Greek Usage Research Articles

Writing and Rewriting the Pharmakon: The Use of Horse in Modern Nepali Fiction

First introduced by Jacques Derrida, the Greek usage of the concept ‘pharmakon’ refers to three things: either the poison, the remedy, or the scapegoat. In modern Nepali literature, the horse as pharmakon has appeared as the most self-contradictory image: it has referred to the loss, assertion, and reinforcement of honor. This paper takes BP Koirala’s “The Colonel’s Horse,” Madan Mani Dixit’s “Lattu Miyako Ghodi” [Lattu Miya’s Mare], Nayan Raj Pandey’s Ular [Imbalance] (1996), and Mandira Madhushree’s “Budhanko Ghodi” [Budhan’s Mare] (2017) to see how each of the authors makes use of a horse to discuss the modern values in Nepali society. To address this issue, the present study aims to explore the uses of horses in Nepali literature to explore the inner composition of self and the contents lying therein. On the one hand, such analysis contributes to animal studies in modern Nepali literature; on the other, it highlights the changing perceptions of horses in Nepali society. The creative artists use a particular symbol to discuss the unique contemporary phenomenon through it. The authors from Koirala to Madhushree have found the horse to be a point of departure to reflect on the modern world's inner and outer reality. On the whole, the selected Nepali literary texts treat the horse as a symbol to bring psychological and socio-economic reality into it, thus pondering on it as a modern pharmakon in modern Nepali fiction.

“You Will Do Well”: But How, Exactly? A Curious Ending to the Apostolic Letter of Acts 15

In this paper, I focus on the puzzling ending of the apostolic letter in Acts 15 in which the addressees are told that if they hold to four “essential” prohibitions, they will “do well” (εὖ πράξετε, v. 29). The question as to how, exactly, can destabilise some understandings of the decree, with alternative translations creating different problems, and particularly so where theological commitments are at play. Following Danker’s call for greater attention to this phrase, I undertake a fresh, stratified survey of Greek usage across corpora ranging from the arguably less to the more proximate and bring this into dialogue with the senses given in various literary and social approaches to the decree involving epistolary rhetoric, reciprocity theory, and intertextuality. This reveals how purely linguistic data can stand in tension with compositional arguments in different ways and require a more complex arbitration between possibility, likelihood and coherence when both lexical- and discourse-level constraints are applied. Whilst not solving the problem of the decree outright, observing the impacts of different readings of εὖ πράξετε on the delicate balances involved presses some oblique but productive questions into the interpretive task.

Verbs of sexual intercourse in the Greek Pentateuch: a lexical analysis

AbstractThis article examines the neglected evidence of the Greek Pentateuch for verbs of sexual intercourse. I aim to demonstrate the translators’ skilful application of their mimetic translation method and the native-speaker competence suggested by their vocabulary choices in the relevant sphere. With one exception manifesting Hebrew interference through semantic extension, all the verbs deployed to describe sexual intercourse represent natural Greek usage and are found in classical literature going back in some cases to early epic. This provides yet another indication that the evidence of the Septuagint should no longer be dismissed when considering the post-classical development of the Greek language.

Skelton on Greek in Speke Parott

ABSTRACT The evidence argued herein belies the notion that the early Tudor laureate John Skelton (d. 1529) was a traditionalist or conservative in respect of the humanist educational movement. For a section of his obscure Speke Parott participates in the controversies over Hellenism occurring in England and elsewhere in northern Europe at the time. In the poem, Skelton's ”Parott” mocks scholastic Greek usage and advocates in favor of the novel humanist Greek philology, in precise parallel with the better-understood polemics of such international humanist luminaries as his familiars Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More.

ERASING THE AETHIOPIAN IN CICERO'S POST REDITUM IN SENATU

The Roman attitude toward the Ethiopian as expressed in scattered passages is far less kindly than the Greek. The usage in Terence and the Auctor ad Herennium which imply a vogue for Ethiopians is probably in imitation of Greek usage. How early the Roman attitude crystalized into racial feeling it is hard to say, and as those who express it are chiefly satirists one must be careful in drawing conclusions. Nevertheless in the absence of an expressed good will and in the face of references which have a superior or contemptuous tone it is evident that the Romans had no special affection for Ethiopians at Rome, however romantically they may have spoken of the races of distant India. The earliest passage in which they are spoken of slightingly seems to be in Cicero—cum hoc homine an cum stipite Aethiope, Cicero, De Sen., 6. The word does not occur in all the manuscripts and the Oxford and Teubner texts omit it entirely. In notes it is translated ‘blockhead’ and the statement made that in antiquity the Ethiopians were synonymous with stupidity, a conclusion obviously drawn from the passage and the modern attitude toward them. Even if the word was actually used by Cicero, this passage alone is basis for such a theory.Mrs. Beardsley (op. cit., pp.119–120), in my judgement, is wrong in her conclusion that the Roman attitude toward the Negro crystallized into racial feeling. In support of her view that the Romans referred to the Ethiopians at Rome in a superior and contemptuous tone, Mrs. Beardsley includes the following passages: (1) Cicero, Red. in Sen., 6.14 (cited incorrectly as De Sen., 6); (2) Martial, VI, 39, 6; (3) Juvenal, II, 23. Cicero, Red in Sen., 6.14…cum hoc homine an stipite Aethiope…, as Mrs. Beardsley admits, does not appear in all the manuscripts and is omitted in the best established texts. A consideration of the context leads me to believe that the editors (Oxford, Teubner, Loeb) are right in rejecting Aethiope or stipite Aethiope and in reading stipite. Nevertheless, the appearance of the variant indicates that the author of the reading used Aethiope in a derogatory sense. (It is possible that the pejorative meaning of aethiops was a medieval development.)In these two excerpts, Grace Hadley Beardsley and Frank M. Snowden, Jr., discuss the appearance of the word Aethiops (‘Aethiopian’) in Cicero's Post reditum in senatu 14. Beardsley, whose intellectual project was motivated, as Maghan Keita and, more recently, Najee Olya have discussed, by racial animus and who sought to find evidence of Greco-Roman anti-Blackness that was both consistent with, and therefore a legitimizing exemplum for, contemporary anti-Blackness in 20th-century America, took Cicero's words as ‘the earliest passage in which [Aethiopians] are spoken of slightingly’ at Rome—doing so cautiously, given the fact that most editors had deleted it from the text. Frank M. Snowden, Jr.—whose own work W.E.B. Du Bois explicitly contrasted with Beardsley—responded to Beardsley's assertion that Post reditum in senatu contained evidence of anti-Blackness with scepticism, ultimately doubting the legitimate textual presence of the term and interpreting its presence instead as an artefact of hostile scribal intervention. Indeed, both Beardsley and Snowden discuss the fact that Aethiope does not occur in all of the Cicero manuscripts. While it is true that none of the authoritative textual editions print Aethiope at Post reditum in senatu 14, the textual apparatus nonetheless demonstrates clearly that the term appears in the manuscript tradition more often than it does not:stipe P1: etiope P2stipe uel ethiope Guel aethiope stipe E1esope H

Gothic leiþu, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

Gothic <i>leiþu</i>, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

The Gestures ofproskynēsisin the Achaemenid Empire

SummaryIn October of 2018 a new trilingual Achaemenid inscription from Naqsh-e Rostam was discovered and in March of 2019 a detailed investigation of it with linguistic and historical commentary was published online in ARTA. The inscription includes a previously unknown Old Persian verb, a-f-r-[?]-a-t-i-y, which the first publishers Soheil Delshad and Mojtaba Doroodi read as *ā-fra-yāti(perhaps “he comes forward to”) or *ā-fra-θāti(“he speaks forth to”). They conclude that “an Old Persian verb with the meaning ‘to greet, to bless’ (etc.) seems to be called for”. It is clear that as a result of this discovery we get an Old Persian verb which could refer to an act which the Greek verb προσκυνεῖν may have described relating to the Persians. This new evidence stimulates further discussion about the practice and meaning ofproskynēsisat the royal court in the Achaemenid Empire. My article shows that all literary and pictorial evidences onproskynēsismay be divided into two groups: 1) Greek authors’ information that representsproskynēsismainly as prostration before the King; 2) Persian bas-reliefs that depict the scenes withproskynēsisas a hand-kissing gesture. It is supposed that the previously unknown Old Persian verb (like προσκυνεῖν in Ancient Greek usage) refers not only to specific gestures, but relates to a model of behaviour (‘salutation’, ‘obeisance’, ‘greeting’, ‘worship’, ‘respect’ etc.). It is argued that Achaemenid officials performedproskynēsisbefore the King as hand-kissing, while the rest of the people bowed down, kneeled or prostrated. Exceptions were made only for members of the royal family who did not performproskynēsis, but kissed the King and got a kiss from him.

Paradosis and monotheism: a late antique approach to the meaning ofislāmin the Quran

AbstractBoth the Muslim exegetical tradition and most Western scholarship have posited that the termislāmin the Quran means “submission”, i.e. to God, and that it refers to the religion brought by the prophet Muhammad. This paper argues that neither of these assertions is correct. Rather, the abstract nounislāmas used in the Quran means “tradition”. It is underlain by the Aramaicmashlmānūtā, which in turn was the term generally used to translate the Greekparadosis. That the Greek usage had a direct impact on Arabic is also considered. The wide range of meanings givenparadosisby Greek and Syriac authors is surveyed. A close reading of Quran verses in which the wordislāmappears shows that it refers to the prophetic tradition of monotheism rather than the surrender of an individual to God. It is synonymous with the Logos of Abraham, in which all the monotheistic religions participate.

Outcome of language contact

Abstract This summary presents the main findings of my Ph.D. dissertation (University of Helsinki) on the phonological transfer of Egyptian on second language Greek usage in Egypt.

Atimia and Outlawry in Archaic and Classical Greece

Abstract This article challenges the commonly held belief that atimia in its earliest Greek usage meant exile, arguing instead that atimia and outlawry were always two entirely distinct, though not mutually exclusive, concepts. It is often claimed that atimia originated as a penalty of death or exile, but that over time its harshness became modified so that those who suffered under its restrictions could not be killed or assaulted with impunity. A careful study of the evidence will show that atimia never meant outlawry, and moreover, its archaic cognates do not imply that in early times to lose timê was the same as losing membership in a political community. Rather, atimazesthai entailed the loss of social honour and status which was an all-encompassing value in the aristocratic societies of archaic Greece. Atimia in the Classical period is similarly a loss of rights (timai), and because penalties and conditions such as exile and outlawry can be easily described, in Greek, as involving the loss of prerogatives (timai), they are conceptually forms of atimia. However, in the legal language of democratic Athens atimia is and always was something distinct from exile, and this legal distinction went back to the very earliest times.

Semitic Poetic Techniques in the Magnificat: Luke 1:46–47, 55

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55) imitates the form and content of various biblical psalms and odes, including the Song of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10). But to what extent does it show flashes of its own poetic sophistication? How convincing is the pastiche? In this article, I will address these questions through the lens of two grammatical peculiarities in the hymn that are generally dismissed as nonstandard Greek usage. The first aligns two verbs in a synonymous parallelism but sets them in diffferent tenses (vv. 46b-47). The second references the same object through two different object constructions (v. 55).An earlier study has already argued that the first alternation finds a background in Hebrew poetry.1 In this article I will elaborate on this thesis and discuss the literary merits of this technique in the broader hymn. In turn, I will apply a poetic analysis to the second construction as well. I believe the two anomalies are comparable and can be classed together as stylistic or nonsemantic grammatical alternations. This category of poetic devices is amply attested in the Hebrew Bible and evidently plays a vital role in the marked language of this hymn as well. When one adds these techniques to the inventories of the hymn's poetic features, the skill of its poet stands out in stronger relief.2I. Tense Alternation (Luke 1:46b-47)A. Analysis of the GreekIn the opening couplet of the Magnificat, a present-tense verb (µeγαλ?νeι, magnifies, v. 46b) stands opposite an (?γαλλ?ασeν, rejoiced, v. 47) in a synonymous parallelism:Luke 1:46b-47...My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoiced in God my savior.The juxtaposition of these tenses has attracted considerable attention in secondary literature. Since for most interpreters, the immediate occasion of Mary's song justifies the present tense of µeγαλ?νeι, those treatments focus almost exclusively on the choice of an form in verse 47.Interpretations of the Aorist in Verse 47One set of approaches identifies ?γαλλiασeν with one of several non-past uses of the aorist. BDF, for instance, identifies ?γαλλiασeν as a gnomic aorist.4 This type, rare in Hellenistic Greek, is associated with aphorisms and statements of general fact. Since the motive clauses following this couplet identify Mary's rejoicing as a reaction to particular events of her recent experience (vv. 48-49), however, a gnomic sense is unlikely in this instance. It is still less likely when one compares ?γαλλ?ασeν to the true gnomics in verses 51-53.5 The in verse 47 differs considerably from these verbs, which include features of proverbial statement, such as nouns with generic articles, indefinite noun or pronoun reference, and an eye toward universal occurrences of the event.6An alternative explanation would identify ?γαλλ?ασeν as one of the few New Testament examples of a dramatic aorist, or an aorist of present state.7 A dramatic here would represent a Hebraism, capturing qualities of the stative perfect (a type emphasizing a present condition resulting from a past, completed action).8 The LXX translates some 47 percent of Hebrew perfects with a present or future value as aorists.9 Four such verbs appear in the first line of the Song of Hannah, an obvious template for the phrasing of Luke 1:46b-47:101 Sam [LXX 1 Kgdms] 2:1...My heart has been made to exult in the Lord.My horn has been exalted in my God.My mouth has been enlarged against my enemies,Because I have been gladdened in your salvation.Although this comparison provides a compelling explanation for the form in verse 47, it ignores the fundamental difficulty of verses 46b-47, namely, the shiftin tense. Why does the poet11 of the Magnificat use a different tense in each line? Why not render both verbs as dramatic aorists, especially with 1 Sam 2:1 as a model? …

Thinking the Things of God?

The words of Jesus to Peter in Mark 8:33c are widely translated along the lines of “You are not thinking the way God thinks, but the way people think.” The translation wholly obscures this idiom that was very common in Greek literature, and erroneously relocates the thrust of Jesus’ rebuke from Peter’s relationship to Jesus, to Peter’s understanding of the messianic task. Examination of the evidence of Classical and Koine Greek usage of this construction furnishes ample support for the alternative translation, “you are not on the side of God but the side of people,” a translation better suited to what follows in Mark 8:34-38.

The Vocative Singular in the Greek New Testament: An Exploration of Its Expression in North American English

Scholarship devoted to the manner in which the vocative singular has been translated from ancient Greek texts to modern English is lacking. The address toward a man in the vocative singular, ἄνθρωπε, while rare in the New Testament, is often translated as “man” within the context of a rebuke and appears to be accurately translated. However, when a woman is addressed as γύναι, the general interpretation of its Greek usage in the New Testament is that it is an address of respect, while its frequent translation into English as “woman” does not capture this aspect. Non-biblical Greek literature contemporary to the New Testament uses this address in the same way, with the implication of respect. More research is needed to determine how the meaning of this term can be accurately expressed in English.

The twisting path of runes from the Greek alphabet

This paper argues that the direct source for the creation of Germanic runes was the Greek alphabet as used in Gaul around the middle of the last century BC, a period that saw a significant influx of Germani into that area. A number of the departures from the source are accordingly due to the influence of specifically Gaulish rather than purely Greek usage, while other features are due to the adapter’s own independent treatment. The adapter was likely a well-born Germanus who learnt the Greek alphabet from a literate Gaul resident in Gaul or Germania.

Terror in and out of power

This article explores the relationship between terror, power and the rule of law. First, tracing Burke's use of the term terror back to ancient Greek usage, I argue that being terrified is incommensurable with the experience of acting together with others. In this way, terror and power are distinct. However, most acts of terror aim to terrify some people while inoculating others from terror. Witnesses to the terror of others may feel empowered by the destruction of the power of others. Second, the rule of law and terror seem incommensurable because causing terror often involves violating the law. However, modern political thought is founded on the idea that the law itself ought to be terrifying. That the terror of non-state actors appears random and the terror of the law has hardly been noticed in recent commentary on terrorism indicate that the rule of law produces an interesting audience effect. In order to sustain power and legitimacy while practising terror, governments use the rule of law to divide audiences up into terrified criminals and innocent witnesses. The practice of terror as an ‘open secret’ also produces similar audience effects. Finally, despite these connections between power, terror and the rule of law, I argue that terror is always technically out of power, even when practised by states. Terror is the true weapon of the weak because it always admits a failure to foster human connections with certain people and groups. Nonviolence is a weapon of the weak in the sense that it instantiates new, unencumbered power.

Head as metaphor in Paul

Since the 1980s there has been a debate among New Testament scholars about the meaning of the Greek word “kephal?” (“head”) in the Pauline epistles. Some scholars defend the traditional view that it means “leader”, while others argue that it should be understood to mean “source”. One result of this debate is that it is now clear that both the traditional and the new interpretation of kephal? have very little support in general Greek usage before the New Testament. This article seeks to advance the debate by showing that the phenomenon of “semantic borrowing” can explain why the meaning “source” is effectively limited to one passage in Herodotus,and the meaning “leader” is only found in Greek works written by bilingual Jews. The passage in Herodotus probably reflects a semantic loan from Old Persian *sar while various places in the Septuagint, Philo, Josephus and Paul reflect a semantic loan from Hebrew “ro’sh” (or Aramaic “re’sh”). Because the latter semantic loan (“head” meaning “leader”) is embedded in the Greek Bible (both in the Septuagint and Paul),the authority and prestige of the latter can account for the fact that the new meaning of kephal?, though unknown in previous pagan Greek writings, gradually became widespread in postbiblical Greek as Christianity spread.

Theodoret of Cyrus: The Questions on the Octateuch. By Robert C. Hill

2 volumes. Volume 1 On Genesis and Exodus. Volume 2 On Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. Greek text revised by John F. Petruccione. English translation with introduction and commentary. Pp. volume 1 civ , 352 , volume 2 xxxii, 432 , Library of Early Christianity 1 and 2 , Washington D.C. , The Catholic University of America Press , 2007 , vol. 1 £25.50 , vol. 2 £21.50 . With these two volumes, the Library of Early Christianity has, at long last, been born. The waiting has been worthwhile. The publishers, The Catholic University of America, intend to publish one new volume approximately every other year. The Library will consist of texts in the original language, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Latin, or Syriac, with English translations on facing pages. Each volume will include an introduction, notes and a bibliography. If the editorial board can match the quality of these first volumes with those that come after, we shall owe another great debt of gratitude to the CUA Press. Such an undertaking is so often nowadays a matter of team work and this one has worked diligently under the directorship of David McGonagle, Director of the CUA Press, and John Petruccione, Editorial Director of the LEC. Amongst others, Natalio Fernández Marcos (whose edition of the Questions was published in Madrid in 1979) has addressed issues around errata, variant readings and issues of punctuation, in addition to the contents and lacunae of individual manuscripts. Françoise Petit has worked on passages erroneously attributed to Theodoret by the Catena Nikephori. William McCarthy and Eustratios Papaioannou have assisted on matters of Greek usage and Dr McCarthy has provided some useful bibliographical suggestions. Robert Caldwell has helped with textual variants, points of translation and punctuation. Much of the indexing work has been carried out by Brent Gilbert. Susan Barnes, as editorial assistant, has aided in the achievement of a admirably clear and consistent text and translation. Volume one opens with a comprehensive introduction to Theodoret's life and works, introduction to the Greek Text, bibliography and conspectus siglorum. The texts are supported by comments on the original Greek and contextualising notes that make the translation more accessible to the non-specialist. The second volume repeats the bibliography and conspectus and ends with a superb index scripturisticus, general index and index of modern authors. Little has come down to us from this controversial fifth-century bishop from Antioch and far less, of course, is in English translation (we think of his anti-Monophysite dialogues, the Eranistes, his Ecclesiastical History and Religious History and various Commentaries). His exegetical works present a traditional typological interpretation of the Bible, manifestly ‘correcting’ both Origen's allegorical approach and Theodore of Mopsuestia's literalism. The choice of his Questions, then, is a bold one yet, together with his commentaries on Kings and Chronicles, Psalms, Song of Solomon, and the Major and Minor Prophets, they are amongst the finest examples of the Antiochene School. In sum, we have been served well by the CUA Press, not least in making Theodoret a little better known to his modern day audience.

Paulus se liggaam-metafoor in 1 Korintiërs 12 in literêr-historiese konteks

Paul’s body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 in literary contextThe purpose of this article is to place and describe Paul’s use of the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 in its literary context. By way of introduction, the importance of a proper understanding of Paul’s use of the body metaphor is indicated. The first part of the article deals with the origin and use of the body metaphor in ancient times, thereby establishing the literary context within which Paul used the metaphor. Greek, Roman and Jewish usage is described. In the second part of the article the focus moves to Paul’s use of the metaphor within its literary context. It is concluded that the body metaphor was well-known to Greek, Roman and Jewish readers, and was thus ideally suited to Paul’s unique communication of the relationship between Christ and his church.

Review: Verbal Syntax in the Greek Pentateuch. Natural Greek Usage and Hebrew Interference

Verbal Syntax in the Greek Pentateuch. Natural Greek Usage and Hebrew Interference T. V. Evans xxiii + 335 Oxford Oxford University Press 2001 £55 0 19 827010 0

MEDICAL REFERENCE IN EURIPIDES

Abstract The relation between medical texts and Euripidean drama is explored through a multiplicity of examples drawn from the extant plays and fragments. Emphasis is placed on the problems and limitations, as well as the potential and rewards, of comparing material from these different genres. First, the overlapping character of metaphorical and technical language is addressed, and the testimony of the lexicographer Erotian adduced. Allusion to various aspects of medicine - therapy and regimen; pathology; anatomy and physiology - is then identified in Euripides' output. It is argued that, in addition to general familiarity with many medical ideas, Euripides may have had particular knowledge of the Hippocratic treatises Breaths and Articulations. Finally, linguistic trends in fifth century Greek usage are noted and aspects peculiar to Euripides' poetic technique isolated. Directions for further research are suggested.