Juno's Peacock
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JUNO’S PEACOCK Or the Eyes have it Newsletter of the Wesleyan University Department of Classical Studies Issue 15 Summer 2010 When Argus, the hundred-eyed guard animal (and also the name of Wesleyan’s student newspaper) was killed by Hermes (Jupiter’s hit-man, and the name of Wesleyan’s alternative campus paper), some part of him survived death. His eyes were saved by Juno and set in the tail of her peacock. Argus, you lie low; the light you had in so many eyes is extinguished, And your hundred points of light are now all dark. But Juno saved the eyes, and set them in the feathers of her peacock: She filled its tail with jewels as bright as stars. (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1,720-23) We have had a great response from alumni for the past issues so keep the news coming, to the address listed below or to email ([email protected]). Please let us know what else you would like to see in Juno’s Peacock, and thanks to all of you who sent in information for this issue. Logo by Cindie Cagenello (’88). FACULTY DOINGS LAUREN CALDWELL had an enjoyable and productive year. In Fall 2009 she offered a new course for first-year students on the Roman family. A highlight of the course was cross-cul- tural study of family commemoration of death. Di Longley, former director of the Middlesex Historical Society, led the class on a tour of the Old Durham Cemetery, near Middletown, and compared 18th-century funerary monuments to Prof. Caldwell’s class, CCIV 124: The Roman Roman imperial epitaphs. Prof. Caldwell also Family, visits the Durham cemetery, led by taught an advanced Latin course on Vergil’s Di Longley, former director of the Middlesex County Historical Society. Editor: Deborah Sierpinski • 860.685.2070 • Fax: 860.685.2089 • Middletown, CT • 06459 Aeneid. A workshop offered by Sarah Ruden, Chris is publishing them for the first time since author of a recently critically praised transla- their original discovery in 1755. His paper on tion of the Aeneid, gave students insight into the sacarium will be published in a forthcoming techniques and interpretive issues considered volume of the National Gallery of Art’s Studies by translators. Experimenting with passages in the History of Art. In the meantime, he has from the epic, students came up with some continued to work on the text and illustrations impressively artful renditions. In Spring 2010, for his monograph on the Praedia. In the last Prof. Caldwell taught Medicine and Health in academic year, he taught the survey course on Antiquity, and Ann Hanson of Yale University Roman Archaeology and Art and the two-semester presented her recent scholarship on papy- First Year Latin sequence. rological evidence for the Hippocratic Oath. Prof. Caldwell continues to revise her book MICHAEL ROBERTS: Michael’s book The manuscript, Roman Girlhood and the Fashioning of Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Femininity, and delivered papers related to this originally published in 1989, was reprinted in project at Amherst College and Williams Col- paperback by Cornell University Press this year. lege. Other works in progress include an article He also collaborated with Michele Salzman, Uni- on Ovid’s treatment of the theme of father- versity of California, Riverside, on a translation daughter incest in the Metamorphoses, and a col- of Symmachus, Letters, book 1, to be published laboration with Prof. Molly Swetnam-Burland of by the Society for Biblical Literature in their the College of William and Mary on the didac- Writers of the Greco-Roman World series, and tic function of wall paintings in the House of wrote a series of articles, on “Avienus,” “Avi- Marcus Lucretius Fronto at Pompeii, particularly tus,” “Biblical epic,” “Corippus,” “Endelechius,” on images and texts worked together to invoke “Fortunatus,” “Prudentius,” for Virgil Encyclo- family values and shape young people’s sensi- pedia, eds. Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski. bilities. He gave three invited papers this year, at Ohio State University (“Pompa Verborum: Style and MARILYN KATZ taught GRK 261: The Ceremony in Late Latin Poetry,” keynote ad- Greek Tragedians in fall 2008. Marilyn retired dress, in conjunction with a workshop, Ancient this year after 32 years of service to Wesleyan Ornamentalism), at Dumbarton Oaks, Washing- University. The occasion was marked by a ton D.C. (“Light, Color, and Visual Illusion in lecture by Helena Foley, Barnard College, and the Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus,”), and at a dinner at the Middletown Inn, attended by Cornell University (“Pompa Verborum, Pompa Marilyn’s colleagues, friends, and family. (see Rerum: Style and Ceremony in Late Latin Po- p. 9) etry”—as the title suggests a somewhat revised version of his Ohio State paper). Michael has CHRISTOPHER PARSLOW In February been chair of the department in the spring, and 2010 Chris was the keynote speaker at a confer- served on the Review and Appeals Board. ence entitled “Teaching Pompeii in a Liberal Arts Setting: Contexts, Interdisciplinarity, and ANDY SZEGEDY-MASZAK taught three Collaboration” held at Wabash College. His courses this year: in the fall, his large Greek address, “Archaeology in the Praedia of Julia History lecture and a small seminar in upper- Felix in Pompeii” opened the conference, which level Greek (in which we read all of Euripides’ was a working seminar for teachers of Pompeii Medea), and in the spring an intermediate Latin at small liberal arts colleges. In fact, one of the class on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He published participants was Molly Swetnam-Burland (‘95), an article in the Princeton University Library who now teaches at the College of William and Chronicle: “Athens Photographed by W.J. Still- Mary. Chris also gave two other lectures, one man: the Princeton Portfolio.” He also curated at Wesleyan’s Wasch Center for Retired Faculty an exhibition out of his own collection – “Clear and at his PhD alma mater Duke University, Light and Shining Ruins: 19th-Century Photo- on his recent re-discovery of the “lost” paint- graphs of Athens” – at the Center of the Arts, ings from the sacrarium (shrine) of Isis from the College of Staten Island / CUNY. At the invita- Praedia of Julia Felix. The paintings were found tion of John McLucas, a Wes alum (and Classics in the archaeological museum of Naples and major,1974) and now chair of the Foreign 2 Languages Department at Towson University, University. Popi is running around, talking and Andy lectured at Towson in March 2010. He also generally creating havoc. We took her to Greece completed his second and final year as chair of this summer and she had fun playing in the dirt the University’s Educational Policy Committee. at Corinth and Delphi. Greetings to everyone in Middletown and please look me up (cgray@sju. EIRENE VISVARDI I enjoyed getting to edu) if you’re in the Philadelphia area!” know my new colleagues and students during a busy and very fulfilling first year at Wesleyan. On the language front, I taught Cicero’s Pro Milone for the intermediate Latin prose course in the Fall to a class of students that beautifully braved all Ciceronian challenges; and the el- ementary Greek sequence during which I found it very rewarding to work closely with a small group of dedicated and enthusiastic students for a whole year. I also taught my first fresh- man seminar on “Eros the Bittersweet: Love and Desire in Antiquity” in the Spring to a group of freshmen who made the course all the more fulfilling with their engagement and original ideas. I was pleased to join the editorial board of Lexington Books as one of the executive editors for the series Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. I also undertook the function of one of the two Co-organizers of Graduate Sum- KIDS’ CORNER mer Seminars at the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) of Harvard University in Washington D.C. Through my collaboration with the CHS I plan to open up the possibility for our majors to apply for the Center’s summer internships. In April I had my brief moment of glory at one of the shows of Rescue Me, a witty dance-theater adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Tauris by Michi Barall at the Ma-Yi Theater in New York. I enjoyed “acting” as the scholar who took questions during intermission from a lively and engaged audience. Last, I spent my sum- mer in Athens-Greece where I did research for a chapter on Euripides’ Alcestis. The chapter will Bruce and Georgia (Parents: Lauren and Bob Caldwell) appear in the forthcoming Companion to Eu- ripides edited by R. Mitchell-Boyask of Temple University and published by Wiley-Blackwell. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? CELINA GRAY says “We survived our move to Philadelphia (during the worst snow storm Philly had ever seen!) and are settling Alina (Grandparents: into life here. Kostis is teaching at Franklin & Debbie and Bryan Sierpinski) Olivia’s First Hair Cut Marshall College and I’m just starting as the As- (Parents: Christina and sistant Director of a new advising support center Chris Parslow) for the College of Arts & Sciences at St. Joseph’s 3 WHAT’S NEW? SARA RUDEN (Ph.D., Harvard, 1993) is the author of Other Places (William Waterman, JORGE BRAVO will be joining us in 2010- 1995; a collection of poetry) and Paul among the 2011 as a Visiting Assistant Professor. In the fall People (Random House, 2010; a consideration he will be teaching CCIV 214 Survey of Greek of Paul of Tarsus’ letters against the background Archaeology and GRK 201 Reading Greek of Greco-Roman literature), and a translator of Prose. In the spring he will be teaching a Greek Petronius, Aristophanes, the Homeric Hymns, Art and Archaeology course.