Greek Writers Research Articles

Philo and Greek Poets

AbstractPhilo's manner of quoting and referring to Greek poets has never been systematically investigated. This article shows how Philo often quotes Homer, but also Hesiod, Solon, Pindaros and Theognis. He knows the poets as well any Greek writer. In most cases, Philo quotes the verses exactly as we have them from other sources, preserving all the dialectic peculiarities. However, he may correct the quotation theologically, make a mistake or drop a line, and sometimes he might have learned a text that differed from ours. He often cleverly gives the words a new sense and makes them speak for his own view, following the manner of the Stoics. Philo's works allow us a glimpse the learned circles of the Alexandrian Jews. Philo had memorized poets in gymnasium. He hardly lost the contact to them after his early years, but allowed them to entertain him and his friends during his lifetime.

Kazantzakis-Nietzsche, un discipulado vital

This article studies from different angles the ideological and human relationship between Kazantzakis and the philosopher Nietzsche. The Greek writer was attracted to and identified himself with Nietzsche's figure. In the terrain of ideas, Nietzsche left a visionary impression of protests and exaltations in favor of a festive life, far from a Christian religious shadow according to the moment and society where he lived. Kazantzakis continues that call to freedom and that longing of drunkenness within one's own life and not in an other world.

Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History. (Sather Classical Lectures 65) by Denis Feeney

202 PHOENIX seek out further evidence beyond what this book can offer. This is just what Rives's volume does best: to show us where we stand in a thought-provoking manner that invites further questions about "religion" in the Roman empire. Boston University ZSUZSANNA VÂRHELYI Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History. Denis Feeney. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press (Sather Classical Lectures 65). 2007. Pp. xiv, 372 pages, 14 illustrations. Denis Feeney has performed a useful service by compiling evidence concerning time-keeping and chronology on the part of public officials and historians in the Roman world, down through the age of Augustus. While the study offers little that is new, within the boundaries Feeney sets for his inquiry he provides a coherent, lucid, and reasonably comprehensive account. The book is divided into six chapters, corresponding to the six Sather lectures on which it is based. The first two discuss ancient attempts to synchronize chronologies between Rome and Greece (especially Athens) and, to a lesser extent, between the hellenistic world and Eastern, non-Greek kingdoms. The third and fourth consider the boundary between myth and history as represented in foundation stories, myths of a golden age, and accounts of the Trojan War as the commencement of historical time. The final two focus on Rome under Julius and Augustus Caesar, considering the structure and significance of the civic calendar, methods of dating years, and the conflicted contemporary reception of reforms. As the title of the book suggests, the topics covered in the last two chapters determine the structure and content of the preceding four, with Feeney seeking throughout to identify the characteristics of ancient timekeeping and chronology that led to the particular transformations of the late first century b.c. This teleological approach gives the book a certain momentum and coherence, but renders it less than ideal as a survey of Roman (or Greek) notions of time and their cultural import. The book is defined as much by what it excludes, in terms of evidence, approach, and significance, as by what it includes. For all its virtues, it falls victim to what T. J. Cornell has in another context called "the tyranny of the evidence." Feeney assumes that what prevails in the record is what was prevalent on the ground, and fails to consider the extent to which dominant approaches to time were selected and constructed as such or the ways in which they intersect with other structures, beliefs, and practices. Consider for example the issue of chronology. Feeney rightly calls attention to the varying attempts at synchronizing internal and external chronology that characterized the late republic (e.g., Nepos, Atticus, Varro, Cicero's Brutus) and links such efforts, like those of the Greek writer Castor of Rhodes, to the "universalizing atmosphere" of the period, the experience of contact with other peoples and places. But contact with other peoples and places had been the experience of Romans for centuries, indeed from the outset, and it is hard to believe that they were not aware that different people have different ways of structuring the past. Cato grapples with just this problem in Book 2 of the Origines, attempting to sort truth from falsehood; Livy likens the ritual of the praetor's nail to a similar mode of timekeeping at Volsinii; Sallust and Velleius Paterculus refer to African and (perhaps) Capuan chronologies respectively, and the Etruscans almost certainly had a distinctive way of keeping track of cosmic and human time. Is there an ancient society BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 203 that does not seek to situate itself in relationship to an authorizing past and that does not worry about conflicting stories told by their neighbors and rivals? Feeney's own evidence, which points to the persistent interest in foundations as chronological benchmarks, raises the possibility that it is precisely the process of forming a state, as an abstract, exclusivist, transhistorical entity that generates the need to create clear distinctions between mythical and historical, ours and yours, cyclical time and linear time. To synchronize chronologies is to suggest that there is more than one chronology to be synchronized, a recognition that makes sense precisely in...

From the Guest Editor

From the Guest Editor

References to Anesthesia, Pain, and Analgesia in the Hippocratic Collection

The Hippocratic Collection, containing 60 medical texts by Hippocrates and his pupils, was searched using the electronic database Thesaurus Lingua Graeca to identify the words "anaesthesia" and "analgesia," their derivatives and also words related to pain. Our purpose was to investigate the special use and meaning of these words and their significance in medical terms. The word "anaesthesia" appears 12 times in five Hippocratic texts to describe loss of sensation by a disease process. This observation reveals Hippocrates as the first Greek writer to use the word in a medical rather than a philosophical context. Hippocrates was also the first Greek physician to keep an airway open by bypassing a pharyngeal obstruction with the insertion of narrow tubes into the swollen throat of a patient with quinsy, thus facilitating the airflow into the lungs. In the Hippocratic texts, "analgesia" is related to "anaesthesia" for the first time, when it is pointed out that an unconscious patient is insensitive to pain. Hippocrates and his followers rationalized pain as a clinical variable and as a valuable diagnostic and prognostic tool. They used expressive and precise adjectives and well-defined characteristics of pain, such as location, duration, or relation to other symptoms, to elucidate a disease process. They also had a wide terminology for the various types of pain, still in use today. Many cures were described for the treatment of pain, including incisions, effusions, venesection, purges, cauterization and, most interestingly, the use of many plants, such as opium or the application of soporific substances. In particular, Hippocrates refers to opium poppy as "sleep inducing."

Scripture and Traditions: Essays on Early Judaism and Christianity in Honor of Carl R. Holladay. Edited by PATRICK GRAY and GAIL R. O'DAY.

There has been a tendency in recent years, particularly driven by publishers concerned about focus and sales, for Festschriften to be governed by a clearly defined theme, sometimes even with designated complementary contributions. The present volume is a vigorous exception, perhaps in part reflecting the interests of its honorand. Although known to many for his work on Hellenistic Judaism, Carl Holladay's writing and research covers a much broader range, including his 2005 Critical Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville), a promised commentary on Acts (NTL), co-authorship of volumes for preachers of the lectionary, and service on the editorial board of Novum Testamentum. Even so, the twenty-two essays here span a remarkable breadth, and it would seem that the contributors were given a relatively free hand, with many making no explicit attempt to establish a link with Holladay's work, or even to mention him. Although there is a brief dedicatory preface, there is no editorial overview—nor could there be. The following offers an overview and approximate grouping: a full list of contents will be easily available through relevant databases. In fact, only four essays are placed under the heading ‘Hellenistic Judaism’, each of which deals with the literary, apologetic negotiation with contemporary society (N. Clayton Croy on 3 Maccabees’ ‘trumping’ of the god Dionysius, Lester L. Grabbe on the contribution of fragmentary Jewish writings in Greek to ideas of Jewish identity, Walter T. Wilson on Philo, De Humanitate in relationship to contemporary discourse about virtue, and William Adler on apologetic attempts to date Moses and demonstrate his antiquity). Of the twelve essays headed ‘The New Testament in Context’ a number continue the serious engagement with Hellenistic Jewish sources, in some cases alongside other Greek traditions, now used for comparative (‘context’) purposes: Gregory E. Sterling on the language and models of conversion, Abraham J. Malherbe on moral traditions about old age and 1 Tim. 5:17–19, John T. Fitzgerald on corporal punishment and Prov. 3:11–12 and Heb. 12:5–6, and John B. Weaver on ‘the noble and the good’ in Luke 8:15. A number of other essays cover Lukan themes, each drawing attention to themes of Old Testament patterning or fulfilment: Scott Shauf on the theme of divine retribution, Allen Black on male–female pairings as anticipated by Joel 2:28–9 and Isaianic passages, Gail R. O’Day on characterization in Acts and scriptural citation, and David P. Moessner on the theological function of the scriptural appeals, most notably to Ps. 15, in Acts 2. To these may be added Mark Black on the messianic use of Zechariah 9–14 in Matthew and Mark. The remaining essays in this section all have a ‘community’ interest: Michael Joseph Brown on the function of the label ‘hypocrite’ in Matt. 6:1–18, Sharyn Dowd on Matt. 18:15–17 read as addressed within the church, and Steven J. Kraftchick on the way Paul encourages the Philippians to an understanding of themselves as a community. The final section of six essays is headed ‘The History of Interpretation’, a somewhat catch-all title since it ranges from an analysis of reasons for scribal changes to the Apocalypse in Codex Alexandrinus (Juan Hernández, Jr.) to a post-colonial reading of, and challenge to fundamentalism through, 2 Cor. 3:12–18 (Brad R. Braxton). Luke–Acts re-emerges in a study of the presuppositions of certain nineteenth-century commentaries on Acts (Thomas H. Olbricht) and in an analysis of the NRSV with particular attention to its sensitivity towards literary or narrative signals (Luke Timothy Johnson). Patrick Gray traces the early reception of Heb. 6:4–6 (wrongly printed as 4:4–6 on p. 338), while Holladay's primary interest resurfaces in a new form in a post-colonial analysis and contextualization of constructions of ancient Judaism in scholarship over the last century (Todd Penner). As will be evident, readers inevitably will have different favourite pieces, although, as with any volume of this nature, there will be an element of happenchance as to whether they find them. The list of contributors, their various interests, and their current locations, bear witness to the high regard in which Carl Holladay is held among colleagues and former students, and there will undoubtedly be much here to give him pleasure.

Rosmini on Individual Rights: The Soul (Reason) as Forerunner of Individual Rights in Human Society

The question that can be asked today is: Of what relevance is Rosmini’s legal theory on individual rights for modern man? Rosmini’s individual rights did not appear from nowhere. From the opinions of some Greek writers, he concluded that the soul, as a result of its immortal and mobile qualities, is divine in nature and therefore serves as the origin of individual rights. Rosmini is of the opinion, unlike Thomas Aquinas, that the protection of individual rights should filter through to all levels of human existence; from the foetal stage to adult life. In contrast with the Aristotelian Thomistic hylomorphism doctrine, he believes that just like an adult, a foetus has a soul, even in its early stages, and is entitled to the protection of his/her individual rights. This is the basis of the Constitution of South Africa 108 of 1996. Owing to the innate nature of the human soul, Rosmini succeeded in postulating God as ontological framework for the individual rights of man. The description of the unique value of humans in Psalm 8:5 is striking: “For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor.” (American Standard Version) Man, as image bearer of God, is thus endowed with individual rights that must be recognised by all, including the state. Rosmini hereby rejects the salus rei publicae suprema lex doctrine supported by Thomas Aquinas. Rosmini argues that, if this (salus reipublicae suprema lex) doctrine were to be followed, the state would be encroaching on the individual rights of its citizens. Furthermore, he believes that the state is geared to protect the individual rights of its citizens. Rosmini thus argues that the interests of the state are best served if the interests of the citizen are first protected.

The return of Ulysses: a cultural history of Homer's Odyssey

Whether they focus on the bewitching song of the Sirens, his cunning escape from the cave of the terrifying one-eyed Cyclops, or the vengeful slaying of the suitors of his beautiful wife Penelope, the stirring adventures of Ulysses/Odysseus are amongst the most durable in human culture. The picaresque return of the wandering pirate-king is one of the most popular texts of all time, crossing East-West divides and inspiring poets and fimmakers wordwide. But why, over three thousand years, has the Odyssey's appeal proved so remarkably resilient and longlasting? Edith Hall explains the enduring fascination of Homer's epic in terms of its extraordinary susceptibility to adaptation.Not only has the story reflected a myriad of different agendas, but - from the tragedies of classical Athens to modern detective fiction, film, travelogue and opera - it has seemed perhaps uniquely fertile in generating new artistic forms. Cultural texts as diverse as Joyce's Ulysses, Suzanne Vega's Calypso, Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou? , Daniel Vigne's Le Retour de Martin Guerre and Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain all show that Odysseus is truly a versatile hero. His travels across the wine-dark Aegean are journeys not just into the mind of one of the most brilliantly creative of all the ancient Greek writers. They are as much a voyage beyond the limits of a narrative which can plausibly lay claim to being the quintessential global phenomenon.

Thirty-six Hippocratic Aphorisms of Nephrologic Interest

In this article, we discuss the nephrologic content within Hippocrates' Aphorisms. Although similar attempts have taken place ever since antiquity, we believe that in each era new insights may be gained by examining the aphorisms through the prism of current medical knowledge. Of the 400 aphorisms in the Hippocratic text, we discuss the 36 that we consider to be most relevant to nephrology. We conclude that these aphorisms support the concept of Hippocrates as the "Father of Clinical Nephrology."

From exclusion to familiarity: The question of otherness in contemporary Greek literature for young readers

This paper initiates an exploration into contemporary Greek literature for young adults and more specifically, literary texts with a social dimension. Contemporary Greek writers deliberately address social issues in a realistic manner by presenting all the different facets of Alterity: xenophobia, ethnocentrism, racism. Today these narratives pose new questions and attempt to familiarize the young public with an image of the Other, the Foreigner, the Different. The writers focus on the positive aspects of multiculturalism in contemporary societies in hopes of discrediting stereotypical images of the Other that continue to prevail in the collective imagination, to sensitize the public and ultimately to abolish the fault lines of bigotry.

Modern Greek Writing: An Anthology in English Translation (review)

Modern Greek Writing: An Anthology in English Translation (review)

Following Pausanias. The Quest for Greek Antiquity

This book is the first to offer a historical overview of the reception of Pausanias, with a particular focus on the early modern period. Pausanias, a Greek writer of the second century AD, presents a detailed description of the historical landscape of central and southern Greece. His work, the Periegesis, is a mine of valuable information about ancient culture. Since its rediscovery by western scholars in the early fifteenth century, the Periegesis has had a crucial impact on modern attitudes to Greece, Greek cultural history and Greek art. Following Pausanias is a companion (not a conventional catalogue) to an exhibition in the Gennadios Library at Athens, an institution exceptionally well placed to document the reception of Pausanias’ work. The book includes numerous illustrations which demonstrate the scope and value of the library's collections. The first part of Following Pausanias introduces the ancient author and his time. This is...

The Study of Hands on Greek Inscriptions: The Need for a Digital Approach

This note presents a short history of the study of in Greek epigraphy and suggests a new methodology for that work. The study of can offer a powerful means of dating fragments and enabling joins and associations of pieces that go together. The considerable time required to study a hand, however, and the problem of access to the inscriptions pose formidable obstacles to progress. In addition, as in any field of stylistic attribution, subjectivity remains an inevitable complicating factor. Computer ization may offer a way forward. Scholars in epigraphy, mathematics, and computer studies have collaborated to develop two methods for mapping the lettering on inscrip tions and then comparing the mapped samples to identify hands. They have successfully distinguished with 100% accuracy six on 23 separate fragments. This is a real breakthrough and the first time that the identification of a Greek writer has been realized via digital means. Com puters offer the potential to automate the process and set the study of on a more objective footing. The shape of the letters in Greek inscriptions varies from example to example?enough so that scholars have long felt they were seeing the work of individu als. Koehler and Kirchner, the editors of the first and second editions of the Attic volumes of Inscriptiones Graecae, for example, were very sensitive to the shape of the letters for dating purposes and even noted in some instances individual hands.1 Colin, in editing the inscriptions of the Pythaids on the Athenian trea sury at Delphi, distinguished the of the cutters and assigned the texts accordingly.2 This was the first large-scale use of the recognition of to assign fragments, and it represented a remarkable achieve ment. Scholars over the years have continued to note on occasion that two or more inscriptions are by the same hand.3 There has also been some interest in the inscribers and how they went about their work.4 But it was Wilhelm who, in 1906, pointed the way toward systematic study of individual cutters when he de scribed a distinctive style and noted seven inscriptions as characteristic.5 later expanded this dossier to 27 examples.6 was really the founder of the study, for he went on to distinguish a number of dur ing his work on the prytany inscriptions;7 he identi fied and labeled clearly the numerous inscribers who worked on IG 22 2336, the great list of officials who contributed money for the Pythais.8 He also helped Wade-Gery identify one hand of the late fifth century B.C.E.9 Lastly, it was who, in 1966, encouraged Tracy to undertake the study of a single ancient letter cutter. An article describing the methodology em ployed in the study was followed by a monograph that broke new ground.10 Since then, Tracy has shown that the study of indi vidual on Greek inscriptions is both possible and fruitful. It is a great help in dating fragments that are otherwise very difficult or impossible to date with any accuracy and in bringing about joins and associations of fragments inscribed by the same workman.11 This kind of study, however, remains relatively rare in epig raphy, in part because most scholars have other goals in mind. In addition, there exist formidable obstacles to the study of hands: the time required to study an inscriber's hand and bring together other examples of his work; the months needed to learn the characteris tics of the hand and years to collect other examples of 1 See the commentary on IG 22 369, 373, 724, 836, 844 for examples. 2 See Colin's (1909,15 n. 1) description of the hands. 3 See examples in 1975. 4 Robert 1955; Mulliez 1998. 5 Wilhelm 1906,63-4. 6Dow 1936, 58-60. and Wilhelm both refrained from affirming that the style was the work of one man. By the mid 1960s, when Tracy was working with him extensively, had come to the conclusion that it was the work of a single individual. 7 1937. 8 1940. See Tracy (1982) for a full study with an im proved text. 9 Wade-Gery 1932-1933, 122-34; Dow indeed taught me to distinguish hands (Wade-Gery 1932-1933,101). 10Tracyl970,1975. 11 See esp. Tracy's (1990,1995, 2003) three books devoted to describing and collecting the work of individual Athenian letter-cutters.

Recent Studies in English Translation, c. 1590 – c. 1660. Part 1: General Studies and Translations from Greek and Latin

This essay continues my “Recent Studies in English Translation, c. 1520–c. 1590,” *ELR* 37 (2007), 274–316. For reasons of length, it has been divided into two parts and published in two separate issues of *ELR* 39 (2009). Part 1 begins with a few additions to the listing of general studies of issues in translation given in the previous essay; the greater part of it treats studies of translations from Greek and Latin (both ancient and modern). Greek and Latin have been presented separately, an arrangement that reflects the increased importance of major Greek writers in the seventeenth century. Part 2 covers studies of translations from Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Both Part 1 and Part 2 include (sometimes anachronistically) a few items overlooked in the 2007 essay. As before, the material is organized around source languages, and issues of intermediate translation are left aside.

From Daimonion to The “Last” God

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Blaise Pascal famously distinguished between God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and of Christians) and God of philosophers. The first is God of religious beUever, personal, loving God (of whatever reUgious tradition) that offers hope of salvation to beUever and fear of punishment and damnation to nonbeliever. The second refers to all those abstract ultimate realities that have accumulated throughout history of Western philosophy that complete some comprehensive, inteUectual view of all that is (and has been or will be). To this distinction we also might add another sort of God, what Richard Rorty caUed God of theologians, sort of God that results from running together needs of religious beuevers with needs of by changing label of latest philosophical costume.1 Rorty specifically had in mind Paul TilUch's theological knockoff of Heidegger's Sein and Mark Taylor's appropriation of Derrida's differance, but his label would include everything from Philo's use of Plotinus and Aquinas's use of Aristotle to process theology's reinterpretation of Whitehead, to recent efforts by philosophers working in Continental tradition to reconcile postmodernism with Biblical themes.2 These distinctions, however, overlook more original, more primordial sense of what is divine: of thinker. The early Greeks named this understanding of divinity daimon (...), naming which is heard at crossroads between philosophy and religion, between eariier and later Greek thinking, in Socrates' talk of what inspires and drives him. Interestingly, twentieth century philosopher Martin Heidegger wrestles with meaning of daimon in his interpretations of Plato, Aristotle, and early Greek thinkers, hinting at his own understanding of what is named in the (der letzte Gott). This is field I want to survey in this paper: what are meanings of daimon and last god, and how do they name of thinker. We begin with Socrates, paradigmatic thinker of Western philosophy. In course of his trial, Socrates notes that: I am subject to (daimonion; ...), which Meletus saw fit to travesty in his indictment. It began in my early childhood - sort of voice which comes to me, and when it comes it always dissuades me from what I am proposing to do, and never urges me on. (Plato, Apology, 31c-d)3 Socrates' daimonion apparently was well known; both Plato and Xenophon note or have Socrates refer to his daimonion number of times. In addition, as Socrates observes here, his daimonion is part of what is at issue in his indictment; aU sources note that Socrates was charged with introducing or bringing in daimonia (...).4 Socrates' daimonion was clearly important to who he was and to what he was charged with being. As first reading, noncommital translation of daimonion as something divine seems most appropriate. On one hand, many of earliest Greek writers (e.g., Homer, Pindar, Greek tragedians) use term daimon in conjunction with theos (...), such as in stock ending for Euripides' plays: Many forms are there of (daimonion; ...). Many things gods (theoi; ...) accomplish unexpectedly. What we waited for does not come to pass, while for what remained undreamed (theos; ...) finds ways. Just such doing was this doing.5 The two terms - daimoni and theos - are and are not exactly interchangeable. Lacking an image or cult, ... often indicates strange sort of or power rather than class of beings. In that sense, daimon is similar to o theos (...), which means god or the in generic sense, not particular and individual gods of Greek pantheon. Naming a force that drives man forward where no agent can be named, one way to understand daimon then is as the veiled countenance of activity that is invoked when event or action eludes characterization and naming. …

The Influence of Darwinian Ideas on Greek Literary Writers of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: The Case of Emmanuel Roidis

<p>Darwin's works provoked an enormous response in many disciplines including the literary world. This paper presents a portion of my doctoral thesis3, which responds to a blind spot in Greek literary scholarship on evolutionary ideas in comparison to other Western countries. Little work to date focuses on modern Greek writers's responses to Darwinian and other evolutionary ideas. This paper explores the impact of Darwin in selected writings of Emmanuel Roidis and how Roidis satirised Darwinism in his essays and short stories, contributing to the Darwinian discourse on "man's place in nature" and by placing humanity on the same continuum as other primates. The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his <em>The Origin of Species</em>. It is timely, then, to consider Darwin's impact on modern Greek literature.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

The Dragon Spitting Frogs: On the Imagery of Revelation 16.13–14

In Rev 16.13–14 we encounter minor characters of the book's diabolic bestiary, ‘three unclean spirits like frogs’ that proceed from the mouths of the Dragon and the two Beasts. This article attempts to understand this detail in relation to the metaphorical connotations other ancient Greek and Jewish writers attributed to frogs: they were mostly connected with silliness and loquaciousness. In this context, the picturesque detail of frog-like demons belongs to John's strategy of reassuring his audiences by ridiculing the Dragon and the Beasts and the powers they represent.

Greek Perspectives on the Justness and Merits of the Trojan War

This paper poses the question of how later Greek writers and generals view the Trojan War, its causes, and, especially, whether the war was just or worthwhile. What makes this question meaningful is that it involves important issues, such as the place of the divine and human in bringing about war, the extent to which the relation between cause and the war as an effect is proportional, the role of private as opposed to public interest in going to war, one's responsibility for collective action and suffering, and leaders' and followers' different perspectives on the war and its causes. The paper examines how historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides, playwrights such as Aeschylus and Euripides, the Athenian essayist Isocrates, and the Spartan king Agesilaus and Alexander the Great regard and use the Trojan War.

Ancient Mediterranean Pharmacology and Cultural Transfer

This paper summarises the development of pharmacology in the Graeco-Roman world. The number of medicinal plants recorded almost trebled between 400 BC (the Hippocratic writings) and AD 250 as the Greeks and Romans discovered more about the regions beyond the Mediterranean. The transfer of medicinal substances was almost entirely from East to West, and from South to North with Alexandria and, later, Rome as the major entrepôts. Two Greek writers were of great importance because they were translated into Syriac, Arabic, and Latin, among other languages, and set the agenda for subsequent work in pharmacology. The descriptions of medicinal substances by Pedanius Dioscorides (fl. AD 67) created a model that others followed down to the 17th century. Galen theorized about the way in which drugs worked, and his suggestion that one might correlate illnesses and drugs in terms of four degrees of intensity (a suggestion never followed through systematically by Galen himself) led in the Middle Ages to the classification and investigation of drugs in these terms.

Lo Spirito soffia nel deserto: Carismi, discernimento e autorità nel monachesimo egiziano antico (review)

Reviewed by: Lo Spirito soffia nel deserto: Carismi, discernimento e autorità nel monachesimo egiziano antico Graham Gould Lo Spirito soffia nel deserto: Carismi, discernimento e autorità nel monachesimo egiziano antico. By Fabrizio Vecoli. [Scienze e Storia delle Religioni, Vol. 6.] (Brescia: Morcelliana. 2006. Pp. 279. €20,00 paperback.) The subject of spiritual gifts has been of interest to many students of early Egyptian monasticism; this book is best read as a work of synthesis within this tradition of study. It draws on a range of Greek sources (though with a strong focus on the Life of Antony and the First Greek Life of Pachomius) and on a very wide range of both older and more recent scholarly literature, particularly in the first chapter, which is a survey of Egyptian monastic writings in Greek. Since the theme of the book has its starting point in the Greek word charisma and other terms denoting spiritual gifts, Coptic sources are only occasionally referred to, though the Letters of Antony and Ammonas are used in their extant versions. [End Page 128] The Life of Antony dominates chapter two, the longest. The first part of the chapter examines discernment of spirits in the Life and concludes (p. 60) by underlining its similarity to pagan religious practices in a situation of religious diversity (which is invoked throughout the book, but especially on pp. 167–76 of chapter five). The next main part is on charisms as the fruit of ascetic purification. Finally, discernment and other spiritual gifts are viewed more widely, including the character of Antony's authority as a spiritual father (pp. 88–90) and the way in which it was inherited by his successors. Chapter three considers how Pachomius' spiritual gifts and authority functioned in the koinonia which he founded, with some attention (like other Pachomian scholars) to the further development of the community after his death. Little use is made of the Pachomian monastic rule, even though its existence was surely an important factor in the koinonia's distinctiveness. The shorter fourth chapter is mainly about the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto and the Lausiac History. These are seen as reflecting a later stage of hagiographical writing, in which spiritual gifts such as discernment, healing, and prophecy were linked to the monastic way of life almost as a guarantee (p. 162). The fifth chapter is a synthesis. It comes to the perhaps unsurprising conclusions that Antony's charisms were directed more toward the needs of the Church and society (pp. 180–82), Pachomius' toward the maintenance of the holiness of the koinonia (p. 185). The final pages (pp. 187–97) discuss the role of Christian holy men (there is no distinct mention of holy women) in the general context of late antique religion and society. The conclusion, again unsurprising, is that Christians took on many of the roles of pagan holy men and strengthened and radicalized them, becoming a third locus of authority in society alongside the figures of the emperor and the bishop. There is a brief overall conclusion and an appendix on occurrences of the word charisma in the Bible, early Christian texts, and Egyptian monastic texts in Greek. While scholars will find it worthwhile to persevere with this book, its discussion of so many historical questions and its review of such a large body of critical studies makes it difficult—and not, for this reviewer, just because of the linguistic barrier—to identify just where its own original contribution lies. For those who are not quite fluent in Italian an English summary of such a complex and detailed work would have been helpful. Graham Gould London Copyright © 2008 The Catholic University of America Press