Emma Dench
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198150510
- eISBN:
- 9780191710018
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198150510.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter focuses primarily on Roman literary accounts of the world and its peoples. The Romans, like other peoples of the Hellenistic Mediterranean world, from the end of the third century BC ...
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This chapter focuses primarily on Roman literary accounts of the world and its peoples. The Romans, like other peoples of the Hellenistic Mediterranean world, from the end of the third century BC wrote themselves into the history of the ‘inhabited world’ in a literature that constantly engaged with the primarily Greek frameworks and images that had long been regarded as something of an international ‘language’ of memory and civilization. However, as they wrote themselves into this history, at the same time they frequently set Rome at an angle to it, one important signal of Roman claims to be both a master of Greek culture and to have a separable, remarkable character of their own. The chapter traces the development of some of the distinctive shapes of Roman conceptualization of their imperial world.Less
This chapter focuses primarily on Roman literary accounts of the world and its peoples. The Romans, like other peoples of the Hellenistic Mediterranean world, from the end of the third century BC wrote themselves into the history of the ‘inhabited world’ in a literature that constantly engaged with the primarily Greek frameworks and images that had long been regarded as something of an international ‘language’ of memory and civilization. However, as they wrote themselves into this history, at the same time they frequently set Rome at an angle to it, one important signal of Roman claims to be both a master of Greek culture and to have a separable, remarkable character of their own. The chapter traces the development of some of the distinctive shapes of Roman conceptualization of their imperial world.
Stefan Tilg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576944
- eISBN:
- 9780191722486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576944.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter eight substantiates the claim that Chariton looked to Virgil, adds further evidence to this, and considers conseqences for our general assessment of Narratives about Callirhoe. More parallels ...
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Chapter eight substantiates the claim that Chariton looked to Virgil, adds further evidence to this, and considers conseqences for our general assessment of Narratives about Callirhoe. More parallels in phrases and motifs suggest that Chariton conceived of his novel to some extent as a romantic answer to Virgil's tragic story of Dido and Aeneas. A discussion of the general question of the reception of Roman literature in the Greek world is followed by an account of the significance of Aeneas (and his mother Aphrodite) in the historical relations between Aphrodisias and Rome. Three different scenarios explore how Chariton would have gained access to the Aeneid. For an interpretation of Narratives about Callirhoe, the exclusively psychological and emotional reception of the political Roman model discourages political readings of Chariton.Less
Chapter eight substantiates the claim that Chariton looked to Virgil, adds further evidence to this, and considers conseqences for our general assessment of Narratives about Callirhoe. More parallels in phrases and motifs suggest that Chariton conceived of his novel to some extent as a romantic answer to Virgil's tragic story of Dido and Aeneas. A discussion of the general question of the reception of Roman literature in the Greek world is followed by an account of the significance of Aeneas (and his mother Aphrodite) in the historical relations between Aphrodisias and Rome. Three different scenarios explore how Chariton would have gained access to the Aeneid. For an interpretation of Narratives about Callirhoe, the exclusively psychological and emotional reception of the political Roman model discourages political readings of Chariton.
Amram Tropper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199267125
- eISBN:
- 9780191699184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267125.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion in the Ancient World
This chapter investigates some comparable themes in the contemporary sphere of the Roman law. It considers some salient features of the Roman setting and their relevance to Avot. The presence of ...
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This chapter investigates some comparable themes in the contemporary sphere of the Roman law. It considers some salient features of the Roman setting and their relevance to Avot. The presence of Roman legal jurisdiction and Greek-speaking lawyers in the Near East indicates that the fundamentals of Roman law were probably well known throughout the Graeco-Roman environment in Palestine. The Roman legal context of the second and third centuries illuminates numerous facets of the broad historical setting of Avot. The similar interests and emerging prominence of rabbis and eastern juries apparently reflected overarching trends of the time. Meanwhile, the educational function of the Institutes, the Enchiridion, and the Regulae Iuris highlights the textbook nature of the Mishnah and Avot's role as a text to be internalized at all levels of study.Less
This chapter investigates some comparable themes in the contemporary sphere of the Roman law. It considers some salient features of the Roman setting and their relevance to Avot. The presence of Roman legal jurisdiction and Greek-speaking lawyers in the Near East indicates that the fundamentals of Roman law were probably well known throughout the Graeco-Roman environment in Palestine. The Roman legal context of the second and third centuries illuminates numerous facets of the broad historical setting of Avot. The similar interests and emerging prominence of rabbis and eastern juries apparently reflected overarching trends of the time. Meanwhile, the educational function of the Institutes, the Enchiridion, and the Regulae Iuris highlights the textbook nature of the Mishnah and Avot's role as a text to be internalized at all levels of study.
John T. Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157528
- eISBN:
- 9781400846474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157528.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses how the ambivalent interpretations of security that coursed through Roman literature accompanied the term's adoption and usage in seventeenth-century Europe. For instance, ...
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This chapter discusses how the ambivalent interpretations of security that coursed through Roman literature accompanied the term's adoption and usage in seventeenth-century Europe. For instance, Claude Favre de Vaugelas, the seventeenth-century grammarian and one of the founding members of the Académie Française, justified the inclusion of term sécurité into the French lexicon based word's ambiguity, on its capacity to express a disjunction between belief and fact: sécurité is the feeling of being safe, well founded or not. To enjoy security while being truly out of harm's way is to benefit from a condition of being carefree; but to proceed securely without acknowledging imminent or already present dangers is to be either heroic or perilously careless.Less
This chapter discusses how the ambivalent interpretations of security that coursed through Roman literature accompanied the term's adoption and usage in seventeenth-century Europe. For instance, Claude Favre de Vaugelas, the seventeenth-century grammarian and one of the founding members of the Académie Française, justified the inclusion of term sécurité into the French lexicon based word's ambiguity, on its capacity to express a disjunction between belief and fact: sécurité is the feeling of being safe, well founded or not. To enjoy security while being truly out of harm's way is to benefit from a condition of being carefree; but to proceed securely without acknowledging imminent or already present dangers is to be either heroic or perilously careless.
Sean Alexander Gurd
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199837519
- eISBN:
- 9780199919505
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199837519.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book offers an in-depth study of the role of literary revision in the compositional practices and strategies of self-representation among Roman authors at the end of the republic and the ...
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This book offers an in-depth study of the role of literary revision in the compositional practices and strategies of self-representation among Roman authors at the end of the republic and the beginning of the principate. It focuses on Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, Martial, and Pliny the Younger, but also offers discussions of earlier Greek material, including Isocrates, Plato, and Hellenistic poetry. The book argues that revision made textuality into a medium of social exchange. Revisions were not always made by authors working alone; often, they were the result of conversations between an author and friends or literary contacts, and these conversations exemplified a commitment to collective debate and active collaboration. Revision was thus much more than an unavoidable element in literary genesis: it was one way in which authorship became a form of social agency. Consequently, when we think about revision for authors of the late republic and early empire we should not think solely of painstaking attendance to craft aimed exclusively at the perfection of a literary work. Nor should we think of the resulting texts as closed and invariant statements sent from an author to his reader. So long as an author was still willing to revise, his text served as a temporary platform around and in which a community came into being. Much more was at stake than the text itself: like all communities, such textual communities were subject to imbalances and differentiation in taste, ideology, capability and willingness to participate, and above all power, the ability to propose and enforce a specific set of textual choices.Less
This book offers an in-depth study of the role of literary revision in the compositional practices and strategies of self-representation among Roman authors at the end of the republic and the beginning of the principate. It focuses on Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, Martial, and Pliny the Younger, but also offers discussions of earlier Greek material, including Isocrates, Plato, and Hellenistic poetry. The book argues that revision made textuality into a medium of social exchange. Revisions were not always made by authors working alone; often, they were the result of conversations between an author and friends or literary contacts, and these conversations exemplified a commitment to collective debate and active collaboration. Revision was thus much more than an unavoidable element in literary genesis: it was one way in which authorship became a form of social agency. Consequently, when we think about revision for authors of the late republic and early empire we should not think solely of painstaking attendance to craft aimed exclusively at the perfection of a literary work. Nor should we think of the resulting texts as closed and invariant statements sent from an author to his reader. So long as an author was still willing to revise, his text served as a temporary platform around and in which a community came into being. Much more was at stake than the text itself: like all communities, such textual communities were subject to imbalances and differentiation in taste, ideology, capability and willingness to participate, and above all power, the ability to propose and enforce a specific set of textual choices.
Catherine Hezser
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199280865
- eISBN:
- 9780191712852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280865.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
One of the most fundamental characteristics of ancient slavery was the slave's lack of control over his or her own body. Slaves ‘were sexually available and completely subject to the will of their ...
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One of the most fundamental characteristics of ancient slavery was the slave's lack of control over his or her own body. Slaves ‘were sexually available and completely subject to the will of their owners’. Even if they were not forced to work as commercial prostitutes, they would nevertheless serve as the functional equivalent of prostitutes as far as the owner himself, his family members, and his friends were concerned. The sexual exploitation to which they were subjected was similar in both cases. Graeco-Roman literary sources from Homer's Iliad to late antiquity provide ample testimony on this aspect of slave-master relationships. Members of the slave-owning strata of society did not need to frequent brothels: they had their own or their friends' private prostitutes available at all times.Less
One of the most fundamental characteristics of ancient slavery was the slave's lack of control over his or her own body. Slaves ‘were sexually available and completely subject to the will of their owners’. Even if they were not forced to work as commercial prostitutes, they would nevertheless serve as the functional equivalent of prostitutes as far as the owner himself, his family members, and his friends were concerned. The sexual exploitation to which they were subjected was similar in both cases. Graeco-Roman literary sources from Homer's Iliad to late antiquity provide ample testimony on this aspect of slave-master relationships. Members of the slave-owning strata of society did not need to frequent brothels: they had their own or their friends' private prostitutes available at all times.
Clive Skidmore
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859894777
- eISBN:
- 9781781380673
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859894777.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius ...
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This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius Maximus, author of The Memorable Deeds of the Men of Rome and Foreign Nations. It argues that modern scholarship's view of Valerius' work as a mere source-book for rhetoricians is misconceived. The popularity of the work during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to its value to the readers of those times as a source of moral exhortation and guidance that was as relevant to them as it had been to Valerius' contemporaries. The wider appeal of the book lies in its examination of earlier forms of exemplary literature, in its discussion of how Roman literature was communicated to its audience, and in its original theory concerning the identity of Valerius Maximus himself.Less
This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius Maximus, author of The Memorable Deeds of the Men of Rome and Foreign Nations. It argues that modern scholarship's view of Valerius' work as a mere source-book for rhetoricians is misconceived. The popularity of the work during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to its value to the readers of those times as a source of moral exhortation and guidance that was as relevant to them as it had been to Valerius' contemporaries. The wider appeal of the book lies in its examination of earlier forms of exemplary literature, in its discussion of how Roman literature was communicated to its audience, and in its original theory concerning the identity of Valerius Maximus himself.
Mairéad McAuley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199659364
- eISBN:
- 9780191808968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659364.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
A general introduction to the book’s topic, setting out its parameters in terms of chosen authors and periods and theoretical approaches. The first section sketches the scope of the book and its main ...
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A general introduction to the book’s topic, setting out its parameters in terms of chosen authors and periods and theoretical approaches. The first section sketches the scope of the book and its main critical and methodological questions: what does it mean to read Roman literature ‘for the mother’? How does it change modern feminist perspectives on these ancient, male-authored texts? The second section outlines in more detail the eclectic theoretical framework of the book, ranging from feminist psychoanalytic theorists such as Irigaray and Kristeva to the more recent work on the maternal in literature and philosophy by Elissa Marder and Andrew Parker. The final section of the chapter outlines the shifting significance of motherhood to Roman ideology and identity under Augustus and beyond, in particular the use of motherhood in key Roman foundation myths and texts (Ennius, Virgil, Livy, Horace) to symbolize the natural and apolitical as well as a secure, stable origin.Less
A general introduction to the book’s topic, setting out its parameters in terms of chosen authors and periods and theoretical approaches. The first section sketches the scope of the book and its main critical and methodological questions: what does it mean to read Roman literature ‘for the mother’? How does it change modern feminist perspectives on these ancient, male-authored texts? The second section outlines in more detail the eclectic theoretical framework of the book, ranging from feminist psychoanalytic theorists such as Irigaray and Kristeva to the more recent work on the maternal in literature and philosophy by Elissa Marder and Andrew Parker. The final section of the chapter outlines the shifting significance of motherhood to Roman ideology and identity under Augustus and beyond, in particular the use of motherhood in key Roman foundation myths and texts (Ennius, Virgil, Livy, Horace) to symbolize the natural and apolitical as well as a secure, stable origin.
Barbette Stanley Spaeth
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195342703
- eISBN:
- 9780199387748
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342703.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Religion and Literature
This chapter traces images of the witch, such as Circe or Medea, in Greek and Roman literature. By delineating differences between witches in the two cultures and situating the portraits in their ...
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This chapter traces images of the witch, such as Circe or Medea, in Greek and Roman literature. By delineating differences between witches in the two cultures and situating the portraits in their historical contexts it illuminates the ideological work that ideas of witches perform. Roman literature, for example, depicts sorceresses with more detail and verisimilitude than Greek literature does, situating them firmly in the real world. Roman witches are not characters from mythology removed from reality by time and divine parentage, but are portrayed as women one might encounter in the market on any day. The witch serves various roles in Greek and Roman imagination: she represents popular fears and fantasies either as a magical helpmate to the male hero in Greek mythology, or as a destructive, emasculating force in Roman literature, where she functions as a negative model for proper female comportment.Less
This chapter traces images of the witch, such as Circe or Medea, in Greek and Roman literature. By delineating differences between witches in the two cultures and situating the portraits in their historical contexts it illuminates the ideological work that ideas of witches perform. Roman literature, for example, depicts sorceresses with more detail and verisimilitude than Greek literature does, situating them firmly in the real world. Roman witches are not characters from mythology removed from reality by time and divine parentage, but are portrayed as women one might encounter in the market on any day. The witch serves various roles in Greek and Roman imagination: she represents popular fears and fantasies either as a magical helpmate to the male hero in Greek mythology, or as a destructive, emasculating force in Roman literature, where she functions as a negative model for proper female comportment.
Sean Alexander Gurd
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199837519
- eISBN:
- 9780199919505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199837519.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
An outline account of the writing process in ancient literary culture, with detailed discussion of the relationship between revision and concepts of craft or techne, and of the sociopolitical factors ...
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An outline account of the writing process in ancient literary culture, with detailed discussion of the relationship between revision and concepts of craft or techne, and of the sociopolitical factors which influenced how revision was understood.Less
An outline account of the writing process in ancient literary culture, with detailed discussion of the relationship between revision and concepts of craft or techne, and of the sociopolitical factors which influenced how revision was understood.
Emma Gee
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199781683
- eISBN:
- 9780199345151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199781683.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter picks up the Roman historical thread of Ch.2. So far, we will have been led to see Aratus as an icon of order. In this chapter, three elements of disorder in Aratus come to the fore. ...
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This chapter picks up the Roman historical thread of Ch.2. So far, we will have been led to see Aratus as an icon of order. In this chapter, three elements of disorder in Aratus come to the fore. These are planetary motion, namelessness and celestial change. In early imperial literature, all three elements become part of a system of cosmic symbolism with an inverse relation to the orderliness of the Aratean original. In an Aratean universe irrevocably tinged, after the 50s BC, by Lucretius, Roman literature cultivates the germ of disorder. What is more, cosmic forces become emblematic of disorder in the human sphere, in the form of civil war. The planets, in particular, come to symbolise the disorderly motion attendant on the human familial and civic failure which results in civil conflict.Less
This chapter picks up the Roman historical thread of Ch.2. So far, we will have been led to see Aratus as an icon of order. In this chapter, three elements of disorder in Aratus come to the fore. These are planetary motion, namelessness and celestial change. In early imperial literature, all three elements become part of a system of cosmic symbolism with an inverse relation to the orderliness of the Aratean original. In an Aratean universe irrevocably tinged, after the 50s BC, by Lucretius, Roman literature cultivates the germ of disorder. What is more, cosmic forces become emblematic of disorder in the human sphere, in the form of civil war. The planets, in particular, come to symbolise the disorderly motion attendant on the human familial and civic failure which results in civil conflict.
Clive Skidmore
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859894777
- eISBN:
- 9781781380673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859894777.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines the extent to which Hellenistic compilations were known at Rome and whether these literary forms were imitated in Latin. It considers the Memorable Words and Deeds of Valerius ...
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This chapter examines the extent to which Hellenistic compilations were known at Rome and whether these literary forms were imitated in Latin. It considers the Memorable Words and Deeds of Valerius Maximus and the Stratagems of Frontinus, which combine features of the Hellenistic collections into a thematically arranged handbook of historical material apparently unknown in the Hellenistic era.Less
This chapter examines the extent to which Hellenistic compilations were known at Rome and whether these literary forms were imitated in Latin. It considers the Memorable Words and Deeds of Valerius Maximus and the Stratagems of Frontinus, which combine features of the Hellenistic collections into a thematically arranged handbook of historical material apparently unknown in the Hellenistic era.
Roger S. Bagnall
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267022
- eISBN:
- 9780520948525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267022.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This section provides an overview of the series of case studies presented in lectures focusing on the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature. It observes that our thinking about the place ...
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This section provides an overview of the series of case studies presented in lectures focusing on the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature. It observes that our thinking about the place occupied in ancient societies by the technology of writing and its products has undergone an analogous change, no less dramatic than these if perhaps less remarked. The section notes that given the fundamental place which words and writing have always occupied in classical philology, the results of challenges to the naturalness of the written word in the last two centuries are in many respects central to contemporary conceptions of the discipline. It presents a clear distinction between “everyday writing” and “public writing,” and seeks to explore methods of inquiry and significant bodies of material. The section reflects on both epigraphical and papyrological fieldwork over the past decade, and on the increased availability of digital images to which this fieldwork has referred.Less
This section provides an overview of the series of case studies presented in lectures focusing on the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature. It observes that our thinking about the place occupied in ancient societies by the technology of writing and its products has undergone an analogous change, no less dramatic than these if perhaps less remarked. The section notes that given the fundamental place which words and writing have always occupied in classical philology, the results of challenges to the naturalness of the written word in the last two centuries are in many respects central to contemporary conceptions of the discipline. It presents a clear distinction between “everyday writing” and “public writing,” and seeks to explore methods of inquiry and significant bodies of material. The section reflects on both epigraphical and papyrological fieldwork over the past decade, and on the increased availability of digital images to which this fieldwork has referred.
Molly Hoff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780979606670
- eISBN:
- 9781786945129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780979606670.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Chapter eight follows the action that takes place in the eighth section of Mrs. Dalloway. In Hoff’s discussion of the plot she provides useful, factual context as well as her own personal ...
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Chapter eight follows the action that takes place in the eighth section of Mrs. Dalloway. In Hoff’s discussion of the plot she provides useful, factual context as well as her own personal interpretation of the novel which is greatly inspired by conventions of Roman and Greek myth. Also included in Hoff’s analysis is a broad understanding of ancient and modern literature which often provokes comparison to the whole of Woolf’s literary works. This chapter in particular focuses on the concept of rooms as a motif, and discusses the areas of Woolf’s writing that allude to the work of Socrates, Plato, Shakespeare and Dante.Less
Chapter eight follows the action that takes place in the eighth section of Mrs. Dalloway. In Hoff’s discussion of the plot she provides useful, factual context as well as her own personal interpretation of the novel which is greatly inspired by conventions of Roman and Greek myth. Also included in Hoff’s analysis is a broad understanding of ancient and modern literature which often provokes comparison to the whole of Woolf’s literary works. This chapter in particular focuses on the concept of rooms as a motif, and discusses the areas of Woolf’s writing that allude to the work of Socrates, Plato, Shakespeare and Dante.
Cristiana Sogno, Bradley K. Storin, and Edward J. Watts (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520281448
- eISBN:
- 9780520966192
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520281448.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, ...
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This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.Less
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.
Thea S. Thorsen and Stephen Harrison (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829430
- eISBN:
- 9780191867958
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829430.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
Sappho, a towering figure in Western culture, is an exemplary case in the history of classical receptions. There are three prominent reasons for this. Firstly, Sappho is associated with some of the ...
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Sappho, a towering figure in Western culture, is an exemplary case in the history of classical receptions. There are three prominent reasons for this. Firstly, Sappho is associated with some of the earliest poetry in the classical tradition, which makes her reception history one of the longest we know of. Furthermore, Sappho’s poetry promotes ideologically challenging concepts such as female authority and homoeroticism, which have prompted very conspicuous interpretative strategies to deal with issues of gender and sexuality, revealing the values of the societies that have received her works through time. Finally, Sappho’s legacy has been very well explored from the perspective of reception studies: important investigations have been made into responses both to her as poet-figure and to her poetry from her earliest reception through to our own time. However, one of the few eras in Sappho’s longstanding reception history that has not been systematically explored before this volume is the Roman period. The omission is a paradox. Receptions of Sappho can be traced in more than eighteen Roman poets, among them many of the most central authors in the history of Latin literature. Surely, few other Greek poets can rival the impact of Sappho at Rome. This important fact calls out for a systematic approach to Sappho’s Roman reception, which is the aim of the present volume that focuses on the poetry of the central period of Roman literary history, from the time of Lucretius to that of Martial.Less
Sappho, a towering figure in Western culture, is an exemplary case in the history of classical receptions. There are three prominent reasons for this. Firstly, Sappho is associated with some of the earliest poetry in the classical tradition, which makes her reception history one of the longest we know of. Furthermore, Sappho’s poetry promotes ideologically challenging concepts such as female authority and homoeroticism, which have prompted very conspicuous interpretative strategies to deal with issues of gender and sexuality, revealing the values of the societies that have received her works through time. Finally, Sappho’s legacy has been very well explored from the perspective of reception studies: important investigations have been made into responses both to her as poet-figure and to her poetry from her earliest reception through to our own time. However, one of the few eras in Sappho’s longstanding reception history that has not been systematically explored before this volume is the Roman period. The omission is a paradox. Receptions of Sappho can be traced in more than eighteen Roman poets, among them many of the most central authors in the history of Latin literature. Surely, few other Greek poets can rival the impact of Sappho at Rome. This important fact calls out for a systematic approach to Sappho’s Roman reception, which is the aim of the present volume that focuses on the poetry of the central period of Roman literary history, from the time of Lucretius to that of Martial.
Marika Rauhala
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190604110
- eISBN:
- 9780190604134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190604110.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
The eunuchs serving the cult of the Great Mother appeared in Greek and Latin literature during the Hellenistic period, and they persisted as a popular motif up until late antiquity. From the very ...
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The eunuchs serving the cult of the Great Mother appeared in Greek and Latin literature during the Hellenistic period, and they persisted as a popular motif up until late antiquity. From the very beginning, the figure of gallos or gallus evoked feelings of bewilderment, abhorrence, and disgust. The authors mocked their unmanly behavior and womanish appearance and denounced their alleged moral failings and indecency. Whereas the Greek references generally retained an amusing tone, the Roman portrayals of galli often oozed with contempt. Many features of the descriptions were designed to induce disgust responses and, thus, to marginalize the galli in order to counter the potential threat they posed to the existing social hierarchies. For, the self-castrated cultic officials defied several basic assumptions and categorizations upon which ancient societies rested. In particular, they seemed to challenge the fundamental gender division along with its inbuilt belief in male superiority. Chapter keywordsLess
The eunuchs serving the cult of the Great Mother appeared in Greek and Latin literature during the Hellenistic period, and they persisted as a popular motif up until late antiquity. From the very beginning, the figure of gallos or gallus evoked feelings of bewilderment, abhorrence, and disgust. The authors mocked their unmanly behavior and womanish appearance and denounced their alleged moral failings and indecency. Whereas the Greek references generally retained an amusing tone, the Roman portrayals of galli often oozed with contempt. Many features of the descriptions were designed to induce disgust responses and, thus, to marginalize the galli in order to counter the potential threat they posed to the existing social hierarchies. For, the self-castrated cultic officials defied several basic assumptions and categorizations upon which ancient societies rested. In particular, they seemed to challenge the fundamental gender division along with its inbuilt belief in male superiority. Chapter keywords
Emma Gee
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199781683
- eISBN:
- 9780199345151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199781683.003.0000
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
The introduction aims to treat the main issues around Aratus’ text, whilst at the same time exploding the reader’s assumptions about them as a preparation for re-engagement with the text. Treating ...
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The introduction aims to treat the main issues around Aratus’ text, whilst at the same time exploding the reader’s assumptions about them as a preparation for re-engagement with the text. Treating lightly the facts around the poem’s date, authorship and composition, the introduction sets Aratus’ poem in a much broader field of reference, namely the culture-specific development of Western cosmology.Less
The introduction aims to treat the main issues around Aratus’ text, whilst at the same time exploding the reader’s assumptions about them as a preparation for re-engagement with the text. Treating lightly the facts around the poem’s date, authorship and composition, the introduction sets Aratus’ poem in a much broader field of reference, namely the culture-specific development of Western cosmology.
Emma Gee
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199781683
- eISBN:
- 9780199345151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199781683.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter takes three Roman authors – Virgil, Germanicus and Lucretius - and shows how they engage with Aratus. Civil war is uppermost in the Roman tradition of the interpretation of Aratus’ Dike ...
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This chapter takes three Roman authors – Virgil, Germanicus and Lucretius - and shows how they engage with Aratus. Civil war is uppermost in the Roman tradition of the interpretation of Aratus’ Dike myth, and this repeating historical quirk of Roman identity obtrudes on Aratus’ text in Roman interpretations of it. This is equally the case whether the interpretative strategy is allusion to it, as in the case of Virgil, or translation of it, as in Germanicus. One thing which will emerge from this chapter is a new picture of the interaction of sources in Roman approaches to Aratus.Less
This chapter takes three Roman authors – Virgil, Germanicus and Lucretius - and shows how they engage with Aratus. Civil war is uppermost in the Roman tradition of the interpretation of Aratus’ Dike myth, and this repeating historical quirk of Roman identity obtrudes on Aratus’ text in Roman interpretations of it. This is equally the case whether the interpretative strategy is allusion to it, as in the case of Virgil, or translation of it, as in Germanicus. One thing which will emerge from this chapter is a new picture of the interaction of sources in Roman approaches to Aratus.
Donald Lateiner and Dimos Spatharas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190604110
- eISBN:
- 9780190604134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190604110.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
The introduction sheds light on the visceral emotion of disgust in Greek and Roman literature. Disgust invites out attention not only to the culturally privileged senses of sight and hearing, but ...
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The introduction sheds light on the visceral emotion of disgust in Greek and Roman literature. Disgust invites out attention not only to the culturally privileged senses of sight and hearing, but also to the neglected senses of smell, taste, and touch. The Introduction endorses the view that emotions are a cognitive phenomenon and, thereby, argues that looking into the social categories, behaviors, or aesthetic preferences presented as disgusting enables us to locate the norms and values that regulated ancient social life. At the same time, the introduction offers an outline of modern approaches to the emotion as a response to vile substances (e.g., rotten food) or “abnormal” practices (sexual “deviances”) or old age and ugliness. It also uses modern advancements in the fields of psychology and philosophy by way of explaining the mechanisms that facilitated ancient deployments of the affect as a mechanism of social exclusion. A separate section is dedicated to the aesthetics of ugliness and repugnance in ancient art, emphasizing how inappropriate gestures, vile substances, and deformity invite spectators’ attention, thereby enhancing their aesthetic experience.Less
The introduction sheds light on the visceral emotion of disgust in Greek and Roman literature. Disgust invites out attention not only to the culturally privileged senses of sight and hearing, but also to the neglected senses of smell, taste, and touch. The Introduction endorses the view that emotions are a cognitive phenomenon and, thereby, argues that looking into the social categories, behaviors, or aesthetic preferences presented as disgusting enables us to locate the norms and values that regulated ancient social life. At the same time, the introduction offers an outline of modern approaches to the emotion as a response to vile substances (e.g., rotten food) or “abnormal” practices (sexual “deviances”) or old age and ugliness. It also uses modern advancements in the fields of psychology and philosophy by way of explaining the mechanisms that facilitated ancient deployments of the affect as a mechanism of social exclusion. A separate section is dedicated to the aesthetics of ugliness and repugnance in ancient art, emphasizing how inappropriate gestures, vile substances, and deformity invite spectators’ attention, thereby enhancing their aesthetic experience.
