TY - CHAP A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo T1 - 'Per voler del primo amor ch'i' sento' BT - Justinian and Theodora from the sixth to sixteenth centuries T2 - Representing Rome's emperors: historical and cultural perspectives through time Y1 - 2024 SN - 978-0-19-286926-5 SP - 195 EP - 213 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo T1 - ‘He had thoughtlessly accepted certain gifts’ BT - corrnuption and ormative behaviour for roman magistrates JF - Cultural History N2 - It has been highlighted many times how difficult it is to draw a boundary between gift and bribe, and how the same transfer can be interpreted in different ways according to the position of the observer and the narrative frame into which it is inserted. This also applied of course to Ancient Rome; in both the Republic and Principate lawgivers tried to define the limits of acceptable transfers and thus also to identify what we might call ‘corruption’. Yet, such definitions remained to a large extent blurred, and what was constructed was mostly a ‘code of conduct’, allowing Roman politicians to perform their own ‘honesty’ in public duty – while being aware at all times that their involvement in different kinds of transfer might be used by their opponents against them and presented as a case of ‘corrupt’ behaviour. KW - corruption KW - gift-giving KW - Ancient Rome KW - bribery KW - transfers KW - code of conduct KW - embezzlement KW - Cicero Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/cult.2024.0296 SN - 2045-290X SN - 2045-2918 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 52 EP - 70 PB - Edinburgh University Press CY - Edinburgh ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - García Morcillo, Marta T1 - Discursive constructions of corruption in Ancient Rome BT - Introduction JF - Cultural History Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/cult.2024.0293 SN - 2045-290X SN - 2045-2918 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Edinburgh University Press CY - Edinburgh ER - TY - GEN ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - García Morcillo, Marta T1 - Discursive Constructions of Corruption in Ancient Rome T2 - Cultural History Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3366/cult.2024.0293 SN - 2045-290X SN - 2045-2918 VL - 13 IS - 1 PB - Edinburgh University Press CY - Edinburgh ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Düvel, Pia A1 - Ehmig, Ulrike A1 - McCall, Jeremiah A1 - Unceta Gómez, Luis A1 - Bakogianni, Anastasia A1 - Fischer, Jens A1 - Serrano Lozano, David A1 - Ambühl, Annemarie A1 - Matz, Alicia A1 - Brinker, Wolfram A1 - Mach, Jonas Konstantin A1 - Mancini, Mattia A1 - Werner, Eva ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Spring Issue T2 - thersites KW - history textbooks KW - textbook research KW - historical consciousness KW - Spartacus KW - slavery KW - history teaching KW - Anfänge der systematischen lateinische Epigraphik KW - Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum KW - Archiv KW - Reproduktion von Inschriften KW - history KW - video games KW - agents KW - historiography KW - Jonathan Muroya KW - Greek mythology KW - classical reception KW - cartoons Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol18 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2024 IS - 18 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kay, Alex James T1 - Holocaust Research in Germany BT - current status and future challenges T2 - Hurbán Folyóirat Y1 - 2020 UR - https://hdke.hu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/3-kay-alex-j.pdf UR - https://hdke.hu/folyoirat/2023-2/ SN - 3004-023X VL - 2 SP - 22 EP - 28 PB - Holokauszt Emlékközpont – Holocaust Memorial Center CY - Budapest ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kay, Alex James T1 - The extermination of Red Army soldiers in German captivity, 1941–1945 BT - causes, patterns, dimensions JF - Journal of Slavic Military Studies N2 - Captive Red Army soldiers made up the majority of victims of Nazi Germany’s starvation policy against Soviet civilians and other non-combatants and thus constituted the largest single victim group of the German war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Indeed, Soviet prisoners of war were the largest victim group of all National Socialist annihilation policies after the European Jews. Before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, it was clear to the Wehrmacht planning departments on exactly what scale they could expect to capture Soviet troops. Yet, they neglected to make the necessary preparations for feeding and sheltering the captured soldiers, who were viewed by the economic staffs and the military leadership alike as direct competitors of German troops and the German home front for precious food supplies. The number of extra mouths to feed was incompatible with German war aims. The obvious limitations on their freedom of movement and the relative ease with which large numbers could be segregated and their rations controlled were crucial factors in the death of over 3 million Soviet POWs, the vast majority directly or indirectly as a result of deliberate policies of neglect, undernourishment, and starvation while in the ‘care’ of the Wehrmacht. The most reliable figures for the mortality of Soviet POWs in German captivity reveal that up to 3.3 million died from a total of just over 5.7 million captured between June 1941 and February 1945 — a proportion of almost 58 percent. Of these, 2 million were already dead by the beginning of February 1942. In English, there is still neither a single monograph nor a single edited volume dedicated to the subject. This article now provides the first detailed stand-alone synthesis in that language addressing the whole period from 1941 to 1945. KW - Red Army KW - prisoners of war KW - Wehrmacht KW - extermination KW - starvation KW - Eastern Europe KW - Second World War Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2024.2340839 SN - 1556-3006 SN - 1351-8046 VL - 37 IS - 1 SP - 80 EP - 104 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Rollinger, Christian ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo T1 - The Tetrarchy as Ideology BT - an Introduction T2 - The Tetrarchy as Ideology. Recoonfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-515-13403-3 SN - 978-3-515-13400-2 SP - 11 EP - 24 PB - Franz Steiner CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Freitag, Florian A1 - Anton Clavé, Salvador A1 - Böger, Astrid A1 - Clément, Thibaut A1 - Lukas, Scott A1 - Mittermeier, Sabrina A1 - Molter, Céline A1 - Paine, Crispin A1 - Schwarz, Ariane A1 - Staszak, Jean-Francois A1 - Steinkrüger, Jan-Erik A1 - Widmann, Torsten T1 - Key concepts in theme park studies BT - understanding tourism and leisure spaces N2 - This book offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary introduction to theme parks and the field of theme park studies. It identifies and discusses relevant economic, social, and cultural as well as medial, historical, and geographical aspects of theme parks worldwide, from the big international theme park chains to smaller, regional, family-operated parks. The book also describes the theories and methods that have been used to study theme parks in various academic disciplines and reviews the major contexts in which theme parks have been studied. By providing the necessary backgrounds, theories, and methods to analyze and understand theme parks both as a business field and as a socio-cultural phenomenon, this book will be a great resource to students, academics from all disciplines interested in theme parks, and professionals and policy-makers in the leisure and entertainment as well as the urban planning sector. Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-031-11131-0 SN - 978-3-031-11132-7 SN - 978-3-031-11134-1 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11132-7 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Rollinger, Chrstian ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian T1 - The Tetrarchy as Ideology BT - Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power T3 - Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien (HABES) ; 64 N2 - The 'Tetrarchy', the modern name assigned to the period of Roman history that started with the emperor Diocletian and ended with Constantine I, has been a much-studied and much-debated field of the Roman Empire. Debate, however, has focused primarily on whether it was a true 'system' of government, or rather a collection of ad-hoc measures undertaken to stabilise the empire after the troubled period of the 3rd century CE. The papers collected here aim to go beyond this question and to present an innovative approach to a fascinating period of Roman history by understanding the Tetrarchy not as a system of government, but primarily as a political language. Their focus thus lies on the language and ideology of the imperial college and court, on the performance of power in imperial ceremonies, the representation of the emperors and their enemies in the provinces of the Roman world, as well as on the afterlife of Tetrarchic power in the Constantinian period. Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-515-13400-2 SN - 978-3-515-13403-3 PB - Franz Steiner CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reed, Kate A1 - Schenck, Marcia C. T1 - A right to research? JF - International migration Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13145 SN - 0020-7985 SN - 1468-2435 VL - 61 IS - 3 SP - 390 EP - 393 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo T1 - Quod omni consanguinitate certius est, virtutibus fratres Families and Family Relationships in ‘Tetrarchic’ Ideology T2 - The Tetrarchy as Ideology : Recoonfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-515-13403-3 SN - 978-3-515-13400-2 SP - 25 EP - 46 PB - Franz Steiner CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Leonardis, Irene ED - Dinter, Martin T. ED - Guérin, Charles T1 - Varro and the re-foundation of Roman cultural memory through genealogy and humanitas T2 - Cultural memory in republican and Augustan Rome N2 - In the last two centuries BC, with the Republic limping towards its end, the cultivated ruling elite began to lose its moral and political authority.1 Its members not only held themselves responsible for the so-called crisis of tradition, but at the same time also conveyed the impression of a loss of memory, as if all Romans were suffering from some kind of amnesia or identity crisis.2 In particular, institutional figures such as pontiffs and augurs, who had preserved Rome’s memory throughout its history, were accused of neglecting their duties and, by extension, of allowing ancient practices and values to slowly disappear.3 Accordingly, Cicero and Varro, both perfect representatives of this elite, employed recurrent terms such as neglect (neglegentia/neglegere), involuntary abandon (amittere), oblivion (oblivio), vanishing of institutions (evanescere), and ignorance (ignoratio/ignorare) to describe this critical loss of information; they depicted the citizenry of Rome (civitas) as disoriented and estranged, incapable of sharing any common knowledge or values. Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-1-009-32775-6 SN - 978-1-009-32774-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009327749.006 SP - 97 EP - 114 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vandewalle, Alexander ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Review of Ross Clare: Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames. Representation, Play, Transmedia BT - Bloomsbury Academic (London, New York 2021) (= IMAGINES – Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts), x + 230 pages, 25 illustrations. ISBN: 9781350157194 (hardback), $ 115.00, £ 85.00 hardback, also available as e-book (PDF, Epub, Mobi) JF - thersites 16 Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol16.220 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 16 SP - 173 EP - 177 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Avalli, Andrea ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Review of Dario Barbera: Processo al Classico. L’epurazione dell’archeologia fascista BT - ETS (Pisa 2022) (= Studi di archeologia e storia del mondo antico e medievale), 264 pp. ISBN: 9788846762191, € 25 JF - thersites 16 Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol16.233 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 16 SP - 168 EP - 172 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Skibinski, Connie ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - ‘Crazy Man-Killing Monsters’ BT - The Inimical Portrayal of the Amazons in Supernatural’s ‘Slice Girls’ JF - thersites 17 N2 - The Amazons have a long legacy in literature and the visual arts, extending from antiquity to the present day. Prior scholarship tends to treat the Amazons as hostile ‘Other’ figures, embodying the antithesis of Greco-Roman cultural norms. Recently, scholars have begun to examine positive portrayals of Amazons in contemporary media, as role models and heroic figures. However, there is a dearth of scholarship examining the Amazons’ inherently multifaceted nature, and their subsequent polarised reception in popular media. This article builds upon the large body of scholarship on contemporary Amazon narratives, in which the figures of Wonder Woman and Xena, Warrior Princess dominate scholarly discourse. These ‘modern Amazon’ figures epitomise the dominant contemporary trend of portraying Amazons as strong female role models and feminist icons. To highlight the complexity of the Amazon image in contemporary media, this article examines the representation of the Amazons in the Supernatural episode ‘Slice Girls’ (S7 E13, 2012), where their portrayal as hostile, monstrous figures diverges greatly from the positive characterisation of Wonder Woman and Xena. I also consider the show’s engagement with ancient written sources, to examine how the writers draw upon the motifs of ancient Amazon narratives when crafting their unique Amazon characters. By contrasting the Amazons of ‘Slice Girls’ to contemporary figures and ancient narratives, this article examines how factors such as feminist ideology, narrative story arcs, characters’/audience’s perspectives and male bias shape the representation of Amazons post-antiquity. KW - Amazons KW - Warrior women KW - Classical reception KW - Supernatural KW - Monsters Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.240 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 183 EP - 211 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Martínez Jiménez, Javier ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Lycaon and classical versipelles in MTV’s Teen Wolf JF - thersites 17 N2 - The modern conception of the werewolf is heavily influenced by Gothic reinterpretations of medieval European stories. This kind of werewolf is the one that has appeared on screen and written fiction for decades, but MTV’s Teen Wolf, a re-boot of the 1980s film which aired between 2011 – 17, is different. In this young adult supernatural drama, werewolves descend directly from Lycaon, and a substantial proportion of the show’s werewolf lore derives from Graeco-Roman stories about wolf-shifters and versipelles. This paper wants to explore the extent of the use in the show of the myth of Lycaon in particular, of Classical versipelles in general, the significance of these two references for the narrative, and the degree of innovation in modern supernatural fiction of this adaptation of Greek and Roman stories. KW - Teen Wolf KW - Werewolves KW - Versipelles KW - Lycaon KW - Television series KW - World-building Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.248 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 212 EP - 244 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maurice, Lisa ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - From Olympian to Christ-figure: Lucifer (2016 – 2021) JF - thersites 17 N2 - On the surface the television series Lucifer (2016 – 21) is a simple police procedural but, in actuality, the criminal cases in the show serve merely as window-dressing and structure for the deeper consideration of issues, such as guilt, shame, love, and even the meaning of life on both an individual and universal level. These topics are explored through the ever-developing character of Lucifer himself, who, like other recent anti-hero depictions, is initially presented in a manner that is very different from traditional portrayals of the Devil, and is, in fact, far closer to that of the Greek Olympian gods. Over the course of six seasons, the depiction of Lucifer alters, however, as he becomes a figure that is in many ways Christ-like, but with a 21st century twist that places the individual in an exalted position that is superior to that of divinity. KW - Lucifer KW - Devil KW - Olympians KW - God KW - Christ Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.244 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 245 EP - 272 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Potter, Amanda ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Classical Monsters and Hero(ines) in InSEXts, Eros/Psyche and Porcelain JF - thersites 17 N2 - This paper applies Monster Theory to the use of Greek mythology in three creator-owned comic series by female writers: InSEXts (2016 – 2017) by American comic writer Marguerite Bennett and Indonesian artist working in America Ariela Kristantina as well as Eros/Psyche (2021) and Porcelain (2021) by Maria Llovet, a comic writer and artist from Barcelona. In the first volume of InSEXts, set in Victorian London, there are allusions to the Furies and Pandora, linked with the discourse of the repression of women. In the second volume, set in the late nineteenth century Paris art world, the representation of classical subjects in art becomes a means to repress women, and a goddess with a Gorgon-like appearance takes revenge on the male repressors. In Eros/Psyche the story of Eros and Psyche and broken statues forms the backdrop and context for a tale of love and deception at a girls’ school, and in Porcelain a girl is faced with a choice of paths towards Eros or Thanatos, like Herakles at the crossroads choosing between the paths of virtue and vice. With reference to Cohen’s seven theses of Monster Culture I examine how Bennett and Lovett subvert the idea of the monster and the hero. KW - Comics KW - Eros KW - Psyche KW - Pygmalion KW - Medusa Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.247 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 96 EP - 124 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Toscano, Margaret Merrill ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Varieties of Supernatural Depictions BT - Classics in Contemporary Media JF - thersites 17 N2 - This article proposes several conceptual frameworks for examining the widespread use of classical intertexts depicting the supernatural in popular media. Whether the supernatural is viewed as reality or simply a trope, it represents the human capacity and desire to explore worlds and meanings beyond the obvious and mundane. Representations of classical gods, heroes, and monsters evoke the power of mythic stories to probe and explain human psychology, social concerns, philosophical questions, and religious beliefs, including belief about the paranormal and supernatural. The entertainment value of popular media allows creators and audiences to engage with larger issues in non-dogmatic and playful ways that help them negotiate tensions among various beliefs and identities. This paper also gives an overview of the other articles in this journal issue, showing overlapping themes and patterns that connect with these tensions. By combining knowledge of classical myths in their original contexts with knowledge about contemporary culture, classical scholars contribute unique perspectives about why classical intertexts dominate in popular media today. KW - Myth Theory KW - Classical Mythology KW - Supernatural KW - Paranormal KW - Afterlife Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.249 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 2 EP - 31 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Foster, Frances ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Gods and Magic in Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief JF - thersites 17 N2 - Megan Whalen Turner’s series The Queen’s Thief (1996 – 2020) centres on the political intrigues in a group of countries which are at once very like – but also very unlike – Bronze Age and archaic Greece threatened by a powerful Persian Empire. The first book in the series, The Thief (1996), begins as a political adventure haunted by stories of the gods. When those gods directly influence the action, the narrative changes from present political intrigue to a fantasy from the distant past. The mythology in The Thief reflects, imitates and distorts archaic Greek creation myths – stories about how the earth and sky were formed, the divine pantheon and heroes. I examine the presentation of this divine pantheon against the narratives about the gods in Hesiod, the Homeric hymns and Homer’s epics. I evaluate how the supernatural element interacts with the largely political narrative of The Thief. In so doing, I explore how the text blends a ‘classical supernatural’ with a world that is like – but in many ways very unlike – Bronze Age and archaic Greece. KW - Greek gods KW - Mythology KW - Young Adult literature KW - Fantasy KW - Magic Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.242 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 32 EP - 54 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lovatt, Helen ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Resurrecting the Argo BT - Supernatural Re-makings in Robert Holdstock’s Merlin Codex JF - thersites 17 N2 - This paper analyses the relationship between the figure of the Argo (ship and character) and the supernatural in the mythic fantasy of Robert Holdstock’s Merlin Codex. It shows how Holdstock’s re-writing of the Argonautica draws on various versions from the Argonautic tradition, including Euripides’ Medea, Apollonius, Valerius Flaccus, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Treece and the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. It sets Holdstock’s Argo alongside other representations, as divine herself, possessed by divinity, and a channel of communication with the divine, and in the context of Holdstock’s previous work, particularly Mythago Wood, Lavondyss and Merlin’s Wood. The paper argues that Holdstock uses the Argo as a reflection of myth itself, a version of the forest in Mythago Wood, as well as a metapoetic image for the challenges and complexities of adapting a well-known story, bringing multiple mythological traditions (Arthurian, Finnish and Argonautic) together. It reflects on Holdstock’s relationship to the ancient genres of epic and tragedy, as well as Argo as plot facilitator and mechanism of transformation and transition. Holdstock’s relationship with ancient literature is richer and deeper than previously acknowledged; his self-conscious plays reveal a deep understanding of the polymorphous nature of mythical traditions. KW - Holdstock KW - Merlin Codex KW - Argonauts KW - Argo KW - myth Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.254 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 55 EP - 95 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strong, Anise K. ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - The Persistence of Memory BT - Forgiveness, Forgetting, and Cultural Assimilation JF - thersites 17 N2 - The 2017 Pixar film Coco and the 2021 Disney film Encanto form a small part of an increasing modern wave of media focused on parent-child conflicts caused by intergenerational trauma and rejection. Other recent works in this genre include the video game Hades, the films Turning Red and Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the television series Ms. Marvel. The traumas in all these films, some directed explicitly at a younger audience and some pitched more broadly, serve as a distinct set of meditations on the immigrant experience, even while not necessarily focusing on literal immigration. They also all invoke imagery of ghosts and death, both echoing specific classical Mediterranean motifs and tropes and incorporating a wide variety of other cultures’ supernatural traditions. These works’ concern with familial traumas of separation, culture shock, and loss of ancestral memories and connections contrasts sharply with the individual-focused myth of the American Dream common to earlier generations of American media, in which a lone individual typically emigrates, assimilates, and succeeds in a new culture, forming a new family and set of myths. However, themes of assimilation and questions of cultural imperialism also form a bridge between ancient Roman and modern North American anxieties and traditions. KW - Classical Reception KW - Coco KW - Immigration KW - Ancestors KW - Underworld Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.255 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 125 EP - 142 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Potter, Amanda A1 - Gardner, Hunter H. ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Classics and the Supernatural in Modern Media JF - thersites 17 N2 - Short preface to the special edition of Thersites. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.256 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 1 EP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sanchez Sanz, Arturo A1 - Laudenbach, Benoît A1 - Weiß, Adrian A1 - Werner, Eva A1 - Stachon, Markus A1 - Anders, Friedrich A1 - Barthel, Christian A1 - Berrens, Dominik A1 - Avalli, Andrea A1 - Vandewalle, Alexander A1 - Ferrara, Pasquale A1 - Pohl, Patrik ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Spring Issue T2 - thersites Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol16 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 16 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Potter, Amanda A1 - Gardner, Hunter H. A1 - Toscano, Margaret Merrill A1 - Foster, Frances A1 - Lovatt, Helen A1 - Strong, Anise K. A1 - Siegel, Janice A1 - Skibinski, Connie A1 - Martínez Jiménez, Javier A1 - Maurice, Lisa ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Classics and the supernatural in modern media T2 - thersites Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Wetzel, Johanna M. A1 - Reed, Kate A1 - Schenck, Marcia C. T1 - "Writing with my professors” BT - contesting the boundaries of the field in the Global History Dialogues Project T2 - Writing Together: Kollaboratives Schreiben mit Personen aus dem Feld N2 - Kollaboratives Forschen quer zu hegemonialen Wissensordnungen gilt als wichtiger Baustein dekolonialer Wissenspraxis. Gemeinsame Schreibprozesse von Wissenschaftler*innen und ihren nicht-wissenschaftlichen Forschungspartner*innen sind allerdings selten und eine methodologische und forschungspraktische Reflexion fehlt. Die Beiträger*innen widmen sich diesen Lücken, indem sie erfolgreiche, aber auch gescheiterte Projekte kollaborativer Textproduktion zwischen Universität und Feld vorstellen und auf ihr Potenzial als transformative und dekoloniale Wissenspraxis befragen. So entsteht eine praktische Orientierungshilfe, die gleichzeitig die interdisziplinäre Diskussion anregt. Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-8394-6399-4 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839463994-002 VL - 45 SP - 31 EP - 53 PB - Transcript Verlag CY - Bielefeld ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kay, Alex James T1 - Never again? BT - the ways in which we remember the Holocaust might not help to prevent the rise of violent fascism in future N2 - The Holocaust was the most terrible atrocity of the 20th century. In many ways, it was also unprecedented in the history of atrocities: for its comprehensiveness and systematic nature; for the fanaticism with which its perpetrators scoured an entire continent in their pursuit of Jews; for the awful potency of the Nazis’ insinuation that the victims represented a pernicious and existential threat. Collectively, we have spent decades—and published millions of words—trying to understand what happened and why. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/60494/never-again SN - 1359-5024 VL - 4 IS - April 2023 SP - 63 EP - 65 PB - Prospect Publishing Limited CY - London ER - TY - JFULL ED - Schenck, Marcia C. ED - Njung, George N. T1 - Africa today BT - Rethinking Refuge processes of refuge seeking in Africa. - Special issue N2 - Africa Today publishes peer-reviewed, scholarly articles and book reviews in a broad range of academic disciplines on topics related to contemporary Africa. We seek to be a venue for interdisciplinary approaches, diverse perspectives, and original research in the humanities and social sciences. This includes work on social, cultural, political, historical, and economic subjects. Recent special issues have been on topics such as the future of African artistic practices, the socio-cultural life of bus stations in Africa, and family-based health care in Ghana. Africa Today has been on the forefront of African Studies research since 1954. Please review our submission guidelines and then contact the Managing Editor or any of the editors with any questions you might have about publishing in Africa Today. Y1 - 2022 SN - 1527-1978 SN - 0001-9887 VL - 69 IS - 1/2 PB - Indiana University Press CY - Bloomington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Asche, Matthias A1 - Gerber, Stefan ED - Dunphy, Graeme ED - Gow, Andrew T1 - Student association JF - Encyclopedia of Early Modern History. Seven Year's War. Symbolic Money Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-90-04-26991-0 VL - 13 PB - Brill CY - Leiden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schenck, Marcia C. ED - Schenck, Marcia C. ED - Njung, George N. T1 - Rethinking Refuge: Processes of Refuge Seeking in Africa BT - An Introduction JF - Africa Today Y1 - 2022 SN - 1527-1978 SN - 0001-9887 VL - 69 IS - 1-2 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Indiana University Press CY - Bloomington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schenck, Marcia C. T1 - Rezension zu: Lingelbach, Jochen : On the Edges of Whiteness: Polish Refugees in British Colonial Africa during and after the Second World War. - New York: Berghahn, 2020. - 306 S. - ISBN 978-1-78920-444-5 JF - Revue d’histoire Contemporaine De l’Afrique Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.51185/journals/rhca.2022.cr01 SN - 2673-7604 PB - Université de Genève CY - Genève ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Julius Lucas T1 - ‘To grab, when the grabbing begins’ BT - German foreign and colonial policy during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/95 and the Triple Intervention of 1895 JF - The international history review N2 - The Sino-Japanese War of 1894/95 is usually only briefly mentioned in studies on diplomatic history. Especially the war's impact on Wilhelmine foreign and world policy (Weltpolitik) has been largely neglected. However, the events in East Asia had a profound influence on the political leadership in Berlin. The Wilhelmstrasse's attitude towards the conflict changed rapidly when the course of the war in Northeast Asia made a collapse of the Qing Empire increasingly likely. Afraid of the prospect of being left empty handed in an upcoming scramble for China, German diplomacy got active in early 1895. Driven by a hectic activism which soon should become a dominant feature of Weltpolitik, Berlin concluded an ad-hoc alliance with St. Petersburg and Paris. In April 1895, this unlikely coalition intervened against Tokyo. While the Triple Intervention served primarily Russia's interest to maintain the status quo on the Chinese mainland, Germany aimed at the acquisition of a military and commercial base in Northeast Asia. Driven by public opinion, the naval leadership and the Emperor Wilhelm II., the formerly neutral and reserved German diplomacy changed towards an aggressive and unstable imperialist policy, which ultimately resulted in the acquisition of Qingdao in November 1897. KW - Imperial Germany KW - diplomacy KW - imperialism (Sino-Japanese War) Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2021.1909101 SN - 0707-5332 SN - 1949-6540 VL - 44 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 20 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - New York, NY [u.a.] ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo T1 - Cicero, the Poor, and Roman Rhetoric T2 - Poverty in Ancient Greece and Rome. Realities and Discourses Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-36722-115-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367221157-11 SP - 166 EP - 183 PB - Routledge CY - London / New York ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Cecchet, Lucia A1 - Machado, Carlos T1 - Introduction T2 - Poverty in Ancient Greece and Rome. Realities and Discourses Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-36722-115-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367221157-1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Routledge CY - London / New York ER - TY - BOOK ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Cecchet, Lucia ED - Machado, Carlos T1 - Poverty in ancient Greece and Rome BT - discourses and realities N2 - This volume presents an innovative picture of the ancient Mediterranean world. Approaching poverty as a multifaceted condition, it examines how different groups were affected by the lack of access to symbolic, cultural and social – as well as economic – capital. Collecting a wide range of studies by an international team of experts, it presents a diverse and complex analysis of life in antiquity, from the archaic to the late antique period. The sections on Greece, Rome, and Late Antiquity offer in-depth studies of ancient life, integrating analysis of socio-economic dynamics and cultural and discursive strategies that shaped this crucial element of ancient (and modern) societies. Themes like social cohesion and control, exclusion, gender, agency, and identity are explored through the combination of archaeological, epigraphic, and literary evidence, presenting a rich panorama of Greco-Roman societies and a stimulating collection of new approaches and methodologies for their understanding. The book offers a comprehensive view of the ancient world, analysing different social groups – from wealthy elites to poor peasants and the destitute – and their interactions, in contexts as diverse as Classical Athens and Sparta, imperial Rome, and the late antique towns of Egypt and North Africa. Poverty in Ancient Greece and Rome: Discourses and Realities is a valuable resource for students and scholars of ancient history, classical literature, and archaeology. In addition, topics covered in the book are of interest to social scientists, scholars of religion, and historians working on poverty and social history in other periods. Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-367-22114-0 SN - 978-1-03-233004-4 SN - 978-0-367-22115-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367221157 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Freitag, Florian T1 - Theme Park Imitations BT - the Case of Happy World (Happy Valley Beijing) JF - Cultural History N2 - Theme parks frequently draw not only on historical themes, from antiquity to the roaring twenties, but also on their own history – that is, the history of the medium of the theme park itself. This article uses the example of the Happy World ride at Happy Valley Beijing (China) to discuss theme park imitations, that is, the fact that theme parks frequently borrow individual elements (themes, technologies, visuals, layouts, names) and/or entire units (rides, restaurants, themed areas) from each other. Opened in 2014 in the Greek-themed Aegean Harbour section of Happy Valley Beijing, Happy World may upon first sight look like an almost exact copy of Disney’s ‘it’s a small world’ (opened at Disneyland in California in 1966) but turns out to be, upon closer examination, a complex refunctionalization of central elements of ‘it’s a small world’ that establishes meaningful connections between (ancient) Greece and the city of Beijing via the theme of the Olympic Games: drawing on the origins of ‘it’s a small world’ in the 1964–5 New York World’s Fair and the latter’s motto of ‘Peace through Understanding’, Happy World takes visitors on a journey from the ancient Olympiad to contemporary Beijing (the site of the 2008 Summer and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games) to offer a theme park rendition of the 2008 Olympic torch relay as an homage to ‘the spirit [of peace, respect, and friendship] in the people’s [sic] of the world’. KW - China KW - Disney KW - Happy Valley KW - ‘it’s a small world’ KW - imitation KW - Olympic Games Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3366/cult.2022.0267 SN - 2045-290X SN - 2045-2918 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 181 EP - 198 PB - Edinburgh University Press CY - Edinburgh ER - TY - THES A1 - Lobedan, Ben T1 - "The mightiest critic is the public voice" BT - Anglo-African newspapers in British West Africa, 1874-1914 N2 - In ihrer Praxis wird die aus verschiedenen Disziplinen hervorgegangene colonial discourse theory häufig für ihre totalisierenden Tendenzen im Hinblick auf den Aufbau des von ihr untersuchten Diskurses und den innerhalb dieses Aufbaus herrschenden Machtverhältnissen kritisiert. Das Resultat dieser strukturellen To-talisierung ist eine komplette Entmachtung der von dem Diskurs betroffenen Sub-jekte, die folglich zu passiven Objekten degradiert werden, die nicht in der Lage sind, diesen selbst zu beeinflussen. Von dieser berechtigten Kritik ausgehend, untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit die Rolle kolonialer Subjekte in der Entstehung, der Verbreitung, aber auch der Hinterfragung und des Kritisierens des kolonialen Diskurses in der Frühphase des britischen Kolonialismus in West Afrika. Dabei werden drei für den Zeitraum zwischen 1874 und 1914 relevante Themen in den Fokus gestellt: Die Aschanti-Kriege, der Aufbau eines Bildungssystem und das Problem der „Europeanized-Africans.“ Um afrikanische Perspektiven auf diese drei Themenblöcke abzubilden, werden von der kolonialen Elite herausgebende Zeitungen als Quellmaterial konsultiert. Zunächst werden in den ersten beiden Themenblöcken die jeweiligen diskursiven Entwicklungen herausgearbeitet und gezeigt, warum die anfängliche Unterstützung der britischen Herrschaft durch die Eliten zum Ende des Jahrhunderts sukzessive abnahm. Letztlich kulminieren die in der Arbeit analysierten Tendenzen in die Entstehung des „African Regeneration“ Diskurses, der zwar das Narrativ des kolonialen Diskurses auf theoretischer Ebene umdrehen kann und Afrika als den „Zivilisierer“ Europas darstellt, auf strukturel-ler Ebene aber ein ebenso totalisierendes Bild afrikanischer und europäischer Gesellschaften zeichnet. N2 - In its practical outlook, the interdisciplinary-driven colonial discourse theory is often criticized for its totalizing tendencies regarding the structure of the exam-ined discourse and the power relations prevailing in this framework. As a result of this structural totalization, the concerned subjects got disempowered and de-graded to mere passive objects incapable of raising their voices within the dis-course. Based on this justified criticism, this thesis investigates the role colonial subjects played in the emergence, the distribution, as well as in questioning and critiquing of the colonial discourse during the initial phase of British colonialism in West Africa. The focal point lies on three themes relevant to the period be-tween 1874 and 1914: The Ashanti-Wars, the creation of an educational system, and the issue of the so-called "Europeanized Africans." Newspapers published by the colonial elite serve as the central source material in order to reconstruct Afri-can perspectives on these subjects. First, the discursive trajectory of the first two themes will be reconstructed and then shown why the initial support of the elite gradually declined towards the end of the century. Eventually, the analyzed tendencies culminated in the emergence of the "African Regeneration" discourse, which was able to reverse the colonial discourse's basic assumptions, at least on a theoretical level. Consequently, the Africans were displayed as the "civilizer" of Europe. On the structural level, however, this discourse likewise employed a to-talizing picture of African and European societies, respectively. KW - kolonialer Diskurs KW - Mediengeschichte KW - Zivilisierungsmission KW - Antikolonialismus KW - koloniale Elite KW - colonial discourse KW - media history KW - civilizing mission KW - anti colonial thought KW - colonial elite Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-575241 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rieck, Christian E. T1 - Strange New Worlds BT - the European Union's Search for Like-Minded Partners in the Indo-Pacific JF - European Strategic Approaches to the Indo-Pacific N2 - The Indo-Pacific is fast becoming the main arena for great power competition. After explaining the regional power hierarchy, the paper describes how the EU defines like-mindedness as an explicit partnership category in the Indo-Pacific and which of the countries qualify. Finally, the paper also examines the structural problems the EU faces when projecting power into a faraway region such as this one. The paper argues that for China’s rise to remain peaceful and in the absence of fully regional security arrangements, other Asian actors are increasingly looking for new regional structures that combine elements of cooperation, competition and containment vis-à-vis China - including a more pronounced EU role in the region. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.kas.de/en/web/politikdialog-asien/panorama SN - 0119-5204 VL - 2021 IS - 1 SP - 39 EP - 53 PB - Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung CY - Singapore ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schenck, Marcia C. ED - Schenck, Marcia C. ED - Njung, George N. T1 - A different class of refugee: university scholarships and developmentalism in late 1960s Africa JF - Africa Today N2 - Using documents assembled in connection with the 1967 Conference on the Legal, Economic and Social Aspects of African Refugee Problems, this article discusses African refugee higher-education discourses in the 1960s at the level of international organizations, volunteer agencies, and government representatives. Education and development history have recently been studied together, but this article focuses on the history of refugee higher education, which, it argues, needs to be understood within the development framework of human-capital theory, meant to support political pan African concerns for a decolonized continent and merged with humanitarian arguments to create a hybrid form of humanitarian developmentalism. The article zooms in on higher-education scholarships, above all for refugees from Southern Africa, as a means of support for human-capital development. It shows that refugee higher education was both a result and a driver of increased international exchanges, as evidenced at the 1967 conference. Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569066 SN - 1527-1978 SN - 0001-9887 VL - 69 IS - 1-2 SP - 134 EP - 161 PB - Indiana Univ. Press CY - Bloomington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Keen, Tony ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Legolas in Troy BT - The influence of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies on cinematic portrayals of ancient Greece and Rome JF - thersites 15 N2 - The Lord of the Rings movies were a cinematic phenomenon, extremely popular. They are not often considered as works of Classical Reception. These films’ influence on subsequent ancient world movies has been understudied, and undervalued. A common model of cinematic Greece and Rome in the twenty-first century looks solely back to Gladiator. Undoubtedly Gladiator, and its commercial success, is important to how ancient world movies developed; but focussing solely on Gladiator does not explain a move away from Roman history towards Greek mythology, culminating in a flurry of movies about Greek mythological heroes. Lord of the Rings is an overlooked factor. Already in Troy two LOTR stars are in key roles, and the battle scenes seek to imitate those of Jackson’s trilogy. 300 mythologizes far beyond Frank Miller’s graphic novel, adding several monsters; LOTR’s influence is at play here. LOTR’s influence was one factor in a complex process that saw ancient world movies change in the twentyfirst century. LOTR fed into an atmosphere that moved ancient world movies towards Greece, away from Rome, through promoting the appeal of a combination of epic and the fantastic. KW - classical movies KW - Lord of the Rings KW - classical reception KW - Peter Jackson KW - fantasy movies Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.223 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 285 EP - 313 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cromwell, Jennifer ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - From Pyramids to Obscure Gods BT - The Creation of an Egyptian World in Persona 5 JF - thersites 14 N2 - Within Persona 5’s modern Tokyo setting, imagined worlds are created that represent the cognitive processes of various characters. These ‘palaces’ allow the player to explore locations far removed from the game’s real-world, contemporary backdrop. One episode creates an ancient Egyptian world. This article examines how this world has been produced and the different transmedial tropes and other influences that its developers have drawn upon. Many references are recognisable to a broad audience (pyramids, gods, hieroglyphs), while others reflect Japanese pop-cultural trends (in various manga and anime), including the mention of an obscure Egyptian god, Medjed. The intentionally fictitious nature of these ‘palaces’ means that the Egypt that appears in this game is not bound by the need to replicate an ‘accurate’ landscape. Instead, the developers were free to design a gamescape that combines multiple and diverse receptions of ancient Egypt. KW - Egypt KW - videogames KW - Persona 5 KW - pyramids KW - gods Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol14.199 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 14 SP - 1 EP - 40 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cromwell, Jennifer A1 - Brück, Alexander A1 - Unceta Gómez, Luis A1 - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo A1 - Freitag, Florian A1 - Hanisch, Xenia A1 - Dix, Sophie A1 - Klohr, Silvia A1 - Brilke, Clara A1 - Klooster, Jacqueline A1 - Fischer, Jens A1 - Loconte, Riccardo A1 - Weiß, Adrian A1 - Vitello, Eugenia ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Spring Issue T2 - thersites Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol14 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klooster, Jacqueline ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian T1 - Review of Sophia Xenophontos and Katerina Oikonomopoulou: Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plutarch BT - Brill (Leiden 2019) (= Brill’s Companions to Classical Reception 20), 693 pages, 2 figures. ISBN: 978-90-04-28040-3, € 198 JF - thersites 14 Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol14.197 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 14 SP - 160 EP - 167 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vitello, Eugenia ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Review of Emilio Zucchetti & Anna Maria Cimino (eds.): Antonio Gramsci and the Ancient World BT - London/New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021 (= Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies), xiv + 387 pp., ISBN: 978-0-36-719314-0, £ 96.00 (hb.) JF - thersites 14 Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol14.203 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 14 SP - 188 EP - 196 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pezzini, Giuseppe ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - (Classical) Narratives of Decline in Tolkien: Renewal, Accommodation, Focalisation JF - thersites 15 N2 - The paper investigates Tolkien’s narratives of decline through the lens of their classical ancestry. Narratives of decline are widespread in ancient culture, in both philosophical and literary discourses. They normally posit a gradual degradation (moral and ontological) from an idealized Golden Age, which went hand-in-hand with increasing detachment of gods from mortal affairs. Narratives of decline are also at the core of Tolkien’s mythology, constituting yet another underresearched aspect of classical influence on Tolkien. Such Classical narratives reverberate e.g. in Tolkien’s division of Arda’s history into ages, from an idealized First Age filled with Joy and Light to a Third Age, described as “Twilight Age (…) the first of the broken and changed world” (Letters 131). More generally, these narratives are related to Tolkien’s notorious perception of history as a “long defeat” (Letters 195) and to that “heart-racking sense of the vanished past” which pervades Tolkien’s works – the emotion which, in his words, moved him “supremely” and which he found “small difficulty in evoking” (Letters 91). The paper analyses the reception of narratives of decline in Tolkien’s legendarium, pointing out similarities but also contrasts and differences, with the aim to discuss some key patterns of (classical) reception in Tolkien’s theory and practice (‘renewal’, ‘accommodation’, ‘focalization’). KW - narrative of decline KW - Hesiod KW - reception KW - focalization KW - accommodation Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.213 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 25 EP - 51 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kambo, Kevin ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Platonic Tripartition and the Peoples of Middle-Earth JF - thersites 15 N2 - 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. KW - Plato KW - Tolkien KW - republic KW - Tripartite KW - race Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.219 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 90 EP - 122 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Capra, Elena Sofia ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - "Orfeo out of Care" BT - The Reception of the Classical Myth of Orpheus from Sir Orfeo to Tolkien JF - thersites 15 N2 - 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 Lúthien 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. KW - Orpheus and Eurydice KW - Sir Orfeo KW - reception KW - Tolkien KW - Beren and Lúthien Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.209 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 52 EP - 89 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oughton, Charles W. ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - Roman Heroes at Helm’s Deep? BT - Livy, Macaulay, and Tolkien on the Horatius Cocles Episode JF - thersites 15 N2 - 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, Éomer, 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. KW - Livy KW - Horatius Cocles KW - Tolkien KW - Macaulay KW - reception KW - exemplarity Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.214 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 123 EP - 162 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cristini, Marco ED - Ambühl, Annemarie ED - Carlà-Uhink, Filippo ED - Rollinger, Christian ED - Walde, Christine T1 - The Fall of Two Cities: Troy and Gondolin JF - thersites 15 N2 - 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. KW - Tolkien KW - reception of Vergil KW - Aeneid KW - Troy KW - Gondolin Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol15.200 VL - 2022 IS - 15 SP - 1 EP - 24 ER -