Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature (Ceased publication 2015)
Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature (AMPAL) is an international conference in Classics.
School of Classics, University of St Andrews
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ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE IN HOMER’S ODYSSEY: BOOK IX CASE STUDY
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Copyright (c) 2015 Safari Grey https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS ON THE PROCESSES OF NEGATION
One of the most intriguing characters of Late Antiquity is the author who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Dionysius, the Areopagite’. Although the 19th century German scholarship challenged the authenticity of the Corpus Areopagiticum, interest in this singular synthesis of Greek Neoplatonist philosophy with Christian thought remains significant. Usually, the works of the corpus are organized according to their internal logic: departing from affirmations we find excellent negations, starting with the cataphatic method we prepare apophaticism. It is customary to point the dialectical structure of the areopagitica, for instance in comparison with authors such as Proclus. However, these kind of remarks undervalue the distinctive features of a profoundly ‘work in process’ speculation. This paper aims to describe the Dionysian system and its first principle’s absolute difference, a synonym of God’s ineffability and transcendence, in order to discuss how speech or thought of it still may subsist. Even if this One is ineffable and transcendent, it can nevertheless ‘be’, including to be ‘known’ and ‘said’, but differently from typical assertions of being, intelligence, and speech. This very otherness can be found translated through a positing beyond (ὑπέρ), a linguistic device which translates the author’s whole philosophical thesis on the processes of negation and their overcoming.
Copyright (c) 2016 Tomas N Castro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
FAILURE AND PROGRESS IN APULEIUS’ GOLDEN ASS
Failure and progress in Apuleius’ Golden Ass: the subject that prevails through all the books of Apuleius’ work is the one that includes a failure that leads to a progress in the end, like an initiation rite that Lucius must follow. It is a big first failure, then a whole chain of them that condemns Lucius. Some business affairs take him to the city of Hypata, but his uncontrollable curiosity takes him further. The structure of the story shows us how Lucius seemed predestinated to fail, not only ignoring the constant warnings, but also feeling them as a trigger for his curiosity. So, the unlimited curiosity blinds him even after his big failure. In his asinine form, Lucius passes through a handful of dangerous and frightful adventures, suffers more than he would have ever imagined and, unable to speak, he assists the most terrible situations – at this point, complete failure and annulation seemed unavoidable. Like an initiation rite, where the initiated must surpass an amount of probations that usually involve sweat, tears, and blood, Lucius passes all this and, in the end, he learned nothing, failing by himself, taken by curious blindness. The final despairing situation leads him to meet the goddess Isis, the one and only route to salvation and, more than that, to a personal improvement, to an intellectual progress of self-knowledge and intimate familiarity with the goddess. Learning through his mistake: it is failure that leads Lucius to progress and final salvation. Both the failure and the progress paths are well marked by comprehension steps. At first, Lucius is blind and not able to learn; only after his big attitude change, on book twelve, through Isis, he’s ready for progress.
Copyright (c) 2016 Joana Barbara Fonseca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
PSEUDO-PLUTARCH’S DE MUSICA: THE MORAL AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC AND NEOPLATONISM’S CRITICAL ATTITUDE AGAINST ITS PROGRESS
The ethics of music have been an issue of intense discussion throughout classical antiquity, as manifested by Damon’s early research on the moral influence of music (5th cent. B.C.). However, Plato significantly contributed to the subject in his Republic, as he imposed strict and severe regulations about music and specific harmonies that were considered good for morals and pedagogy. Furthermore, Aristotle, in his Politics, studied the ethics of music, with a different attitude towards the aulos, the main musical instrument of his era, from his predecessor. Pseudo-Plutarch’s De Musica was written within the Neoplatonic movement. The dialogue, in which the banqueters discuss the origins and evolution of music is heavily influenced by the Platonic ones. There is substantial praise, from both Lysias (a practicing musician) and Soterichos (a theoretician and early critic of music), for the era when music was harmonic, simple and not connected to theatre. Early Ancient Greek musicians and lyric poets had a rather conservative approach to music, often subtracting notes from musical scales. However, as music progressed and got correlated with the theatrical action, more complex scales and harmonies, such as the Lydian and Phrygian ones, were mostly used; the banqueters did not have a high opinion of those, due to the passive morals they were associated with. As a result, the contemporary musical scales were considered harmful for the morals that were to be instilled in people, especially children. In summary, this late-antiquity dialogue, of which the real author is yet to be convincingly identified, can be considered a very good example of the Ancient Greek attitude about progress, especially in the changing, uncertain times of the early centuries CE.
Copyright (c) 2016 Georgia Mystrioti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
FROM MYTHOS TO LOGOS. PROGRESS OF EROTIC CUSTOMS IN LONGUS’POIMENIKÀ
My paper intends to demonstrate that ancient novels, though often employing mythical patterns, sought to mark a progression away from the ambiguous ethics that informed issues of eroticism in most of the mythical tradition by moving toward a more egalitarian conception of the relationship between the sexes. This progression is particularly evident in Longus’ Poimenikà. In the first three books of this novel we find three mythical excursus which describe virgins undergoing a process of metamorphosis in order to escape a god’s rape or other kinds of abuse. The god Pan is regarded as the emblem of eros, purely physical desire, which is something sterile and degrading. On the contrary, the last book offers a positive model of the relationship between men and women: Daphnis and Chloe’s love reaches marital union, the proper place to experience sex as a divertissement with the crucial goal being that of procreation. The dichotomy between mythos and logos is implied earlier in the novel. If the excursus are classified as myths and they conclude with the virgins losing their human status, Longus underlines that his story is a truthful logos, and he gives it a happy ending: Chloe gains a role in society. Against the trend of looking at mythos as a container of ideal behavioural schemes and at a mythical Golden Age, Longus celebrates the development of erotic customs in his time through the means of a recent mimetic literary genre consisting of human characters. Although the Poimenikà take place in an idealised past, they give account of a contemporary social reality that is more respectful of female volition and they evoke a yearning to substitute the primeval mythical erotic code with the hope of becoming the new paradigm for erotic literature.
Copyright (c) 2016 Giulia Sara Corsino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
CHANGING THE SELF AND THE WORLD. THE HOMERIC HYMNS AS PATTERNS OF TRANSFORMATION AND PROGRESS
The Homeric Hymns represent the gods in a crucial and decisive moment of change in their lives, which also instigates a cosmic development. The Hymn to Demeter is built on the concept of crisis, which can be considered the first stage of progress. In the Hymn to Aphrodite, personal experience is a necessary instrument of change. The Hymn to Apollo portrays the birth of the god as a crucial cosmic innovation which generates conservative resistance in the world. Finally, the story recounted in the Hymn to Hermes is a metaphoric representation of the institution of technique and social life.
Copyright (c) 2016 Pietro Verzina https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
PROPERTIUS’ PROGRESS OF ROME: ELEGIES 4.4 AND 4.9
The fourth book of Propertius’ Elegies marks the progress in the genre of elegy itself, introducing an aetiological aspect. Αt the same time Propertius’ poetic voice expands in order to include a number of different mythological voices. Elegies 4.4 and 4.9 are two representative examples of this, giving voice to Tarpeia and Hercules. The current paper aims to show the progress in the literary figures of Tarpeia and Hercules: Tarpeia will be given her own voice for the first time, inscribing herself in elegy, while an epic struggle of Hercules with Cacus will be replaced by that of Hercules with elegy. It will also be argued that, apart from employing the same literary background, these two elegies are connected through the motives of conflict between female and male, elegy and epic, space and space, and also through the game of appearance and social status. Propertius plays with the expectations of the reader, well acquainted with the 8th book of Virgil’s Aeneid and Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, and like a new Evander, he takes us on a journey in time, giving his own account on the progress of locus in Rome. Going backwards in time, from the story of Tarpeia to the one of Hercules and Cacus, the progress in the formation of contemporary Rome and its most recognizable monuments is seen by Propertius as a result of a struggle between mythological figures, who wish to gain access to different genres: the elegiac Tarpeia in the epic space of the epic Tatius and the epic Hercules in the elegiac worship space of Bona Dea.
Copyright (c) 2016 Georgia Ferentinou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2016 Sarah Cassidy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
IMPOSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE? MYTHICAL SEERS IN THE ILIAD
“That is why the far-shooter brought anguish upon us and will bring yet more.” (Il. 1.96). In the dramatic opening scenes of the Iliad, Calchas, described by Bremmer (1993: 152) as the “model of the archaic Greek seer par excellence”, explains to the assembled Greeks the cause of Apollo’s anger and prescribes the way to avert it. Recent evaluations of the scene have grappled with the question of Calchas’ knowledge: how does this interpreter of the birds arrive at what appears to be a remarkable insight into the mind of a god? This question was once dismissed as futile by Stockinger (1959: 16), but has since been re-examined. Calchas’ behaviour has been explained as a remnant of Hittite divination by Högemann and Oettinger (2008), as evidence for the belief in an innate, intuitive ability operating in certain seers by Flower (2008) and Di Sacco Franco (2000), or as a statement of the obvious by Trampedach (2008: 208-214), and a sign of collusion with Achilles by Latacz (1998: 96 and 2000: 57) and Taplin (1992: 54). Homer’s seers appear unusual both in practice and description when compared to historical seers. This paper explores the peculiarities of the former as they are presented in the Iliad, paying particular attention to the depiction of Calchas in the first book. Without falling prey to the documentary fallacy, I argue that we should not expect Calchas, along with the other seers in the poem, to behave in ways which correspond to the seers of later—or even earlier—historical sources. Homer’s seers are, ultimately, complex poetic creations; they belong to the realm of the unreal.
Copyright (c) 2013 Nicholas Hanson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Epicureans, far from being atheists, did believe in gods, and were atheistic only in the sense that they did not believe in the gods that society at large readily accepted. The only evidence that the Epicureans assert for the existence of gods is tied up in the term πρόληψις, a preconception, which Cicero employs, but description of which can be found in the works of Lucretius and Epicurus. The notion is that all humans are born with a preconception of the gods. This is not something learnt, but something that everyone acquires naturally and independently at birth. Although peoples might grow up distinctly and apart, all acquire this same preconception. This paper will investigate πρόληψις, associated as it is with the Epicurean theories on vision, soul and physics. These preconceptions are quite distinct from the mythology, the supernatural stories, the monsters and ghosts and indeed the gods and personifications that ‘religio’, or superstition, has invented. And indeed, though the Epicureans thought that the mind could be deceived, they believed that the senses were to be trusted, and so truth was to be found in these preconceptions, not in ‘religio’. I am, then, most interested in the importance that the Epicureans connected with these preconceptions, as being an empirical truth, and as being ethically and morally valuable. Indeed, these preconceptions had a direct effect upon the lives of Epicureans. Although the Epicurean gods were not benevolent, receive beneficence, listen to or heed humans and were not interested in or need humans, however, indirectly, these very gods could induce pleasure and pain in humans, and it was through πρόληψις and πρόληψις alone that this was possible and occurred. It is this effect then, upon the piety of the Epicureans and upon their daily lives, which this paper seeks to demonstrate.
Copyright (c) 2013 Paul Jackson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
DECEITFUL SPEECHES IN XENOPHON’S ANABASIS
The deception of friends in the Anabasis is complicated. The narrator openly condemns the continuous and systematic deceit practiced by Menon against his friends (2.6.22-29) and also represents Xenophon the character as saying that it is shameful to deceive friends (7.6.21). Nevertheless, he presents Cyrus, Clearchus and Xenophon, the three most important leaders, all deceiving friends, or at least people on their own side, in certain speeches. This deception does not automatically make them into villains, however. This paper will explore the apparent contradiction in the above by investigating the intended effects and functions of the deceitful speeches given by these characters. I demonstrate that the deceitful speeches in the Anabasis create several effects. They produce dramatic tension and a shared irony between the narrator and the reader, and also engage the reader in the story. They also have several functions. Firstly, they characterise the speakers. This characterisation specifically develops the picture of the speakers as leaders, because their particular type of deceit is representative of their wider leadership style and aims. These speeches furthermore indicate that the author is interested in what deceitful speeches can show about the realities of war and the adapted morality of lying in wartime. In this respect, Xenophon appears to indicate that some forms of deceit are acceptable under certain conditions. Comparison with the presentation of deceit in some of Xenophon’s other works confirms this interpretation. Additionally, these speeches assign responsibility for certain events to Clearchus and Cyrus, and justify to the reader certain decisions made by Xenophon and the Greek mercenaries. I conclude that Xenophon has a didactic aim in including these speeches, presenting examples both to follow and shun.
Copyright (c) 2013 Jennifer Winter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
HEARING THE ERINYES’ VOICES: THOUGHTS ON THE ‘BINDING SONG’ (EU. 307-96)
In Eumenides, the chorus of Erinyes confronts Orestes in Athens. They surround him as he supplicates Athena, singing: Let’s dance as well as sing around him, hand in hand, and let’s reveal the terrifying power of our dark melody (Eu. 307-309 / Eu. 353-356[1] trans. Shapiro and Burian) What follows is their Binding Song (Eu. 307-396). I believe, as Wilson and Taplin (1993) suggest[2], that this is the song first heard by Cassandra in Agamemnon: The choir that sings as one, yet sings its tunes Discordantly [lit. together but not in harmony], and only brings on discord, can’t leave this house. Yes, soused on human blood to utter recklessness, a home-brewed, rioting band of Erinyes is dwelling there, not easily driven out. And what they sing of, as they carouse from room to room, is that first mayhem, that ancestral sin, as one by one each spits on a brother’s bed that brought destruction to its defiler. (Ag. 1186-1193 / Ag. 1357-66[3] trans. Shapiro and Burian) At this point, Orestes and the audience both see this chorus and, most importantly, hear it. Wilson and Taplin rightly regard the Binding Song as the climax of the motif of disordered song in the Oresteia,[4]but their interpretation is mainly concerned with the song’s symbolic significance. On a more concrete level, the language the Erinyes employ, as Faraone notes, calls to mind the tongue-binding curses of Attic trials.[5] Thus, we are not entirely in the divine (or symbolic) realm -- the original audience would have recognized this concrete link between the Erinyes’ song and their own practices. A third layer of meaning, and one which remains largely unexplored, is the significance of this piece’s lack of metrical structure. We will examine the implications of this and demonstrate how the observations noted above should be understood in terms of a live choral performance. [1] Aeschylus. (2003), Oresteia, trans. A. Shapiro and P. Burian, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), Note that the line numeration of the Shapiro and Burian translation differs from the Greek line numeration. I give both here, as they do in their text, listing the Greek line numbers first so as to avoid confusion. [2] P.Wilson and O.Taplin (1993), ’The ’Aetiology’ of Tragedy in the Oresteia’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, vol. 39, p. 172. [3] See above n. 1. [4] P.Wilson and O.Taplin. (1993), ’The ’Aetiology’ of Tragedy in the Oresteia’, p. 172. [5] Cf. Eu. 306; C. A. Faraone. (1985), ‘Aeschylus’ ὕμνος δεσμοῖς (Eum. 306) and Attic Judicial Curse Tablets’, The Journal of Hellenic Studies vol. 105, p. 150.
Copyright (c) 2013 Valerie Smitherman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Monstrous omens appear four times in Herodotus: a concubine of the king of Sardis gives birth to a lion (1.84), a mule is born with male and female genitalia (7.57), a horse gives birth to a hare (7.57) and some fish come back to life while being cooked (9.120). These omens are the only occasions on which monsters appear in close proximity to the Greek world; all other monsters in the Histories inhabit the lands at the extreme periphery. The lion cub is the only one of these portents to occur in the mythical past, and the mule and the hare are born in Greece. The monsters that appear as a result of the omens therefore occur in unusually close physical and chronological proximity to the audience. These omens are strongly tied to two locations. The lion and the donkey are born in Sardis. The hare is born at the site where Xerxes and his army landed in Greece. The omen of the reanimated fish is also associated with this location, because Artayctes was crucified there due to the portent of the reanimated fish. As the city in which Xerxes waited with his troops before his expedition and the site at which he entered Greece, these locations are particularly significant in the narrative of Xerxes’ failed invasion. These omens therefore associate Xerxes’ expedition with defeat and danger throughout the text.
Copyright (c) 2013 Fiona Mitchell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
UNREALITY INTO REALITY: HOW CHARACTERS OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES RECEIVE AND (DON'T) ACT ON MYTHS
The inset-narrative structure of Ovid’s Metamorphoses has long been noted as a technique to allow the poet to distort both the timeline and context of his narrative. However, much less attention has been paid to the use of these stories as objects-in-themselves of reception by other characters in the poem. The episodes in Ovid’s inset narratives are certainly not narrated into a void; however, neither are they narrated simply for the direct benefit of the reader of the poem. Their narration can be understood and analysed as directed at certain characters. Consequently, they must be understood as either seeking to effect some (re)action, or at the very least inadvertently effecting such (re)actions. This paper will attempt to re-examine certain audiences of inset narratives in the Metamorphoses, who are receiving a narrative the same way any other read could be expected to receive one: with either credulity or disbelief, with acceptance or revulsion. More importantly, the reception of inset narratives by the internal audiences is often expected by the narrators to lead to actions, but does not: the crow fails to dissuade the raven from tattling in Book 2; Acoetes is unable to convince Pentheus to accept Bacchus in Book 3. At the same time, some narratives do influence their audiences, whether they intend to or not: Juppiter convinces the council of the gods to consent to the destruction of humanity in Book 1; Minerva is inspired by the Muses in Book 5 to confront Arachne in Book 6. In order to understand these instances of internal reception, it is necessary then to contextualize the subjects of the internal narrative with the speakers, their audiences and their eventual (re)actions. The analysis here will attempt to demonstrate that acts of internal reception dramatise a struggle for the interpretation of myth, and its translation into the poem’s reality.
Copyright (c) 2013 Charles Northrop II https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
AFRICA IN THE ROMAN IMAGINATION. THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE GODDESS AFRICA IN THE PANEGYRIC ON MAIORIANUS BY SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (CARM. 5, 53-350).
On 28th December 458 (or January 459) in Lyon Sidonius Apollinaris recited the panegyric on the emperor Majorian (457-461 A. D.). In the political propaganda of the new emperor there was the liberation of Africa invaded by the Vandals of Genseric, a “new” Hannibal. Sidonius, resuming De Bello Gildonico of the poet Claudian, resorts to the personification of Africa. In concilium provinciarum Goddess Africa takes the floor, invokes the help of Rome and shows lineage and deeds of Majorian; thanks to him the fourth war between Rome and Carthage emerges. Goddess Africa, as Vergilian Dido, asks an ultor. Sidonius plays with the attentive reader prompting him to recognize a large number of echoes of literary tradition that he inlays in his work, as the result of a carefully studied sedimentation of several literary souls. Allegories and personifications, however, also have an important political function: the praise of the emperor. The hopes of a revival of the power of the Western Roman Empire are entrusted to him.
Copyright (c) 2013 Francesco Montone https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
ὁμοίους ἡμῖν: PROVOCATIVE CONTRADICTIONS IN PLATO’S MYTH OF ER
This paper examines the myth of Er at the end of Republic X. Focusing on the role of the familiar, I argue that the interpretative difficulties that the myth presents compel us to consider the myth from a this-worldly perspective. I discuss how intertextual connections with a scene from earlier in the Republic, Socrates’ conversation with Cephalus in Book I, invite us to draw a comparison between the two passages and to consider the myth in light of the discussion about the afterlife there. What we find in the myth is a mise en abyme; as we try to interpret Socrates’ report of Er’s story, we see reflected back at us an image both of the Republic and of ourselves as readers of the dialogue. While the frame of Er’s story leads us to expect a portrait of another world characterizing the ineffable blessedness of just souls in the afterlife, we get instead a depiction of embodied souls trying to discover through dialogue the nature of divine retribution in the afterlife, souls whose fate depends on their understanding of the text that lies before them. The souls in Er’s story are avatars of ourselves, ignorant, but still questioning. In conclusion, I suggest that the contradictory nature of the myth is in fact carefully calculated so as to lead us to the kinds of critiques so often sounded about the end of the Republic. In recasting traditional eschatological myths into a new, but no less problematic, form, Plato compels his readers to critique in his myth the very inconsistencies they allow to pass without criticism in the myths they have been told since youth. For Plato it is such ‘provocative contradictions’ (παρακαλοῦντα) that most lead us up toward the light of critical thought.
Copyright (c) 2013 Bill Beck https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF POSTGRADUATES IN ANCIENT LITERATURE 2013
Copyright (c) 2013 Ana Kotarcic, Douglas Underwood https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
HEADS, GHOSTS AND OMENS: INTERTEXTUALITY, EKPHRASIS AND PICTURAL INFLUENCES IN PHILOSTRATUS THE YOUNGER’S EIKONES, 9 (PELOPS’ RACE)
If the Eikones by Philostratus the Elder are a well-known example of a Second Sophistic depiction of fictional pictures, the homonymous work composed by his relative, Philostratus the Younger, remains obscure. This paper proposes to study the connection between the two series of Eikones and the originality of the Younger’s Eikones through the example of the ninth picture: Pelops’ chariot race against Oinomaos. Using the devices of ekphrasis, the Younger Philostratus is in part inspired by the two pictures in the Elder’s Eikones that dealt with Pelops (I, 17 and I, 30) and which he uses as his main hypotext. But he chooses a different moment – the beginning of the race – and rather than developing the same type of scholarly commentary as the Elder, he focuses on the relationship between visual description and plot exposition. In this, he appears more closely in debt to the Greek iconography of the race, both in his choice of moment and setting and in his use of symbolism. Abandoning the ethnographic elements and the love-only symbolism of his predecessor, his vision of the race is darker and ambivalent. He shows the rotten heads of the dead suitors and their ghosts whose lament predicts the death of Oinomaos. In this, he may be showing the influences of both Greek and Roman iconography and literary evocations of Pelops, though he innovates in the meaning he attaches to the presence of the dead suitors.
Copyright (c) 2013 Pierre Cuvelier https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
OBSERVATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS IN STRABO’S GEOGRAPHIKA – THE USE OF THE UNREAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORLD IN ANTIQUITY
In his cultural geography, Strabo gathered important, useful and amusing information concerning the structure of earth's nature, its regions and the different peoples who inhabit the world. The author was therefore also interested in myths, paradoxographical facts and ethnographic characterisations of strange and extraordinary peoples, so that by analysing the wondrous accounts of his works in this overview, the reader gets a deeper understanding of the formation and handling of antique discourses of knowledge regarding the understanding of the world's composition. By examining Strabo's use of myth, three points have to be considered: (1) Strabo tried to establish a connection between Homer’s epics and his own writings by explaining the poet's stories in an allegorical way. Thus he gathered geographical knowledge from epic writings and joined the ranks of important writers of the Ecumene. (2) Pure mythical stories of literary antecessors – except Homer – were critically reviewed and mostly rejected. (3) Mythic accounts of the cities of the Ecumene were not as much criticized, as seen as a part of their historical identity of the Ecumene. During his studies concerning nature, Strabo encountered also paradoxographical records, which apparently expanded his knowledge of the world and remained wondrous, as long as he was not able to explain them according to the scientific theories of the time. Thus, one can investigate how antique patterns of explanation worked and came into use. Finally, Strabo divided different peoples in three contrasting groups: (1) The inhabitants of the Ecumene appear as civilizing precursors (2) especially against partially hostile high cultures for example the Egyptians, the Indians and the Parthians. (3)They are also bound to conquer barbaric and mythical groups, like the Scythii or Amazones, whose customs seem amazing but also partly repellent.
Copyright (c) 2013 Nikolas Hächler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
THE MANIFESTATION OF A STAR AS THE GOD ARCTURUS’ PERSONIFICATION
The figure of a divinity, in the case of Plautus’ Rudens, Arcturus, in the role of a persona prologans was very current in archaic Latin comedy. The god ― or star ― Arcturus appears to his audience as a magnificent vision: the costume worn by Arcturus is blinding. It is a white star splendens stella candida, even if there is no concrete evidence to state precisely how he was dressed in a manner corresponding to its description. The actor who played the star probably was wearing a white robe, white as the toga which worn by those aspiring to public office, the candidatus. Arcturus, or Alpha Bootis, is in fact the brightest star in the northern hemisphere and the fourth star in the sky in order of magnitude. The star is a red giant with a luminosity 113 times that of the Sun, and can be observed from all the regions of the earth. Starting from the definition that Hesiod attributed to the star Arcturus we will analyze the question about the brightness of the star which has proven to be stubbornly difficult and controversial: some say the word should be understood as 'bright' or 'shining'; according to others the emphasis is rather on the concept of the duration of the brightness of the star 'that shines all night', thus making Arcturus a celestial body that does not pass below the horizon. The ancient astronomers both Greek and Latin are in agreement about the brightness of the star: from Homer, Aratus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Eudoxus, Manilius, Gaius Julius Caesar Claudianus Germanicus, Erotianus to Eusebius the star was bright.
Copyright (c) 2013 Marianna Calabretta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
REAL, UNREAL AND MAGIC IN PLINY THE ELDER’S NATURALIS HISTORIA
This paper considers some reflections on healing, witchcraft and magic in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, published around AD 77-79. As scholars of Classical antiquity, we find ourselves dealing with authors’ different ideas about reality and the consistency of truth and belief in our understanding of life sciences, ancient medicine included. Representations of real, unreal or imagined experiences affected the Roman perception of differences and cultural specificity whenever detailed magico-religious formulae came to the knowledge of Roman people from what Greece and Asia considered to be medical lore. A definition of science and its borders arises from the Natural History’s attitude in presenting knowledge and introducing the readership to the study of nature. Herbal recipes that he reports and are no longer knowable by any other means often enrich our ability to comprehend how man was considered to be the microcosm, that is, a miniature of the universe. This also serves the purpose of political propaganda, presenting the Roman Empire as the social milieu capable of giving people products from distant lands, as well as knowledge one might need and desire. I will explore the way in which magic is fully explored in the first encyclopaedia in the ancient world, Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, that is to say, the Encyclopaedia Britannica of his day, for which purpose Book XXX, starting with a preamble about magic arts, is particularly interesting, as well as Book VII on anthropology. From these sources, we learn that magical observation and actions tend to mirror nature. Therefore, interacting with nature is ruled either by analogy or by contrast actions to achieve a desired effect. There is more than just a repository of knowledge. Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, an influential textbook for over fifteen centuries, shaped the learning contents and methods leading to the way we perceive science and non-science even today.
Copyright (c) 2013 Caterina Agostini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0