Daniel Unruh
I received my BA from the University of British Columbia, a double major in Classical Studies and Theatre, in 2006; in 2009, I received an MA from the University of Western Ontario in Classics, with a dissertation exploring the nature of royal authority in Homeric epic.
My PhD dissertation is entitled "Talking to Tyrants: Interaction between Citizens and Monarchs in Classical Greek Thought"; I submitted it in September of 2014, and passed my oral examination on the 12th of January, 2015.
I am broadly interested in ancient Greek political thought, with an emphasis on constructions of monarchy, tyranny and other forms of one-man rule. My thesis explores how four classical writers - Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Isocrates - depict interaction between citizens of Greek city-states and absolute monarchs, whether barbarian kings or Greek tyrants.
Supervisors: Robin Osborne (PhD) and Bonnie MacLachlann (MA)
Address: United Kingdom
My PhD dissertation is entitled "Talking to Tyrants: Interaction between Citizens and Monarchs in Classical Greek Thought"; I submitted it in September of 2014, and passed my oral examination on the 12th of January, 2015.
I am broadly interested in ancient Greek political thought, with an emphasis on constructions of monarchy, tyranny and other forms of one-man rule. My thesis explores how four classical writers - Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Isocrates - depict interaction between citizens of Greek city-states and absolute monarchs, whether barbarian kings or Greek tyrants.
Supervisors: Robin Osborne (PhD) and Bonnie MacLachlann (MA)
Address: United Kingdom
less
InterestsView All (36)
Uploads
Papers by Daniel Unruh
Throughout Herodotus’ Histories, tyrants and despotic kings are frequently associated with sterility and failed reproduction. Monarchs are repeatedly shown both engaging in intercourse that cannot produce children, and causing the deaths of what children they do manage to produce. In addition, tyrants are surrounded by symbolic images of sterility – unrisen loaves, rotten teeth, wounded groins, and wasted crops. In associating tyranny and sterility, I argue, Herodotus is drawing on long-standing tropes in Archaic Greek thought. The images of infertility serve to underscore that tyranny is unjust, a misfortune for both subjects and tyrant, and ultimately futile and self-defeating.
The palace's opposition both to its people and to nature are reflections of its ruler's character. The tyrant Atreus rejoices in ruling a totalitarian state where death is the only escape from their ruler's will; Like his palace, Atreus declares war on nature itself, and seeks to overthrow the cosmic order and subject the universe itself to his own demented will.
Seneca's expansionist palace may have had a real-world inspiration. There is considerable similarity between his vision and contemporary Roman reactions to Nero's Golden House. Romans of the the late 60s AD saw their Emperor's house as overwhelming their city, treating it like conquered territory; the palace's artificial wilderness, created ex nihilo by Nero's architects, was seen as the epitome of the tyrant's arrogance and luxury. Working near the heart of Nero's regime, Seneca had an unparalleled appreciation of the lengths to which a tyrant would go to impose his desires on the civic landscape and remake the city in his own image.
why it serves as the pre-eminent symbol of authority in epic. Contrary to the
long-held view that it is used as a “talking-stick” and passes from speaker
to speaker, in virtually every Homeric assembly, the scepter is held by
only one man: the man who convened it, and whose concerns the assembly
will have to address. Nor is the scepter a mystical talisman—rather, at its
simplest level it is a cudgel, a symbol of the ruling class’ power to inf lict
humiliating punishment on their inferiors.
Reviews by Daniel Unruh
Public Engagement by Daniel Unruh
For the full article, see here: http://kingsreview.co.uk/articles/debt-and-disorder-in-athens/
Conference Presentations by Daniel Unruh
Throughout Herodotus’ Histories, tyrants and despotic kings are frequently associated with sterility and failed reproduction. Monarchs are repeatedly shown both engaging in intercourse that cannot produce children, and causing the deaths of what children they do manage to produce. In addition, tyrants are surrounded by symbolic images of sterility – unrisen loaves, rotten teeth, wounded groins, and wasted crops. In associating tyranny and sterility, I argue, Herodotus is drawing on long-standing tropes in Archaic Greek thought. The images of infertility serve to underscore that tyranny is unjust, a misfortune for both subjects and tyrant, and ultimately futile and self-defeating.
The palace's opposition both to its people and to nature are reflections of its ruler's character. The tyrant Atreus rejoices in ruling a totalitarian state where death is the only escape from their ruler's will; Like his palace, Atreus declares war on nature itself, and seeks to overthrow the cosmic order and subject the universe itself to his own demented will.
Seneca's expansionist palace may have had a real-world inspiration. There is considerable similarity between his vision and contemporary Roman reactions to Nero's Golden House. Romans of the the late 60s AD saw their Emperor's house as overwhelming their city, treating it like conquered territory; the palace's artificial wilderness, created ex nihilo by Nero's architects, was seen as the epitome of the tyrant's arrogance and luxury. Working near the heart of Nero's regime, Seneca had an unparalleled appreciation of the lengths to which a tyrant would go to impose his desires on the civic landscape and remake the city in his own image.
why it serves as the pre-eminent symbol of authority in epic. Contrary to the
long-held view that it is used as a “talking-stick” and passes from speaker
to speaker, in virtually every Homeric assembly, the scepter is held by
only one man: the man who convened it, and whose concerns the assembly
will have to address. Nor is the scepter a mystical talisman—rather, at its
simplest level it is a cudgel, a symbol of the ruling class’ power to inf lict
humiliating punishment on their inferiors.
For the full article, see here: http://kingsreview.co.uk/articles/debt-and-disorder-in-athens/