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The Indian performative art of Avadhāna (attention, attentiveness) is based on the showcasing of the mastery of memory, creativity, retention, multitasking and task-switching as well as other cognitive abilities. It examines not only a person’s capacity to focus and respond simultaneously to multiple task demands given by questioners (pṛcchakas) and demonstrate outstanding memory skills, but also specialized knowledge. The Avadhāna event, which involves partial improvisation, takes the form of an entertaining spectacle based on the set of rules assigned to its particular type. It becomes the ‘ritual of memory’, the celebration of innate and developed mental techniques performed by the avadhāni in front of an audience. The present paper aims at presenting the centuries-old tradition of Avadhāna from the point of view of its relation to ritual and other performative arts, as well as its performers and its contemporary components, such as the inclusion of painting, stage drama or elements of visual poetry. It stems from a field study conducted in 2015–2016 in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and from interviews with practitioners of the art of attention, Dr. R. Ganesh, Dr. Shankar Rajaraman and Dr. Medasani Mohan.
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While the debate on the relationship between ritual and theatre goes back decades, the most recent speculation can be fully understood in the framework of the mutual influences between the social sciences and performance studies. In retrospect, the spreading of structuralism to anthropology, sociology, and history (among other fields) and the absorption of theory-oriented terms in theatre studies’ terminology have facilitated a linguistic and conceptual ambiguity (or simply a confusion). Such ambiguity arises especially from the attempt to outline the borders between the religious and the aesthetic. In this paper, I will focus on the crucial role of conventional terms such as ‘performance’ and ‘performative’, the increased use of which in different fields has given rise to new dichotomies, such as performativity vs theatricality, self vs role. I will discuss some theoretical issues that allow us to define a ritual text as ‘religious’ instead of ‘theatrical’, focusing on the performative effect of recitation, more specifically on the Vedic texts on ritual prescriptions and their aim to display the officiants’ skills and authoritativeness.
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Until the 1960s, Kūṭiyāṭṭam**—India’s Sanskrit theatre—was exclusively performed in Hindu temples of Kerala by an ensemble of three ritual performers of high status: the Cākyār actor-master, the Nampyār percussionist, and the Naṅṅyār reciter, cymbalist and actress. Within this devotional context, Kūṭiyāṭṭam, whose essence is theatre (nāṭya), is considered an offering of ‘dance’ (nṛtta) to the main divinity. Furthermore, the performative cycles, lasting from three to forty-one days, incorporate dances known as ‘kriya’, literally ‘what has to be done’ or ‘action’, designating the ritual action here. This paper attempts to complement previous studies based on the Indian theory of theatre, by questioning the uses and roles of dance in the Kūṭiyāṭṭam theatrical sphere and tackling the issue of boundaries between dance and dramatic action. The study draws on long-range anthropological research as wellas on the Kūṭiyāṭṭam literature, especially the Cākyar’s acting and production manuals (āṭṭaprakāram and kramadīpikā) written in Malayalam, three of which are composed for the performance of the following Sanskrit plays: Bālacaritam and Abhiṣekanāṭakam of Bhāsa, and Āścaryacūḍāmaṇi of Śaktibhadra.
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The present paper stands first in a series of planned articles that present systematically arranged data on ritual performances culled from Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra (usually dated around the beginning of the CE). This data is surprisingly extensive and multifaceted and mainly appears in the following three contexts: (1) the detailed description of five rituals of varying complexity that are preliminary to the staging of a play; (2) theatrical rules that codify the representation of rituals appearing in a play’s narrative; and (3) a wide variety of textual passages that, often parenthetically, offer insight into individual aspects of ritual acts. Before this information will be evaluated in the final essay of this series in order to assess the nature of the boundary between ritual and theatrical performances, it is presented systematically to be of use to ritual and theatrical studies in general. The present and the following article begin the series by offering information on ritual offerings and other items used in rituals contexts.
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The main problem discussed in this paper is illegitimacy in Roman Egypt. In the first part of the text I discuss ways of presenting persons born out of wedlock in papyri, especially documents relating to Roman census in Egypt. The question posed in the second part of the article is whether ways of describing extramarital children could provide us with information concerning their position within the family structure of Roman Egypt.
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In Egypt, the groups sharing the interpretation of the Christianity which could be labeled as Valentinian are to be traced back to the middle of the 2nd century. Later, deep into the 3rd and 4th century, the evidence relating to them appears, however, scant and indirect. Although Epiphanius of Salamis gave in his Panarion rather extensive presentation of ‘Valentinian’ topography, his relation – as in many other cases – meets with serious scholarly scepticism. Nevertheless, Epiphanius’ direct knowledge of the Delta finds corroboration in his widely ignored Vita, replete with literary topoi, but clearly independent from Panarion. Epiphanius’ account could be supported also by a careful analysis of the Valentinian corpus from the Nag Hammadi library. Examination of its content and arrangement as well as its language diversity, paleography and codicology shows that at the initial stage it was formed from at least five independent sources. Taking into account that the translations into Coptic were made no earlier than at the turn of the 3rd and 4th century, we can safely assume that only one or two generations spanned between translators and Epiphanius. Translators themselves had to be regarded as Christians of Valentinian orientation, because it would be hardly likely that non-believers working independently in many places undertook considerable effort of translating the texts, contents of which they had not accepted. It does not mean however, that there were Valentinian communities separated from the church (or even that that they know the name of Valentinus himself), but only that there were groups (probably isolated one from another) of Christians inclined to the interpretation of the Scriptures and the tradition labelled both by their ancient adversaries and modern scholars as Valentinian.
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In this paper I discuss the problem of episcopal authority and power underlying the case of the Jew Licinius described in Augustine’s Letter 8*. Victor, a bishop, had exercised his power to evict Licinius from his lawfully owned property. Licinius asked Augustine, bishop of Hippo, acknowledging Augustine’s authority and reliant on his power, to intercede for him in this matter. Augustine took the Jew Licinius’ side, but at the same time tried to protect Victor’s episcopal authority. He charged his fellow bishop with the task of judging the internal conflict in the Jewish family of Licinius, passing a sentence and supervising the enforcement of an appropriate penalty imposed on the individual guilty of the offence against Licinius’ mother.
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The “Three Chapters” controversy was a serious threat to the unity of the Church in the 6th century. The direct cause of this dispute was an edict issued by the emperor Justinian (c. 543/544) which anathematised the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, certain writings of Theodoret of Cyrus and the letter of Ibas of Edessa to Maris. It was an element of the emperor’s attempt to restore religious unity of the Empire, because the condemned bishops were regarded in many church circles as the followers of the Nestorian heresy. However, this step provoked another fierce opposition. First of all, Theodore died in communion with the Church and for many theologians it was unacceptable to antahematize the dead. Second, Theodoret and Ibas were reinstated in their sees by the Council of Chalcedon (451) and their condemnation was seen as an attack on this holy council.The controversy had the strongest impact in Italy and Africa, but its traces could be found in Gaul and Illyricum and it is widely accepted to speak about opposition throughout the West. The aim of this article is to focus on its repercussions in Spain, because so far this problem has not received enough attention. The question of the participation of the Spanish churches in the “Three Chapters” debate is the key to understand their position in the universal Church. It can tell us whether they focused on local problems and remained indifferent to ongoing theological discussions. It allows to take a look at the contacts of the Iberian Penisula with other parts of the Christian world and the means of this communication. Our sources are fragmentary, indirect and difficult to interpret, but they seem to suggest that Justinian’s religious policy did not meet with enthusiasm in Spain and the conflict did not pass unnoticed there.This study focuses in particular on the relations with the rest of Christian oecumene. They were responsible for most of the information about the strife and they were decisive in choosing between two sides of the conflict. The East Roman Empire was the centre of the controversy and the emperors, especially Justinian, tried to impose their religious views. In addition, the imperial troops conquered Southern Spain. Equally important were the connections with byzantine Africa, whose churches led the opposition against the condemnation of the “Three Chapters”. Finally, there is an issue of the contacts with the bishops of Rome, because their strong involvement in the debate caused many tensions in their relations with other churches.
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There are eight distinct love stories on the Meleager plate of the Seuso treasure. In four of them hunting plays an important role. The main theme of the depicted stories is all-prevailing love, the emotion that is the motivating force in human life. An ancillary theme of the stories is hunting, which can be interpreted in a concrete as well as a figurative sense. Hunting is an aristocratic pleasure but at the same time it represents the exercise of virtues, too, in which even females can participate, cf. the scenes with Helene and Atalante. Although there is no need to look for a topical event to feature the motif of love, it is tempting to determine the contemporary function of the treasure as a wedding gift. We are inclined to believe that Seuso, the well-off owner of the treasure, must have been given this unique silver tableware as a wedding gift some time around the beginning of the 5th century.
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The specimen was so bizarre that scientists at first thought the fossil was a fake.
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The aim of the paper is to examine the Apollonian narration about Boutes. Mentioned never before in the tradition, he seems to belong to the many minor characters of the Argonautica, who could emerge into the surface of the events only being heroi eponymoi of local aetiological myths giving a historical-geographical credibility to the narration. Nevertheless, the myth of Boutes is more profound than a marginal foundation story. While his name evokes pastoral ideas, his figure is strictly attached to Orpheus, which places him into an aesthetic context. He becomes protagonist at the crucial meeting with the Sirens, when Orpheus, to save his fellows, opposes the dangerous voice of bird-maidens by making curious sounds, without being able to prevent Boutes, captivated by the song of Sirens, from jumping into the see and swimming to them. The man lost in the waves is saved by Aphrodite, who raises him as paredros at her mountain sanctuary. The article, after analyzing the relationship of the new Apollonian myth with the Homeric episode of Sirens, searches other literary models of this particular story. The figure of the shepherd delighted by the music and semi-divinised by the love of a goddess evokes the Hesiodic scene of poetical initiation as well as the figure of Anchises, shepherd-musician of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, while the iuxtaposition of a shepherd and the Sirens would make an allusion to the Platonic passage on enthusiasm in Phaedrus. The story of Boutes can be regarded as an indirect poetic commentary on these main texts of the Greek aesthetics thought about poetry and knowledge.
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The purpose of this paper is to carry out a case study on the Apollonian Medea-in-love portrayed in the 3rd book of Argonautica and puts forward several aspects on love theme and epic characteristics inspired by tradition of the classical Athenian tragedy, particularly by Euripides. This analysis emphasises that Medea of Euripides was not the sole tragic model of the Apollonian heroine by demonstrating the Apollonian Medea depicted in the 3rd book echoes Phaedra’s characteristics from Hippolytus-tragedy (cf. among lines 373-524) with regard to the motifs of uprising and wicked love. Finally, it attempts to address few secondary literary elements also inspired by Euripides’ Hippolytus, which underline the theory that Apollonius alludes to Phaedra’s state of mind and the play in greater details.
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Az Argónauták történetének elbeszélését követően, mely a legterjedelmesebb mítosz Pindaros epinikion-költészetében, a költő visszatér a jelenhez és Arkesilaoshoz, Kyréné urához és a költemény címzettjéhez fordul azzal a tanáccsal, hogy érdemes lesz megfontolnia Oidipus bölcsességét...
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