Seth L. Schein
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199589418
- eISBN:
- 9780191808456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589418.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (HHAphr) artfully combines a series of contrasts between humanity and divinity with cosmic history in a special kind of religious poetry that is unique in archaic Greek ...
More
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (HHAphr) artfully combines a series of contrasts between humanity and divinity with cosmic history in a special kind of religious poetry that is unique in archaic Greek epic as we know it. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Works and Days are concerned mainly with the human condition, the Theogony and most of the Homeric Hymns with the gods and the genesis of the cosmic order. Only HHAphr and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (HHDem) make divinity and humanity coequal poetic themes, and only HHAphr ends with the goddess’s defeat and a radical diminution of her power, even as her gifts enable Anchises to transcend the limits of mortality through sexual pleasure, fertility, and a royal lineage. Close attention to diction, style, and narrative technique clarifies how artfully the poem celebrates ‘the works of Aphrodite’ by narrating her simultaneous defeat and triumph and those of Anchises.Less
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (HHAphr) artfully combines a series of contrasts between humanity and divinity with cosmic history in a special kind of religious poetry that is unique in archaic Greek epic as we know it. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Works and Days are concerned mainly with the human condition, the Theogony and most of the Homeric Hymns with the gods and the genesis of the cosmic order. Only HHAphr and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (HHDem) make divinity and humanity coequal poetic themes, and only HHAphr ends with the goddess’s defeat and a radical diminution of her power, even as her gifts enable Anchises to transcend the limits of mortality through sexual pleasure, fertility, and a royal lineage. Close attention to diction, style, and narrative technique clarifies how artfully the poem celebrates ‘the works of Aphrodite’ by narrating her simultaneous defeat and triumph and those of Anchises.
Abraham Loeb and Steven R. Furlanetto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144917
- eISBN:
- 9781400845606
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144917.003.0008
- Subject:
- Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology
This chapter examines galaxies in some detail from a largely theoretical perspective. Along the way, one must bear in mind that, although the described progression of events in this chapter is ...
More
This chapter examines galaxies in some detail from a largely theoretical perspective. Along the way, one must bear in mind that, although the described progression of events in this chapter is plausible, at this time it is only a conjecture in the minds of theorists that has not yet been confirmed by observational data. This chapter therefore focuses only on the physics that drive these interstellar objects, showing how the earliest dwarf galaxies eventually merged and made bigger galaxies. A present-day galaxy like our own Milky Way was constructed over cosmic history by the assembly of a million building blocks in the form of the first dwarf galaxies.Less
This chapter examines galaxies in some detail from a largely theoretical perspective. Along the way, one must bear in mind that, although the described progression of events in this chapter is plausible, at this time it is only a conjecture in the minds of theorists that has not yet been confirmed by observational data. This chapter therefore focuses only on the physics that drive these interstellar objects, showing how the earliest dwarf galaxies eventually merged and made bigger galaxies. A present-day galaxy like our own Milky Way was constructed over cosmic history by the assembly of a million building blocks in the form of the first dwarf galaxies.
Roger Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198754473
- eISBN:
- 9780191816130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198754473.003.0020
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
This chapter follows Hugo’s reflections on the poetic function through a number of later verse and prose works. Drawing on discussion at the end of Chapter 18 of whether the poet more closely ...
More
This chapter follows Hugo’s reflections on the poetic function through a number of later verse and prose works. Drawing on discussion at the end of Chapter 18 of whether the poet more closely resembles Moses or Orpheus (does the visionary receive or invent what he writes?), the chapter traces Hugo’s insistently speculative observations on the poet’s role as lawgiver. Beginning with his presentation of the poet as magus in Les Contemplations, the chapter goes on to consider his accounts of the poet as genius and educator, as ‘civilizer’ (William Shakespeare), as cosmic historian (La Fin de Satan, Dieu, La Légende des siècles, L’Année terrible), and finally as promontory (William Shakespeare, ‘Promontorium somnii’, ‘Les Choses de l’infini’)—that is, the poet as secular spirit venturing out into the unknown in pursuit of the unthought and the unsaid, the poet following his own mysterious law: ‘aller au delà’.Less
This chapter follows Hugo’s reflections on the poetic function through a number of later verse and prose works. Drawing on discussion at the end of Chapter 18 of whether the poet more closely resembles Moses or Orpheus (does the visionary receive or invent what he writes?), the chapter traces Hugo’s insistently speculative observations on the poet’s role as lawgiver. Beginning with his presentation of the poet as magus in Les Contemplations, the chapter goes on to consider his accounts of the poet as genius and educator, as ‘civilizer’ (William Shakespeare), as cosmic historian (La Fin de Satan, Dieu, La Légende des siècles, L’Année terrible), and finally as promontory (William Shakespeare, ‘Promontorium somnii’, ‘Les Choses de l’infini’)—that is, the poet as secular spirit venturing out into the unknown in pursuit of the unthought and the unsaid, the poet following his own mysterious law: ‘aller au delà’.
John D. Barrow
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190277154
- eISBN:
- 9780190277185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190277154.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Human attitudes toward divine action play a part in explaining why mathematical theories of chance—so important in modern science—did not develop in ancient times despite the universal prevalence of ...
More
Human attitudes toward divine action play a part in explaining why mathematical theories of chance—so important in modern science—did not develop in ancient times despite the universal prevalence of games of chance. The traditional Platonic and Aristotelian perspectives focused on different aspects of reality—the unchanging symmetries and unseen “laws” of nature, and the haphazard asymmetrical outcomes of these laws, respectively. This leads to the two categories of design argument—one from laws, the other from outcomes—found in natural theology. Exploring their interplay—still relevant today—addresses the question: “Is the world simple or complicated?” Chance, uncertainty, and unknowability play significant roles in contemporary cosmology, arising in the investigation of the beginning of the universe, the life-supporting properties of the universe, the finiteness of our visual horizon, and the possibility that a complicated multiverse exists, described by a fundamental Theory of Everything.Less
Human attitudes toward divine action play a part in explaining why mathematical theories of chance—so important in modern science—did not develop in ancient times despite the universal prevalence of games of chance. The traditional Platonic and Aristotelian perspectives focused on different aspects of reality—the unchanging symmetries and unseen “laws” of nature, and the haphazard asymmetrical outcomes of these laws, respectively. This leads to the two categories of design argument—one from laws, the other from outcomes—found in natural theology. Exploring their interplay—still relevant today—addresses the question: “Is the world simple or complicated?” Chance, uncertainty, and unknowability play significant roles in contemporary cosmology, arising in the investigation of the beginning of the universe, the life-supporting properties of the universe, the finiteness of our visual horizon, and the possibility that a complicated multiverse exists, described by a fundamental Theory of Everything.
