Classical Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Classical Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Family Matters: Gender and Family in Seneca's Phaedra
(University of Waterloo, 2019-04-30) Le Clair, Keilah; Vester, Christina
Seneca the Younger, writing in the early Roman Empire, is the only known Roman tragedian whose works survive. His Phaedra, considered to be one of his earlier tragedies, is centered on the royal family of Athens, consisting of the hero Theseus, his current wife Phaedra, and his son, Hippolytus. Each of these three main characters exhibit shifts in their portrayed gender as the play unfolds. Hippolytus, first introduced as a hunter and strong leader, becomes hunted by his stepmother Phaedra, making him the passive participant in their relationship. This passive role was considered to be the feminine role by the ancient Romans. Theseus, the Athenian hero known for slaying the Minotaur of Crete, stays within the masculine sphere, but shows the full breadth of masculinity. His role as a hero both contrasts and compliments his roles as father and husband. Theseus’ heroic identity causes him to exhibit a damaging form of hyper-masculinity; within his family, he shows a more benign masculine character. Phaedra, for her part, uses the feminine roles of virgin, wife, and mother to conceal her strong masculine traits. She is an apt hunter, choosing to die that she might continue to hunt Hippolytus in the underworld after his tragic death. Seneca, in writing this incestuous myth for a Roman audience, displays the consequences of gender subversion and the tragic effect this has on the royal family of Athens.
Female Sex-Workers in Rome: Agency and Self-Representation
(University of Waterloo, 2022-10-31) Hill, Rachel Esther Fey; Vester, Christina
This project addresses the notion that female sex-workers at Rome wore the toga. The toga was a symbol of masculine responsibility, authority, political involvement, and citizenship. Focusing on legal, literary, and material evidence from Rome’s late Republic to early Imperial period, this investigation primarily uses an intersectional feminist lens to examine the ways in which female sex-workers exercised agency. We examine first the legal climate in which sex-worker and clothing existed during this period, and discuss avenues of agency available to sex-workers in the realm of Rome’s legal constraints. We also consider the Ars Amatoria and other Latin literary sources for evidence of the toga as a symbol which changes meaning based on its wearer, and the wearer as being perceived differently based on their clothing. In the literature we encounter diametrically opposed archetypes of matron and whore, and understand that sex-workers were able to manage their appearance and behaviour agentively to defy or align themselves with these identities. Finally, the Lupanar, or Purpose-Built Brothel of Pompeii will be examined as well, since it boasts an enormous amount of evidence for a sex-worker’s daily life, and through graffiti demonstrates evidence of self-narration, reclamation of identity and sexual agency. We conclude by discussing how toga-wearing asserted personal identity, action, and group affiliation, and is therefore consistent with other agentive avenues used by sex-workers.
From Wool to Warp and Weft: Approaching Ancient Greek Textile Work through Experimental Archaeology
(University of Waterloo, 2022-01-19) Bechal, Tatianna; Vester, Christina
Due to the perishable nature of the work performed by women throughout much of ancient history, little physical evidence survives to study directly. This research is an exploration of the process of wool-working employed by the Greek women of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Through both academic research and hands-on experimental archaeology, the steps of wool fibre processing were examined and re-created. The aim of this project was twofold. The first goal was to follow the life cycle of sheep wool from a raw fleece to a finished piece of cloth and learn about the practical aspects and history of textile work. The second goal was to reveal the social implications of this domestic work and the role it played in the social lives of the people who performed it.
Gender Interplay in Nonnos' Dionysiaka: The Cases of Deriades and Aura
(University of Waterloo, 2018-08-22) Apokatanidis, Katerina; Faulkner, Andrew; Vester, Christina; Faber, Riemer
This thesis presents the relation between the gendered language of Nonnos and the ironic undertones he employs to describe two main plot points in the Dionysiaka. I focus on Dionysos’ battle with Deriades, the Indian king, and Aura, the titan goddess of the breeze. In my first section, I argue that the irony employed to describe the death of Deriades is based on misperceptions of gender identity as he understands the world. Due to his fixity on the masculine extreme of the gender spectrum, Deriades has created a skewed view of the world which led to his demise by the gender-fluid Dionysos. His false perception is reflected in the text when Athena disguises herself as Morrheus, Deriades’ son-in-law, and comes to taunt him for fleeing the battle with Dionysos. Athena is herself a gender-fluid goddess as the masculine virgin goddess of Truth/Wisdom. Her disguise symbolises the loss of true understanding. For my second section, I examine the implications of the total loss of gender identity as experienced by Aura. Her identification as a masculine female skews her perception of the world and results in committing a crime of hubris against Artemis. Her masculinised persona leads her to become the voyeur of Artemis. Artemis herself is a gender-fluid goddess due to her masculine attributes as huntress. But she is mainly the goddess of female sexuality and its potential to produce life. Aura’s crime against Artemis is symbolically a crime against femininity itself. Her punishment for her voyeurism is to be raped by Dionysos and become a mother. Motherhood symbolises the realisation of femininity which Aura despises. Yet her rape is not the only punishment she receives. Indeed, I argue that her punishment also includes becoming the voyeur of herself and then becoming the object of voyeurism for eternity when she is turned into a spring.
No Honour in Death: Analyzing the Debaucherous Death of Empress Valeria Messalina
(University of Waterloo, 2024-05-27) Johnston, Melanie; Vester, Christina
It is not a certainty that the life of the Julio-Claudian empress Valeria Messalina was any different from the lives of the empresses who preceded her. The written historical record is largely silent on her life before she married the emperor Claudius in 38 CE. During her time in the role of empress, the visual record is reasonably conventional, depicting her as modest, in draping garments, often with one or both of her children at her side. Little was written about her during her tenure as empress. What is securely known is that an official damnatio memoriae, the act of erasing a figure from history, followed her death. Statues of her were likely destroyed or stored. Inscriptions had her name damaged or gouged out. Coins with images of her ceased to be minted and may well have been destroyed. Messalina did not, however, disappear from the historical record, either visual or written. Some seventy years after her death Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio wrote her – and her misdeeds – into the historical record. Her death scene is treated with such force that it is difficult to raise the possibility that Messalina was a conventional empress. A powerful death narrative, either positive or negative, colours the life of the deceased; to this day the name Messalina has not recovered from the condemnatory narratives surrounding her death. A comparison of the extant material evidence and written evidence will show the power of a negative death narrative and highlight how the memory of the empress Messalina suffered the consequences.
Posturing Horses: Xenophon on Biomechanical Soundness in The Art of Horsemanship
(University of Waterloo, 2022-08-12) Rigg, Heather Mavis; Vester, Christina
As early as the Bronze Age, ancient Greek horses shared in the social status of the military elite. The ritual inclusion of horses and their equipment in burial practices from the Bronze Age to the Classical period marked the elevated status of horses and the wealth of those who cared for them. It is possible to discern the level of care elite equines received through artistic depictions on Athenian pottery and from literary descriptions on the training, care, and stable management of horses as found in Xenophon’s manual, The Art of Horsemanship. The longevity of military and sport horses indicates the level of care they received. Based on the detailed practices Xenophon recommended for the selection, care, and training of 4th century BCE cavalry horses, it is possible to discern the ideal conformation (εἶδος) and posture (σχηματοποιεῖσθαι) that he desired for a horse. A comparison of Xenophon’s anatomical vocabulary to modern equine anatomy and physiology shows that he preferred riding practices that align with biomechanically sound training.
What We Do in the Shadows: Illuminating the Female Pederastic Tradition
(University of Waterloo, 2020-05-13) Barclay, Julia; Vester, Christina
In scholarship, the study of male pederastic practices in the ancient Greek world has been used time and time again to reinforce the existence of homosexuality across time, though the same attention has not been given to a feminine equivalent, let alone for the same intentions. This is an extension of the tradition set by antique writers that chose to address male relationships and same-sex love as the ideal, making treatments on the female type much more difficult to perform. This pattern surfaces in discussions of pederastic homosexuality the world over, leaving modern scholars with only scant conclusions on the possibility of a feminine equivalent without any further efforts to elaborate. The following study aims to address this glaring hole in scholarship. First, in looking to the initiatory origins of male pederasty in the Greek world in order to build and account for the feminine; Second, in establishing the feminine’s own origins in mythology and initiatory practices; And, finally, in identifying how it was practiced throughout the ancient Greek world in surviving poetry from the Archaic and Hellenistic periods.

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Browsing Classical Studies by Author "Vester, Christina"