Claire McCarriher

My name is Claire McCarriher and I am a Senior in the Classics department. Before coming to Princeton I had never heard of Classics before. After one semester of Latin, I fell in love with the languages and stories that taught me to interact with texts in a new way: philologically, philosophically, and historically. My thesis is centered around Cicero’s legal speeches and his ability to construct arguments against his opposition’s public persona using private actions, specifically in the context of the Roman feast. I will be writing a separate Medieval studies paper for the certificate that draws from my knowledge of classical origin stories to construct a compendium of the reception of the mythical Phoenix in the Middle Ages, including its portrayal in the 12th Century manuscript the Aberdeen Bestiary.