Ancient Greek Literature

Brennan’ın kitabını önemli kılan birincil etken, yolculuğunu Irak savaşı başlamadan kısa süre önce, 2000 – 2001 yıllarında gerçekleştirmiş oluşudur. Ksenophon’un yolculuğuna tanıklık etmiş anıtların, kentlerin ve yeryüzü şekillerinin birçoğu, savaş süresince yok edilecektir. Oturduğumuz yerden bizi yolculuğa çıkaran bu kitap, gezi edebiyatının benzersiz bir örneğini oluşturmaktadır. Son yıllarda patlamaya hazır bir coğrafyaya dönüşen bölgede, okuyucuları Ksenophon’un izinden güvenle gezdirir. Geçmişin ve günümüzün anlatıldığı öyküler birbiriyle öyle dengeli harmanlanmıştır ki, okuyucu hem eğlenir hem de tarihe yönelik akademik bilgiler edinir. Brennan, dürüst ve açık anlatımıyla, yolculuğun getirdiği mutlulukları ve zorlukları tüm yalınlığıyla betimlemesiyle ve hem coğrafyaya hem kültürlere hem de kimisi dost canlısı, kimisi düşmanca davranan yerli halka dair gözlemleriyle, okuyucuyu kitabın içine çekip, yolculuğa çıkan okuyucunun kendisiymiş gibi hissettiriyor.
Prof. Jonathan Burgess (Toronto Üniversitesi)

De Tirteu, poeta espartano arcaico do século VII a.C., restaram-nos apenas poemas elegíacos fragmentários. Seus fragmentos dividem-se entre aqueles que narravam a história e os preceitos espartanos, instituídos por reis descendentes dos deuses, e aqueles que exortavam a uma moralidade guerreira que privilegiava a morte heroica em combate e condenava a fuga. Este trabalho consiste na tradução integral e no comentário desses fragmentos remanescentes, analisando a constituição do gênero elegíaco e seus contextos de performance no período arcaico grego (séculos VII-V a.C), bem como a relação entre a poesia de Tirteu e a tradição épica grega.

Par une analyse lexicale systématique il est possible de reconnaître dans l’œuvre de Nostradamus plusieurs éléments sémiologiques appartenant au registre d’un syndrome obsessionnel associé au domaine autistique. Une étude comparative des Prophéties avec sa Lettre XLI permet aussi de confirmer que cette œuvre est celle d’un personnage mystique souffrant de singularités psycho-linguistiques ayant rendu son expression incompréhensible pendant longtemps. Mais l’exploitation des dernières connaissances scientifiques en neuro-psychiatrie appliquée aux domaines littéraire, historique et religieux autorise maintenant une bien meilleure intelligibilité des obscurités nostradamiennes. Refuser d’emprunter ce chemin escarpé conduit aussi à préfèrer la magie à la science, l’illusion au raisonnement critique et l’erreur à la pertinence. L’auteur démontre aussi que le médecin apothicaire, ayant lui-même déclaré souffrir de comitialité, laisse supposer avoir eu recours à une pharmacopée anxiolytique encore inconnue pour calmer ses troubles obsessionnels avivés par les turbulences d’une époque violemment agitée. Concernant l’astrologie, il appert que l’expression littéraire de cette Lettre adressée à un ami alchimiste s’accorde précisément avec une sémantique allégorique obsessionnelle, et non pas avec un délire matérialiste et profane. Éprouvant l’infernale désunion du lien social spirituel, l’enfant de marranes pronostiquait son évolution selon un schéma déjà scénarisé depuis l’Antiquité par les historiens et les philosophes. De tout cela il apparaît également que les quatrains excessivement redondants des Prophéties n’ont recyclé qu’un très petit nombre de prédictions publiées antérieurement par des auteurs déjà connus.

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  Ο Διόνυσος, υιός του θεού Δία και της θνητής Σεμέλης —θεός κι ο ίδιος απ' τη σύλληψη και τη γέννησή του— καταφθάνει στην πόλη των Θηβών απ' την Ασία, συνοδευόμενος από τις «Βάκχες», τις ακολούθους του. Αυτές, ενδεδυμένες με δέρματα ελαφιών («νεβρίδες») και κρατώντας στα χέρια τους θύρσο (κοντάρι τυλιγμένο με κισσό, σύμβολο και φορέα της θεϊκής δύναμης του Διονύσου), βιώνουν την έκσταση που τους προκαλεί η μέθεξη στα ιερά μυστήρια του θεού, ενόσω βρίσκονται σε κατάσταση ένθεης μανίας —έχοντας απελευθερώσει τον νου τους απ' τα δεσμά και τους κανόνες των εγκοσμίων, και έχοντας συνενωθεί σ' ένα σώμα και σε μια ψυχή, η οποία πάλλεται στον ρυθμό των τυμπάνων και δονείται απ' το γλυκό κελάηδημα των φρυγικών αυλών. Σκοπός του θεού είναι να μυήσει τη Θήβα, πόλη της καταγωγής του, πρώτη ανάμεσα σ' όλη την Ελλάδα στη νέα αυτή ελευθεριάζουσα λατρεία.

  Με το τελευταίο του έργο, τις «Βάκχες», ο Ευριπίδης εισάγει «καινά δαιμόνια» στη γνωσιολογία της αττικής Τραγωδίας αλλά και στη δομή της θεατρικής της πράξης, προσπαθώντας ταυτοχρόνως να τα εισαγάγει και στον τρόπο αντίληψης και σκέψης των θεατών· περισσότερο, ίσως, για να τους προειδοποιήσει, παρά για να τους μεταρρυθμίσει γνωσιολογικώς. Οι «Βάκχες» αποτελούν ίσως περισσότερο μια πολιτισμική κραυγή αγωνίας και μια ποιητική διαμαρτυρία απέναντι στο διαφαινόμενο τέλος της ίδιας της αττικής Τραγωδίας, της αθηναϊκής δημοκρατίας και του κλασικού ελληνισμού, και λιγότερο ένα αμιγώς διδακτικό περιεχόμενο με σκοπό τη νοητική αυτοβελτίωση εκάστου εκ των θεατών. Ο Ευριπίδης νεωτερίζει, ανασκευάζοντας τους μηχανισμούς προσληψιμότητας (και, εν μέρει, και αισθητικής) της αρχαίας αττικής Τραγωδίας· την «καταργεί» ως διακριτό είδος ποιητικής και θεατρικής δημιουργίας και την «ενταφιάζει» (ίσως προσδοκώντας μια πιθανή επαναγέννεσή της στο μέλλον, με τρόπο παρόμοιο με τη διπλή γένεση του Διονύσου, του δημιουργού του θεάτρου), λίγο μόλις καιρό πριν κι ο ίδιος πεθάνει με τρόπο παρόμοιο με αυτόν του πρωταγωνιστή του δράματος.

  Tο βιβλίο περιλαμβάνει το αρχικό (μερικώς ανακατασκευασμένο) αρχαίο κείμενο των "Βακχών", σε έμμετρη μετάφραση στα νέα ελληνικά. Η μετάφραση συνοδεύεται από τον σχολιασμό ενός επιλεγμένου αριθμού στίχων και από έναν εκτενή Πρόλογο —στον οποίο αναλύονται οι «Βάκχες» και το περιεχόμενό τους, συμπεριλαμβανομένης μιας σύνθετης ερμηνευτικής θέωρησης της τραγωδίας.

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  The god Dionysus —son of Zeus and of the mortal woman Semele— arrives in the city of Thebes from Asia, impersonating a mortal and accompanied by the "Bacchae", his female followers. The latter, clad in deer skins and holding in their hands the "thyrsus" (a wooden staff wrapped in ivy, the symbol and the carrier of the divine power of Dionysus), experience the ecstasy by participating in the sacred mysteries of the god Dionysus, while being at the same time in a state of divine madness —after having freed their mind from the worldly bonds and rules, united in one body and one soul; their body pulsating in the rhythm of the drums, and vibrating to the sweet warbling of the Phrygian flutes. The purpose of Dionysus is to initiate Thebes, his natal city, first among all of Greece, in his new liberating cult.

  In his last work, the "Bacchae", Euripides introduces novelties in the epistemology of the Attic Tragedy as well as in the structure of its theatrical representation; at the same time, he tries to introduce these novelties in the way of perception and thinking of the spectators (perhaps, more in an effort to warn them, rather than to reform their mindset). The "Bacchae" can be considered more as a cultural cry of agony as well as a poetic protest against the looming end of the Attic Tragedy itself, the end of the Athenian democracy and the end of the classical Hellenism, and less as a purely didactic content which aims at the intellectual self-improvement of the spectators. Euripides brutally modernizes and reconstructs the mechanisms of the theatrical receptivity (and, in part, of the aesthetics) of the ancient Attic Tragedy; he "abolishes" it as a distinct kind of poetic and theatrical creation, and "buries" it (perhaps anticipating its possible rebirth in the future, in a manner similar to the double birth of Dionysus, the creator of the theater), shortly before he himself dies, in a manner similar to that of the protagonist of the drama.

  This book includes the original (partially reconstructed) ancient text of the "Bacchae", translated side-by-side in modern greek, in verse. The translation is accompanied by commentary on a selected number of verses, and by an extensive Prologue (both in modern greek) —in which the "Bacchae" and its contents are analyzed, including a composite interpretive view of the tragedy.

The article investigates the ancient edition of Archilochus’ works, examining such things as the division of poems into books, the critical signs that were used to separate poems, and the ordering of poems within books and its significance. It argues among other things that P.Oxy. 2311 (fr. 48 W.2) represents the first column of the Trimeters and that the Epodes were organised according to metre, from the most iambic (beginning with frr. 172-181 W.) to the least iambic (ending with the new fragment preserved by BKT X 11, which was probably entirely dactylic).

Le zoonosi contemporanee ci costringono a porci una domanda che già gli antichi pensatori si erano posti più o meno esplicitamente. Le risposte sono spiazzanti e per molti versi attuali: mangiamo gli animali perché non siamo dèi (e quindi perché non siamo mai stati – o non siamo più – puri) o perché, semplicemente, siamo onnivori. Per Aristotele, nello specifico, mangiamo gli animali perché le tecniche a nostra disposizione ce lo permettono, anche se in ciò che ci viene permesso – secondo lui – dovrebbe sempre esserci una misura.

Resumo: O presente artigo busca discutir a ficção para além do ψεῦδος (pseûdos) no mundo grego. Para tanto, examino o estatuto da ficção e do ficcional a partir de moedas falsas. Na relação do homem grego com sua moeda, falsa ou verdadeira, deparamo-nos com situações em que moedas falsas são autorizadas a integrar a circulação, tornando-se, consequentemente, equivalentes às verdadeiras; há também moedas falsificadas capazes de pôr em xeque as verdadeiras; e ainda as falsas que podem se tornar mais verdadeiras do que as reais. É preciso notar que o contraste vocabular entre ψεῦδος e ἀλήθεια (alétheia) não permite perceber a fluidez da fronteira entre uma ideia e outra. Donde, talvez, a contribuição de observar como essa mesma fronteira se comporta nas práticas do mundo grego pouco familiares às noções de ψεῦδος e ἀλήθεια (como no caso das moedas), mas que, inevitavelmente, participam de sua elaboração e sofisticação. Tais práticas ajudam, assim, a explicar o pacto de ficcionalidade no teatro clássico.
Palavras-chave: falsificação; moedas falsas; moedas verdadeiras; ficção; teatro.

LA CONTREFAÇON ET LE THÉÂTRE GREC: DEUX FACES D'UNE MÊME PIÈCE
Résumé: Dans cette réflexion, je voudrais discuter la fiction au-delà du ψεῦδος (pseûdos) dans le monde grec. J'examine, pour ce faire, le statut de la fiction ou du fictionnel, en particulier dans les fausses pièces. Dans la relation de l'homme grec avec sa monnaie, tant réelle que fausse, on est confronté à des situations où il y a des pièces fausses qui sont autorisées à intégrer la circulation et, par conséquent, sont équivalentes aux vraies; ainsi que pièces contrefaites qui sont capables de mettre en échec la vraie monnaie; et encore des contrefaites qui peuvent devenir plus réelles que les réelles. Il faut noter que le contraste entre ψεῦδος e ἀλήθεια (alétheia) ne permet pas de percevoir la fluidité de la frontière entre une idée et l’autre. D’où, peut-être, la raison d’observer comment cette même frontière se comporte dans les pratiques du monde grec, en principe pratiques peu habituées aux notions de ψεῦδος e ἀλήθεια (comme dans le cas de la monnaie), mais qui, inévitablement, ont participé à leur élaboration et à leur sophistication. Et qui aident (ces pratiques) à expliquer le pacte de fiction au théâtre classique.
Mots-clés: contrefaçon; fausses pièces; varies pièces; fiction; théâtre.

No comedies are preserved from 413 or 412 BC. But we do have two — Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae — that were performed in 411. The plot of Lysistrata is overtly political. Scholars have nonetheless found it difficult to detect specific traces within the play of the tumultuous events of 411, much less any concrete recommendations for how to deal with what everyone in the city must by then have realized was a terrible military and political situation. I argue that the play is best understood as evidence for the even more confused and ambiguous situation in mid-412 or so, and that the heroine's plans, procedures and complaints, and how the opposition to them is characterised, offer insight not so much into the ideology of the committed oligarchs who briefly seized power a year or so later, as into widely dispersed patterns of political and social thought that made that seizure possible.

This course offers an introduction to the history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the end of the Hellenistic Age (roughly the 16th to the 1st centuries BCE), drawing on both source materials and modern works. This is a student-driven seminar based on a balance of lectures, readings, and in-class discussions on the societal, religious, and political developments of the Greek world in antiquity. Students will become familiar with the Bronze, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods of Greek history.

The foundation of this course is the geopolitical history of the expanding Greek world; however, students also will engage the importance of ancient Greek culture, literature, religion, art, and gender roles. Through the investigation of texts, architecture, and archaeology, students will gain an appreciation of not just the ruling classes of the ancient Greek world, but also of the daily lives of normal Greeks and Hellenized native peoples.

A description (in Dutch) of the new website Rondompericles.nl ('Around Pericles') opening up the text of Pericles' famous funeral oration in Thucydides book 2, and related text, with annotations, commentary and background, for a general readership as well as undergraduate students. (online in autumn 2018)

Xenophon is known for trusting the audience to detect his subtle and unobvious intensions in his writings. However, one scene that presents Socrates’ encounter with Theodote in his Memorabilia still confuses many modern readers and motivates the debate about Xenophon’s intention of including this scene at all. Since Xenophon’s works have very careful structure, I’m going to examine this scene’s place Xenophon’s Memorabilia. Furthermore, I’m going to try to detect Xenophon’s intentions of including this scene in order to portray Socrates character.

La lecture des Ethiopiques d'Héliodore donne une impression diffuse de style poétique chargé de métaphores. L'amour qui lie le héros Théagène et l'héroïne Chariclée, tout en se traduisant en épisodes d'aventures toujours très romanesques, semble une quête d'un objet indicible, bien au-delà des épreuves que le narrateur met en scène. C'est pour cette raison que le roman a joué un rôle important dans la littérature ésotérique ou mystique, peut-être en particulier sur des auteurs et textes tels que Terrasson et son Séthos, influençant à leur tour le livret de la Flûte enchantée ou la composition de Aïda.

L’articolo è uno studio sui miti relativi all’Etna e sulla sua triplice natura di ninfa, madre e vulcano.
Come ninfa e madre, essa presenta una genealogia e una discendenza divine: figlia di Urano e Gea e madre degli dei Palici.  Come vulcano, invece, è sede dell’officina di Efesto e luogo legato agli episodi mitici del ratto di Persefone, della sconfitta di Tifone e di quella di Encelado.
È presente, inoltre, un approfondimento sul culto dei Palici e di Persefone.
Di ciascun mito sono citate le fonti antiche analizzate ed è presente una personale interpretazione.
[Link articolo: http://www.instoria.it/home/etna_mito.htm]

https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198836827.001.0001/oso-9780198836827-chapter-3

hapter 3 explores the transmission of Greek epigrams outside poetic books, that is, in compilations of texts designed to satisfy an individual’s needs and not for widespread distribution. Therefore the chapter analyses in particular the papyri with selections of and excerpts from literary texts assembled for a use on specific occasions and following personal tastes, collections used in school contexts, as well as ostraca and templates for stonemasons. The chapter detects in such Hellenistic ‘paraliterary’ contexts resonances of contemporary literary production and argues that already in the third century BCE school anthologies trained young readers in the sequential reading of epigrams and served as a means of disseminating Ptolemaic ideology.

Keywords:  collections, inscriptions, ostraca, papyri, paraliterary, school anthologies, sequential reading, templates, transmission

PROMETEO INCATENATO
di Eschilo | traduzione di Monica Centanni.

Con Sebastiano lo Monaco, Gianluigi Fogacci, Melania Giglio, Massimiliano Vado, Claudio Mazzenga, Mirko Rizzotto.
E con Silvia Giuliano, Angela Rafanelli, Giada Prandi, Diana Manea, Alessandra Guazzini e Maria Teresa Pintus.

scene: Piero Guicciardini
costumi: Giuseppe Avallone
musiche: Dario Arcidiacono
luci: Lucilla Baroni
regia: Roberto Guicciardini

Les références à Delphes sont une composante fondamentale des Pythiques et de leur pragmatique narrative ou spectaculaire. D'une part en tant que lieu de la victoire obtenue et célébrée "dans les vallons de Pythô", origine d'une gloire qui se répand, par la performance poétique, dans tout le monde grec. D'autre part en tant que domaine d'Apollon, garant des Jeux, maître des oracles et protecteur des athlètes. Et les énoncés gnomiques des Odes sont empreints de valeurs réputées delphiques.

The article takes a look at some historiographical perspectives that have conditioned the studies on the Greek polis during the last decades, paying particular attention to the concept of consumption city impelled by Moses Finley, following Werner Sombart and Max Weber, and the criticisms on this notion elaborated by Mogens Hansen within the Copenhagen Polis Center. A review of Sombart’s formulation on the consumption city, which is Weber’s point of departure taken up by Finley in proposing that the ancient city was a city of consumers, allows Hansen to conjecture that the polis does not fit into this model. Indeed, it is based on a distribution of the population between countryside and town that is not in line with what recent archaeological surveys have shown in relation to the polis. On the basis of this, the notion of Normalpolis, promoted by John Bintliff but originally enunciated by Eberhard Ruschenbusch, and certain ideas of Aristotle, on the inclusion of peasant population in the politeia, are reconsidered to understand the relationships between population, territory, and political models that were probably characteristic of the structure of most poleis.