical intertexts and other contemporaneous Western European responses to the Ottoman Empire, this thesis seeks to nuance this claim. I argue that the work uses many of the tropes of contemporary anti-Ottoman rhetoric, while having less in common with more 'positive' contemporaneous Western European evaluations of the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, I aim to demonstrate that the epic's 'sympathetic' passages on the Ottomans tend to have a strong European, and particularly Spanish imperial, bias: any sympathy hinges on Ottoman characters' acceptance of, or submission to, a Spanish imperialist worldview. Finally, I will connect the epic's depiction of the Ottomans to its depiction of the Spanish 'Moriscos' - the part of the Spanish Islamic population that had been forcibly converted to Christianity. The epic links them to the Ottomans, and the recent suppressed revolt of 'Moriscos' in Granada to the battle of Lepanto, thereby presenting these people as an internal enemy of Spain. Here, the epic may show the influence of Latino's patron Deza, who played an important role in the violent repression of the revolt.Show less
