@article{Kambo2022,
  author    = {Kambo, Kevin},
  title     = {Platonic Tripartition and the Peoples of Middle-Earth},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.219},
  pages     = {90 -- 122},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings employ traditional races from fairy tales: elves, men and dwarves. These peoples are differentiated principally by their dominant desires, but also by their speech, diet, and realms. I argue that these three races are significantly inspired by the three aspects that characterize the Republic's tripartite soul—logistikon, thumoeides, and epithumetikon—along with their respective principal desires: desire for truth, greatness, and material goods. For Tolkien, therefore, these races have a corporate or political psychology that explains who they are as peoples in the history of Middle-earth. I offer a comprehensive view of the major races, connecting the dwarves with the appetitive artisans of the Republic, humans with the honour- and glory-seeking auxiliaries, and elves with the ruling guardians. This treatment explains the artisanal dwarves, as well as the battle-loving men (and women) of Rohan and Gondor, and the nostalgic, 'anamnetic' condition of exile that distinguishes the elves. Indeed, the condition of elves in many descriptions recalls a Platonic philosopher returned to the Cave, as well as the Neo-Platonic sagacity pictured in the biographies of Plotinus and Proclus.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{Capra2022,
  author    = {Capra, Elena Sofia},
  title     = {"Orfeo out of Care"},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.209},
  pages     = {52 -- 89},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The paper focuses on an example of multiple-step reception: the contribution of the classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the mediaeval lay Sir Orfeo to Tolkien's work. In the first part, I compare the lay with Virgilian and Ovidian versions of Orpheus' myth. This comparison shows the anonymous author's deep knowledge of the ancient texts and complex way of rewriting them through stealing and hybridization. The lay was highly esteemed by Tolkien, who translated it and took inspiration from it while describing the Elven kingdom in The Hobbit and building the storyline of Beren and L{\´u}thien in The Silmarillion. Through this key tale, Orpheus/Orfeo's romance has a deep influence also on Aragorn and Arwen's story in The Lord of the Rings. The most important element that Tolkien takes from the Sir Orfeo figuration of the ancient story is undoubtedly the insertion of political theme: the link established between the recovery of the main character's beloved and the return to royal responsability. The second part of the paper is, thus, dedicated to the reception of Sir Orfeo and the classical myth in Tolkien. It shows how in his work the different steps of the tradition of Orpheus' story are co-present, creating an inextricable substrate of inspiration that nourishes his imagination.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{Oughton2022,
  author    = {Oughton, Charles W.},
  title     = {Roman Heroes at Helm's Deep?},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.214},
  pages     = {123 -- 162},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This article analyzes Tolkien's narrative of the Battle of Helm's Deep as a retelling of the Horatius Cocles episode from Livy's AUC, which contains descriptions of the defenses and the bridge, a rally encouraged by Horatius, his bold stand both with his companions and alone, and the honors paid to him after the battle. Tolkien's Battle of Helm's Deep contains the same elements split across two narratives: the defense of the causeway leading to the gates of the Deep by Aragorn, {\´E}omer, and Gimli; and, after the fall of the Deeping wall, Aragorn's defiant stand alone on the stairway leading to the inner doors of the Hornburg. Aragorn's double action demonstrates a fulfillment of Livy's exemplary arc. Tolkien's knowledge of Macaulay's "Horatius" provides a possible intermediary that accounts for various additions to the story. However, the larger structure of Tolkien's narrative as well as the imagery that resonates throughout the text distinctly evoke the vivid descriptions of Livy. While both sets of heroes make brave stands against their enemies, Tolkien's warriors represent a civilizing force in their efforts to build and restore their defenses while Livy's Roman heroes destroy the bridge to save their state.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{Cristini2022,
  author    = {Cristini, Marco},
  title     = {The Fall of Two Cities: Troy and Gondolin},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.200},
  pages     = {1 -- 24},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Vergil was a fundamental source of inspiration for Tolkien, not only when writing the Lord of the Rings, but also at the beginning of his "world-building". The Fall of Gondolin, written in 1916, was modeled upon the Aeneid, whose second book shares many similarities with the description of Gondolin's last day. For instance, the attack that seals the fate of the city takes place during a feast in both works, whereas both protagonists (Aeneas and Tuor) leave wives and sons to fight the enemy and witness deaths of their kings (Priam/Turgon). Other analogies include the topos of the fall of the tallest tower of the city as well as the scenes of Creusa/Idril clasping the knees of her husband and begging him not to go back to the battle. Tolkien chose the Aeneid as his main model because, in his opinion, the Aeneid and The Fall of Gondolin evoked the air of antiquity and melancholy. Vergil's nostalgia for a "lost world" conveyed in the Aeneid greatly resembles the nostalgia pervading both Tolkien's writing and life.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MatzPaprocki2022,
  author    = {Matz, Alicia and Paprocki, Maciej},
  title     = {There and Back Again: Tolkien and Greco-Roman Antiquity},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.228},
  pages     = {i -- xii},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The following introduction sketches the status questionis of the research on the influence of Greco-Roman antiquity on the works of Tolkien and provides details about the volume's theoretical impetus and its broad themes. The editors discuss Tolkien's complicated and indirect relationship with classical models, underscoring certain emergent themes in volume's contributions, such as decline, multifocal reception and relationship with nature.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{Matz2022,
  author    = {Matz, Alicia},
  title     = {Quis enim laesos impune putaret esse deos?: Ents, Sacred Groves, and the Cost of Desecration},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.215},
  pages     = {204 -- 231},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Seneca the Younger, in his Letters, describes a sacred grove as a "thick grove of ancient trees which rise far above the usual height and block the view of the sky with their umbrella of intertwining branches" (Seneca the Younger, Letters 41.3). Fangorn Forest is clearly a sacred site as defined by Seneca, made even more sacred by the presence of the Ents. Thus, to violate it would be a terrible act of desecration, not unlike Lucan's narrator's shock at Caesar's desecration of the sacred grove at Massilia (Lucan BC 3.447 - 8, quoted in the title of this paper). After exploring the relationship between Ents and sacred groves, the paper will compare the fate of Caesar to that of Saruman, who violated Fangorn Forest. Just as Augoustakis (2006) argues that the violation of the grove foreshadows Caesar's death, so too Saruman's death at the hands of Wormtongue becomes a fitting punishment for his violation of Fangorn.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ChinnThompson2022,
  author    = {Chinn, Christopher and Thompson, Phoebe},
  title     = {Tolkien's Ithilien and the Landscape of the Ancient Mediterranean},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.211},
  pages     = {163 -- 203},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This paper examines the intertext between Tolkien's Ithilien episode in Two Towers and artistic presentations of plants in the art and literature of Augustan Rome. We argue that the evident 'superbloom' depicted in the ekphrasis of the flora of Ithilien recalls both Vergilian botanical adynata (especially in the Georgics) and Roman wall paintings of the Augustan period.},
  language  = {en}
}