Traditional Gods Research Articles

Claudian, Christ and the Cult of the Saints

Current scholarly opinion holds that the poet Claudian was a pagan who was able to hide sufficiently his personal views at a largely Christian court. This opinion is not unanimous: Claudian has in the past occasionally been considered a Christian, and recently that view has reappeared in print. That Claudian wrotecarm. min.32,de saluatore, should not be doubted; yet this collection of stock phrases cannot be considered Claudian'scredo. As Gnilka has shown, Claudian's treatment of the traditional gods and goddesses displays warmth and fondness beyond the requirements of epic and consequently reveals his true beliefs. The poem is an Easter card for Honorius, displaying not religious convictions, but an instinct for survival at a Christian court. The exegesis ofCarmina Minora50 here proposed suggests that Claudian was familiar enough with Christian ideas to criticise them. Nothing hinders him from repeating them when it proved advantageous.The interpretation ofcarm. min.50 depends in some measure on the literary relationship between Claudian and the Christian poet Prudentius. Specifically, it is important to ascertain whether Claudian was aware of the work of his contemporary. Several studies have argued that Prudentius read and used Claudian, but only recently has Cameron suggested Claudian also read and used Prudentius. His arguments and example are convincing and conclusive, revealing at the same time the nature of Claudian's use of his contemporary's words and ideas. Because similar echoes of Prudentius' poetry will appear in the interpretation ofcarm. min.50, it will be useful to cite the example here.

Virgil, Aen. 6. 304

In his note on Hesiod, WD 705 M. L. West tentatively suggests adeo for deo, saying rightly that ‘Charon is not a god in the literary tradition generally or in Virgil's scheme’ (see now Austin ad loc.). Palaeographically nothing could be more attractive than this emendation. But for all Virgil's fondness for adeo (see my note on Aen. 3. 203, Fordyce on 7. 427) he (like other authors) does not use it in this intensifying sense with adjectives other than those indicating number (Aen. 3. 203, 7. 629, Geo. 3. 242), nor does he ever use it later than the second foot (3 times out of 31, the other 28 being in the first foot).The difficulty which West is combating is a very real one, but it is not solved by the removal of deo. Virgil's dilemma was that the old ferryman must be as timeless as all the other members of Pluto's establishment, and to achieve this object of portraying an unchanging picture of the machinery of the underworld he has elevated Charon to the rank of dues. In Olympus the gods are frozen at the point suitable for the anthropomorphic vision of them: Cupid is always a boy, Apollo young and handsome, Neptune older and more austere. Similarly Charon is frozen just as he has reached (iam senior) vigorous old age. He may not be, indeed is not, a real god, but he is a necessary part of the world of the gods and so must share their agelessness.

Juan de Mena's Ovidian material: an Alfonsine influence?

Juan de Mena's Ovidian material: an Alfonsine influence?

Palladas and the Nikai

Palladas' attitude to Christianity has been much discussed in recent years. It is not of purely academic interest whether he was a pagan or Christian, for Christianity did not remain ‘the beggars' religion’, and it is the conversion of just such a figure as Palladas, a schoolmaster steeped in the classics but scornful alike of the traditional gods and the Platonism that had taken their place for the intellectual pagan of his day, that marks a vital stage in the christianisation of the Roman Empire. For nowhere did the traces of paganism linger longer than in the University circles of Alexandria. However the arguments adduced by P. Waltz to show that it is ‘infiniment probable que Palladas était chrétien’ carry but little conviction, and it seems much more likely that Palladas was and remained a pagan. The following poem, though overlooked or misinterpreted in most recent discussions, can perhaps be made to cast a little more light on the matter:φιλοχρίστῳ Planudes (Marcianus 481): φιλοχρήστῳ Lascaris (editio princeps, 1494), edd. plerique. ‘Here we are, Victories, the laughing maidens, bearing victories for the city that loves Christ (?). Men painted us who loved the city, carving the symbols that are proper for Victories.’

L'Immaculée Conception dans l'Écriture Sainte et dans la Tradition Orientale by Martin Jugie, A.A. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS L'Immaculée Conception dans l'Écriture Sainte et dans la Tradition Orientale, by Martin Jugie, A.A., Rome, 1952; 477pp. Summarily, the author, the Reverend Martin Jugie, A. A., gives a rather comprehensive treatment of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in a chronological historical development, stressing the place of Holy Scripture and Oriental Tradition. In the preface, the Reverend Charles Balic, O. F. M., Director of the Bibliotheca Immaculatae Conceptionis tells us of the thesis proposed by the author: Mary existed in a particular state (status naturae reparantis) having the right to each and every preternatural gift of the state of innocence. The book itself is a chronological treatment of testimonies, both favorable and unfavorable , especially from the Scriptures and from Oriental Tradition. In treating of the Immaculate Conception in the Oriental Church from its origins down to the present time, this book is unique. The book itself is divided into three major parts. In the First Part is treated the Immaculate Conception in Holy Scripture and in the Oriental Tradition during the Patristic Period. In the Second Part, Byzantine Tradition from the Ninth to the Fifteenth Century is considered. The Third Part gives place to the Immaculate Conception in the Greco-Russian Church from the end of the Sixteenth Century up to the present day. Then follows a brief conclusion for the entire work. After a prologue, the author spends forty pages in treating of some preliminary questions. He discusses the notion of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the nature of original sin, the preternatural gifts and the state of innocence, the doctrine of original sin among the Greek Fathers, different methods of formulating the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and finally, the controversy in the Oriental Church on the Immaculate Conception previous to the Sixteenth Century. AU these points enumerated constitute the first chapter. In the second chapter the author treats of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Sacred Scriptures. He states the question, and then under separate headings investigates: Mary as all holy and always holy, Mary blessed as Jesus and always blessed, the Mother of God, the victory of the woman over the serpent, and Mary redeemed. In the conclusion to the second chapter. Father Jugie asserts that Scripture is ,,not completely silent on the dogma defined by Pius IX." Rather, Scripture has expressions which suggest this truth. In the third chapter, the original sanctity of the Mother of God in Oriental Tradition of the first five centuries is proposed. The most ancient tradition from the Council of Nicea to the Council of Ephesus and the Fathers of the Fifth Century are considered. 210 Book Reviews211 In the last chapter, after discussing the Immaculate Conception in the Byzantine Church from the Sixth to the Ninth Century in the fourth chapter, the doctrine of the Nestorian and Monophysite Churches on the Immaculate Conception is examined, in the fifth. Part Two deals with Byzantine Tradition from the Ninth to the Fifteenth Century. The two chapters of this Part include the Byzantine Theologians of the second half of the Ninth Century to the end of the Thirteenth (chapter one), and the theologians of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (chapter two). In the Third Part, the author is concerned with the Immaculate Conception in the Greco-Russian Church from the Sixteenth Century to the present day, in five chapters. Chapter One contains the Greek Theologians in the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries, both favorable and unfavorable. In the second chapter the Greek Theologians of the Eighteenth Century, and in the third chapter the belief of the Russian Church previous to the Seventeenth Century are examined. In the fourth chapter, the Immaculate Conception in Russia during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries is presented. The final and fifth chapter concludes by proposing the Russian Theologians of the Ninteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The work is summarized in a five page resume, with an index of proper names and table of contents appended. In this conclusion, the author states some resulting principles, in a synthesis of the work. Holy Scripture "in its literal sense, independent of the interpretation of certain Fathers, does not furnish us with explicit...

CARCINOMA OF THE THYROID GLAND

FOR years it was traditional never to give iodine to a patient having exophthalmic goiter and always to drain in a case of ruptured appendicitis with peritonitis. Universally, patients were confined to their beds for one or more weeks after operation. Spinal anesthesia was considered a dangerous anesthetic, to be used only in rare instances. Thousands of yards of gauze and adhesive tape were piled on the patients' abdominal incisions in the hope of protecting the incision from contamination and of strengthening the wound. My entire thirteen minutes could be devoted to a discussion of traditional ideas in surgery whose abandonment years ago might have saved thousands of lives which were unnecessarily sacrificed to the god of tradition. Tradition is the enemy of progress. So I believe that we have come to a new era in medical writing. In this busy world we have little time to read long medical