In this article I turn attention to the role of Eris (‘Strife’/’Discord’) in Hesiod’s Opera et dies. Namely, I attempt to consider the question of extent to which the role of the personified deity of ‘Strife’, so evidently exposed in the poem, as well as the related story (μῦθος) of the Iron Age, can be interpreted as a Hesiodic ‘commentary’ on the socio-political reality of his time.
Ancient history, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
The length of books in the era of the bookroll has never received more than sporadic attention. Using electronic counting methods, this study constructs statistical models of the Ciceronian book in three different genres, rhetoric, philosophy, and epistolography, and argues that Cicero’s literary production marks an inflection point in the development of the Roman literary book, and whose book-model would influence literary production down to the age of Apuleius and Gellius.
Philology. Linguistics, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
The article presents an analysis of Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s novel “Andrew Lagovskyi” in terms of reflecting the “spirit of the times” (decadence, hysteria, plebeianism), the actualization of the philosophy of nihilism, imperial colonialism. Such a critical perspective determined the structure of the article. The focus is on the psychotype of a new character in the literature of the modern era – “hysterical man”. It is noted that the two defining features of modernism – intellectualism and neuroticism – link Krymskyi with modernism. The comparison of this feature of Krymskyi’s work with the works of art of Ivan Franko (collection “Withered Leaves”) and Lesia Ukrainka (“Blue Rose”) was made. It is emphasized that at the end of the XIX century. the notion of a biographical “human document” is transformed into a subjective “psychological document”, and the artistic image into a “vivisection” and introspection – a self-analysis of one’s own soul. It is concluded that the new literature and, in particular, the emerging modern subject clearly tended to decadence, and the new authors unequivocally associated themselves with the decadents, even though they denied it. All this undermined the foundations of populist consciousness, that is, the worship of the “people” that dominated Ukrainian literature in the Shevchenko era. The linguistic diversity of the Krymskyi’s narrative is noted, in particular, the saturation of the text of the novel with quotations, translations, scientific commentaries, transitions to Greek, Turkish, German, French, Latin, and Russian. Socio-cultural value is noted in relation to fragments of vernacular language practice of the mother of the main character. Textual phenomena such as insinuation and orientalism have been noted. Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s unfinished novel is considered as a model of a modernist novel with its intellectual hero, polymorphic structure, philosophical and moral themes, psychological analysis and autobiography.
Alexander the Great inspired a body of literature that grew throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages by accumulating various episodes and local contributions across a host of languages, cultures, and appropriations. This extraordinary transmission of texts resulted in an ever evolving and often contradictory figure. In some accounts, Alexander’s ambition was a defining characteristic, in others benevolence; some writers idealized while others condemned Alexander; and in texts classified as histories from a modern perspective Alexander built an empire as the son of Philip of Macedon, while in texts classified as romance or legend Alexander was the illegitimate son of an Egyptian sorcerer and traveled to exotic lands populated by the creative lens of storytelling. Medieval writers engaged with a core set of plotlines inherited from their predecessors in Antiquity. These provided the narrative framework of Alexander’s childhood in Macedon, expansion of an empire stretching to India, and death in Babylon. However, countless adaptations and interpolations ensured the vibrancy of this narrative and created a version of Alexander dependent on availability of texts and authorial agenda. For example, writers and scribes in southern Italy had access to episodes that emphasized the limitations of Alexander’s ambition—how the intrepid explorer constructed a flying machine that the gods turned back to land and received prophecies of mortality in the far reaches of an earthly paradise. Under the influence of such accounts, they emphasized the temporality of Alexander’s career in allegorical terms that were, at least until these accounts traveled westward, quite different from the idealized warrior portrayed in French romances. The textual corpus that accounted for Alexander’s reception thus comprised a vast network founded on Greek and Latin but shaped by the vernacular. Navigating this network is a formidable task, and this article is written with a guiding principle in mind: to assist readers in finding their starting points for engaging with the medieval Alexander. It includes texts that were largely or exclusively devoted to Alexander’s exploits, and it identifies scholarly works intended for readers in the early stages of their navigation; more specialized research can be found in the scholarship cited. Finally, it organizes the medieval reception of Alexander the Great into two broad categories: Greek and Latin texts (both foundational accounts of Late Antiquity and medieval Latin literature) and the vernacular texts based on them.
The prescriptions on how to eulogize the city, provided in 3rd century by Menander Rhetor in his treatise On Epideictic, reflect the encomiastic convention according to which Pindar composed his poetic encomia urbis. Among the topoi that the poet applies to praise Athens one can list the ancient origin of the city, including the identification of its founder, the practiced habits concerning the form of politeia as well as those concerning the professional skills and abilities of the inhabitants, their virtues and deeds in war and in peace.
In Pindar’s victory odes, the praise of the city is always subordinated to the praise of an individual victor. Therefore, the poet praises the outstanding individuals, members of aristocratic families, whose values and achievements adorn their city, and who inherited their excellence from heroic ancestors, mythical founders of Athens. In dithyrambic poems, composed for Athenian festivals and performed by kyklioi choroi of men and boys representing the communities of phylai, polis-encomium is a form of self-praise, an expression of 5th century Athenian ideology, which makes citizens proud of their city’s power. Consequently, Pindar focuses on praising Athens’ military prowess and the dominant position which the city achieved in the Greek world, its institutions, its beauty and public buildings.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
The paper examines the way Terence's comedy was received and exploited by the dramas of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim. The discussion focuses on a particular comic motif: rape. After the examination of the way Hrotswitha transforms Terentian rapes and incorporates them into her dramatic composition, the paper focuses on a very important spectrum of Terence's survival: education. Specifically, it explores how rape was read and interpreted by the most important treatise of Terence's exegesis: the commentary of Donatus. All in all, the paper aims at identifying possible common approaches between the educational and literary sources under examination, while, at the same time, investigates the extent to which the educational context of Terence's reception affected the literary products that used Terence as their prototype.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
A classificação do género O Senhor dos anéis de Tolkien tem suscitado um intenso debate nas últimas décadas. Neste texto, discute-se a relação desta obra com as épicas clássicas, apontando algumas diferenças estruturais e temáticas subjacentes à concepção e organização dos textos.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Questo articolo studia la metamorfosi di Creonte in tiranno nel finale della Tebaide: proprio mentre leva il suo lamento funebre sul corpo di Meneceo, egli rivela come in lui l’amore per il trono tebano prevalga addirittura su quello per il figlio. In questo senso Creonte perverte il modello virgiliano di due padri che piangono la morte dei figli, Evandro e Mezenzio, e si avvicina invece al suo antagonista, Edipo. Creonte, che vieta di seppellire i cadaveri dei caduti, richiama il modello di Cesare (ma anche di Eritto) in Lucano, e Edipo, che a suo dire si è inflitto una punizione tanto crudele che nemmeno il suo nemico può superare, esibisce significativi tratti dell’ ‘estetica della tirannia’ delle tragedie senecane.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Le due iscrizioni furono incise sui lati corti di un blocco quadrangolare di calcare bianco rinvenuto in Beozia, nella città di Acrefie. Si tratta di due rendiconti che registrano l’operazione di parziale condono di debiti contratti dalla polis con due privati, il cittadino Kallon (testo a) e il tebano Euclide (testo b). Nel primo caso, il creditore venne ricompensato con il privilegio dell’epinomia, cioè con il diritto, qui concesso a lui e ai suoi discendenti, di usufruire gratuitamente di pascoli di proprietà cittadina. Nel secondo, invece, non è citata la concessione di alcun privilegio ma a garanzia del debito venne posta la terra sacra del dio Apollo, a seguito di una decisione presa da un decreto del popolo. A causa dell’assenza di una datazione precisa dei testi – collocati solo genericamente alla seconda metà del III secolo a.C. – e di qualsiasi riferimento chiaro nel loro dettato, non è possibile risalire al motivo che determinò la crisi finanziaria di Acrefie e la necessità di prendere in prestito denaro da cittadini facoltosi. Infine, è interessante notare che queste non sono le uniche iscrizioni a essere state incise sulla stessa pietra; l’analisi delle altre quattro, tre cataloghi di cittadini di Acrefie e un decreto onorario assai frammentario, può forse suggerire alcuni elementi utili per arricchire il quadro descrittivo dei due rendiconti.
Around the year 108 B.C., the triumvir monetalis M. Herennius issued denarii which bore the portrait of Pietas on the obverse and one of the Catanean brothers carrying his parent on the reverse. This article aims to demonstrate that previous interpretations of these types as narrow allusions to the history of the gens are fallacious. Accordingly, new arguments are provided in order to give value to the political-ideological context of the last decades of the II century B.C.: in these years, pietas emerged alongside libertas as a fundamental value of the popularis ideological construct. This tradition was inspired by the oratorical and literary self-representation of Gaius Gracchus, that made his pietas erga fratrem and the pious portrayal of the family an important pillar of his legitimiz ing agenda. The political heirs of the Gracchi, such as C. Memmius and L. Apuleius Saturninus, continued to claim vengeance for the killed brothers and to blame the behaviour of the optimates – so that pietas remained a profitable slogan of the popularis political tradition. In this respect, Aetna’s eruptions in the Gracchan period and their explanation as prodigia formed an ideal humus for actualising the type of the Catanean brothers as catalyzing reference to the pietas popularis.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Nuestro propósito en este trabajo es analizar cómo el episodio de Cipo en el libro XV de Metamorfosis de Ovidio da forma literaria a una crisis de la experiencia: el fin de la República y el pasaje a una nueva forma de gobierno, el Principado. Tomaremos como marco teórico el concepto de “estructura del sentir” de Raymond Williams que se define como la expresión de la interacción entre el “carácter social dominante de un período” y la “experiencia real”. Nosotros postulamos que el episodio de Cipo señala un conflicto entre una idea dominante, la visión negativa de la figura del rey, y un nuevo sentimiento, la posibilidad de un rey con virtus.
Philology. Linguistics, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Nos proponemos indagar el tema de la destrucción de Troya, narrada en el libro II de la Eneida de Virgilio, siendo ésta la primera fuente completa sobre los eventos acerca de la caída de la ciudad. Analizamos la especificidad del tratamiento del tema desde la perspectiva de un poeta romano, quien, en la selección mítica, pone énfasis en los siguientes puntos para definir la perfidia griega y la entrada del caballo a la ciudad manifestando la valoración con la que conforma los acontecimientos de un pasado mítico que en el texto perpetúa la memoria: el perjurio de Sinón, el portento mal interpretado de Laocoonte y la voluntad de los hados.
Philology. Linguistics, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Na mizo pred seboj sem razgrnil spričevalo: »Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Državna klasična gimnazija v Ljubljani. Izpričevalo o višjem tečajnem izpitu (zrelostnem izpitu) – Svedočanstvo o višem tečajnom ispitu (ispitu zrelosti)« z državnim grbom in kolkom za »250 dinara« in datumom z dne 23. junija 1932. In – spomin se razgrne kako ta pola skoraj sedemdeset let stare listine in misli, spremljane od čustev in z njimi obložene, se ozirajo v »mladosti temno zarjo«.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature