Prose Authors Research Articles

Greek Forms of Address from Herodotus to Lucian

How did an Athenian citizen address his wife? His children, his slaves, and his dog? How did they address him? This book is the first major application of linguistic theories of address to an ancient language. It is based on a corpus of 11,891 vocatives from twenty-five prose authors from Herodotus to Lucian, and on comparative data from Aristophanes, Menander, and other sources; the data are analysed using techniques and evidence from the field of sociolinguistics to shed light on some long-standing problems in Greek. A separate section discusses the theoretical problems which arise from the attempt to reconstruct conversational Greek on the basis of written texts and concludes that this enterprise is indeed possible, provided that the right sources are selected. Analysis of the Greek address system leads to a reconsideration of the meaning of individual addresses and thus of the interpretation of specific passages; it also challenges the validity of some alleged sociolinguistic 'universals'. In particular, Professor Dickey examines some of the idiosyncratic aspects of Socrates' language, offering an exceptionally interesting and novel contribution to to the problems of the 'historical Socrates'. Highly original, lucid, and jargon-free, this book offers may significant insights on both the literature and language of ancient Greece,

A PLEONASTIC USE OF KAI AND ET IN EPIC SIMILES

Nothing seems more natural?and strictly unnecessary?than the use of ?a? or et in the sense of 'also' to reinforce a comparison; after all, the very act of comparing implies a common element shared by the comparanda. In Greek, for example, 'so also' (with or without a previous 'just as') is extremely common at all periods (with both ?? [de] and ??t?), and ???? .. . t????t?? ?a?, though much less common, can be found in some 30 prose authors (but no poets) from the fourth century B.C. onwards.1) On the other hand, ???? . . . t???? [de] ?a? is found only in Homer's celebrated comparison ??? pe? f????? ?e?e?, t??? de ?a? a?d??? (//. 6.146) and in one or two other passages each in prose and poetry.2) In Latin, sic et (with or without a previous [mV]i//) and talis et are much rarer, and comparisons of the kind qualis. . . talis et are found only five times in all, three times in prose, twice in poetry.3) This paper

Ekphrasis ancient and modern: The invention of a genre1

In contemporary critical terminology ‘ekphrasis’ has come to be firmly associated with the subject of this journal: word and image. Mention ‘ekphrasis’ to an art historian, literary critic or classicist, and the examples that spring to mind are likely to include the Homeric Shield of Achilles and its many literary imitations, the rhetorical and allegorical descriptions of paintings written by later Greek prose authors, like Lucian and the Elder and Younger Philostratos or, from more recent periods of Western literary history, John Keats' meditation on his tantalisingly still and silent Grecian Urn. This ‘genre’, or ‘trope’, of ekphrasis evokes a network of interlocking questions and interests, from the positivist pursuit of lost monuments described in ancient and medieval ekphrasis to the poststructuralist fascination with a textual fragment which declares itself to be pure artifice, the representation of representation.

Lecture d''Erec': Traces épiques et troubadouresques dans le conte de Chrétien de Troyes by Claudia Seebass-Linggi (review)

Claudia SEEBASS-LINGGI, Lecture d'Erec: Traces épiques et troubadouresques dans le contede Chrétien de Troyes. Publications Universitaires Européennes: SérieXIII, Langue et littérature françaises 211. Bern: Peter Lang, 1996. Pp. 295. isbn: 3-906756-09-2. $52.95. The point ofdeparture for this study ofErec is the author's conviction that important relationships exist between Chretien's first romance and the chansons de geste and troubadour lyrics. (Owing to space limitations, this review will concentrate largely on the chanson de geste section). By studying those relationships, Seebass-Linggi hopes to demonstrate that Chretien's conception ofhis character and ofhis chivalric exploits is ironic or 'souriante.' In the process, she offers close and careful analyses, frequently calling our attention to unusual uses of particular words and formulas and to narrative details often overlooked by other critics. Despite the care ofher readings, the book is less than entirely satisfactory. SeebassLinggi considers it important to begin by studying the thirteenth-century Prose Erec (a largely unrelated text, though devoted to Erec) in order to provide an interpretive key to its predecessor. Accordingly, noting that the hero ofthe later romance is 'un chevalier obscur, attaché excessivement au code chevaleresque,' she concludes (19) that the prose author must be magnifying negative characteristics already present, though not necessarily visible, in Chrétien. In both principle and practice, I find it hard to accept the reliability ofthe later romance as an index to the earlier one. Ifthe idea Seebass-Linngi is seeking is in Chrétien, there is no need to seek confirmation in the later text; ifit is not there, reading back from the prose romance cannot make it appear. Even if we concur with her reading, the interpretive ground remains shaky. Evaluating Chretien's response to the chansons de geste is an exceedingly delicate matter, since he makes only two explicit references to the genre. Seebass-Linggi must therefore deal also with passages in which Chrétien mayhave the epic in mind.Thus, when he emphasizes the extraordinary length ofbattles or Erees prodigious prowess, she concludes that he is playing on the characteristics of the epics, retaining their form but distancinghimselfby dramatizing their invraisembUnceand thus offeringa subtle critique of chivalry. Elsewhere (66-67), discussing a tournament scene in which Erec is lavishlypraised as the equal ofAlexander and others, Seebass-Linggi takes the disproportion (écart) between that praise and his acts as evidence that Chretien's passage is ironic. That conclusion may well be correct, but it leads to another, more curious, one: since tournaments in romance imitate epic battles, Chrétien is here distancing himself from the total devotion to heroism so valued in the chanson de geste. The discussion of Chretien's two references to chansons de geste is on firmer footing but not entirely persuasive. The second one (11. 6675-78), for example, compares Arthur's generosity to that of 'all the kings named in diz and in chansons de geste.' However, since kings in the epic are noted forvalormore than for generosity, she suggests (153) that this reference is faint praise and may actually express reservations aboutArthur's generosity. (Elsewhere, we are told that Erees generosity is questionable ARTHURIANA 8.1 (1998) ARTHURIANA as well, because, having received a gift first, he is simply obeying the dictates of a code that requires giving in return.) The pages devoted to the lyric consider the reciprocal relationships between Chrétien and the troubadours, and especially the particular references made to Erec by the latter. There are seven such references, although only three ofthem, the author admits, provide 'pistes' that lead us to an interpretation oíErec. That interpretation agrees, we are told, with the contention by Fanni Bogdanow that Chrétien inverted the roles of Erec and Enide, making her the long-suffering 'fin amant' and him the dominating dompna of occitan tradition. This is clearly a book that Chrétien scholars should know; it is thorough, thoughtful, and well researched, and Seebass-Linggi is less categorical in her pronouncements than a briefreview may imply. I share her impression that Chrétiens text is often playful and ironic, and it is certain that he was not unaware ofearlier and...

The Superfluous Man and the Necessary Woman: A "Re-Vision"

Lt is a common misconception among Slavists that, before the twentieth century, there were no women authors of prose in Russia, certainly no good or interesting female prose writers.' In fact, women wrote many and varied texts, including influential prose works, and were a vital part of the literary process in Russia in the nineteenth century.2 Given their importance, it is surprisingly difficult to reconstruct the part they played in the larger literary culture. Women's writings were regularly published in Biblioteka dlia chteniia, Otechestvennye zapiski, Sovremennik, and other popular journals of the day, and were often issued in book form, sometimes running to several editions.3 But women's prose writings of the nineteenth century have re-

A History of Russian Symbolism

The era of Russian Symbolism (1892-1917) has been called the Silver Age of Russian culture, and even the Second Golden Age. Symbolist authors are among the greatest Russian authors of this century, and their activities helped to foster one of the most significant advances in cultural life (in poetry, prose, music, theater, and painting) that has ever been seen there. This book is designed to serve as an introduction to Symbolism in Russia, as a movement, an artistic method, and a world view. The primary emphasis is on the history of the movement itself. Attention is devoted to what the Symbolists wrote, said, and thought, and on how they interacted. In this context, the main actors are the authors of poetry, prose, drama, and criticism, but space is also devoted to the important connections between literary figures and artists, philosophers, and the intelligentsia in general. This broad, detailed and balanced account of this period will serve as a standard reference work an encourage further research among scholars and students of literature.

Dionysiac Tragedy in Plutarch,Crassus

It has recently and rightly been observed that Plutarch is exceptional as a prose author in the finesse with which he employs tragedy in his Lives. And, one might add, in the extent to which he does so. His dislike for the sensationalism of ‘tragic history’ was no obstacle to his use of ‘the sustained tragic patterning and imagery which is a perfectly respectable feature of both biography and history’. The primary purpose of the present discussion is to draw attention to the profound importance of tragedy, particularly of Euripides'Bacchae, to the Carrhae narrative in Plutarch'sCrassus. It is argued that details inCrassus'; version of Carrhae recall the tragedy of Pentheus and, in so doing, substantially advance the portrayal of Crassus' character.

Bee Imagery in Plutarch

There can be few Greek prose authors who outdo Plutarch in fondness for elaborate similes, and a determination to sustain at length vocabulary appropriate to both objects of comparison within the simile, once it is embarked upon. In the essay Quomodo adulescens (Mor. 32e) he uses a favourite image, in which a young man aspiring to be educated in quality literature is recommended to follow the example of the bee, which extracts material for its honey from the most pungent plants: μν οὖν μλιττα ϕυσικς ν τοῖς δριμνττοις ἄνθεσι κα ταῖς τραχντταις κνθαις ξανενρσκει τ λειτατον μλι κα χρησιμώτατον, οἱ δ παῖδες, ἂν ρθς ντρϕωνται τοῖς ποιμασιν, κα π τν ϕαλονς κα τπους ὑποψας χντων ἕλκειν τι χρσιμον μωσγπως μαθησναι κα ὠϕλιμον. In another such essay (De recta, Mor. 41e–42b) he elaborates this theme at greater length as follows:

Reply to Paul Grendler

With regard to Paul Grendler's points about the curriculum, it may be replied that the impact of Ciceronianism in fifteenth-century Italian education was mainly felt at the post-grammatical level of Latin teaching, i.e., in the study of rhetoric and moral philosophy. There was of course a great difference between medieval dictamen and Ciceronian rhetoric, based on classical rhetorical treatises and modelled on Cicero's speeches and letters, but this new material was usually encountered after the completion of normal secondary education which ended with grammar. In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, rhetoric and moral philosophy were normally tertiary, i.e., post-school, subjects, and as such the usual place for their study was in universities, equivalent centers of higher education, or the advanced, post-grammatical classes of humanist teachers. Grendler's discussion of the broadening of the Renaissance Latin curriculum after the study of grammar (Schooling, 235-71) corresponds to the further teaching of Latin prose authors in the Middle Ages. A number of classical Latin prose authors had a powerful commentary tradition in the Middle Ages, and this can be related to post-grammatical teaching just as much then as in the Renaissance. With regard to Grendler's point about the predominance of free education in the Italian communes, it is true that Grendler's actual formulation of this trend is cautiously worded; but the evidence that he cites, together with the material in Manacorda, vol. I, 174-75, with the material in Peter Denley's Governments and Schools in Late Medieval (in City and Countryside in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Essays Presented to Philip Jones, ed. T. Dean and C. Wickham, London, 1990, 104-5), and with my own still unpublished archival research on Tuscan schools in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, suggests that free grammar education was becoming the norm in Italy by the end of the fifteenth century. In fact free education was established regularly in San Gimignano after 1435, in Colle di Val d'Elsa after 1445, in Arezzo after 1456, in Prato after 1464 and in Pistoia after 1466. The interesting point in all thisunderemphasized by Grendler-is that the free schooling introduced by the Counter Reformation had been largely anticipated by the communal schools of Italy by the turn of the sixteenth century. In reply to Grendler's doubts about the Italian diffusion of Doctrinale and Catholicon in the fifteenth century, manuscript survival and contemporary book inventories suggest a widespread use of these texts, especially Doctrinale. For Catholicon, see Manacorda, II, 237, 253; Bursill-Hall, Census, 55, 78, 136, 140 (3 copies), 142, 166, 208, 252 (2 copies), 255 (2 copies), 257 (3 copies), 264; A. Marigo, I codici manoscritti delle Derivationes di Uguccione Pisano: saggio

Notes on Latin Prose Authors

Notes on Latin Prose Authors

Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius: A Revaluation

Invenio tamen translationes verborum ut non temerarias ita quae periculum sui fecerint; invenio imagines, quibus si quis nos uti vetat et poetis illas solis iudicat esse concessas, neminem mihi videtur ex antiquis legisse, apud quos nondum captabatur plausibilis oratio: illi, qui simpliciter et demonstrandae rei causa eloquebantur, parabolis referti sunt, quas existimo necessarias, non ex eadem causa qua poetis, sed ut inbecillitatis nostrae adminicula sint, ut et dicentem et audientem in rem praesentem adducant.(Ep. 59.6)I find metaphors in your writing, but not uncontrolled and so self-defeating. I find there the use of images. If anyone denies us the right to employ images in our prose by decreeing that they are allowed only in poetry, then he seems to me unfamiliar with our early prose authors whose language was not yet governed by the need to please good opinion. In expressing themselves naturally with a direct view to proving their point, they are full of these forms of comparison. I consider such devices indispensable, but not for the same reasons as do the poets. They work as a buttress for human weakness and they are effective in engaging both author and audience with the central issue at hand.

Some Types of Abnormal Word-Order in Attic Comedy

Some Types of Abnormal Word-Order in Attic Comedy

Pliny the Elder and Ancient Mineralogy

Abstract In the ancient world the dividing line between the Arts and the Sciences was not so rigidly drawn as in recenl times. Poets and prose authors alike frequently crossed the boundaries in their literary works. Notable Greek interdisciplinary writers include Hesiod, Aristotle and Theophrastus and, among the Romans, Lucretius, Virgil and Pliny the Elder are the best known. Thus Aristotle wrote the Poetics on the nature of drama and related topics and, in addition to many other philosophical and scientific works, the Meteorologica, a mixture of sciences. Virgil composed the Aeneid, a national epic glorifying Rome and the emperor Augustus, and the Georgics, a handbook of agriculture. Pliny the Elder, the nineteenth centenary of whose death was celebrated on 24 August 1979, had wide-ranging interests. His works include a treatise on the javelin, a history of Rome's wars against the Germans and the unique encyclopaedic Natural History. The present review examines Pliny's career and assesses his contributi...

Pliny the Elder and Ancient Mineralogy

In the ancient world the dividing line between the Arts and the Sciences was not so rigidly drawn as in recenl times. Poets and prose authors alike frequently crossed the boundaries in their literary works. Notable Greek interdisciplinary writers include Hesiod, Aristotle and Theophrastus and, among the Romans, Lucretius, Virgil and Pliny the Elder are the best known. Thus Aristotle wrote the Poetics on the nature of drama and related topics and, in addition to many other philosophical and scientific works, the Meteorologica, a mixture of sciences. Virgil composed the Aeneid, a national epic glorifying Rome and the emperor Augustus, and the Georgics, a handbook of agriculture. Pliny the Elder, the nineteenth centenary of whose death was celebrated on 24 August 1979, had wide-ranging interests. His works include a treatise on the javelin, a history of Rome's wars against the Germans and the unique encyclopaedic Natural History. The present review examines Pliny's career and assesses his contribution to the early history of mineralogy.

A Type of Hyperbaton in Latin Prose

False generalisations have often been made about the use of hyperbaton in Latin prose. According to Hofmann-Szantyr, for instance, ‘die klass. Prosa geht im Gebrauch des Hyperbatons…kaum über die Praxis des Aldateins hinaus'. The same scholars also imply that even when Cicero and Caesar do separate a substantive from its attribute, the separating word is seldom a verb. Again, E. Fraenkel, while showing that long disjunctions are common in Cicero, has maintained that hyperbaton ‘vielmehr ist… in der Umgangssprache zuhause’.E. Skard has recendy pointed out the frequency with which Cornelius Nepos uses hyperbaton of the kind which comprises a substantive separated from its attribute by a verb. Since Skard accepts the above assertions of Hofmann-Szantyr, he is led to suggest that Nepos must have been following a Greek master. The favoured candidate is Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Dionysius not only has hyperbaton more often than any earlier Greek prose author; his work περὶ ἐνδόξων ἀνδρῶν may have been a source for some of Nepos' biographies.It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the history of one type of hyperbaton in Latin prose, that consisting of a verb standing between a substantive and its adjective (henceforth for convenience referred to as ‘verbal hyperbaton’). It will be demonstrated that, however easy disjunction might seem in a synthetic language, our device was artistic rather than natural to ordinary speech. The statements of Hofmann-Szantyr mentioned above will be shown to be inaccurate, and Skard's hypothesis to be unnecessary.

La invención de un género: Heródoto, Tucídides y los retos de escribir prosa histórica a gran escala

El interés por el pasado (ya sea histórico o mítico) es tan antiguo como la literatura griega. La poesía (épica, elegía y tragedia) dramatizaba los acontecimientos del pasado. Entre los escritores en prosa, Hecateo estableció un primer estándar, pero sus obras con contenido histórico fueron más breves y simples que las de sus sucesores. Heródoto escribió la primera historia extensa y compleja de un acontecimiento histórico importante como “un relato múltiple, orientado de manera contingente” (Christian Meier), y fue pronto seguido por Tucídides. Aunque este último conoció en su momento la obra de Heródoto, pudo haberla tenido sólo después de haber comenzado a escribir su propio texto.Los desafíos que enfrentaron estos autores al crear, establecer y legitimar un nuevo género eran formidables. Aunque tenían un lejano predecesor en la épica, en lo esencial, entraron en un territorio desconocido y tuvieron que encontrar la manera de organizar su material, presentar su relato y atraer la atención de su público. En un mundo profundamente fragmentado, con tradiciones y recuerdos contradictorios, eligieron escribir desde una perspectiva panhelénica (o aún más amplia), por lo que tuvieron que crear su propio público. Aunque eran diferentes en edad y antecedentes, eran contemporáneos y participaban en el ambiente competitivo y en la vibrante cultura intelectual de su tiempo.Cabría esperar, en consecuencia, que, a pesar de sus diferencias de enfoque, metodología, estilo y visión del mundo, podían también compartir algunas de las soluciones a los desafíos que ambos enfrentaban.Este artículo discutirá algunas técnicas semejantes que los dos autores desarrollaron para hacer sus historias importantes, interesantes y significativas para sus lectores. Algunas de estas técnicas (por ejemplo, la combinación de narración y discursos) las tomaron de la épica. Otras eran mecanismos nuevos y altamente originales para estructurar la narración, insertar indicaciones para llamar la atención de los lectores sobre aspectos importantes, involucrarlos en la acción narrada u ofrecer patrones que comprometen a los lectores a una interacción dinámica entre el pasado y el presente.

Prodelision in Greek Drama

Prodelision or Inverse Elisiontakes place when a word ending in a long vowel or diphthong is immediately followed by another word beginning with a short vowel. Though it is very occasionally found in inscriptions and in the manuscripts of certain prose authors, particularly those of Plato—almost uniquelyand its cases—it is to be considered as essentially a verse phenomenon, affecting as it does the metre of the line in which it occurs. Prodelision was unknown to Homer and Hesiod, is rare in lyric, and seems only to come into real use with the dramatists of the fifth century. An examination of the practice of the three tragedians and of Aristophanes is not without interest in itself and may occasionally throw some light on points of textual criticism.

Sidelights on Greek Philosophers

When, towards the close of 1897, I, a freshman of St. John's College, Oxford, first met David Ross of Balliol in the room of a common friend, I little dreamed how long and how closely we should be associated in the life and work of another Oxford college and how immeasurably I should be enriched by his example, his help and his friendship. So I welcome wholeheartedly this opportunity of acknowledging, since I cannot repay, my debt by making a contribution, however slight, to the tribute of admiration, affection and good wishes embodied in this volume. Much of his time and ability has been devoted to the study and elucidation of the works of the Greek philosophers, and I offer him,γλαῦκ᾽ εἰς Ἀθήνας, some notes, which lay no claim to completeness, on the light thrown on that study by Greek inscriptions.We regard the rise and development of philosophy as one of the supreme achievements of the Greeks, which has permanently and profoundly affected Western civilisation. Did the later Greeks share this view? Inscriptions offer some evidence which merits consideration. The author of the Parian Chronicle, who is for us, owing to the mutilation of the stone, anonymous, compiled a chronological table of the outstanding personalities and events in Greek history down to 264–3 B.C. The extant record is fairly complete from 1581–80 to 355–4 B.C. and again from 336–5 to 299–8, and if we examine the period after 1000 B.C. we are struck by the predominance of Greek tyrants and foreign potentates in the sphere of political and military history and of poets (prose authors are ignored) in the realm of culture; Terpander of Lesbos (A34) is the sole representative of music and Callippus, the astronomer (B6), of natural science, while sculptors, painters and architects are passed over in silence. Philosophy appears only in the persons of Socrates, Anaxagoras and Aristotle; a brief reference to two of these,is tacked on as an afterthought to the record (A60) of Euripides' first victory in 442–1 B.C., and the death of ‘Socrates the philosopher’ at the age of 70 is reported (A66) under the date 400–399, while in a paragraph (B11) relating to events in Asia Minor and Egypt in 321–20 B.C. occurs the phraseA fragment of another chronological table, drawn up in A.D. 15–16, survives in Rome and gives rather more recognition to philosophy; S[olon], Anacharsis, the Seven Sages and Aesop are mentioned in B2, 4 and 5, B7 tells of Pythagoras's capture by Cambyses in Egypt in 524–3, and B10 runs:where the year is unfortunately lost.

Enniana

The notorious line, ‘O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta, turanne, tulisti,’ is assigned to Ennius by Priscian, Isidore, and the Explanator in Donatum, as well as by Pompeius in his second quotation of it. In the first, however (287 K), he, like Auctor ad Herennium, Charisius, Donatus, Martianus Capella, and Plotius Sacerdos, gives no author's name. There is thus some reasonable doubt whether the attribution is correct; and this doubt is greatly increased by the remarks of our earliest authority, the Auctor ad Herennium (IV. 12. 18): ‘Vitabimus eiusdem litterae nimiam adsiduitatem, cui uitio uersus hic erit exemplo, nam hic nihil prohibet in uitiis alienis exemplis uti O Tite e.q.s.; et hic eiusdem poetae Quicquam quisquam e.q.s.’ This clearly indicates:1. That it was unusual for this author to borrow his illustrative examples (cf. IV. 2. 4 sqq., where he states that he prefers to make up his own examples instead of quoting from the best prose authors and poets as most rhetoricians do).

Book Review: Selections from Latin Prose Authors

Book Review: Selections from Latin Prose Authors