Hellenistic Tradition Research Articles

The Good of Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas’s thought was recognized as brilliant and insightful from his own time onwards, and there is a resurgence of interest in it today not only among Catholics and other Christians but among contemporary humanistic philosophers also, as a quick review of bibliographic sources will evince. Nonetheless, with many pressing problems in the world, with growing secularization of society, and with rising recognition of the need for multicultural studies, people may wonder why anyone would want to study the thought of a thirteenth-century European Catholic. People may think, what good is Aquinas now? This small essay is an attempt to give a short answer to that question. Our essay has two parts. The first part focuses on Aquinas’s metaphysics. It shows the way in which both the preceding Jewish and Hellenistic traditions are brought together in Aquinas’s work to yield a metaphysics that can handle well complicated philosophical issues still discussed today. The second part focuses on Aquinas’s ethics. It shows the way in which Aquinas’s version of virtue ethics incorporates the significance of the second-personal in human flourishing to yield a decidedly non-Aristotelian ethics.

Recreating the Eye of the Beholder: Technopaegnia , Encrypted Reading, and a New Version of "Easter-wings"

Abstract: George Herbert's "Easter-wings" is perhaps the best-known shape poem in the English language. As such, it has been the subject of intense and sustained scholarly scrutiny. With very few exceptions, however, critics have shown surprisingly little interest in contextualizing the poem in light of the Hellenistic tradition of shape poetry from which the Renaissance figure poem ultimately descends. In particular, no previous scholarly examination of the poem has taken into account the genre's penchant for encrypted reading and plural signification. In doing just this, the present essay uncovers another semantically coherent, arresting, "new" version of "Easter-wings" that has been hiding in plain sight all along, a combined "Easter-wings" that remains visible today in the poem's two surviving manuscript sources. Enlisting qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyzing Herbert's corrections in the palimpsestic backdrop of the only authorially supervised manuscript copy of The Temple , it finds that these authorial revisions exist with the primary (and hitherto unrecognized) purpose of better supporting a combined reading of the poem. Finally, by discussing some of the more pressing challenges facing future editors of The Temple , this essay also draws on and contributes to ongoing scholarship in textual criticism, material texts, and the history of the book.

From Hellenistic slipped tableware to Roman Imperial Sagalassos Red Slip Ware: A petrographic and geochemical study

This paper offers new insights from the petrographic and geochemical characterisation of 92 pottery samples from the archaeological site of Sagalassos in SW Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The sampled table wares form part of the Hellenistic to Roman Imperial local pottery production lines. The aim of this study is to reconstruct in more detail the tableware production at the site and examine Sagalassos Red Slip Ware (SRSW) in comparison with the pre-existing Hellenistic tradition in slipped pottery. The results suggest that Hellenistic Colour Coated Ware (CCW) and Gray Ware with Black Slip (GWBS) were locally produced at the site using the same raw materials as the ones used for the subsequent mass-produced Sagalassos Red Slip Ware (SRSW), namely clays from the nearby NW parts of the valley of Çanaklı. SRSW appears thus as a continuation of the Hellenistic tradition in slipped pottery at Sagalassos, at least as far as some choices for clay raw materials are concerned. At the same time, this study provides for the first time evidence of regional production of a type of eastern sigillata that appears macroscopically similar to SRSW, while the number of identified imported wares to the polis of Sagalassos contributes new evidence to the discussion on the production of GWBS in the wider region of Anatolia and the origin of Eastern Sigillata A (ESA). Using the site of Sagalassos as a case-study, this research aims to demonstrate the importance of the analytical examination of pottery in a longue durée perspective in order to reconstruct ceramic traditions and better understand the local and regional sociocultural mechanisms behind them.

The defence of Medea: The subversion of the femme fatale trope in William Morris’s 'The Life and Death of Jason'

William Morris (1834-1896) was one of the Victorian artists whose work extended beyond the totality of art that was cherished by nineteenth-century critics. Particularly in his early oeuvre, Morris engages with the political and cultural discussion on women’s emancipation and utopian society through the use of Arthurian and Hellenic traditions. The following article provides a detailed reading of William Morris’s portrayal of Medea in The Life and Death of Jason (1867). Contrary to the established association of Medea as a femme fatale, Morris’s depiction of the Colchian princess escapes the vision of femininity characterised by devouring sexuality, manipulation, and the urge to destroy men. Similarly to The Defence of Guinevere (published in 1858), The Life and Death of Jason refrains from a direct condemnation of Medea, who attempts to navigate her experience of betrayal and dishonour. Thus, the article attempts to examine how Morris reused Hellenic tropes to discuss the complexity of the female experience that transgresses the boundaries of time and place.

Figurative Lamps Depicting Silenus Discovered in Roman Dacia

The paper discusses the few figurative plastic lamps with the representation of the god Silenus discovered in the Roman province of Dacia starting from the analysis of a recently found specimen at Optatiana / Sutor (Sălaj County, Romania). From a morphological perspective, all these artefacts consist of a central clay statuette around which a series of secondary functional elements are revolving, namely one or more clay lamps. The high quality of these plastic lamps (lychnophoroi) makes such artefacts extremely valuable, while their technical and artistic aspect indicates towards their local production. From a chronological point of view, the data related to their archaeological context of discovery (especially for the items discovered at Optatiana and Porolissum), suggests that such figurative plastic lamps are to be dated in Dacia during the 2nd century AD, representing the revival of a late Hellenistic tradition.

:The Archaeology of Roman Macedonia: Urban and Rural Environments

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The Alina or Hellenistic Tradition in Europe and America Common Origin of Philosophical Culture and Knowledge

The Alina or Hellenistic Tradition in Europe and America Common Origin of Philosophical Culture and Knowledge

Удивительная Скифия Гая Юлия Солина

The lost ethno-geographic information of Hellenistic tradition and of the earlier one on the northern Black Sea and neighboring territories are partially preserved due to the compilations emerged in the epoque of the Roman Empire. Thus, “Collectanea rerum memorabilium”, the work by Gaius Julius Solinus, (the 3rd cent.), despite its “secondary” information, is a promising source for the researchers of the northern Black Sea’s ethno-geography. The article discusses Solinus’s information on peoples and tribes dwelling in the region of the northern Black Sea in antiquity, as well as other descriptions (mostly concerning hydronyms, local fauna and customs and the mode of life of Scythian tribes) drawing attention to the features of Solinus’s world picture. Solinus’s compilation’s chief sources were works by Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder. Exposing their texts, Solinus used rhetorical techniques and added paradoxography’s excursions to his predecessors’ information, i.e., inserted unusual facts and curious natural phenomena. Obviously, such a description should have made Solinus’s ethno-geographical stuff more attractive to ancient readers and contribute to “a popularization” of the science of ancient oikoumene, i.e., serve didactic targets. If mirabilia in ancient literature are used from the early times, “the miraculous examples” in the work by Solinus are put to the forefront. So, one can speak of his proximity to the literature of ancient paradoxographers. Conventional requirements of sophistics do not exclude the use of Solinus’s work as a historical source containing true facts and details, which not only remove complications in understanding of Solinus’s ethno-geographic map, but also add some evidence of history and culture of the northern Black Sea region in antiquity.

Myth of Makar — the First Founder of Lesbos or How to Become a Greek

Myth of Makar plays a special role in common Greek tradition about the foundation of Aiolian Lesbos, since the myth presents an alternative version of history of founding of Greek settlements in Lesbos, dating this event to the Late Bronze Age. However the most complete version of the myth presented by Diodorus Siculus contains very little that definitely indicates both the origin of Makar himself and his colonists as Greeks. On the contrary many of the details included in the myth testify to the non-Greek component of this myth. Accordingly, the ancient tradition tried in every possible way to rectify Makar’s genealogy and change the content of the holistic story to make it possible to incorporate myth of Makar into the common Hellenic tradition of founding Greek settlements outside the mainland Greece.

Ceramic collections from the citadel of the Uzundara fortress have been dated as the first third of the 3rd century BCE

This paper presents preliminary archaeological data of the Uzundara fortress, one of the military settlements founded at the border between Bactria and Sogdina regions, in the context of the military campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors in Central Asia. Recent archaeological and numismatic evidence reveal that a garrison of the Greek- Macedonian army was stationed at Uzundara (Long gorge) at the beginning of the 295–280 BCE during the kingdom of Seleucus I or Antiochus I in order to protect the border and the oasis of northern Bactria from the nomad invasions; the fortress remained encamped by the Greek-Bactrian kingdom until its final collapse in 150–130 BCE.The paper focuses on the archaeological contextualization and the typological evaluation of three ceramic collections found in several areas of Citadel of the Uzundara fortress, which have been accurately dated by numismatics to 295–261 BCE. These collections include several types of tableware, common use items, and storage jars whose shapes and surface finishing resemble those of the ancient pottery in Hellenistic tradition discovered at the nearby settlements.

China, Hungary & India: Aditya Birla – carbon black

This paper presents preliminary archaeological data of the Uzundara fortress, one of the military settlements founded at the border between Bactria and Sogdina regions, in the context of the military campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors in Central Asia. Recent archaeological and numismatic evidence reveal that a garrison of the Greek- Macedonian army was stationed at Uzundara (Long gorge) at the beginning of the 295–280 BCE during the kingdom of Seleucus I or Antiochus I in order to protect the border and the oasis of northern Bactria from the nomad invasions; the fortress remained encamped by the Greek-Bactrian kingdom until its final collapse in 150–130 BCE.The paper focuses on the archaeological contextualization and the typological evaluation of three ceramic collections found in several areas of Citadel of the Uzundara fortress, which have been accurately dated by numismatics to 295–261 BCE. These collections include several types of tableware, common use items, and storage jars whose shapes and surface finishing resemble those of the ancient pottery in Hellenistic tradition discovered at the nearby settlements.

Gryphon Investors takes majority stake in Vivify

This paper presents preliminary archaeological data of the Uzundara fortress, one of the military settlements founded at the border between Bactria and Sogdina regions, in the context of the military campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors in Central Asia. Recent archaeological and numismatic evidence reveal that a garrison of the Greek- Macedonian army was stationed at Uzundara (Long gorge) at the beginning of the 295–280 BCE during the kingdom of Seleucus I or Antiochus I in order to protect the border and the oasis of northern Bactria from the nomad invasions; the fortress remained encamped by the Greek-Bactrian kingdom until its final collapse in 150–130 BCE.The paper focuses on the archaeological contextualization and the typological evaluation of three ceramic collections found in several areas of Citadel of the Uzundara fortress, which have been accurately dated by numismatics to 295–261 BCE. These collections include several types of tableware, common use items, and storage jars whose shapes and surface finishing resemble those of the ancient pottery in Hellenistic tradition discovered at the nearby settlements.

The Mixed Constitution of Demetrius Phalereus

SummaryThe politeia established in Athens in 317 after a covenant between Cassander and Demetrius of Phalerum was variously described by ancient authors as a tyranny, an oligarchy, and a democracy. Even among modern scholars there is no agreement about its definition. A close study of the architecture of the so-called regime of Demetrius and a comparison with the almost contemporary constitution of Cyrene, imposed on the African town by Ptolemaeus I, lead us to characterize it as a mixed constitution, which balanced elements from the three principal types of political organisation. This experiment had a strong impact on the Hellenistic and Roman political traditions, as testified by Cicero, who recalled Demetrius as the last great Athenian lawgiver and inventor of the blended constitution.

Philo’s Hellenistic-Jewish Approach in On the Decalogue and On the Contemplative Life: Blending Wisdom of Solomon’s Critique against Idols with a Hellenistic Notion of Moderation

Abstract Philo draws on the Wisdom of Solomon in his tripartite critique against idols found in On the Decalogue and On the Contemplative Life. As he fashions these critiques in the pursuit of upholding Mosaic law, Philo not only criticizes Greek and Egyptian forms of worship, he also integrates the notion of moderation evident in Hellenism and Hellenistic-Egyptian Isis worship. This essay demonstrates ways in which the pursuit of moderation and Isis as lawgiver are integrated into Philo’s concepts of Moses as lawgiver and pursuit of law in opposition to Roman forms of excess. The essay considers various texts, including excerpts from Greek philosophers and Hellenistic Egyptian hymns to Isis, in addition to considerations of contemporary Roman excesses vis-à-vis Philo’s Decalogue, Contempl. Life, and his uses of Wis. Philo’s Hellenistic Judaism emerges from a simultaneous criticism yet also integration of both Hellenistic and Hellenistic-Egyptian concepts and traditions.

Plato and Hermes in Mani’s Prophetology: a possible adaptation to the theurgical milieu

The aim of this article is to set forth conjectures that are likely to explain the inclusion of Plato and Hermes as heralds of Mani in the testimony of Ephrem of Syria. This incorporation should be set against the background of the Syrian religious milieu, which was influenced by both Hellenistic philosophy and Eastern religious traditions. Therefore, it would be better to seek a religious and philosophical environment wherein Plato and Hermes were associated. Keywords: Manichaeism, apocalypticism, theurgy, hermetism, Merkabah mysticism, late platonism.

A promenade at Lepcis Magna: Experiencing buildings from the Augustan to the Antonine era

AbstractThis article investigates the visibility of public edifices at Lepcis Magna (Lebdah, Libya) and how people in antiquity approached, lived, and experienced them. It engages with the buildings’ layout, architectural and sculptural ornamentation, and epigraphic apparatuses, looking at the transformations of the cityscape from Augustus to the Antonine era. The analysis highlights the importance of private and public patronage and how social status was showcased through the monumentality and visibility of new constructions in an evolving urban environment. Buildings and their ornament drew upon a range of architectural and decorative models: influences from the centre of Empire and the Mediterranean world, long-lasting Hellenistic traditions, as well as North African and locally created, or reinterpreted, motifs that contributed to shaping the Lepcitanian architectural taste.

SOLON WRITES BACK: ANOTHER READING OF DÍKĒ IN ANCIENT HELLENIC POETS

Departing from the idea of díkē [justice], present in Homeric poetry and the different perspectives developed in the poems attributed to Hesiod, I highlight some of the significant adjustments of that concept made by Solon in his historical context. In my discussion, I read some of his political poems – mainly frs. 4 and 36 W.2 –, focusing on his allusions to writing. My purpose is to suggest new ways of comprehending díkē in Solon’s poetry to reclaim his importance in the Hellenic tradition of thinking about justice and writing.

SOLON WRITES BACK: ANOTHER READING OF DÍKĒ IN ANCIENT HELLENIC POETS

Departing from the idea of díkē [justice], present in Homeric poetry and the different perspectives developed in the poems attributed to Hesiod, I highlight some of the significant adjustments of that concept made by Solon in his historical context. In my discussion, I read some of his political poems – mainly frs. 4 and 36 W.2 –, focusing on his allusions to writing. My purpose is to suggest new ways of comprehending díkē in Solon’s poetry to reclaim his importance in the Hellenic tradition of thinking about justice and writing.

Государство Хасмонеев в современной российской историографии (1991-2020 гг.)

The paper aims to reveal views of the Russian historians of 1991-2020 on the Hasmonean state. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the author for the first time provides a historiographical analysis of the problem. The researcher’s attention is focused on the following issues: causes of the Maccabean Revolt and influence of the Hellenistic tradition on the Hasmonean state. In fact, most scientists agree on the following points: the Maccabean Revolt was provoked by the harsh anti-Jewish policy of Antiochus IV Epiphanes; the Jewish statehood was based on the Hellenistic model with influence of the local tradition. The researcher concludes on the necessity to create a fundamental work on the history of Judea of the II-I centuries B.C.

True Friendship: Ennius and Other Poets in Catullus 116

This paper offers a new reading of Catullus's last poem. It argues against the current consensus that Catullus therein parodies both his recipient Gellius and his predecessor Ennius as hackish "anti-Callimacheans." Catullus 116 is rather, on the literal level, an indignant complaint to a false friend and fellow neoteric poet; and, on the figurative level, a programmatic statement of its author's Ennian-Callimachean poetics. To Catullus and his addressee, Ennius is a learned author in the Hellenistic tradition, whose influence alternately converges with and acts as a vector for the influence of Callimachus.