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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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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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Research on the “Socratic problem” has lately posed a strong challenge for the belief that anything of considerable importance might be ascertained about the historical Socrates beyond some basic facts about him. Sceptics today argue that the Socratic problem is a pseudo-issue, fundamentally because they consider both Plato’s and Xenophon’s reports about him as examples of the so-called sokratikos logos, a genre not meant to represent Socrates with historical accuracy. Th is essay is an attempt to provide some novel methodological considerations that avert a radically sceptical conclusion about the Socratic problem. It fi rst argues that we need to focus on the trial of Socrates and compare Plato’s and Xenophon’s accounts of it, through exploring the dissimilarity of their authorial intentions and of their views of Socrates in general, and assess the compatibility of their accounts with our historical knowledge of contemporary Athens. As a fi rst part of such a comparison, this essay analyses Xenophon’s authorial intentions and argues that in view of some basic facts about Socrates, our knowledge of the era and the circumstances of the trial, Xenophon’s account is not plausible historically. On the basis of its shortcomings, it outlines some theoretical criteria that a historically reliable account must meet. It suggests that Plato’s Apology complies with these criteria, but assigns the task of exploring its historical plausibility to further study.
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According to Book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics, the primary task of phronēsis (practical wisdom) is to deliberate about the things that are good in general for each person. However, phronēsis concerns not only individuals but also the community: practical wisdom is a political virtue as well. In my paper, I argue that the intellectual excellence called sunesis (comprehension) by Aristotle opens up the social dimension of practical wisdom, and thus provides an important means for the political application of phronēsis (EN 6. 1142b34−1143a32). To support my argument I interpret two further passages where sunesis appears in a clearly political context: in relation to legislation (EN 10. 1181a18) and to political deliberation (Pol. 4. 1291a28).
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This paper deals with some notorious passages of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which present problems of textual and interpretative nature. The first chapter investigates the sandal-making scene (82–86) in order to determine the real motivation of Hermes by this deed, and proposes a new conjecture for verse 86; the second chapter looks at the feigning-episode in the cave, analyses the skills of Hermes qua actor and tries to emend the corrupt line 242. Finally, the last chapter tracks Hermes’ ascent in the closing part of the Hymn from a cunning thief to an inspired bard without losing any of his former capacities.
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In the Persians, Aeschylus implies that Xerxes’ tragic downfall is caused by his violent arrogance. But the question of what exactly Xerxes’ hybris was is a point at issue. In this paper, after roughly presenting some important approaches to this question, I will try to indicate that there is a close connection between Xerxes’ hybris and the reason for behind his desire to enslave the Greeks. In what follows, I will defend the view that the essence of his hybris consists in the self-indulgent misuse of his authority in a futile aim merely to aggrandize himself.
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This paper is focused on the compositional features of Aratus’ Phaenomena and the poet’s strategy in proportioning astronomical and meteorological material. Apparently uneven as they are, two principal parts of the poem pose certain difficulties regarding the general importance of the meteorological signs and their relation to the astronomical ones. It seems that animals, playing their role in both parts of the Phaenomena, and both types of visible signs (i.e., as virtual shapes of heavenly bodies and real, terrestrial creatures) can provide a certain integrating key and better understanding of the poet’s strategic decisions in shaping the Phaenomena as a solid and seamless peace of poetry.
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Grad je i polis i oikos – i ne može biti njihovim mirom. Pripadaju različitim timai, različit je daimon što ga imaju slušati. Prekomjernost fiziološki ugrožava polis – a ugrožavala bi i oikos kada bi taj zahtijevao da se priroda polisa reducira na nj. Naravno, grad se zasniva na sporazumu između tih dviju dimenzija, no sporazum znači nešto umjetno, nešto nužno prolazno. Vrijednosti oikosa vazda izazivaju vrijednosti polisa1, u odnosu na ove vazda afirmiraju vlastitu pre-moć. S druge pak strane, i kad bi polis priznao arhaičnost oikosa, ne bi se mogao odreći pokušaja da ga zatoči u svoje nove poretke, podredi ga vlastitim »inovacijama«.
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The ars dictaminis is the medieval theory of letter-writing. The birth of the ars dictaminis is linked to the work of Alberic of Monte Cassino, a teacher and a significant figure in the history of medieval rhetoric. Alberic’s major contribution to the ars dictaminis is his application of rhetorical principles to letter-writing. Two of his works, Dictamina radii and Breviarium de dictamine, represent the first treatises in the area of the ars dictaminis. One of the early writers who set the basic patterns for the ars dictaminis was Adalbertus Samaritanus, who wrote Praecepta dictaminum between 1111. and 1118. The excerpt De epistolis of Iulius Victor, Roman rhetorician (IV century), had an influence on the development of the medieval epistolary theory, ars dictaminis.
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Troy myths which have affected European cultures for ages form the connection between image and reality through painting. The art of painting that makes pagan world, which consists of Gods and heroes, traceable help these myths to leave a mark on the minds of societies. Troy myths, which were turned into epics by Homer and made the history of Roman civilization by Vergilius, presented an ideal story of belonging in Medieval ages when the knighthood was dominant and were adopted into the aesthetic of the era within Christianity frame. Myths which preserved their existence through the characters that have universal qualities such as Achilles, Helena, Paris and Hector became a source of inspiration for the significant artists of the era such as Flaxman, Hamilton and David in 18th century when Neo-Classical style was affective because they enhance the society on an educational ground because of the ethic contexts of them.
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Mirrors for princes are one of the oldest forms of European literary culture, with roots in the wisdom literature of the Ancient East, in which the personal instructions of a ruler to his son were known from very early times. This form, however, remained alien to Greek literature for a long time because the notion of eleutheria contradicted the principle of monarchic power to be passed from father to son. The situation was more or less similar in Rome, where the aristocratic society contented itself with the declaration of moral concepts considered to be non-appealable. Change came with the conquest of the Mediterranean region when the old social framework was beginning to be decomposed and the ideal of civis bonus was outlined, which appeared in the form of parental admonitions or instructions from relatives (Cato, Sempronia, Q. and M. Cicero). Augustus himself, the creator of the new monarchic order, laid the foundations of good government as a parens patriae for his “sons”, the citizens of Rome. Radical change, however, followed when the monarchic ideal was integrated into more general forms of culture and civilization, i.e. philosophy and historiography, as in Greece. In the Latin tradition guidance provided by wise people to rulers survived and continued into the period after the emergence of Christian monarchy. The laudation of the monarch was assigned to poets, grammatici and rhetors, fathers of the Church, who were supposed to glorify God as well as his vicar on earth. In the Franconian Empire this tradition was revived, which applies to Charles the Great’s time as well. Later, when the concept of dual power put forward by Pope Gelasius strengthened, it became obvious that it was the duty of the Church to instruct the monarch. After the solidification of theocratic power in the Holy Roman Empire a new type of monarchic mirrors emerged. Saint Stephen’s Admonitions marked a new start: he appeared as a real vicarius Dei, whose personal instructions provided in his capacity as monarch replaced the role of the Church in educating the successor.
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Dziesięciolecia dzielą nas od dnia, kiedy wybitny tłumacz i koneserliteratury klasycznej, Jan Parandowski, dał wyraz opinii, że najznakomitszanawet znajomość gramatyki nie daje człowiekowi kompetencjiniezbędnych do przekładu literatury pięknej, że lata spędzonena studiowaniu fl eksji nie dają uczonemu fi lologowi „kluczado sezamu poezji”. Ale to właśnie ta opinia wydaje się szczególnieadekwatna, kiedy próbujemy ocenić powstałe w ostatnich latach wydaniaw cenionej przecież serii Biblioteki Antycznej, wydania przygotowaneprzez uznanych specjalistów, nierzadko uczonych klasymiędzynarodowej. By lepiej zegzemplifi kować problem, jaki stanowiseria, w poniższym eseju więcej uwagi poświęcić zamierzam dwutylko z nich, a dokładnie dwóm tomom „greckim”, KsenofontowemuWychowaniu Cyrusa i Fragmentom Eurypidesa; merytoryczną ocenętomów łacińskich (Bajek Fedrusa i Księgi widowisk Marcjalisa) pozostawiamkolegom latynistom.
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The gods as characters in Greek literature are to be seen in it from the very the beginning, and in the shape known from mythology. The playwrights while following tradition introduced them on the stage, and made them interact with mortals. In the present article the gods as dramatic figures are showed in selected dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The attention is drowned to the places of their appearance in drama, to the way of coming them into contact with people, and to their influence on scenic action and its ending. In conclusion, the author mentions differences in using gods to the ideology of plays: Aeschylus made them a part of his program of strengthening democratic structures in Athens, Sophocles treated them more theologically, Euripides criticized the traditional anthropomorphism of gods. Some points are also made to questions going beyond treating the gods only as figures known from mythology.
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The article focuses on female deities and demons appearing in ancient Greek tragedy. At the beginning the classification of female deities and demons is made followed by description of its two categories. The first category consists of deus ex machina characters exemplified by Athena from Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides. The second is depicted in the image of Erynies that appear both in the action (Aeschylus’ Eumenides) and in commentaries (Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris).
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