Conference talks by Johanna Kaiser
CfP: Purity and Pollution: Constructing Moral Order in Ancient Greece and Rome, 2024
Purity and pollution have broadly been recognized as religious concepts in ancient Mediterranean ... more Purity and pollution have broadly been recognized as religious concepts in ancient Mediterranean cultures, deeply intertwined with ritual practices. This panel broadens the scope by examining purity and pollution as moral categories within the social and political ideologies of Greece and Rome. Across various genres, ancient authors used the language of purity and impurity to express more than just religious or aesthetic ideas; it was used as a tool for shaping societal ideals, enforcing hierarchies, and reinforcing political power.
(Please find the link to a video of my talk below)
Ancient Rome–like many modern cities–was a sme... more (Please find the link to a video of my talk below)
Ancient Rome–like many modern cities–was a smelly place. The first-century epigrammatist Martial curiously discusses many smells in his short poems, especially when they pertain to people. He likes to zoom in on people with good or bad, strong or weak, natural or artificial smells. In this talk, I will build on the work of Stevens (2008 and 2016) and propose that Martial uses scents in his poetry as a form of meta-language: scents, that is, were closely affiliated with sociocultural value judgement in antiquity. Using literary sources such as Plautus and Catullus I will give a brief overview of what kinds of significance scents could carry in ancient Rome. Next, I will show how smell is used by Martial as a form of poetic double-speak to communicate more than just smell. I will provide the two particularly strange examples of Postumus and Fescennia, both of which try to veil their true colors through artificial smells but are convicted by Martial. As I will show, scents in Martial’s epigrams make revealing statements about a character’s personality and social status, and do so more effectively than speech could.
One of the most complex scenes in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon is the carpet scene, which builds up the t... more One of the most complex scenes in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon is the carpet scene, which builds up the tension that is to be released in Agamemnon’s murder after Clytemnestra welcomes him into an ‘unexpected home’ (δῶμ᾿ ἄελπτον [Aesch. Ag. 911]). Lebeck (1971) and Zeitlin (1996) among others have identified the carpet scene as most crucial and have investigated aspects of its complex language, such as the use of the many metaphors. Grethlein (2013) has pointed at the potency of metaphors in the Oresteia, and reads their frequent reoccurrence as a narrative framing tool that helps the audience understand important motifs in the trilogy.
While scholars such as Lebeck (1971) have suggested helpful readings of e.g. the path and the garment metaphors in the carpet scene, two crucial aspects remain unaddressed in scholarship: one, the layering of metaphors in this scene upon another, and two, the extent to which the metaphors in the speech acts correspond with the action of the carpet scene and the prop used on stage – the carpet itself.
This paper suggests a reading of the carpet scene that sheds new light on the twofold nature of the carpet as a metaphor and as a physical path on stage. Inspired by Grethlein’s approach, I argue that Clytemnestra employs the potential of both the path and the garment metaphors, built up previously in the Agamemnon and applied on the carpet, to manipulate and obstruct the reintegration of Agamemnon into his home. Further, I argue that these metaphors enhance her scheming as they manifest in the physical prop, the carpet on stage, that now also exhibits the metaphysical properties of the metaphors applied to it. In conclusion, by examining two little recognized aspects about metaphors in the carpet scene, this paper helps understand how Clytemnestra succeeds in making Agamemnon’s nostos unsuccessful.
Book reviews by Johanna Kaiser
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Conference talks by Johanna Kaiser
Ancient Rome–like many modern cities–was a smelly place. The first-century epigrammatist Martial curiously discusses many smells in his short poems, especially when they pertain to people. He likes to zoom in on people with good or bad, strong or weak, natural or artificial smells. In this talk, I will build on the work of Stevens (2008 and 2016) and propose that Martial uses scents in his poetry as a form of meta-language: scents, that is, were closely affiliated with sociocultural value judgement in antiquity. Using literary sources such as Plautus and Catullus I will give a brief overview of what kinds of significance scents could carry in ancient Rome. Next, I will show how smell is used by Martial as a form of poetic double-speak to communicate more than just smell. I will provide the two particularly strange examples of Postumus and Fescennia, both of which try to veil their true colors through artificial smells but are convicted by Martial. As I will show, scents in Martial’s epigrams make revealing statements about a character’s personality and social status, and do so more effectively than speech could.
While scholars such as Lebeck (1971) have suggested helpful readings of e.g. the path and the garment metaphors in the carpet scene, two crucial aspects remain unaddressed in scholarship: one, the layering of metaphors in this scene upon another, and two, the extent to which the metaphors in the speech acts correspond with the action of the carpet scene and the prop used on stage – the carpet itself.
This paper suggests a reading of the carpet scene that sheds new light on the twofold nature of the carpet as a metaphor and as a physical path on stage. Inspired by Grethlein’s approach, I argue that Clytemnestra employs the potential of both the path and the garment metaphors, built up previously in the Agamemnon and applied on the carpet, to manipulate and obstruct the reintegration of Agamemnon into his home. Further, I argue that these metaphors enhance her scheming as they manifest in the physical prop, the carpet on stage, that now also exhibits the metaphysical properties of the metaphors applied to it. In conclusion, by examining two little recognized aspects about metaphors in the carpet scene, this paper helps understand how Clytemnestra succeeds in making Agamemnon’s nostos unsuccessful.
Book reviews by Johanna Kaiser
Ancient Rome–like many modern cities–was a smelly place. The first-century epigrammatist Martial curiously discusses many smells in his short poems, especially when they pertain to people. He likes to zoom in on people with good or bad, strong or weak, natural or artificial smells. In this talk, I will build on the work of Stevens (2008 and 2016) and propose that Martial uses scents in his poetry as a form of meta-language: scents, that is, were closely affiliated with sociocultural value judgement in antiquity. Using literary sources such as Plautus and Catullus I will give a brief overview of what kinds of significance scents could carry in ancient Rome. Next, I will show how smell is used by Martial as a form of poetic double-speak to communicate more than just smell. I will provide the two particularly strange examples of Postumus and Fescennia, both of which try to veil their true colors through artificial smells but are convicted by Martial. As I will show, scents in Martial’s epigrams make revealing statements about a character’s personality and social status, and do so more effectively than speech could.
While scholars such as Lebeck (1971) have suggested helpful readings of e.g. the path and the garment metaphors in the carpet scene, two crucial aspects remain unaddressed in scholarship: one, the layering of metaphors in this scene upon another, and two, the extent to which the metaphors in the speech acts correspond with the action of the carpet scene and the prop used on stage – the carpet itself.
This paper suggests a reading of the carpet scene that sheds new light on the twofold nature of the carpet as a metaphor and as a physical path on stage. Inspired by Grethlein’s approach, I argue that Clytemnestra employs the potential of both the path and the garment metaphors, built up previously in the Agamemnon and applied on the carpet, to manipulate and obstruct the reintegration of Agamemnon into his home. Further, I argue that these metaphors enhance her scheming as they manifest in the physical prop, the carpet on stage, that now also exhibits the metaphysical properties of the metaphors applied to it. In conclusion, by examining two little recognized aspects about metaphors in the carpet scene, this paper helps understand how Clytemnestra succeeds in making Agamemnon’s nostos unsuccessful.