Browse

The Advent of Pluralism: Diversity and Conflict in the Age of Sophocles

Lauren J. Apfel

This book is concerned with the relationship between a modern philosophical idea and an ancient historical moment. It explores how the notion of pluralism, made famous by Isaiah Berlin, may be seen ... More

This book is concerned with the relationship between a modern philosophical idea and an ancient historical moment. It explores how the notion of pluralism, made famous by Isaiah Berlin, may be seen to feature in the Classical Greek world and, more specifically, in the thought of three of its most prominent figures: Protagoras, Herodotus, and Sophocles. The book falls into three parts, each of which considers one of these authors in detail and investigates how the core aspects of pluralism — diversity, conflict, and incommensurability — manifest themselves in a particular literary arena. Part One illustrates, through an analysis of two of his fragments and the portrait of him from Plato's Protagoras, that the sophist Protagoras held that perspectives on truth and value could be plural, while retaining a degree of objectivity that distinguishes his position from relativism. Part Two turns attention towards the ways in which historical writing can be understood in pluralist terms. It portrays Thucydides as an exemplar of a monistic historical style in deliberate contrast to Herodotus. It then examines how ideas of diversity and conflict figure in Herodotus' Histories in a variety of methodological and moral contexts. Part Three focuses on conflict in Sophocles. It argues that pluralist messages emerge from four of his tragedies, in which a certain kind of hero and a certain kind of ethical disagreement are present. These features of Ajax, Antigone, Electra, and Philoctetes are related to the Homeric moral patterns from which their meaning in large part derives. The overall aim of the book is to identify a pluralist temper of thought in the age of Sophocles and, in doing so, to offer an enriched understanding of this crucial intellectual period.Less

All From One: A Guide to Proclus

Pieter d'Hoine and Marije Martjin (eds)

Proclus (AD 412–85) was one of the last official ‘successors’ of Plato at the head of the Academy in Athens at the end of antiquity, before the school was finally closed down in 529. As a prolific ... More

Proclus (AD 412–85) was one of the last official ‘successors’ of Plato at the head of the Academy in Athens at the end of antiquity, before the school was finally closed down in 529. As a prolific author of systematic works on a wide range of topics and one of the most influential commentators on Plato of all times, the legacy of Proclus in the cultural history of the west can hardly be overestimated. This book introduces the reader to Proclus’ life and works, his place in the Platonic tradition of antiquity, and the influence his work exerted in later ages. Various chapters are devoted to Proclus’ metaphysical system, including his doctrines about the first principle of all reality, the One, and about the Forms and the soul. The broad range of Proclus’ thought is further illustrated by highlighting his contribution to philosophy of nature, scientific theory, theory of knowledge, and philosophy of language. Finally, also his most original doctrines on evil and providence, his Neoplatonic virtue ethics, his complex views on theology and religious practice, and his metaphysical aesthetics receive separate treatments.Less

Antiquities Beyond Humanism

Emanuela Bianchi, Sara Brill, and Brooke Holmes (eds)

Countering an unflagging modernist infatuation with the new, Antiquities beyond Humanism maps out the ground for a richer and more sustained encounter with Greco-Roman antiquity, excavating an ... More

Countering an unflagging modernist infatuation with the new, Antiquities beyond Humanism maps out the ground for a richer and more sustained encounter with Greco-Roman antiquity, excavating an ante-humanism that nonetheless does not seek any kind of return to a pre-humanist arcadia. The volume arises from a commitment to actively engage the ancient philosophical tradition as a powerful field through which to tackle some of the most urgent questions addressed by the new materialisms and forms of post- and non-humanism. The papers gathered here take up ancient Greek philosophical and literary texts as at once live with possibilities for the present and uncannily distant. Collectively, they approach antiquity as neither origin nor telos but as asynchronous or untimely in Nietzsche’s sense. By bringing together a range of international scholars actively working at the intersections of ancient philosophy, literature, continental philosophy, feminist theory, and political theory, the volume opens up new vectors for thinking beyond the human that are informed by and responsive to the contemporary world while proposing a complex set of relationships to the longue durée of Western history, to deep time, and to the profound strangeness and unsettling familiarity of the Greco-Roman world. In this way, the volume resists and displaces the seductions of presentism, scientism, and technological determinism that often limit the horizons of new materialist thinking.Less

Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition

Emma Gee

This book is a study of a Hellenistic didactic poem, the Phaenomena, written by Aratus in c.276 BC, and of its reception, primarily in the Roman period up to the fourth century AD. Aratus’ poem about ... More

This book is a study of a Hellenistic didactic poem, the Phaenomena, written by Aratus in c.276 BC, and of its reception, primarily in the Roman period up to the fourth century AD. Aratus’ poem about the stars and weather-signs immediately acquired a popularity baffling to the modern reader; it was translated into Latin many times between the first century BC and the Renaissance, and carried lasting influence outside its immediate genre. This book answers the question of Aratus’ popularity by looking at the poem in the light of Western cosmology. It argues that the Phaenomena is the ideal vehicle for the integration of astronomical ‘data’ into abstract cosmology, a defining feature of the Western tradition. This book embeds Aratus’ text into a close network of textual interactions, beginning with the text itself and ending in the sixteenth century, with Copernicus. All conversations between the text and its successors experiment in some way with the balance between cosmology and information. The text was not an inert objet d’art, but a dynamic entity which took on colours often conflictual in the ongoing debate about the place and role of the stars in the world. In this debate Aratus plays a leading, but by no means lonely, role. Many texts which have not been considered as part of the repertoire of Aratean studies are also present, with Aratus himself as the harmonizing force between texts and concepts often disparate, even at odds.Less

The Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Studies in Honour of Anthony Snodgrass

John Bintliff and N. Keith Rutter (eds)

Over his long and illustrious career as Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Edinburgh University (1961-1976), Lawrence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge (1976-2001) and currently Fellow ... More

Over his long and illustrious career as Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Edinburgh University (1961-1976), Lawrence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge (1976-2001) and currently Fellow of the McDonald Institute of Archaeology at Cambridge, Anthony Snodgrass has influenced and been associated with a long series of eminent classical archaeologists, historians and linguists .In acknowledgement of his immense academic achievement, this collection of essays by a range of international scholars reflects his wide-ranging research interests: Greek prehistory, the Greek Iron Age and Archaic era, Greek texts and Archaeology, Classical Art History, societies on the fringes of the Greek and Roman world, and Regional Field Survey. Not only do they celebrate his achievements but they also represent new avenues of research which will have a broad appeal.Less

Aristotle as Poet: The Song for Hermias and Its Contexts

Andrew L. Ford

This book studies Aristotle’s poetic activity in light of an ode he composed commemorating Hermias of Atarneus, his father in law and patron in the 340’s BCE. This remarkable text is said to have ... More

This book studies Aristotle’s poetic activity in light of an ode he composed commemorating Hermias of Atarneus, his father in law and patron in the 340’s BCE. This remarkable text is said to have later embroiled the philosopher in charges of impiety and so is studied both from a literary perspective and as a window onto the poetic practices of the later fourth century. Aristotle’s literary antecedents are studied with an unprecedented fullness that considers the entire range of the literary tradition, including poems by Sappho, Pindar, and Sophocles, and prose texts as well. Particular attention is paid to understanding the ancient report that political opponents of Aristotle charged him with impiety on the grounds that his song was actually a hymn to Hermias that implied the latter had become a god. Aristotle’s song affords a case study in how Greek poetic texts functioned as performance pieces and how they were recorded, circulated, and preserved. The book argues that Greek lyric poems profit from being read as scripts for performances that both shaped and were shaped by the social occasions in which they were performed. Studying the lyric in light of the history of its interpretation leads to a more fine-tuned appreciation for its literary dynamics and provides a window onto the literary culture of the late classical age.Less

Aristotle's Lost Homeric Problems: Textual Studies

Robert Mayhew

This volume consists of a set of studies focused on various aspects of a relatively neglected subject: a lost work of Aristotle entitled Homeric Problems. Most of the evidence for this lost work ... More

This volume consists of a set of studies focused on various aspects of a relatively neglected subject: a lost work of Aristotle entitled Homeric Problems. Most of the evidence for this lost work consists mainly of ‘fragments’ surviving in the Homeric scholia (comments in the margins of the medieval manuscripts of the Homeric epics, mostly coming from lost commentaries on these epics). But other sources have been neglected. The book has three parts. The first deals with preliminary issues: the relationship of this lost work to the Homeric scholarship that came before it, and to Aristotle’s comments on the Homeric epics in his extant Poetics; the evidence concerning the possible titles of this work; a neglected early edition of these fragments. In the second part, our knowledge of the Homeric Problems is expanded through an examination in context of quotations from (or allusions to) Homer in Aristotle’s extant works, and specifically in the History of Animals, the Rhetoric, and Poetics 21 (to each of which a chapter is devoted). Part III consists of four studies on select (and in most cases neglected) fragments. The volume intends to show (inter alia) that Aristotle in the Homeric Problems aimed to defend Homer against his critics, but not slavishly and without employing allegorical interpretation.Less

At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi

Janet Downie

This book presents a reassessment of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi, a unique first-person narrative from the ancient world. While scholars have embraced the Logoi as a rich source for Imperial-era ... More

This book presents a reassessment of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi, a unique first-person narrative from the ancient world. While scholars have embraced the Logoi as a rich source for Imperial-era religion, politics and elite culture, the style of the text has presented a persistent stumbling block to literary analysis. Setting this dream-memoir of illness and divine healing in the context of Aristides’ professional concerns as an orator, this book investigates the text’s rhetorical aims and literary aspirations. The book begins from the proposition that understanding the Hieroi Logoi requires grappling with Aristides’ deliberate conjunction of rhetoric and the sacred, and five chapters offer new perspectives on unresolved questions, including the problem of the text’s artistic unity, the unique texture of Aristides’ dream descriptions, the professional claims of his curative performances, and the place of the Hieroi Logoi amid his literary concerns. Reading the Logoi in the context of contemporary oratorical practices, in dialogue with contemporary technical writings on the interpretation of dreams, and in tandem with Aristides’ own polemical orations and prose hymns makes it possible to discern his professional agenda in this unusual, experimental self-portrait. In this multi-layered and open text, the book argues, Aristides works at the limits of rhetorical convention to fashion an authorial voice that is transparent to the divine. In the HL, Aristides claims a place in the world of the Second Sophistic on his own terms, offering a vision of his professional inspiration in a style that pushes the limits of literary convention.Less

Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study

Blake D. Dutton

Among the most important, but frequently neglected, figures in the history of debates over skepticism is Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE). His early dialogue, Against the Academics, together with ... More

Among the most important, but frequently neglected, figures in the history of debates over skepticism is Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE). His early dialogue, Against the Academics, together with substantial material from his other writings, constitutes a sustained attempt to respond to the tradition of skepticism with which he was familiar. This was the tradition of Academic skepticism, which had its home in Plato's Academy and was transmitted to the Roman world through the writings of Cicero (106–43 BCE). This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Augustine's critique of Academic skepticism. The book presents that critique as a serious work of philosophy and engages with it precisely as such. While the book provides an extensive review of Academic skepticism and Augustine's encounter with it, its primary concern is to articulate and evaluate Augustine's strategy to discredit Academic skepticism as a philosophical practice and vindicate the possibility of knowledge against the Academic denial of that possibility. In doing so, considerable light is shed on Augustine's views on philosophical inquiry and the acquisition of knowledge.Less

Augustine: The Confessions

Gillian Clark

This short book sets the Confessions of Augustine in the social and intellectual context of late antiquity in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Part 1 explores the world in which Augustine ... More

This short book sets the Confessions of Augustine in the social and intellectual context of late antiquity in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Part 1 explores the world in which Augustine lived, where Roman control of western Europe was under threat from non-Roman peoples, and Roman literary and philosophical culture was challenged by educated Christians expounding their scriptures. This chapter discusses the choices Augustine made in his education in literature and rhetoric, in his career as a teacher of rhetoric and then as a bishop, and in his search for understanding of himself and of God. Part 2 considers the interpretation of a life, by the person who lives it and by people who accept or challenge that person's account. It discusses literary questions of style, models and audience, and philosophical questions of what matters in a human life, in comparison with some classical and some later examples of writing about oneself. This chapter argues that Augustine knew how differently texts can be interpreted, but that he cannot be used to support theories that there is no canon of texts and no authoritative reading. He believed that classical literature may offer some wisdom, but canonical scripture is authoritative; that interpretations may differ, but must accord with the Christian principles of love of God and neighbour; and that there is an authoritative reading of every life, known to God though not to us.Less

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill (eds)

What significance does the voice or projected persona in which a text is written have for our understanding of the meaning of that text? This volume explores the persona of the author in antiquity, ... More

What significance does the voice or projected persona in which a text is written have for our understanding of the meaning of that text? This volume explores the persona of the author in antiquity, from Homer to late antiquity, taking into account both Latin and Greek authors from a range of disciplines. It contains chapters on pseudepigraphy and fictional letters, as well as the use of texts as authoritative in philosophical schools, and the ancient ascription of authorship to works of art. The thirteen essays are divided into two main sections, the first of which focusses on the diverse forms of writing adopted by various ancient authors, and the different ways these forms were used to present and project an authorial voice. The second part of the volume considers questions regarding authority and ascription in relation to the authorial voice. In particular, the volume looks at how later readers—and authors of later texts—may understand the authority of a text's author or supposed author.Less

Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea

David Konstan

This book has two aims. The first is to determine how the ancient Greeks conceived of beauty—a matter that is not uncontroversial, since some scholars have denied that there existed an autonomous ... More

This book has two aims. The first is to determine how the ancient Greeks conceived of beauty—a matter that is not uncontroversial, since some scholars have denied that there existed an autonomous concept of beauty in classical Greece. This question is addressed by an investigation of Greek terminology, singling out in particular, and for the first time, the significance of the noun kállos, as opposed to the adjective kalós. On this basis, the book addresses the role of beauty in sexual attraction, class, art, Platonic idealism, and other areas, and offers a comparison between Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms for beauty. The book’s second aim is to identify problems that have beset modern aesthetics, such as whether a work of art can be beautiful if its subject matter is not, and to indicate why these difficulties did not pose a problem for the ancient idea of beauty. In the process, the book shows how beauty lost its preeminent place as the central concept in modern aesthetics, and how the ancient conception may contribute to restoring beauty, if not to its former preeminence, at least to a auxiliary role in our understanding of desire and of art.Less

The Berkeley Plato: From Neglected Relic to Ancient Treasure, An Archaeological Detective Story

Stephen Miller

This book explores the provenance of the so-called Berkeley Herm of Plato, a sculptural portrait that the author first encountered over thirty years ago in a university storage basement. The head, ... More

This book explores the provenance of the so-called Berkeley Herm of Plato, a sculptural portrait that the author first encountered over thirty years ago in a university storage basement. The head, languishing since its arrival in 1902, had become detached from the body, or herm, and had been labeled a fake. In 2002, while preparing another book, the author—now an experienced archaeologist—needed an illustration of Plato, remembered this piece, and took another look. The marble, he recognized immediately, was from the Greek islands, the inscription appeared ancient, and the ribbons visible on the head were typical of those in Greek athletic scenes. This book tells the story of how the author was able to authenticate this long-dismissed treasure. His conclusion, that it is an ancient Roman copy possibly dating from the time of Hadrian, is further supported by art conservation scientist John Twilley, whose essay appears as an appendix in this book. The author's discovery makes a significant contribution to the worlds of art history, philosophy, archaeology, and sports history and will serve as a starting point for new research in the back rooms of museums.Less

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind: Descending Underground in the Search for Ultimate Truth

Yulia Ustinova

In ancient Greece, a common method of search for divine wisdom was to descend into caves or underground chambers. Entering caves persistently appears as a major requirement for prophecy-giving, both ... More

In ancient Greece, a common method of search for divine wisdom was to descend into caves or underground chambers. Entering caves persistently appears as a major requirement for prophecy-giving, both in established cults and in the activities of individual seers. Underground sojourns recur in the activities of several early Greek sages and philosophers. Mystery initiations comprise rites located in caves or dark chambers. The sages, seers, and initiates shared a quest for hidden truth, which they attained as revelation or vision. Exploring the reasons for the predilection for caves in the search for ultimate truth, this book juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuroscience. This approach, new in Classical Studies, enables an examination of the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest. It is argued that cave environment creates conditions which force the human mind to deviate from its normal waking state and to enter altered states of consciousness, in many cases leading to the sensation of ineffable revelation of ultimate reality. Altered states of consciousness often occur in people exposed to sensory deprivation. As a result, various mediators between gods and mortals practice prolonged isolation in caves and other closed spaces in their quest of ecstatic illumination. The book demonstrates that multiple cave experiences of the Greeks are culturally patterned responses to the states determined by the neurology of the human brain.Less

Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The third and fourth books of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero ... More

The third and fourth books of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero presents the insights of Greek philosophers on the subject, reporting the views of Epicureans and Peripatetics and giving a detailed account of the Stoic position, which he himself favors for its close reasoning and moral earnestness. This book gives the Stoics' analysis of the causes of grief, their classification of emotions by genus and species, their lists of oddly named character flaws, and by the philosophical debate that develops over the utility of anger in politics and war. This translation makes Cicero's work accessible. The accompanying commentary explains the philosophical concepts discussed in the text and supplies many helpful parallels from Greek sources.Less

Cicero's Philosophy of History

Matthew Fox

Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to ... More

Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to explore the difficulties of finding any ideological coherence in Rome's political or cultural traditions. The book looks to the scepticism of Cicero's philosophical education for an understanding of his perspective on Rome's history, and argues that neglect of the sceptical tradition has transformed the doubting, ambiguous Cicero into the confident proponent of a form of Roman identity formed in his own image. The close reading of a range of his theoretical works make up much of the book: De republica, De oratore, Brutus, and De divinatione are treated in detail, and a range of other works are also discussed. The book explores Cicero's ironic attitude towards Roman history, and connects it to the use of irony in mainstream Latin historians, in particular Sallust and Tacitus. It also examines Cicero's approach to the history of rhetoric at Rome. The book concludes with a study of a little-read treatise on Cicero from the early 18th century, by the radical thinker John Toland, which sheds new light on the history of Cicero's reception. Cicero's use of history shows the flexibility of his understanding of Roman identity. The book argues against the image of Cicero as a writer hoping to coerce his readers into identifying himself and his own achievements with the dominant ideologies of Rome.Less

Classics in the Modern World: A Democratic Turn?

Lorna Hardwick and Stephen Harrison (eds)

This book investigates the notion of a ‘democratic turn’, a perspective applied to the ways in which Greek and Roman ideas, texts, and images have been absorbed, reworked, and communicated in the ... More

This book investigates the notion of a ‘democratic turn’, a perspective applied to the ways in which Greek and Roman ideas, texts, and images have been absorbed, reworked, and communicated in the wider world in the modern period and have attracted the interest of recent research. The questions raised by the concept are historical and philosophical as well as artistic and political and they have been intensified (but not invented) by current scholarship on classical receptions. Research has tracked ways in which both ancient and newer works have become better known among less privileged groups, with the modern receptions sometimes acting as an introduction to the ancient. The range of media that use classical material has been extended (e.g. to visual arts as well as literature), often enabling mass consumption, and the independent status and value of new works has been increasingly accepted as providing a commentary on the ancient. Theoretical perspectives on reader and spectator response have widened the constituencies that are perceived to be involved in various phases of the construction of meanings and there have been extensive studies of the use of ancient material as a basis for counter-discourse or resistance in situations of political and cultural oppression (e.g. in the matter of gender). All these phenomena raise questions about the relationship between critical approaches in scholarship and cultural and political practices outside academia.Less

Cleomedes' Lectures on Astronomy: A Translation of The Heavens

Cleomedes

Lawrence Witmer (ed.)

At some time around 200 A.D., the Stoic philosopher and teacher Cleomedes delivered a set of lectures on elementary astronomy as part of a complete introduction to Stoicism for his students. The ... More

At some time around 200 A.D., the Stoic philosopher and teacher Cleomedes delivered a set of lectures on elementary astronomy as part of a complete introduction to Stoicism for his students. The result was The Heavens (Caelestia), the only work by a professional Stoic teacher to survive intact from the first two centuries A.D., and a rare example of the interaction between science and philosophy in late antiquity. This book contains an English translation of The Heavens, along with an introduction, notes, and technical diagrams.Less

Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome

Catherine Steel and Henriette van der Blom (eds)

This book brings together nineteen scholars to rethink the role of public speech in the Roman Republic. Speech was an integral part of decision-making in Republican Rome, and oratory was part of the ... More

This book brings together nineteen scholars to rethink the role of public speech in the Roman Republic. Speech was an integral part of decision-making in Republican Rome, and oratory was part of the education of every member of the elite. Yet no complete speech from the period by anyone other than Cicero survives, and as a result the debate on oratory, and political practice more widely, is liable to be distorted by the distinctive features of Cicero’s oratorical practice. With careful attention to a wide range of ancient evidence, this book shines a light on orators other than Cicero, and considers the oratory of diplomatic exchanges and impromptu heckling and repartee alongside the more familiar genres of forensic and political speech. In so doing, it challenges the idea that Cicero is a normative figure, and highlights the variety of career choices and speech strategies open to Roman politicians. The chapters in the book also demonstrate how unpredictable the outcomes of oratory were: politicians could try to control events by cherry-picking their audience and using tried methods of persuasion, but incompetence, bad luck, or hostile listeners were constant threats.Less

Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals

Daniel A. Dombrowski

Despite their influence in our culture, sports inspire dramatically less philosophical consideration than such ostensibly weightier topics as religion, politics, or science. Arguing that athletic ... More

Despite their influence in our culture, sports inspire dramatically less philosophical consideration than such ostensibly weightier topics as religion, politics, or science. Arguing that athletic playfulness coexists with serious underpinnings, and that both demand more substantive attention, this book harnesses the insights of ancient Greek thinkers to illuminate contemporary athletics. The author contends that the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus shed important light on issues—such as the pursuit of excellence, the concept of play, and the power of accepting physical limitations while also improving one's body—that remain just as relevant in our sports-obsessed age as they were in ancient Greece. Bringing these concepts to bear on contemporary concerns, he considers such questions as whether athletic competition can be a moral substitute for war, whether it necessarily constitutes war by other means, and whether it encourages fascist tendencies or ethical virtue. The book philosophically explores twenty-first-century sport in the context of its ancient predecessor, revealing that their relationship has great potential to inform our understanding of human nature.Less