Keywords: Methodius of Olympus; Thecla’s hymn; mystical marriage; Song of Songs; epithalamium
In this article the author analyses the literary sources of Thecla’s hymn from Methodius of Olympus’ Symposium. It is obvious that Methodius took over his concept of the treaty on chastity from Plato’s Symposium, but in the end of the work, or Thecla’s Hymn, is closer to Origen, from whom he borrowed the concept of mystical marriage of the Church and of the soul. In the hymn there are some common motifs with Song of Songs, especially with regard to the allegorical interpretation of love. The hymn is not Platonic, but it is a poetic summary of philosophical discussion, and praise and glory to Christ.
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Keywords: textuality; orality; rhetoric; Isocrates
The growing impact of textuality in the classical Greece seems to be generally accepted view. However, the importance of the written text as an autonomous mean of transmission in different spheres of life in Athens in the IV century BC is more complex phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to present a general sketch of this issue with particular emphasis on politics and individuals whose ambition was to have a real impact on the current affairs. In this context the activity of Isocrates and his self-consciousness provides especially interesting material for debate.
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Keywords: Catullus; parody; pastiche; rhetoric; Roman comedy; frigus
The paper analyses Catullus’s c. 44, a witty and ironic poem on the frigidity of the rhetorical style of a certain Sestius’. The aim of the analysis is to point at the relationship between c. 44 and other Catullan poems concerning the themes of friendship/companionship and literature. Comic elements, especially in the presentation of Catullus’ parasitus-like behaviour, will also be taken into account.
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Keywords: Cicero; Roman republic; De re publica
The paper analyses Cicero’s attitude towards the Roman republic and its celebrated leaders, such as Cato Major. The opinion of Cicero on certain aspects of proper Republican leadership and the attitude of the populace towards them (e.g. the problem of invidia) are also examined.
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Keywords: Latin grammar; Emmanuelis Alvari; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; 16th century
The paper briefly characterizes the Jesuit education in the Polish- Lituanian Commonwealth in 16th century and the first Latin grammar book by Emmanuel Alvarez SJ used in colleges. The reader is presented with a brief description of the Grammatica of Alvarez and its editions in Poland till the end of the 16th century.
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Keywords: Dante; Virgil; Aeneas; Dante-pilgrim; comparative analysis; intertextual approach
The protagonist of the famous poem of Dante Alighieri has a lot in common with the Virgilian Aeneas: both have a mission to accomplish, but its meaning is profoundly different: political in the case of the son of Anchises and universal in that of Dante-pilgrim. Aeneas will encounter, in the Otherworld, his father and from him he will learn about his own future as well as that of the Roman Empire of which he will become a protoplast. The disciple of Virgil in Dante will know a posthumous destiny of Man with the purpose of showing mankind the way of moral and spiritual renewal. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the figures of “old” and “new” Aeneas, involving an intertextual approach to the theme of their katabasis. The illustration of the similarities and differences between them takes into consideration the changed cultural and spiritual context and the aspiration of the Italian poet to become a “new” Virgil whose masterpiece is superior to the Aeneid both in content and form.
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Keywords: Procopius; Roman historiography; Ammianus Marcellinus
The article discusses Procopius’ usurpation which took place in 365-366 AD. Ammianus in his Res gestae deals not only with the historical details of this event, but also focuses on its interesting literary aspects. On the basis of quotations and sources the author of this article analyses these literary images of the whole issue, which are an integral part of Ammianus’ historical narrative. This article was written with a view to showing the metaphorical and theatrical creations of the usurper against the background of the more important stages of his coup.
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Keywords: Tacitus; Pliny the Younger; intellectuals; Roman Empire; historiography; epistolography
The paper provides a (far from exhaustive) overview of references found in Tacitus’ historical works (Annales, Historiae, Agricola) and in Pliny the Younger’s Epistulae to people who may be defined as “intellectuals”, notably to orators, historians and philosophers. The historian Tacitus is, in general terms, somewhat uninterested in those people in their capacity as men of letters; his focus is, rather, on their involvement in Roman politics (but he makes some interesting side-comments on their intellectual activity). Pliny, on the other hand, is more inclined to emphasize their mental pursuits and, also, to praise their achievements. However, a closer reading of passages devoted to such intellectuals in the Epistulae reveals that he uses them to promote his own image as an ideal Roman, devoted not only to studia but also to officia publica and officia amicorum, and an upholder of humanitas.
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Keywords: XIX Century; Spanish literature; ancient Greek literature; Greek philosophy; Cretan history; Ottoman Crete; Cretan revolution
In my paper I examine a literary work, virtually unknown, of the Spanish journalist, writer and liberal politician of the late nineteenth century, Nilo Fabra, who builds an imaginary story with the background of the island of Crete. He describes the situation of the island during the period, in which Crete is going to be liberated from the Ottomans by the Western powers. The writer uses the dialogue between a well-known personality of the ancient Crete and an occasional traveller to describe allegorically the moment in which the events take place and its relationship with the past times of the island.
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Keywords: classical antiquity; ancient culture; Greek and Roman civilization; classical tradition; classical education; classical languages; grammar schoolsClassical; classical gymnasium
The author discusses the impact of classical antiquity on the modern culture, particularly in Poland. He tried to point out that ill-considered and harmful educational reforms have reduced or even eliminated the classical education from the school system in Poland, as in several other countries. Now we are witnessing the decline and collapse of classical humanism. But on the other hand it is difficult to imagine that the viivifying stream of ancient culture woluld dry up finally in our times. We believe that our world of western civilization does not want and cannot renounce the values that have created and shaped the ancients.
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Keywords: cook; philosopher; parody; Athenaeus; Epicurus; Middle and New Comedy; culinary art; sophist; quadrivium; canon of sciences
Within the category of “cultural humour” applied by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistai, a special place is assigned to the speeches of stock mageiroi, who seek to obtain theoretical knowledge in various disciplines and to apply it to culinary art. By drawing on fragments from Middle and New Comedy of the 4th century BC, Athenaeus creates a specific “canon” of sciences and of “high” arts, which the cook, who pretends to the title of a sage or a philosopher, has to study, consisting of philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, medicine, music, astronomy, architecture and military strategy. The way the author of Deipnosophistai casts the mageiros as an intellectual can be read as a play on the definition of a sophist. The learned cook, who appears to be a product of the sophistic model of education, based on the mathematical quadrivium introduced by Plato, resembles Athenaeus’ characters, who practice some of the very same disciplines he has studied.
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Keywords: collegia poetarum; Sidonius Apollinaris; Petrus; Domnulus, Lampridius; late ancient poetry
The paper discusses the image of collegia poetarum in 5th c. Gaul, as presented in the poetry of Sidonius Apollinaris, one of the leading poets of the period. Thanks to his poetic works we have access to the information on the writings of a number of important authors, whose literary efforts have been lost, as well as to numerous facets of literary life in 5th c. Gaul.
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Keywords: Tadeusz Zielinski; Classics in Russia; translations; Greek theatre; Adrian Petrovsky
The present paper analyses how the biography of Tadeusz Zielinski, one of the most famous Polish classicists, was influenced by the history of Poland, Russia and Germany. (He was living in Sanct-Petersburg, Leipzig and Warsaw.) On the basis of his Autobiography and Diary I am trying to seek his real personality apart from the common knowledge about the famous scholar with outstanding publications and thousands of students. In his private papers Zielinski had openly described his “colorful” student life and love affairs, but he concealed his illegitimate children… One of them – Adrian Petrovsky – was a classicist, translator and dramatist. He was the first translator who translated all Aristophanic Comedies into Russian (1934 – first edition). After the premiere of the ballet The Limpid Stream (with music by Dmitri Shostakovich, libretto by Petrovsky), censors banned the piece and Petrovsky was attacked in a “Pravda” editorial. Shortly after that he was arrested by the NKVD (November 1937) and shot in prison (15 November 1937).
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Keywords: evaluation; rhetorical theory and practice; eloquence, figures of speech and thought; richness of vocabulary; charm; ethics
Quintilian tries to evaluate Cicero on various levels. Examples from the Arpinate’s opera are interspersed almost in the whole textbook of the orator from Calagurris. He highly estimates Cicero’s achievements both in rhetorical practice and theory and appreciates his usage of metaphor, allegory, hyperbole, irony, riddle. The Arpinate is the greatest embodiment of various virtues that are praised in other speakers. As concerns incisum, membrum, circumitus, Quintilian constantly quotes Cicero. The most beautiful kind of speech is the one where analogy, allegory and metaphor are gracefully entwined. Quintilian remains under Cicero’s spell. It is obvious that Quintilian would not have written Institutio oratoria if he did not use the examples contained in Cicero’s works. Poetry raised to its height due to Homer and Vergil, while rhetoric – due to Demosthenes and Cicero.
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Keywords: vis persuadendi; rhetoricen esse bene dicendi scientiam; inventio; elocutio; ars; artifex; opus; deceat; expediat
In the second book of Institutio oratoria Quintilian contemplates the definition and nature of rhetoric. The lecture on rhetoric can be divided into three parts: on art (ars), master (artifex), work (opus). The most common definition of rhetoric can be summed up as the power of persuasion (vis persuadendi). Every element of rhetoric changes with the content of the cases, the times, the circumstances, the needs. No law proposals, no resolutions passed by the people constituted the noble rules of rhetoric; they were formed by practice. If utility will advise us to do something different, we should follow such advice and not be constrained by the authority of the former masters. The important virtue (virtus) of the teacher is to take into consideration the different talents of every student and to discover their natural predispositions. In Quintilian’s definition the speaker and his art are not dependent on the effect. Though a speaker aims for victory, then even if he lost the case he still achieved the goal of his art, provided that he spoke honestly.
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Keywords: Heraclitus; Heidegger; logos; personalization; Greek
The following paper aims to explore some Heraclitus’ fragments that could entail a personified conception of logos. The first part of the paper shows the analysis of the authentic sense of the Greek root ‘leg-’. In this part I followed philologists (among others Chantraine, Narecki) and philosopher Heidegger, who was a great adherent of understanding the original sources of Heraclitus’ philosophy. The closing part points to Heraclitus’ fragments in which the term “logos” is used.
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Keywords: time; future; past; death; conscience
Seneca shows us that reading the philosophers can enable the reader to escape time. He also teaches how to possess the future achieving fame among wise and virtuous people. In Seneca’s opinion, time is our greatest wealth, however ephemeral it might be, although his tragic heroes and heroines as well as the author himself are conscious of the fact that death limits the time of life thus making it valuable. Nevertheless, his philosophy is often pessimistic, neglecting hope as a key to the future.
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Keywords: Josephus Flavius; prophets; patriarchs; Judeo-Hellenic literature
The paper focuses on the Judeo-Hellenic writers composing in times of Roman occupation, especially on works created by Josephus Flavius. On the basis of his re-written version of events described in the Bible, one can observe various methods used by Josephus and other authors to accommodate their history for the needs of Greco-Roman world. One such method is depicting notable characters from the Bible in a more understandable way, particularly different prophets from the Old Testament. Those Jewish sages are described surprisingly alike to Greek philosophers, orators and commanders – figures that were well-known to Greeks and admired by them. The article presents specific example for that kind of adaptations, presenting at the same time differences between prophets from the times of the Second Temple and those from before the Babylonian thralldom. Understanding these differences is essential for explaining how Jewish scholars could find a common ground with Greek philosophers.
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