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Open Access Publications from the University of California

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The Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics is committed to the progress and proliferation of scholarship in the field of Classics and to providing a common medium through which undergraduates from all relevant disciplines can actively engage in one another’s work. In order to establish a channel for interdepartmental exchange and collaboration, we seek to publish exceptional papers and translations from a wide range of fields pertaining to Classics and the world of the ancient Mediterranean.

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Articles

The Roots of Morality: From Classical to Christian Eschatology

The possibility of life after death has captured the imagination of different cultures and religions around the world, resulting in a wide variety of afterlife myths. Modern Western cultures tend to believe that an individual’s experience in the afterlife relies heavily upon the ethical behavior of an individual during their lifetime. This morality-based eschatology has roots in early Judeo-Christian thought – although Classical authors also placed an emphasis on ethical behavior in their understandings of the afterlife. This paper examines how the writings of Homer, Hesiod, Plato, and Virgil blended together with Biblical teachings from the Old and New Testament over the centuries. Thanks in part to later authors, such as Dante Alighieri, these differing worldviews came together to create the widespread modern belief that the virtuous go to heaven, and the wicked go to hell.

Grotesque Forms: ἔρως and σῶμα in the Symposium

The purpose of this paper is to examine the conception of the body and its relationship to desire articulated by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium. The paper begins by analyzing the progress of Aristophanes creation myth and determining the role of the body as origin, hindrance, and aid of love. Then the paper compares the account of Aristophanes to the experience of Alcibiades. Lastly the paper compares the account to the one put forward by Plato's Socrates via Diotima. Through this multi-step analysis, we reconstruct a unique conception of the body not found in other works by Plato and come to better understand the role of the body in Plato's account of desire as a whole.

Assimilation or Destruction: The Christianization of Late Antique Statuary

Abstract

The recent destruction of Palmyra sent shockwaves across the globe, as the days of religious fanaticism and outbursts of iconoclasm had largely been forgotten by the collective memory. Yet, such acts of destruction have long been a point of discussion (and contention) among scholars. In the centuries following the conversion from paganism to Christianity the fate of the pagan statuary was left in the hands of a newly Christian society, and to the processes of Christianization. Processes which acted either to assimilate the statue into the newly Christian cultural milieu or destroy the statue for its pagan nature. This paper will present an overview of the various attitudes, and responses, towards pagan statuary in late antiquity, and the ways in which recent scholarship has interpreted the processes of Christianization with renewed enthusiasm. Using the Hearst Herakles as a case study for the practice of Christianization, this paper will first examine the processes of Christianization as a means of assimilation, in which the pagan statue was deliberately altered in order to remove its pagan character and make certain of its ability to function in Christian society; then examine the processes of Christianization in which the statue was destroyed for its pagan nature.

Tyrannos, Rhētōr, and Strategos: Herodotus' Athenian Artemisia

Portrayed as the charismatic Queen of Halicarnassus, shrewd adviser to the Xerxes, and fearless admiral at the Battle of Salamis, Herodotus' Artemisia boldly transgresses into the traditionally male-dominated spaces of tyrant, orator, and general. While some have interpreted Artemisia’s lack of punctilio as emblematic of a Persia so politically and culturally backwards that even women (viewed by Greeks as the inferior sex) were entrusted with authority, the significance of her narrative may be more complex. In light of recent scholarship about Herodotus’ generally favorable presentation of women, it appears that each of Artemisia’s three appearances - Histories 7.99, 8.68-69, and 8.87-88 – actually serve to liken the Queen to her Athenian foes. An interpretation of Artemisia as fundamentally Athenian reminds us that the rigid, binary association of a “feminine East” and a “masculine West” in Greek historiography should be called into question.

Portrayed as the charismatic Queen of Halicarnassus, shrewd adviser to the Xerxes, and fearless admiral at the Battle of Salamis, Herodotus' Artemisia boldly transgresses into the traditionally male dominated spaces of tyrant, orator, and general. While some have interpreted Artemisia’s lack of punctilio as emblematic of a Persia so politically and culturally backwards that even women (viewed by Greeks as the inferior sex) were entrusted with authority, the significance of her narrative may be more complex. In light of recent scholarship about Herodotus’ generally favorable presentation of women, it appears that each of Artemisia’s three appearances - Histories 7.99, 8.68-69, and 8.87-88 – actually serve to liken the Queen to her Athenian foes. An interpretation of Artemisia as fundamentally Athenian reminds us that the rigid, binary association of a “feminine East” and a “masculine West” in Greek historiography should be called into question.

Bow Designs on Ancient Greek Vases

This research looks to investigate the designs of ancient bows depicted on ancient Greek pottery. The goal is to show that the bows most commonly shown are not native to the Greek mainland but rather are from both Scythia and Egypt. This has been done by examining a number of vases, pyramid friezes, and modern bow reconstructions. The common use of the Scythian design for archer characters in scenes of myth implies a familiarity with archery primarily through the Scythian mercenaries. The Egyptian acacia deflex bow design, while rare in vase depictions, directly corresponds to images on pyramids. The Egyptian angular composite bow appears in a rare case on a Greek vase, but its depiction is consistent with modern historical reconstructions. Through showing these non-native bow origins, this paper hopes to further demonstrate the worldly influences to archaic Greece.