{"pk":54860,"title":"Sea Monsters in Antiquity: A Classical and Zoological Investigation","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Sea monsters inspired both fascination and fear in the minds of the ancients. In this paper, I aim to examine several traditional monsters of antiquity with a multi-faceted approach that couples classical background with modern day zoological knowledge. Looking at the examples of the ketos and the sea serpent in Roman and Greek societies, I evaluate the scientific bases for representations of these monsters across of variety of media, from poetry to ceramics. Through the juxtaposition of the classical material and modern science, I seek to gain a greater understanding of the ancient conception of sea monsters and explain the way in which they were rationalized and depicted by ancient cultures. A closer look at extant literature, historical accounts, and artwork also helps to reveal a human sentiment towards the ocean and its denizens penetrating through time even into the modern day.","language":"en","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Organismic and Evolutionary Biology"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67t7807d","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Alexander","middle_name":"","last_name":"Jaffe","name_suffix":"","institution":"Harvard University","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2013-03-16T19:55:20Z","date_accepted":"2013-03-16T19:55:20Z","date_published":"2013-01-01T00:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ucbclassics_bujc/article/54860/galley/41393/download/"}]}