Akroterion

BLACK EYES IN GREEK EROTIC POETRY AND THE PHYSIOGNOMICAL TRADITION

Damian Shaw — 2025-06-11

The present article aims to review the evidence for black or dark eyes in ancient poetry, track the development of this convention over time, and ascertain whether it is possible to identify changes in what black/dark eyes signify. The article will further explore whether the association of this convention in poetry is replicated in physiognomical texts, which constitute another genre of ancient discourse in which eyes, including their various hues, receive detailed attention.

INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN EURIPIDES’ MEDEA

Kofi Ackah — 2025-06-11

In recent decades, Classical Studies have seen a steady growth in women’s, gender, and feminist studies. Euripides’ Medea counts among plays on women which have attracted considerable attention. The Medea has an evergreen quality as it resonates with and provides insight into spousal experiences, touching on, amongst others, trust, fidelity, commitment, jealousy, divorce, loneliness, domestic violence, interests of children, and power play. This analysis of passages from the play builds upon psychological studies of Euripides’ characters that have been undertaken since the 1970s, while also drawing on more recent insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships from a social-psychological perspective.

AN EXILIC MEDITATION: OVID’S ARACHNE AS ARTISTIC REBELLION, POLITICAL ALLEGORY, AND PERSONAL ALLUSION

Abigail Dalbock — 2025-06-11

This article examines Ovid’s depiction of the Arachne myth in the Metamorphoses (6:1–145). Within the context of Augustan Rome, it explores the intricate dynamics of power, artistic autonomy, and the interplay between divine intervention and human agency in relation to the Arachne narrative. Moreover, it positions the narrative against the backdrop of Ovid's own literary career and exile. Thus, through a close reading of the text and an analysis of intertextual references to Ovid's earlier works, it suggests that the Arachne narrative may have undergone revision sometime after Ovid’s relegation sentence was handed down and, as such, reflects his own encounters with imperial authority and censorship.

MATTEO NORIS’S ATTILA (1672) AND THE REPRESENTATION OF LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY STAGE

Lynton Boshoff — 2025-06-11

As one of the first operas written on a Late Antique subject for a Venetian theatre, Matteo Noris’s Attila (1672) provides a unique case study on the dynamics of the reception of post-Classical history. In this paper, I examine what materials the librettist had access to, how particularly one work of Carlo Sigonio consequently shaped his understanding of Late Antiquity as a period, and thus how this and other primary sources influenced his treatment of the subject matter. I further examine how Noris accommodates traditionally Classical symbolism in his characterisation of Attila and how he freely alters the historical events in service of his specific audience and performance context. It is thus shown that the librettist presents a nuanced understanding of the period within the framework of traditional heroic operatic narrative, clearly delineating Late Antiquity as a separate conceptual category.

ROY CAMPBELL’S TURN TO MITHRAS: MODERNISM AND THE CLASSICS

Michael Lambert — 2025-06-11

In the prose work, Taurine Provence (1932), and in his collection of poems, Mithraic emblems (1936), the South African poet Roy Campbell (1901–1957), heavily influenced by Franz Cumont’s interpretation of Mithraism and its perceived influence on Christian myth and ritual, by Montherlant’s novel Les bestiaires (1926), and by his experience of bullfighting in the south of France and in Spain, uses Greek and Roman mythology, together with Mithraic art and symbols, to explore emotional and spiritual crises in his personal life. In this article, I wish to offer an interpretation of the explicitly Mithraic poems in Mithraic emblems focusing on the nature of his Modernist engagement with the Classical tradition.

CASA Essay competition: THE EXPRESSION OF GRIEF IN THE APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS EPISODE IN OVID’S METAMORPHOSES AND IN FANFICTION

Shreya Maharaj — 2025-06-11

Ovid’s Metamorphoses expresses Apollo’s grief for Hyacinthus as understood by ancient Romans. A fanfiction work, The making of flowers, a tragedy by Kekune, reimagines this grief for a modern audience. This paper analyses how this is accomplished in the fanfiction. It examines the contrasting expressions of ancient and modern grief by analysing the use of Jenkins’ fanfiction writing strategies of recontextualisation, altering the timeline of the canon, and refocalisation. Examining such strategies illustrates how the fanfiction creates a better understanding of Apollo’s grief for modern readers, by providing reasons for the characters’ conduct, their psychological motivations, and the emotional context for their grief.