Classics

This essay proposes a comparative reading of Homer’s Odyssey and Frank Herbert’s Dune cycle, taking as its hermeneutic axis the female figures — understood not as stations along the masculine heroic path, but as the holders of the three operations that decide the meaning of the epic story: the trial (Circe and the Reverend Mother Mohiam), the recognition (Penelope and Chani), and the narrative (Helen and Irulan). The analysis of the three pairs reveals, on the one hand, a structural homology (...) of the devices — the test of the human founded upon the government of instinct, recognition as a performative act that assumes the risk of error, self-interested narration as a form of ownership of memory —; on the other, a systematic divergence of their outcomes, reducible to a general law: the Homeric world restores (it liberates the one who passes the trial, returns the husband to his home, rehabilitates even the guilty woman), while the Herbertian world delivers up (it conscripts the tested, sacrifices the beloved, denies the nearly innocent). The figure of Irulan, in her evolution from propagandist to guardian, is finally proposed as the Herbertian answer to the problem of the truthful narrative, embodied in Homer by the song of Demodocus. (shrink)

Plutarch charges that Stoic theory is inconsistent with Stoic political engagement no matter what they decide to do, because the Stoics' endorsement of the political life is inconsistent with their cosmopolitan rejection of ordinary politics (Stoic.rep., ab init.). Drawing on evidence from Chrysippus and Seneca, I develop an argument that answers this charge, and I draw out two interesting implications of the argument. The first implication is for scholars of ancient Stoicism who like to say that Stoicism is apolitical. The (...) argument I reconstruct turns on the political importance of the practice of giving and taking advice, and in this way makes clear a philosophically significant way in which Stoic ethics is itself political. The second implication is for moral and political theorists who are quick to contrast cosmopolitanism with patriotic political engagement. My Chrysippean and Senecan argument shows how Stoics could envision local political engagement as an instantiation of cosmopolitan commitments. (shrink)

The complexities of trauma have been explored since the inception of psychology. Freudian psychoanalysis introduced the concept of Nachträglichkeit, or “belatedness,” suggesting that the effects of trauma are not immediately apparent but instead emerge over time. These effects contain subtleties that are often not directly linked to the traumatic event itself. This emergence can be seen as a camouflaged representation, an altered reflection of how an individual’s psyche manifests trauma in not-so-obvious ways, adopting qualities that are characteristic of its own (...) nature and significance. Using the metaphor of the mythological Minotaur from Knossos, I will argue that trauma can be identified with this monster. The Minotaur symbolizes trauma not because it appears to be traumatized, but because it embodies what trauma might represent if it were a ghastly therianthrope. Additionally, I will describe its habitat, the labyrinth, as a structural passage that—if navigated with virtue—can lead to healing, the slaying of the beast, and hope for personal transformation. This paper aims to conceptualize trauma as a nearly embodied substance, rather than merely a single event or a series of events. Trauma is so powerful that it not only possesses its victim but also reshapes the individual in its image, disfiguring them and parasitically draining their vitality. We will investigate three main philosophies of trauma, focusing particularly on the one that best supports transformation and aligns well with the Minotaur metaphor. We will also examine how trauma influences the nature of memory. Furthermore, we will discuss the dangers of living with trauma, referencing Dr. Gabor Maté and his insights on the life-threatening effects of stress on the body, as detailed in his book When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection (Maté, 2011). (shrink)

This paper proposes that before the opening of Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, the “hero” had to solve a lot of riddles.

Aristotle's Poetics has been the basis for theories of entertainment for over 2,000 years. But the general approach it uses has led to a number of gaps, contradictions, and difficulties in predicting the success of books, plays, movies, and entertainment as a whole, so much so that sayings like "there are no rules, but you break them at your peril," and "in Hollywood, nobody knows anything" have become widespread and accepted. -/- However, it turns out that a model of entertainment (...) that defines literary conventions by the pleasurable feelings they release in the brain, and then equates them with outside experiences that people subconsciously attach to the literary work, in the same way that we can be conditioned to feel love when we view our wedding rings, can actually resolve almost every seeming contradiction in Aristotle's ideas and traditional theories of storytelling when compared to real-world results. -/- Furthermore, this approach can be extended to the other major forms of art, including painting, music and even video games, leading to a "Non-Aristotelian" theory that modifies the fundamental aspects of each of these fields, but in a natural and necessary way, which strengthens both our understanding and our ability to predict the success or failure of art in the future. -/- My work as a vlogger and writer, mostly done via my Youtube channel "StoryBrain," has been viewed over 6 million times, and written about in MovieMaker magazine, Creative Screenwriting magazine, on the front page of major sites like Reddit, Roger Ebert online, and in international newspapers like the Sydney Morning-Herald in Australia and Fotogramas in Spain. My work is also the subject of a chapter of the currently-in-release book "Neuro-Design," by Kogan Page publishing, called "The Neuro Movie Analyst." This paper is a detailed introduction to the theory of Emotional Indiscretion which I have talked about in my work. (shrink)

This paper presents a hypothesis on how the prevalence of the Aegean Bronze Age worship of the Greek god Poseidon could be attributed to an early attempt to give a deterministic answer to the problem of wave generation at sea. The inhabitants of the Aegean shores, during the Bronze Age, were seafarers. First, the Cycladic civilization comprised a network of island to island maritime trade, while the Minoan civilization, centered on Crete, reached Cyprus and Egypt. By the time of the (...) Mycenean civilization, maritime routes had been established and flourished all over the Aegean and the Near East. Long-distance seafaring, however, was not without risk during these early days of the seagoing craft. Sailors were exposed to the wind and the waves for large amounts of time. Indeed, they needed to master both with their ships in order to make it to distant shores and return back alive. Wave motion, namely the propagation of disturbances at the sea surface, is today a well-studied field of fluid mechanics. While wind blowing over the sea surface constitutes the primary source of wave generation, waves propagate at a speed that is independent of the wind speed. Thus, the relationship between wind and wave conditions is not immediately evident to an observer at sea. The hypothesis of this paper is that early seafarers, could have initially attributed the sea motion to the "Earth-shaker" Poseidon, an unpredictable deity that generated waves through the shaking of the earth. In a time when the world was little explored, he lived perhaps underneath the sea surface or far beyond the horizon, but the waves he produced traveled all the way to the Aegean shores, upon which they broke. Later on, as more experience and observations were gathered at sea, the exclusive generation of waves by the wind was eventually understood. Gradually, the reign of the world passed from the hands of the chthonic (from below) Poseidon to those of the ouranic (from above) Zeus. He became the prime mover responsible for the motion of both the sky and the sea. (shrink)

Isocrates' Antidosis ("Defense against the Exchange") and Aristotle's Protrepticus ("Exhortation to Philosophy") were recovered from oblivion in the late nineteenth century. In this article we demonstrate that the two texts happen to be directly related. Aristotle's Protrepticus was a response, on behalf of the Academy, to Isocrates' criticism of the Academy and its theoretical preoccupations. -/- Contents: I. Introduction: Protrepticus, text and context II. Authentication of the Protrepticus of Aristotle III. Isocrates and philosophy in Athens in the 4th century IV. (...) The Protrepticus of Aristotle as a response to the Antidosis of Isocrates V. Conclusion: dueling conceptions of philosophy, still dueling. (shrink)

Vortrag, gehalten am 11. November 2020 im Rahmen einer Ringvorlesung am Regensburger Zentrum für Klassikstudien zum Thema "Entfernte Verwandte - Mensch und Tier". Die aristotelische Bestimmung des Menschen ist ein Rätsel. Daher soll sie im Folgenden auch als ein Rätsel behandelt werden. Ziel ist es, hier nicht das bei Aristoteles finden zu wollen, was wir heute ohnehin schon über den Menschen als ein Lebewesen wissen oder zu wissen glauben, sondern es gilt im Folgenden von Aristoteles ahnen zu lernen, was wir (...) noch nicht wissen, wofür wir heute, in unserer technisierten, wissenschaftsorientierten und digitalisierten Blickbahn vielleicht noch gar nicht gerüstet sind. (shrink)

Science fiction and futuristic reality beyond the Self.

Among the extant masterworks of Roman art, there is probably none that has generated more scholarly debate than the Portland Vase over the interpretation of its elegant frieze. No fewer than forty-four different theories attempting to interpret the scenes on the vase have appeared in the last 400 years. In the main, the theories fall into two categories, those relating the frieze to Greek myth, and those linking the figures to Roman personages. Moreover, there is no consensus whether the frieze (...) is two separate scenes or one continuous story. The obstacle to interpreting the frieze is that all but one of the figures lack identifying attributes. This paper will demonstrate (1) that in lieu of standard iconography, a synthesis of visual and literary tropes in the form of hidden letters, that is, cryptograms, tells the viewer how to read the frieze; (2) that scene A of the frieze illustrates specifically lines 26-30 of Catullus 64 by visually rendering the epithets and tropes used in those lines; (3) that visual reproductions of other tropes in Catullus 64 further substantiate the relationship between frieze and poem; (4) that scene B of the frieze is an intentional aberration from the poem; (5) that there is a complex and unfinished interaction between scenes A and B which the viewer must complete; and (6) that in the final analysis, the frieze duplicates both the theme and central structure of Catullus 64.10 . (shrink)

'People travelled for numerous reasons,' so J.W. Drijvers submits at the beginning of his piece on travel and pilgrimage literature. Be it ‘commerce, government affairs, religion, education, military business or migration,’ people ‘made use of the elaborate system of roads and modes of transport such as wagons, horses and boats’ to traverse the far-reaching stretches of the Roman Empire. And for 4th century Christians in particular, participating in religious festivals as well as interaction with holy sites, sacred artifacts and clergymen (...) had become greater a reason to travel still. Motivation to travel, in other words, was aplenty. But what exactly allowed for Christian religious travel in the 4th century AD to develop as quickly as it did? (shrink)

The most discussed of architectural marvels tend to be the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or the Parthenon at Athens, supposedly because they are the ones we happen to have nominated ‘world wonders’; but that doesn’t mean all the rest of temple-type sites to be found across the greater Mediterranean area have less wonder about them. On the contrary; when wanting to explore and explain the role temples played in the lives of their ‘subscribers’ and a (...) temple site’s place as often the nucleus of a community, the Serapeum at Alexandria is as excellent a piece of architecture to examine as any. (shrink)

Seeing how the idea of the ‘ruler cult’ and the necessary ‘myth-making’ to establish it exists to this day, as seen with the regime of a 21st century dictator like Kim Jong-il, it would be most interesting to see what parallels exist between cases of divine leadership and what we might learn about our contemporary cult rulers when looking at the dynamics of the two-millennia-old cult of the deified Emperor Augustus. As such, I have formulated a central question that focuses (...) on the reign of Divus Augustus, and in doing so provides opportunity to extrapolate from it new insights in similar but contemporary figures of leadership. A clear case of 'to understand motives in the present, one must look at actions in the past.'. (shrink)

Some features of the mathematical passage at Plato, Theaetetus147d–148b, are presented; the ability of Theaetetus as a definition-maker is thereby assessed.

Several epigrams of Callimachus showcase a larger content in a smaller format: one of these is Callim. Epigr. 2 Pf. = 34 G–P.

This article identifies and comments on a hitherto unobserved hexameter fragment transmitted as a proverb in the Suda which may on linguistic and metrical grounds date to the Imperial period.

This article analyses a passage of Plutarch which relates that Alexander the Great visited Cyprus and appointed the gardener Abdalonymus, descendant of the Cinyrads, as king of Paphos. While historical records attest to a king Abdalonymus in Sidon, Plutarch’s account is clearly ahistorical. Alexander never set foot in Cyprus, and Abdalonymus never ruled over Paphos. The transfer of the story from Sidon to Cyprus was not a simple factual mistake, however, but a deliberate political and propagandistic device, created by an (...) unknown author with strong Ptolemaic interests, most likely in conjunction with the establishment of Ptolemaic dominion over Cyprus by Ptolemy I. Through the long-standing Ancient Near Eastern tradition of royal gardening symbolism, which significantly influenced the island and the Levant, the story aims to legitimize the new Ptolemaic rule in Paphos, the capital of Ptolemaic Cyprus. By lending a venerable air to the new order, the story offers an alternative narrative to the dramatic death of Nicocles, the last king of Paphos and priest of the local great-goddess, who claimed descent from Cinyras and eventually committed suicide under pressure from Ptolemy I. (shrink)

This article advances three readings in the story of the Argonauts’ encounter with the boxer-giant Amycus in Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica Book 4. In reworking the Hellenistic accounts of Apollonius and Theocritus, Valerius gave the adventure a new first half based chiefly on elements inspired by Odyssey Book 9 and the Thrace and Cyclops episodes of Aeneid Book 3. The first section of the article argues that this arrangement prompts the question of the Argonauts’ valour through an indirect intertextual comparison with (...) the Trojans, who, unlike the Argonauts, ultimately fled Thrace and the Cyclops. Moreover, it suggests that this use of allusion can be linked to the theme of the Argonauts’ heroism developing after Hercules’ exit from the group in Book 3. The second half of the article addresses two challenging elements in the episode. When Amycus makes his appearance, it is said of him that ‘nowhere do mortal signs remain’, thus implying that he has somehow been transformed. To account for this change, scholars have proposed different interpretations, including metapoetic ones. The article’s second part, in contrast, reads this transformation through an allusion to Theocritus’ Idyll 22. In its last section, the article addresses the question of to whom ore renidenti of Arg. 4.234 belongs. Based on observations of Valerius’ stylistic practices, it argues against the majority view and suggests that this ‘smiling look’ must belong to Pollux, not Amycus. All in all, the article enhances our understanding of the Amycus episode and sheds additional light on Valerius’ densely allusive and sometimes difficult poetic style. (shrink)

In 1911, Franz Pichlmayr listed Vatican codex Barb. Lat. 812 as a manuscript attributing De uiris illustribus to Aurelius Victor—a unique and significant claim. Later scholars, notably Sage, questioned the reliability of the claim and urged caution owing to past cataloguing errors. A 2025 examination of Barb. Lat. 812 revealed that it contains records from the Council of Trent, not De uiris illustribus. Attempts to resolve the discrepancy by checking related shelfmarks were unsuccessful. Whether Pichlmayr’s manuscript ever existed—and, if it (...) did, what its identity was—remains unknown. (shrink)

Cicero’s use of the adjective repentinus at Brut. 242 (C. L. Caepasii fratres … ignoti homines et repentini) has a singularly negative and offensive meaning. Both Tertullian (Adu. Marc. 4.7.7) and Ammianus Marcellinus (14.6.13, 21.16.3) echo Cicero, employing the same adjective in conjunction with ignotus or with its synonym incognitus, albeit without the same negative and defaming nuance.

This conference explores the connection between theoretical aspects of pragmatics and philosophy. We still believe that intentions play a fundamental role in communication and that the hearer’s task is mainly to reconstruct those intentions on the basis of what is explicitly said (the semantics of a linguistic expression) and of contextual clues and cues (Dascal 2003). Sometimes, as Mey argues (Mey 2001), a priori knowledge of a frame and a script will determine interpretation even if one partially says what one (...) wants to say. Both bottom-up and top-down inferential processes are involved (see Jasczolt’s notion of merger representations). Pragmatics can be put to use in understanding of philosophical puzzles (see Igor Douven The pragmatics of belief or Capone (2016) on simple sentences and substitution). Implicit indirect reports can, in some cases, be taken to resolve issues. We welcome contributions in theoretical pragmatics, philosophical pragmatics, societal pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics, clinical pragmatics, pragmatics and cognition, contributions that relate to conversational presuppositions, if-clauses, the pragmatics of ‘de se’ attitudes, proper names, quasi-proper names, proper names as speech acts, pragmemes and speech acts in the cultural context, evolutionary pragmatics, pragmatics and culture, rhetoric and argumentation, pragmatics and the world languages (e.g. Japanese, Persian, Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea languages, in general, African languages, Asian languages, South American languages, etc.), the pragmatics of funerary rites, natural language semantics, the semantics/pragmatics debate. The organizers will consult with K. Jaszczolt, Mitchell Green, Igor Douven, Yael Sharvit, Louise Cummings, Fabrizio Macagno, Alison Hall, Daniele Panizza, Roberto Graci, Yoko Mizuta, Chusni Hadiati, Alessandra Giorgi for the acceptance of the abstracts and then the selected papers to appear in the book(s). The books are likely to be published in Capone’s series for Springer. (shrink)

Scholars have regularly debated the question of how the Galli, priests of Magna Mater/Cybele, fit into the Roman social milieu. Several have argued (citing Domitian’s legislation) that membership of the Galli was restricted to foreign citizens, whilst others have argued that the chief priests—the Archigalli—were Roman citizens, while the ‘lower’ Galli were non-citizens, thus separating the Galli and the Archigalli within the Cybele cult. These views remain prevalent in modern discussions on the cult, and have not undergone significant scrutiny or (...) analysis. By assessing these views as well as the existing material and literary evidence for the Galli, this article argues that the Archigalli and the Galli were indistinct in terms of behaviour and affiliation. Moreover, this article uses archaeological and literary evidence to suggest that the Galli most likely included Roman citizens among their members, contrasting with the prevailing view of them as foreign residents in Rome. (shrink)

This short note argues that at Aen. 1.487, in the midst of Virgil’s ekphrasis of the paintings on the temple of Juno in Carthage, the phrase tendentemque manus Priamum conspexit inermis alludes to the name of Hermes, the god who escorted the unarmed Priam from Troy to Achilles’ tent where he ransomed the body of Hector. This wordplay aligns with other instances in which the poet invites readers to observe his dextrous paronomasia, especially involving names.

At the climax of the Myth of Er in Plato’s Republic, the soul of Odysseus chooses to be reincarnated as an ἀπράγμων ἰδιώτης, breaking with Homer’s characterization of Ithaca’s king (620c–d). Previous treatments of Odysseus’ choice have linked it to Socrates’ suggestion that the best course for a philosopher in an imperfect political context is to retreat from his society, as if taking shelter beside a wall (496d). They have also linked it to the discussion of how the philosopher who (...) returns to the cave after gazing on the forms in a society not ready for him to rule will be reviled (517a) despite being the best leader for a city based on justice. This article builds on these intratextual connections by proposing that Plato also exploits the marked language of disaffected fifth-century elites and a pertinent intertext: the Odysseus of the prologue of Euripides’ Philoctetes. Euripides’ Odysseus uses language resembling Plato’s to express his dissatisfaction with how honour is allocated in society, which evokes contemporary debates about rewards and punishments for democracy’s successes and failures. Plato exploits the resonance of this language, but subordinates it to his philosophical purpose. Instead of finding the ἀπράγμων life attractive because of frustration with the distribution of honour, Plato’s Odysseus recognizes the inadequacy of φιλοτιμία more broadly. This signals that the quiet life should be chosen for philosophically sound reasons. The example is intended to inspire Socrates’ ambitious interlocutor during the Myth of Er, Plato’s brother Glaucon. (shrink)

Euripides is one of Clement of Alexandria’s most frequently cited sources, and his enthusiastic borrowings have received fresh attention in recent years. This interest has proceeded under the assumption that Clement’s theatrical engagement was primarily limited to the reading of dramatic texts instead of through performance. This article argues that a careful examination of Clement’s Euripidean material in fact reflects the broader performance landscape of the ancient city in which this Christian author lived and wrote. Taken against the backdrop of (...) contemporary Alexandrian performance, this reveals a fresh complexity to Clement’s use of Euripides, and uncovers an author actively participating in and shaped by the cultural activities of this Graeco-Roman city. (shrink)

A motif in the Cypria is sometimes explained as borrowed in the seventh century from the Akkadian epic Atra-ḫasīs, sometimes as inherited from a third-millennium Indo-European poetic tradition surviving also in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata. These explanations seem incompatible, but they are not. Narrative traditions often cross linguistic boundaries through multilinguals, and linguistic and archaeological evidence suggests that some speakers of Proto-Indo-European were also speakers of Semitic languages. Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern comparative approaches are therefore halves of a single enterprise: (...) the Cypria, Mahābhārata and Atra-ḫasīs belong to a Eurasian-Steppe tradition, and must be read together. (shrink)

Polybius claims that equality to speak in public (ἰσηγορία) and freedom of speech (παρρησία) are the fulcrum of a democracy (2.38.6) and hence the most beautiful of political values (6.57.9). But his reasons for valuing them so dearly have remained obscure. This article argues that ἰσηγορία and παρρησία in Polybius maximize the role of persuasion—instead of sheer force—in the polity; that they favour rational decision-making; and that they keep excessive ambition at bay. Those important political goods disappear when the citizens (...) who enjoy ἰσηγορία and παρρησία become tepid in their commitment to the equal right to speak freely. The article argues that, for Polybius, that commitment fades when the citizens take ἰσηγορία and παρρησία for granted, mostly on account of habit (τὸ σύνηθϵς, 6.9.5). Polybius sets himself the task of dishabituating his readers from ἰσηγορία and παρρησία, by showing that they are always fragile. (shrink)

This article argues that the Greek perception of doves underwent a significant evolution from Homeric times, when they were not yet considered sacred birds. The comparison of Homeric goddesses to doves does not necessarily imply that these birds held a sacred status. Only from the fifth century b.c.e. onwards do Greek authors explicitly associate doves with three deities: Aphrodite, Apollo and Zeus. The article offers a critical analysis and interpretation of the systematic frameworks addressed only briefly in previous scholarship and (...) argues that there was a shift in perspective from Homeric times down to the Roman era. (shrink)

By accepting a later dating for the composition of the Histories, this article argues that Herodotus mirrors Athenian imperialism in his account of the First Persian War to convey a political message to contemporary recipients. In doing so, he departs from the prevailing tradition of the expedition of Datis and Artaphrenes by creating a narrative that manipulates Persian methods of conquest, presenting them in a manner that appears emblematic of Athenian imperialism. In this way, the Herodotean Persians do not adhere (...) to their expected cultural script, but act out the Athenian script. This reading offers a new understanding of Herodotus’ account of the Persian campaign as conveying a message to the Athenians who began to recognize that their former policies toward their allies were transgressive imperialism. As a result, his account of the First Persian War is a sophisticated meditation on the effects of imperialism rather than a straightforward depiction of historical events. (shrink)

ABSTRACT An emendation in Euripides, Hecuba 1045.

Conjectures in the Cynegetica and the Cyropaideia of Xenophon.