Honors Projects

Sexual Healing: Gender and Sexuality in the Healing Cult of Asklepios

Aislinn E. Lowry — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:58:22 PDT

This study analyzes gender roles and sexuality within the cult of Asklepios through the analysis of inscriptions, medical texts, poetry, and art. I argue that the ancient Greek understanding of gender identity and sexuality is so omnipresent that it permeates everything from the concepts of illness and health themselves, to the appearance of the deities, and even the way healing was received within the sacred precinct. Also, I contend that Hygeia and Asklepios, representing health through harmony with nature and medical intervention respectively, were created and function in healing cults as an interdependent, inextricably linked sexual binary: health is equated with femininity and nature while medicine is culturally constructed and masculine. I conclude that the balance and adequate influence of both the masculine and the feminine creative principles, embodied by the divinities of healing and represented by all actors and objects associated with them, must be present for healing to occur.

The Greek Language: An Historical Study

Richard C. Leonard '60 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:01:20 PDT

The Greek alphabet has been in constant use since the eighth century B.C., and was derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Greek colonists in Italy gave the Romans a modified version of the Greek alphabet, which became the Roman alphabet in which English is written.

The War of Images: An Artistic Approach to the Parting of the Ways

Kristin Zavislak, '09 — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:27:20 PDT

The "parting of the ways" did not occur in one isolated, climactic event; it was a slow and gradual process. When exactly the split between Judaism and Christianity was completed is a topic scholars still disagree on today. To locate the date that it happened, most rely on the scriptures and Christian historical accounts; because very little Jewish writing from the second and third centuries survives, Jewish opinion on the subject is left out entirely. Through an examination of the earliest examples of 'Jewish' and 'Christian' art, on the walls of the Christian catacombs and the buildings found at Dura-Europos, I will clarify the reasons as to when and why the split occurred. In particular, I will focus on how one motif, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, is interpreted by both Christian and Jewish artists and used within their most private spaces of worship to express their religious identities. In this paper I will argue that the threat of paganism, intensified by the expanding Roman Empire, brought about the need for Jewish art, and that the need to unite in a "war of images" against polytheism ultimately kept the "ways" together for longer than most historians postulate.

Titus and the Queen: Julia Berenice and the Opposition to Titus' Succession

Michael S. Vasta '07 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:27:33 PDT

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that one of the primary reasons for this apprehension towards Titus' succession was his "conspicuous love ofthe queen Berenice, to whom, they say, he even promised marriage. The affair of Titus and Berenice has not been given proper attention by modem scholars. Most ignore the affair or gloss over it as a novelty, yet this is an error. Those who do connect the relationship of Titus and Berenice to the political context of Flavian Rome, such as John Crook, mistakenly associate the delay in Berenice's arrival to the influence of Licinius Mucianus. However, this paper will demonstrate that the relationship of Titus and Berenice is integral to understanding the opposition to the Flavian regime, and Titus' succession in particular. It will examine how the history ofJulia Berenice before and after the start of her affair with Titus served as ammunition for the opposition against her and argue that their relationship became a focal point for the opposition to Titus' succession led by Helvidius Priscus.