Myths of the quest for the Golden Fleece and Jason’s relationship with Medea have survived whole or in fragments for almost 3,000 years.  Our analysis of the many variants of the myth used a Google site we developed to facilitate collaboration.  We examined key literary works written over a span of roughly 1500 years, starting with Homer.  Our base text was a summary by “Apollodorus” (1st-2nd Century CE) supplemented by entire works such as Apollonius’ Argonautica, Pindar’s Pythian Ode 4, Euripides’ Medea and by many fragments from lost epics.  We identified many variations in the story as it developed over time observing major differences in the way key characters are depicted.  We also explored artistic representations of the myths that have survived, such as Greek vase paintings illustrating different interpretations of myth unknown in literature.  Our research found that early Greek colonization of territories bordering the Black Sea and later geopolitical factors affected the development of what once may have been a simple folktale.  We noted how authors (e.g. Ovid, Valerius Flaccus) manipulated the narrative to serve artistic and political purposes and hypothesized why.  We completed our survey with two cinematic adaptions of the myth (Jason and the Argonauts 1964, 2000) examining how modern conceptions of narrative have changed the stories.  Our project attempted to answer various questions.  Where did the myths originate?  Homer tells us that Jason’s expedition was well known at the time of his writing but does not mention Medea.  Why was Jason heroic to Homer, then clueless to Apollonius?  Why was Medea first a goddess, then heroine, witch, murderess, then filicide?   Why does Hercules haunt the myths?  How did Roman authors receive and develop the myths from their own cultural perspective? Through this project we observed first-hand how cultures collide but creatively coalesce.

Greek heroes have found their place in literature and art for thousands of years, each coming with their own complicated and thrilling series of stories that capture the imagination. For the average contemporary person, they are children’s stories and fiction, but for the Greeks, heroes represented so much more. They were religious figures, who received cults all over the Greek world, they were sources of entertainment and education, and they were a reflection of Greek ideas on humanity and the place of mortals in the world. It is important to look at heroes not only as individuals but also in comparison to others found elsewhere in myth, and my project is focused on particular heroes who form father-son pairs. Working with ancient texts, as well as secondary authors such as Nagy, Burkert, and Rohde, I will further examine the role of heroes in Greek myth through the relationship between fathers and sons, such as Tydeus and Diomedes or Agamemnon and Orestes. By exploring how these different pairs interact with each other in terms of their characteristics, deeds, and their fate after death, we can see an interesting interplay of different heroic attributes being carefully woven into both father and son so that one complements the other. This complementarity shows another more subtle facet of the already complex Greek hero, one that helps us better understand the full importance of heroic characters and their links to one another in myth, cult, and in Greek thought.

From Caesar Augustus onward, various Roman emperors and their family members were officially declared to be gods.  The topic of this paper concerns the imperial deification process and the role subjectivity played in which emperors and imperial family members were accorded divine status.  Specifically, the personal and political considerations of the reigning emperor or senate that served as the basis as to why a certain individual obtained or was denied deification, and the evolution of the divinization process over time, are examined.  Conversely, an alternative act called damnatio memoriae, by which the memory of deposed emperors or other unwelcome persons was condemned to oblivion after their death by the state, is also compared.  The reactions (as preserved in the poetry and prose of ancient writers) of the Romans and imperial subjects to the imperial deification apparatus in general and the conferral of divinity upon specific persons are also noted.  The paper focuses in particular on the reign of Domitian, who upon his succession deified his brother and immediate predecessor Titus, and later his young son as well.  In contrast to past imperial customs of deifying emperors after their death, Domitian demanded to be hailed as a god during his own lifetime, and the paper investigates his justifications for this deviation from the precedent that only a deceased emperor or member of the imperial family could be granted apotheosis.  He suffered the condemnation of his memory after his assassination.  And while poets and writers bestowed voluminous adulations upon him in his lifetime and referred to him as a god, his reputation plummeted precipitously after his death.

This project investigates representations of hair in Roman art and literature. Specifically, I focus on how movement in men and women's hair reflects the situations they find themselves in. My research began with searching Roman literature for depictions of hair, analyzing its movement, and relating that to the context of the passage. Supplementing my literary research, I compared what I had found with Roman artwork. After in depth analysis, I discovered that the movement of hair reflects the situation that the character is in, and that it has an inverse connotation for men and women. For a male, flowing hair reflects his depiction as a victorious masculine ideal, while men with stationary hair are in situations where they are seen as effeminate or encountering death. Conversely, women with stationary hair represent the feminine ideal, while moving or unruly hair reflects the dangerous situation the woman is in, or her own dangerous state. In the most extreme circumstanes, the amount of movement in men and women's hair mirrors their proximity to death. 

The marble plaque showing parturition scene, from 400BC-300CE Ostia, Italy, depicts three women attending to a mother in the midst of her labor. On the left, one of the assistants holds a newborn with cloth covered hands as she observes the midwife delivering the placenta. The final attendant rings out a cloth as she locks eyes with the mother. The marble’s poignant composition draws the viewer in with its forceful narrative of childbirth. Despite its uniqueness and significance, this artwork has been neglected in the scholarship. In order to supplement the resulting deficiency, in my presentation I explore the plaque in relationship to Roman midwifery practices through period visual and literary sources. Paying special attention to the medical writings of Soranus of Ephesus, my inquiry delves into the qualifications of Roman midwives, their training, social status, and prestige. The dynamic and naturalistic aspects of the piece articulates a careful attention to Roman obstetrical, medical knowledge. Moreover, the relief demonstrates the esteem midwives held in Roman society, which is especially relevant considering the funerary function of this relief. The status of midwives is in itself a debated topic in the scholarship due to a lack of documentation, and therefore a careful study of the plaque is vital to our understanding of midwifery and childbirth in antiquity as well as its depiction in art.