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The aim of this article is to outline the question of devotio, its particular stages as well as its meaning. The selected examples of suicide regarded as pietas erga patriam are going to be elaborated on the base of ancient authors’ texts.
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According to Cicero, the term pietas stands for officium and iustitia. The meaning of this term in classical Roman literature signifies sense of duty, especially towards the gods, parents and country which has it’s source in mos maiorum culture. Yet when we read texts of the ancient Christian literature as well as Latin prayers present in the liturgy of Roman Catholic Church, we find other, very surprising and interesting meaning of pietas. Christian authors use this term as a synonym of love, affection, goodness and benignity.Where is the source of this semantic evolution? When we analyze more precisely the works of classical writer, we can find some texts in which pitas is used in more affectional and emotional tone. For instance pietas erga parentes in Aetna poem is not only motivated by sense of duty, but also by love and affection towards the parents. Moreover, Plautus in one of his comedies use phrae mea pietas in the meaning of “my darling”. What is more, some classical authors, like Suetonius, use term pietas as a synonym of clemency and mercy. This affectional tone (color affectus) is a source of semantic evolution of Latin term pietas.
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Pindar’s references to the soul have long intrigued scholars studying the Orphic movement. The fragments of Pindar’s Threnoi attest to specific knowledge of Orphic doctrine concerning the divinity and immortality of the soul (e.g. Thren. 7 Race), while his Odes demonstrate familiarity with Orphic beliefs (Lloyd-Jones 101). In Olympian 2 and the Threnoi, Pindar describes a marked division of souls by designating separate destinations for the bad, the good, and the heroic souls. This tripartite division is also depicted in the so-called Orphic Gold Tablets, whose descriptions were possibly based on an archetypal Katabasis poem known to Orphic initiates (West 12; Riedweg 247). Nemean 6 suggests Pindar embraced the distinctive Orphic belief about a common origin for gods and men, while Isthmian 6 and the Gold Tablets both depict the waters of Mnemosyne as imparting a form of immortality upon the crowned hero-initiate (Obbink 308). Furthermore, the “secret” doctrinal Orphic myth of Zagreus, where the Titans kill Dionysus (Burkert 298), appears to be familiar to Pindar in fragment 133 Race (Bernabé and Jimenéz San Cristóbal 106); even the skeptic Linforth confesses that the Zagreus story was known to the ancients (350), and West points out (110 n. 82) that Pindar imbues the god Chronos "Time" with Orphic cosmological resonance when he calls him "the father of all" (Olym. 2.17). This paper hypothesize that Pindar was an Orphic initiate, and therefore had access to Orphic arcana such as the “Protogonos Theogony” postulated by West (260) and even the Orphic Katabasis poem. As an initiate, Pindar was privy to Orphic arcana such as the myth of Zagreus. Moreover, Pindar intentionally used Olympian 2 as a poetic platform to bridge traditional Homeric religion with the emerging Orphic mysticism, so that, as Rohde suggests, Pindar’s “views of the nature, origin, and destiny of the soul seem to be combined in his mind with equal claim to authority” (414). Accordingly, I interpret Olympian 2 as an Orphic triumph that elevates the Homeric heroes to Orphic souls by re-mythologizing the Isles of the Blessed into a common meeting place for both Orphic and Homeric souls. My exegesis will assemble Pindar’s fragments concerning transmigration and the immortality of the soul (fr. 133, 137 Race), as well as the Odes which allude to Orphic beliefs (Olym. 2, 6; Nem. 6; Isth. 6), and compare them with the Orphic Gold Tablets to argue that Pindar was working in a similar literary tradition as the composers of the Tablets and thus likely to have been an initiate. I will demonstrate that Pindar was not only composing Orphic-themed poetry for a specific audience, as was argued by Guthrie (236), but was disseminating Orphic arcana in the veiled tradition of the Mysteries more broadly, as the fact that his references to Orphic beliefs are widespread throughout his poetry (and not merely in his odes for Theron) suggests. I conclude that the celebrated poet Pindar was a μύστης who had a hard time keeping his mouth shut.
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The article brings up the issue of psyche understanding in Homer's epic poems. The standpoint, presented in the paper, polemicists with the Homeric interpretation of psyche, es-tablished in subject literature. The author analyses the question of validity when it comes to identifying psyche with the soul-breath or the life category, simultaneously referring to the texts of poems. She also wants to return to its elementary meaning which comes directly from Homer's mouth.
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What have in common the stories of Evadne and Capaneus in the Supplicants of Euripi-des, Sappho and Phaon in the Heroides of Ovid, Bella and Edward in New Moon, the second episode of the recent vampire saga Twilight? The emptiness of love that makes the life un-bearable for a woman that was left alone and a final jump into the water or into the fire. The leap for love seems to have its origin in an archetype of the passion of unpaid love, linked with ancient myths of the death and the Orphic mysteries and rituals. I will try to demonstrate, through a semantic analysis of the monody of Evadne in the Supplicants of Euripides and the letter of Sappho to Phaon of Ovid, that this Indo-European archetype is joined with the Western culture also through ancient Greek and Latin literature; it comes, almost subliminally, as Urtümliches Bild, the primordial archetype of Carl Gustav Jung, to the film New Moon (Twilight saga – 2009), based on the book written by Stephenie Meyer. The images of birds, the water and the moon, the dream, the memory of the lost love, the symbiosis between love and death, the conceptual overlap between death, the carnal un-ion, life and afterlife are elements that help to create a common plot between ancient myth and modern imagery. So it’s possible to explain some uncertain verses (vv. 1012-1014) of the monody of Evadne through a new conjecture, that, in my opinion, can be supported by an Orphic substrate, which concerns the act of jumping into the fire and Orphic image of birds. A quenchless love desire of a physical and spiritual possession, the consequent inability to balance the loss of the lover and the bereavement lead to the jump, voluntary choice and ca-thartic final act of the female part of the couple.
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This article examines the reception of ancient Greek literary and philosophical tradition by Kostas Varnalis (1883-1974), as exposed in his works The True Apology of Socrates (1933) and The Diary of Penelope (1946). Both works show Varnalis’ talent in prose. But they also show, each one in its own style, how Varnalis exploited two exceptional figures of ancient Greek literary tradition. Varnalis exploited a philosopher as well as a Homeric heroine, in his effort to write satire and to propose a revolutionary perspective to his potential readers. The True Apology of Socrates is definitely influenced by Varnalis’ Marxist views. Varnalis’ Socrates bears some similarities with the ancient figure, as exposed in the works of Plato and Xenophon. Yet, despite his familiarity with the ancient tradition, Varnalis created a figure of his own that attacked and totally rejected the bourgeois way of life and thought. Varnalis recreated tradition in a way fitting his own needs. In The Diary of Penelope Varnalis rejected the traditional Homeric image of the loving and faithful Odysseus’ wife. In this work satire is used for once more in order to criticize bitterly the hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Varnalis’ Penelope has a totally different life and deeds form the Homeric heroine. She does not wait for her husband’s return in situation of chastity, as Varnalis presents her having sexual relationships with literally all the suitors. She is also a heartless, ruthless governor. But even in such an innovative and iconoclastic situation, Varnalis’ Penelope preserves two basic characteristics of the Homeric heroine: intelligence and cunningness. Varnalis succeeded in creating a multi-sided heroine as well as an important work, where the ancient Greek literary tradition at the end meets history and is widely exploited in a rather challenging way.
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The paper aims at identifying the reasons for which Jan Kochanowski is considered a role model to follow to the writers at the turn of the Enlightenment and Romanticism eras. It includes the analysis of selected works by four representative poets: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Kazimierz Brodziński, Adam Mickiewicz, and Teofil Lenartowicz, with the last two serving as reference figures. The paper shows a clear dependency between the presentation of Kochanowski’s poetry and his persona and the literary tendencies of the given time: Classicism, Sentimentalism, and Romanticism. The author emphasis the fact that the poets not only refer to the Renaissance predecessor, but also take on the roles of his descendants. This phenomenon may be interpreted asa symptom of rivalry between the poets and, more broadly, as an attempt to take over the bases of the Classicist formation by the Romantic formation.
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Most of the contributions gathered in Volume 7, issue no. 2 (2015) of Revista Română pentru Studii Baltice şi Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies (RRSBN) were presented at the Sixth International Conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies in Romania held on 22-23 May 2015 and entitled Historical memory, the politics of memory and cultural identity: Romania, Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region in comparison. The conference was organized by the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies in cooperation with the International Summer School of the University of Oslo, Norway and the Faculty of History and Political Sciences of Ovidius University of Constanţa, Romania and in partnership with Nordic and Baltic embassies and consulates in Romania. The conference was funded by EEA and Norway Grants 2009-2014 within the Fund for Bilateral Relations at the National Level. The aim of the conference was to investigate the link between identity, collective memory and history in the above-mentioned areas by trying to find encounters between them and by making comparisons between the memories of the Romanian, Nordic and Baltic nations.
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The foregoing article constitutes an attempt at analyzing the principal idea of Boris Poplavskij’s artistic output, i.e. the so-called “romance with God”. The subject of our scientific investigations is mainly the contents of that talented poet’sdiaries, as well as of his critical articles and letters, on the basis of which we tried to outline the spiritual silhouette of the author of Флаги (Flags), showing his attitude to God and religion. Analysis of the listed sources revealed the poet’s internal – spiritual and existential drama, mainly resulting from his religious syncretism (the Orthodox faith, esotericism, mysticism). It was established that the writer, after his Gnostic mentors, rejects the principle of the good God, who, in his consciousness undergoes a sort of involution – transferring from the object of desire into a bad demiurge, responsible for the evil and its spreading around the world.
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The paper intends to point out to the translating activity of Anton Straka, cultural attaché of the Czechoslovak Republic in Hungary during the interwar period, particularly in relation to František Halas´s piece of work called Staré ženy/Old Women. The piece of work had been translated several times but in the given period of time it was Straka´s translation titled Anyókák that stood out. The work or its translation was published by the Publishing House of Eugen Prager in Bratislava in cooperation with magazine Szép Szó. Anton Straka did the translation with the help of a well-known poet Attila József as well as Boris Palotai. Thanks to the cooperation with Attila József the poem Anyókák/Old Women was first published in magazine Szép Szó. The whole of the translation process has been preserved in the records which are found in the Petőfi literary museum in Budapest.
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Remaining in Memory (Texts of Sedat Veyis Örnek)
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The history of the Romanian Principalities was particularly tumultuous during the modern period, given that they were situated in a geographical area of great interest for three large empires: the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian Monarchy and Russia. As a result, the political regime established in Moldavia and Wallachia in the 18th century and which lasted until 1821 bore all the hallmarks of Orientalism as expressed by rulers, namely the most profound corruption at all administrative levels, an utter lack of interest regarding the people’s welfare and the unremorseful pursuit of their own interests.The Nordic and Russian travellers were acutely aware of all these problems and considered that the Ottomans were the only ones to blame for this deplorable state of affairs. Unfortunately, with time, some of the shortcomings associated with the Phanariot regime became unmistakable traits of Romanian political behaviour which persisted well into the 20th century. Nevertheless, some of the travellers also remarked the adoption of a number of reforms with highly beneficial effects for the Principalities between 1711/1716 and 1821 and, at least apparently, the period when General Pavel Kiseleff was governor of Moldavia and Wallachia was an especially prolific one in terms of reversing some of the damage caused by the Phanariots.However, one of the limitations of using travel literature as a source is that it needs to be treated with extreme care when it comes to establishing the boundaries between truth and fiction, as well as between innocent observations and decidedly dishonest interpretations. The aim of the present study is thus to present all of the above-mentioned political evolutions as they were seen by foreign travellers, whilst also questioning and unravelling the latter’s motives for depicting a certain image of the Romanian Principalities’ political elite.
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İ.Ö.VI. yüzyılda İlyada ve Odysseia destanlarının metni son biçimini almış ve bunlar hem Atina’da kutlanan büyük Panathenaia şenliklerinde hem de gezgin ozanlar tarafından özel gösteri ya da yerel şenliklerde okunmuşlardır. Ama Homeros yalnızca insanları eğlendirmeye hizmet etmemiş, en önemlisi klasik dönem boyunca eğitimin temeli olmuştur. Aslında epik gelenek Yunan tarihinin çok daha gerilerine dek uzanır ve Homeros’tan sonra da devam eder. Özellikle, Yunanistan’ın şanını yücelten Homeros’un İlyada destanı, yok olmuş savaşçı ve feodal bir toplumun zaferini ve yaşam ülküsünü yansıtmıştı. Epik şiire can veren bu kahramanlık dünyası Homeros ile sona ermiş olmakla birlikte, epik gelenek bir edebiyat etkinliği olarak varlığını sürdürmeyi devam edecek ve Yunanistan’da uzun süre bu büyük ozanın çizgisinde yaratılan epik eserlerin Homeros’a bağlanmasına yol açacaktı.
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The article interprets Leśmian’s poetic figure of home. It indicates emptiness, the sense of mourning after losing oneself, but paradoxically it also denotes renewal of life energy and the source of vitality. Here the lexical items such as “strangeness”, “alienation” and “emptiness” interact to form the fundamental concept of home. The author investigates the tensions between the contradictory states of existential uncertainty and the desire to be “at home” and to belong somewhere. Finally, Leśmian’s works illustrate the conviction that in this destabilized world it is through relating to others that we find stability, if only temporarily.
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The article presents the image of Jerusalem of the 1950s. Despite the realistic topography of the Holy City in My Michael, the line between the imagery of urban space and the world of the protagonist’s inner experiences has been blurred. The labirynth-like space of Jerusalem becomes not only the material equivalent of Hanna’s deteriorating mental health, but also a universal metaphor of loneliness, madness and suffering.
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The texts included in the volume deal with the issues concerning the creation and circulation of literary works in the Polish People’s Republic. The elements of a literary career, such as recognition of an author, his or her descent or pro‑state activity, are the subject of study. The authors persuade that the social position of a writer did not always correspond with the artistic value of his or her work and that it is possible to reconstruct the transformations of the cultural politics in the Polish People’s Republic on the basis of the examination of the fate of the books handed in for evaluation to the office of censorship. The analysis of the specific careers proves the thesis that literature in the communist system could not be situated outside the cultural context and the external factors had a significant impact on the final form of the work.
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