Greek Tradition Research Articles

Kant’s Confrontation with Plato and the Greek World in the Inaugural Dissertation

The discussion concerning Kant’s knowledge of the Greek world has long been a subject of debate. Our contribution is intended to show that in the Dissertation of 1770 Kant is measured against some currents of Greek thought, and above all with Plato, on topics which will become very important in the articulated development of criticism in the 1770s. One aspect of our analysis deals with the texts that could have filtered Kant’s knowledge of ancient Greek tradition. We will then pore over some crucial features of the Dissertation, such as the distinction between sensible and intelligible knowledge and the ambiguous nature of the intellectualia, in order to assess how Kant’s understanding of certain issues of Greek classicism may have contributed to the outline of some still problematic theses in the text of 1770.

Персонажи легенд о демоне, вредящем деторождению, в армянской, южнославянской традициях и в авторском тексте А. Ремизова

In the South Slavic Sisinia legend (SL) and in the author’s adaptation of the legend by A. Remizov, Veshtitsa (Veshitsa) acts as a Demon harming women in labor, in Armenian folklore this function is assigned mainly to the demons Al and Tpkha. Gog and Magoga, trying to save the last, seventh, surviving child from the Devil, built ‘a tower of marble, bound it with an iron nail and filled it with tin’. They decided to hide the Qeen in the tower until the child grows up. In connection with this episode, of interest is a belief widespread among many peoples, according to which, in order to protect a woman in labor from the Als, she was surrounded by iron objects during childbirth. For example, the ancient Armenians pinned a pin to the clothes or bed of a woman in labor or a child, hung a sword over the cradle, etc. The texts note the weather conditions – storm, winter, downpour, blizzard, which contribute to letting Sisinia into the house. The connection between bad weather, in particular, storms with demons can be clearly traced in both Armenian and Slavic traditions. The sea is the abode of the devil both in the Armenian and Aramaic and in the Greek traditions: only in Ethiopian texts, instead of the sea, does the garden appear as the habitat and refuge of Verzilla. In East Slavic prayers, shakers come out of the sea, while it rises. Instead of the traditional for the Slavic versions of catching a demon from the sea with the help of a fish-ing rod / net, A. Remizov presented a meeting of a saint and a demoness in the desert, which is more typical of Armenian legends. We have established the similarity of the Thing with the demons Als from the Armenian folklore, which are described as anthropozoomorphic creatures with burning or glass eyes. For a comparative and comparative analysis of the lists of the names of demons, we examined the mythonyms identified in the Slavic (more precisely, in the South Slavic branch of interest to us), Armenian and Remizov’s versions of the texts of the Sisinia legend. The first group – demon mythonyms, consists of the names of demons, witches and sorcerers. The second group is mythonyms derived from words indicating the wrecking of demons (formed mainly from verbs). A special place is given to mythonyms with the meaning of “harming children”. The third group of names indicates the connection between Veshtitsa and atmospheric phenomena. The fourth group – mythonyms, indicating werewolf and the ability of demons to transform. The fifth group is the names of diseases and their symptoms. The sixth group is evaluative names. The list of demon names in the text of A. Remizov consists of thirteen mythonyms, which are more reminiscent of the names of shakers or sinners / sins, and all of them are exclusively feminine.

О формировании эстетики древнерусской скорописи (по результатам исследования рукописи СПбИИ РАН, ф. 115, №160)

The author addresses anew the manuscript f. 115 no. 160 from the collection of St. Petersburg Institute of History (the so-called ‘Azbuka Fryaskaya’) of 1604. This manuscript, written for the most part by the Muscovite scribe Fyodor Basov, is one of the two oldest Russian calligraphy sample books. The author discusses the relation of the ‘Azbuka Fryaskaya’ to other Old Russian ABC-books and their functions. As the codicological analysis has proved, the quires with cursive writing initially were placed in another part of the codex, next to the examples of ornate lettering. Such placement of the quires with cursive writing, as well as their decoration shows that Fyodor Basov viewed the cursive writing as decorative, ornate lettering par excellence. The paper also discusses the technical and aesthetical principles of the cursive writing, which were basic for Muscovite calligraphers of the late 16th — early 17th century when cursive writing took its shape as a style of writing. Special attention has been paid to the question of the influence of Greek (Byzantine) tradition on the aesthetics of Old Russian calligraphic cursive writing. Both the Russian calligraphic sample-books and the cursive writing are also viewed in the context of Western European calligraphy and its influence. The author concludes that the cursive writing style elaborated by the Muscovite calligraphers was the result of the development of Russian Early Modern writing culture that adopted some tendencies both from the Byzantine and from the Western traditions.

Revisiting Brehier – Differences between Plotinus’ Enneads and Advaita Vedānta

Bréhier revives the possibility of Indian Upaniṣadic influence on Plotinus, specifically in the area of mysticism – asking what in Plotinus’ philosophy is foreign with respect to the Greek philosophical tradition. After Bréhier there are vigorous defenses of Plotinus’ Greek origins – not all of which respond directly to the key issues he raises, or address Plotinus’ mysticism specifically. My purpose in this paper is not to answer Bréhier, but to revisit him, for the purpose of delineating paradigmatic differences between Plotinus’ metaphysics and that in Advaita Vedānta. Starting with differences in their respective texts and conceptions of the Divine, I explore concrete concepts (Māyā, tolma, the forms, gun․as, etc.), so unique to each tradition that they comprise the heart and essence of their differences. I assert as well that their metaphysical distinctions imply dissimilarities in their modes of mysticism. In this effort I uphold numinous experience above historical influences. This paper therefore has four parts: (1) Revisiting Bréhier, Armstrong, and Others; (2) Defining Terms: Texts, Methods, and Conceptions of the Divine (Striking Similarities); (3) Contrasting Advaita Vedānta and the Enneads (Paradigmatic Differences); and (4) Conclusion.

Hymnographic Texts Devoted to Saint John the Russian from 19th — Early 20th Centuries and the Evolution of the Saint’s Cult

The present article deals with the evolution of the hymnographic discourse devoted to St. John the Russian in the Greek and Russian traditions, and to the Turkish-language sources of the certain traditions. The research was carried out on the basis of the material of three editions of the Greek Service to St. John the Russian from the middle and the end of 19th century and Russian manuscripts from the archive of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos from the 19th — early 20th centuries. Special consideration was given to the changes in the image of the saint caused by the text transfer to another language and the reception of the cult in the target culture. The evolution of the cult of the Saint which follows the expansion of the geographical and ethnic borders of his veneration, and the role of the St. Panteleimon monastery on Athos in this process are also discussed.

From Maeotis to the Nile: the War between Egyptians and Scythians in the Traditions of Hecataeus of Abdera and Pompeius Trogus

The article considers the evidence on the alleged war between Egyptians and Scythians in Book One of the Library of History by Diodorus Siculus coming back to the work on Egypt by Hecataeus of Abdera (ca. 310s B. C.) and in the works by Justin, Orosius and Iordanes that reproduced the universal history by Pompeius Trogus; it also explores a wide context of these data in the Classical tradition starting with Herodotus’ History. In the author’s opinion, the traditions of Hecataeus and Trogus on this issue are based on a source dating to the 4th century B. C. and telling about the campaign of the great Egyptian king to the Scythian border on the Tanais, on his defeat by the Scythians, on the settlement of a part of Egyptian warriors becoming the ancestors of the Colchi at this boundary, near the Lake of Maeotis, and on the eventual drive of Egyptians by Scythians till the water boundaries and the fortifications of Eastern Delta. This original information was gradually transformed in its transmission (e.g., Hecataeus fully annihilated the motif of the Egyptian king being defeated). Probably, this plot intended to explain Egypt’s loss of its world-dominion and originated earlier than it came to be known to Herodotus. Its version reflected by Hecataeus and Trogus became topical in the 4th century B.C., in the last time of Egyptian independence, when the reflection about menaces to Egypt from outside were much up-to-date. The basis to this plot might be the contaminated memories of the Egyptian encounter with the Hittites and of the wars against the Sea Peoples in the 13th and the early 12th centuries B.C. Its transmission to the Greek tradition of the 5th and the 4th centuries B. C. proceeded from complex contacts of its makers with Egyptian informers, who were probably able to adapt their notions to the Greek cultural lexicon.

The Ritual of “Exposing the Thief” in Old Rus: from the Enactment by the Archbishop of Novgorod Ioann III to Apocryphal Manuscript Culture

The Old Russian ritual of “Exposing the Thief” (“The Decree on the Proskomedia to the Holy Three Confessors Gurias, Samonas and Abibus”) was written by the Archbishop of Novgorod, Ioann III. The creation of the text was inspired by the sign from the icon of the confessors on December 24, 1410 in St. Sophia Cathedral. The full text of the “Decree…” is preserved in two copies from the 16th –17th centuries, whereas the prayer alone until recently was known in two copies not earlier than the 17th century. The corpus of copies of the prayer was replenished with two copies in manuscripts from the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century and from the 18th century, respectively. The discovery of the first copy raised the question about the original text written by Archbishop Ioann: did he write the prescriptive part for a previously known prayer only or the full text? A textual study of the “Decree...” and the copies of the prayer allows to reconstruct the history of the text and conclude that the archetype contained both the prayer and the prescriptive part. Thus, it could be confirmed that the author of both parts of the “Decree...” is Archbishop Ioann, but the prayer is a less uniform formation. The comparison with Slavic prayers showed that the fragment about the forefathers, going back to a Greek tradition, was borrowed by Ioann from a South Slavic manuscript, while the first part of the text about the three confessors was compiled by the archbishop himself in the context of the special attitude of Novgorod to the cult of St. Gurias, Samonas and Abibus.

The migrations of the Sea Peoples circa 1200 BC according to written sources, narrative tradition and archaeology

The article deals with the Sea Peoples’ migrations at the beginning of 12thcentury BC. It is based on ancient Egyptian written sources, archaeological data and Greek narrative tradition. The author tries to reconstruct the general stages of Late Bronze Age ethnical movements in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 13th– beginning the 12thcenturies BC. The author shows that the Sea peoples’ movement was not homogeneous. Moreover, not all the Sea Peoples can be considered as migrants. The tribes of Shekelesh and Weshesh were the typical sea raiders who plundered the rich centres of the Eastern Mediterranean. The possible reason for the Peleset, Theker and Turša migration seems to be the war which devastated their homeland in north-eastern Anatolia between 1208/1203 и 1195 BC. The appearance of the Denyen in Sea Peoples’ movement must be connected with the destructions of Mycenaean centres in Southern Greece circa 1200 BC. Their inhabitants left their homeland and migrated to the different regions of the Aegean, Anatolia, Eastern and Western Mediterranean. The Sea Peoples’ migrations were only the first stage of global ethnic movements in Eurasia at the end of the Bronze Age which totally changed the ethnopolitical map of Southern Europe, Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean.

Панэллинская программа императора Адриана

The Panhellenic project of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) to unite the Greek Polis into a single organization is considered. It is noted that Hadrian's policy was based on the romanticized idea of reviving the classical Greek tradition. In particular, the ideal of the new Union was Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and other cities of mainland Greece, which preserved the foundations of their Polis organization and self-government until the second century. It is assumed that the Union was not all-Greek, since it did not affect the Hellenistic cities founded after the campaigns of Alexander the Great. In addition, the article examines the negative manifestations of Hadrian's Philhellenic policy, which are observed in a major Jewish revolt caused by the forced Hellenization of the Eastern provinces of the Empire. The works of foreign researchers are involved for the full analysis of the issue.

Antički i mitološki motivi u zbirci Carmina Burana

ANTIQUE AND MYTHOLOGICAL MOTIFS IN CARMINA BURANA This paper discusses the function, purpose, place and formal characteristics of the Greek and Roman mythological motifs in the poems that are part of Carmina Burana, a medieval collection of poetry dating from the first half of the 13th century. Different relations established between the aforementioned motifs and lyrical subjects are also examined, as well as how these motifs fit into the context of the individual poem and the entirety of Carmina Burana. The paper focuses exclusively on the motifs which belong to the ancient Greek and Roman traditions, and not on those of the Judeo-Christian provenance, although the latter are numerous in their own right. Also, as Publius Ovidius Naso is often regarded as the main influence on the goliards, traces of his works and militaristic concepts of love visible in the poems of Carmina Burana are also highlighted and examined. The focus of this paper is on those poems which belong to the basic thematic elements usually attributed to the goliards, including tavern, wine, gambling, physical love and satirical and anticlerical overtones.

Fazer filosofia no Brasil: civil, prática, transformadora, nossa

Tomando como ponto de partida a questão fazer filosofia no Brasil, o artigo trata de desenvolver algumas contribuições à progressão do debate nacional sobre o assunto. Passa da questão de fazer filosofia à da impopularidade do nacional na nossa comunidade filosófica acadêmica. Em seguida discute brevemente dois exemplos de elaboração filosófica brasileira: 1) o neopirronismo de Oswaldo Porchat Pereira, como apropriação de uma tradição filosófica histórica grega que poderia entre nós desembocar num tipo de deflacionismo prático, e 2) o pragmatismo jovem-hegeliano, radical, político, de Roberto Mangabeira Unger. Ao final, o artigo apresenta um recorte de um ponto de vista prático-poiético próprio, em diálogo reconstrutivo com o materialismo prático-produtivo de Marx.

Lawsuits with Headless Foes: A Greek Incantation Motif

Abstract This study proposes a new interpretation of the texts of two late ancient or early Byzantine papyrus amulets that refer to conflict with “headless” entities (PGM P 5a–b). Based on the identification of parallels in the Byzantine and later Greek tradition, a traditional incantation motif can be identified, targeting fever, which is analogized as a judicial crisis. An appendix publishes or republishes the relevant texts with translations. The complex career of the motif attested by the papyri and the Byzantine texts is also applied to illustrate the workings of the Greek tradition of incantations, in particular the mechanism by which elements of a received repertoire are re-combined, modified, and augmented for changing contexts, a process comparable to folkloric composition. The judicial motif can further be contextualized among beliefs about the supernatural, including the divinization of fever itself and the crediting of a broad cast of powers, including John the Baptist along with other holies, angels, and demons, with its infliction and relief.

Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695): A review of his contributions to neuropsychology on the quadricentennial of his birth

ABSTRACT The effects of brain damage on behavior have been reported by authors from the Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, and seventeenth-century medical traditions. However, few of the reported cases discussed mind-brain relationships, even fewer reported data that offered a description of cognitive functions, and none described a clear association of a functional mechanism of cognitive impairment with identifiable focal brain damage. An exception is found in the case studies by Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695). After reviewing the pre-seventeenth-century background and Wepfer’s milieu, we analyze his texts on neuroanatomy, apoplexy, and brain vascularization (Observationes anatomicae ex cadaveribus eorum, quos sustulit apoplexia cum exercitatione de ejus loco affecto) and his remarkable collection of 222 neurological cases (Observationes medico-practicae de affectibus capitis internis & externis), posthumously published in 1727. We focus on his reports concerning on the presence of aphasia, memory disorders, and unilateral neglect, correlated with focal brain damage, with particular emphasis on his examination of language impairments.

George Henry Lewes's Reading of Othello

Abstract George Henry Lewes's heavily annotated copy of the text of Othello in the second edition of Charles Knight's edition of The Comedies, Histories, Tragedies and Poems of Shakspere (1843) is an example of a very early Victorian reaction by a prolific and subsequently eminent literary critic to Shakespeare's tragedy. Lewes's observations illuminate his interests and preoccupations during the period in which he was writing extensively in order to provide for his family. This article illustrates differing types of Lewis's marginalia from marginal linings and underlinings to annotations, some of which are most detailed. They demonstrate which aspects of Othello especially attracted him and why and reveal Lewes's engagement with editors and critics, especially German ones such as Eschenburg and Tieck, for example, in addition to English voices such as Coleridge, Dr. Johnson, and Warburton, to name but three. His marginalia additionally exhibits Lewes's knowledge of Greek and Roman classical traditions and his own immediate concerns.

Metapoetic Readings around Ekphrasis and Fu 賦

Abstract The author argues that the Greek tradition of ekphrasis and the Chinese genre of fu 賦 share at least two essential characteristics: they are devoted to exhaustive descriptions and are manifestly nonmetaphorical. The six texts under scrutiny—Mei Sheng's fu poem “Qi fa,” book 6 of Quintilian's Institutio oratoria, Zuo Si's preface to his “Sandu fu,” Xunzi's analysis of Zhou tombs and funerary rituals in his “Li lun” essay, the “Shield of Achilles” episode in the Iliad, and the metaphorical section of Sima Xiangru's “Shanglin fu”—all employ a similar set of rhetorical strategies but with different emphases. A reading of one in light of the others reveals new information about Chinese and Western theories of representation and metaphoricity. For example, Homer makes his audience alternate between belief and disbelief in the scenes engraved on Achilles's shield. A similar to-and-fro movement in Xunzi's ekphrastic text is configured very differently. By contrast, the abrupt change in mode of expression from ekphrasis to metaphor at the end of “Shanglin fu” emphasizes the key themes of that poem: the shift from excess to frugality, from hedonistic pleasure seeking to ritualized asceticism, and from aristocratic (and thus vulgar) display of wealth to a royal celebration of purity and introspection.

House H9 from Marina el-Alamein – a Research Summary

Studies on the relics of the Hellenistic-Roman town at the site of Marina el-Alamein in Egypt have been carried out since 1986. House H9 was one of the first buildings to be excavated, investigated, and preserved through conservation. Successive research has supplemented the previous studies. The house is one of the largest and earliest features at the site. In the context of Marina, it is more firmly embedded in the Greek-Hellenistic tradition, yet also refers to Roman solutions. It is a house of the oikos type, featuring a courtyard with two porticoes situated asymmetrically perpendicular to each other. Elements referring to the Greek systems of prostas and pastas can be discerned in the layout. The research focused on domestic cult as well as elements and character of the decor, including painted interior decoration. Architecture and home furnishings document civilisational changes at the cultural touchpoint between the Greek and Roman traditions.

Zum Text von D. 27,1,8pr. (Mod. 3 excus.) und C. 5,65,2 (Gord.; a. 239)

Abstract Reconstruction of D. 27,1,8pr. (Mod. 3 excus.) and C. 6,65,2 (Gord.; a. 239). The Codex Florentinus, sole witness of the complete Graeca Modestini, is partially illegible at D. 27,1,8pr. This paper argues that the damaged part read πάντων πάλαι στρατιωτῶν, against Mommsen’s rendering (ἢ πάντων πάλαι στρατιωτῶν). Further, it proposes an emendation to Krüger’s text of C. 5,65,2 on the basis of the indirect Greek tradition that goes contrary to the Latin manuscripts.

ḤUNAYN IBN ISḤĀQ'S CONCEPTION OF HIS READING PUBLIC ACCORDING TO A PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED LETTER

AbstractThis article presents an edition, translation, and analysis of a prefatory letter addressed by the Galen translator Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (d. 873) to one of his East-Syrian Christian patrons, the physician Salmawayh ibn Bunān (d. 840). Ḥunayn composed this Letter to Salmawayh ibn Bunān in Syriac, but it survives only in his nephew's Arabic translation. Since its discovery over eighty years ago, the text has received little attention and has never before been published in its entirety. The Letter provides new insight into Ḥunayn's early career and the Christian milieu in which he moved, demonstrating his indebtedness to the Syriac literary past exemplified by the prefaces of the earlier Galen translator Sergius of Rēšʿaynā (d. 536). At the same time, the Letter indicates part of what made ʿAbbāsid-era translators like Ḥunayn different from their late ancient predecessors. This study argues that increased demand from patrons and Ḥunayn's close reading of Galen's Hippocratic commentaries yielded the Letter’s novel claim that readers of all abilities can and should have access to ancient Greek scientific texts. In this way, the Letter hints tantalizingly at Ḥunayn's understanding of his own literary and scientific project and its relationship with the ancient Greek tradition.

NOVA TELLVS: difusión, tradición y recepción de los clásicos griegos y latinos

This work is the outcome of researching about the origin, content and spreading of NOVA TELLVS and also about the meaning of “spreading and reception” just from the texts of the Greek and Latin authors. Our aim here is to to display the original objectives of NOVA TELLVS and its scientific value, which helps spreading philological research within the field of Greek and Latin authors in order to keep their tradition and contribute to the reception of their values, “for every person improves his good personal and social”, as the same authors wrote. This will be clearer trough the commentaries on the first published article in NOVA TELLVS. The originality and contribution of this note is the research and analysis about the origin, content and objectives of the review in order to comprehend his scientific value in the tradition, spreading and reception of the classical Greek and Latin authors for personal and social benefit of the readers.

Harold Innis and the Greek Tradition: an essay concerning his ontological transformation

The transition of Harold Innis’ work from staples research to communications studies commonly is understood to have been an extension of his earlier research rather than a dramatic break from it. While in agreement, we argue that a significant transformation in Innis’s ontology (but not his epistemology) also took place. This can be understood by referencing his concerns about the fate of civilization and his views on the prospectively strategic role of what he called the Greek tradition. To explain this, herein we concentrate on Innis’ largely forgotten book Political Economy in the Modern State, initiated in 1943 and published in 1946, as a window into his intellectual processes. By the latter year, Innis had come to believe that a second Greek-inspired renaissance was needed. Vestiges of the Greek tradition, Innis thought, had to be recalled through the university and the humanities in order to provide society with the reflective universal perspective needed for survival. This transitional and transformational period involving his embrace of the Greek tradition as a kind of ideal type constitutes an important but under assessed aspect of Innis’s intellectual development.