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Giants, titans, and civil strife in the Greek & Roman world down through the age of Augustus

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TitleInfo
Title
Giants, titans, and civil strife in the Greek & Roman world down through the age of Augustus
Name (type = personal)
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Wright
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David J.
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David J. Wright
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Kronenberg
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Leah
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Leah Kronenberg
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chair
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Timothy
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Timothy Power
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Brennan
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Corey
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Corey Brennan
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
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O'Hara
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James
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James O'Hara
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Advisory Committee
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outside member
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Rutgers University
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degree grantor
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School of Graduate Studies
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school
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theses
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DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2018
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2018-10
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2018
Place
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xx
Language
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eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
This project explores the myth of the Gigantomachy leading up to and during the age of Augustus. Scholarship often reads the myth as an allegory of order triumphing over chaos, or “civilization” over “barbarism,” and the myth is often thought to represent Greece’s conflict with foreign entities. In this study, I highlight some of the themes, both inherent in the myth and highlighted by poets and artists, that undermine this simplistic binary. In fact, I examine many examples when the myth signifies a conflict that may not be foreign at all, but rather a conflict from within. By the time the myth appears in Augustan poetry, it has strong connotations of civil war. Though the more traditional view of the myth might align with the agenda of various political propagandists in Rome’s civil wars, poets such as Vergil and Propertius draw attention to complicating elements in the myth to undermine any overly simplistic interpretations of these conflicts.
Chapter 1 explores the Gigantomachy and Titanomachy in the Archaic period in both poetry and sculpture. I address some of the “traditional” interpretations in the poetry of Hesiod and Pindar, as well as some complications to the simplistic “order vs. chaos” binary. I also treat some of the myth’s connections to civil strife in visual art and poetry.
Chapter 2 examines the myth in the 5th and 4th century Athens. While the image of the Gigantomachy on the Parthenon is often cited as being emblematic of Greece’s victory over foreign enemies, I highlight the myth’s problematic elements and its connection to civil strife in tragedy, comedy, and Plato.
Chapter 3 considers the Gigantomachy in the Hellenistic era. During this period, the myth has connotations of a victory of the “civilized” over “uncivilized” due to court poets like Callimachus, who attempt to make Macedonian kings seem more legitimate through likening their victories over foreign people to the Olympians over the Giants. At the same time, I show that the Great Altar of Pergamum, a monument which is also cited as emblematic of this traditional viewpoint, has problematic elements that complicate an “order vs. chaos” meaning. Other later Hellenistic poets also exploit ambiguous elements of the Gigantomachy to subtly criticize powerful figures such as Philip V and Rome itself.
Chapter 4 analyzes the significance of the myth in the middle and late Roman Republic. During the early Republic, the Romans occupied an uncertain space on the “civilized vs. uncivilized” spectrum. The presentation of the Gigantomachy in the poetry of Naevius reflects this uncertainty. The myth in the poetry of Ennius may suggest that fraternal strife was at the very outset of the Annales. During the Late Republic, civil war was painfully frequent throughout Italy, and the Gigantomachy becomes a fitting allegory for this type of conflict.
In Chapter 5, this dissertation reaches its culmination: the Gigantomachy myth in the Augustan era, a time in which the myth is especially prominent. While, on the one hand, Augustan propaganda might resonate with the more “traditional” interpretation of the myth, Augustan poets subtly draw attention to some of the more troubling aspects of Gigantomachy. Given the time period’s fatigue with civil war, the Gigantomachy is an apt myth to process the chaotic violence of the civil wars of the late first century BCE.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Classics
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Gigantomachy (Greek mythology)
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD_9332
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electronic resource
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application/pdf
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text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (173 pages : illustrations)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by David J. Wright
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School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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rucore10001600001
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/t3-c4jj-zy35
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Name
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Wright
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David
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J.
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2018-10-03 13:08:08
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David Wright
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Rutgers University. School of Graduate Studies
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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Open
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2018-10-06T18:48:41
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