Classicizing Christian poetry has largely been neglected by literary scholars, but has recently been receiving growing attention, especially the poetry written in Latin. One of the objectives of this ...volume is to redress the balance by allowing more space to discussions of Greek Christian poetry. The contributions collected here ask how Christian poets engage with (and are conscious of) the double reliance of their poetry on two separate systems: on the one hand, the classical poetic models and, on the other, the various genres and sub-genres of Christian prose. Keeping in mind the different settings of the Greek-speaking East and the Latin-speaking West, the contributions seek to understand the impact of historical setting on genre, the influence of the paideia shared by authors and audiences, and the continued relevance of traditional categories of literary genre. While our immediate focus is genre, most of the contributions also engage with the ideological ramifications of the transposition of Christian themes into classicizing literature. This volume offers important and original case studies on the reception and appropriation of the classical past and its literary forms by Christian poetry.
The rape (or threatened rape) of a sleeping Europa in Plato Comicus has curiously not attracted any attention from critics commenting on later texts which narrate the story of Europa. Yet, the motifs ...of night, sleep and dreaming play a prominent role in the Europa poems of both Moschus and Horace. This article will investigate the role of these motifs and argue for a closer connection between these two poems than has thus far been allowed. It will also maintain that, in both poems, the suggestion that the heroine was (or could be) raped in her sleep is lurking in the background and that, if taken into consideration, it can significantly expand our scope of interpretation and perhaps account for some features which would otherwise be hard to explain. While it is not unlikely that the two authors to be discussed here had direct access to Plato Comicus' Europa , my argument does not rely on knowledge of this comedy, which could, after all, be parodying an earlier tragedy. Rather, the main thesis of this article is that a classical or early Hellenistic version of Europa's myth (which Plato Comicus may either reflect or be the source of) had the young woman raped in her sleep. This tradition, then, informs these two later poems, which may or may not have been directly influenced by Plato Comicus’ rendition.
This article proposes a sustained politicized reading of the myth of Midas in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It argues that Midas stands, first, as the embodiment of failed, Hellenistic kingship, with its ...ostentatious display of wealth and heralding of a new Golden Age, and, second, as a warning against the infectious "love of gold," to which Roman politicians are far from immune. While the capture of Silenus and the golden touch episode link Midas with the tropes of Hellenistic kingship, his involvement in the competition between Pan and Apollo raises questions about the tropes of Roman imperial power itself.
This article examines three passages in Nonnus' Paraphrase of the Gospel according to John (19.21-25; 19.118-132; 20.81-82), all of which mention pieces of clothing in the context of Christ's passion ...and resurrection. It argues that Nonnus allows, and indeed encourages, both literal readings and metaphorical interpretations of the garments as stand-ins for Christ's body. The readings which do not turn garments into symbols of the body would be more in agreement with the Orthodox theology of Nonnus' time, while the metaphorical interpretations would be more amenable to a heterodox (Origenist or Nestorian) construal. The poem's ambivalence in the employment of clothing metaphors indicates an attitude that is less strictly Alexandrian / Orthodox and more polyphonic than has so far been assumed.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Lamentations Rabbah Proem 24, a late ancient rabbinic midrash, is in many ways a unique text within the entire rabbinic corpus. It presents an extraordinary array of characters (including Abraham, ...Moses, the Torah, and even the alphabet) who are called upon to placate God, but fail. As their quest proves inconclusive, the biblical Rachel jumps into the fray to tell her story: how out of sisterly compassion she allowed Leah to take her own place in the conjugal bed on “her” wedding night. Disclosing to her sister the secretive “signs” she had shared with Jacob, Rachel crawled under the nuptial bed to respond to Jacob whenever he spoke. This scandalous autobiography transforms an apparent instance of illicit sex, the ideal material for theatrical stage mimes, into an act of martyrdom and sublime compassion. This article argues that the performance culture of the late ancient Mediterranean world provides the key for assessing this text’s originality. We begin with an analysis of the text, drawing attention to its theatrical qualities and its relationships with contemporary visual imagery (mosaics) and texts from outside the rabbinic milieu (Christian Apocrypha). We then examine the casting of midrashic Rachel as a response to both the mimic adulteress and the Christian martyr. Finally, we consider rabbinic familiarity with mime, particularly with its usefulness as a social mediator and agent of collective catharsis. It is precisely these aspects of mimic performance, we argue, that Rachel’s vignette appropriates in this fascinating rabbinic text.
Concentrando-se nas obras de Libânio e Corício (retores do século IV e VI, respectivamente), este artigo tem como objectivo a exposição das diferentes facetas que a figura do herói guerreiro adquiriu ...nas declamações. Estas eram exercícios modelares compostos para uso em sala de aula, mas que, ao longo do tempo, adquiriram também um valor lúdico, sendo declamadas fora do contexto escolar. Embora a literatura grega da Antiguidade tardia esteja a tornar-se cada vez mais um objecto de estudo, os estudiosos não têm prestado muita atenção às qualidades literárias da declamação grega. Aqui destacam-se, nomeadamente, a sua capacidade de criar novos mundos, a absorção e apropriação de modelos literários (epopeia, drama e romance) e a crescente tendência de explorar o âmbito pessoal em vez do cívico ou político. Dividido em três secções, este artigo começa por contextualizar a prática da declamação dentro do panorama da educação da Antiguidade Tardia. Em seguida temos dois momentos de reflexão. Um primeiro considera a reformulação do herói iliádico por excelência, Aquiles, analisando a natureza controversa e ambígua do herói em dois progymnasmata de Libânio de Antioquia (8.3 e 9.1) e duas declamações de Corício de Gaza (Decl. 1 e 2). Num outro momento, abordam-se as conotações teatrais da declamação, analisando primeiro o herói guerreiro fanfarrão (Lib. Decl. 33) e depois o herói apaixonado (Chor. Decl. 5 e 6), explorando como ambas as figuras ecoam heróis análogos da Comédia Nova e do Romance Grego. Esta visão geral ilustra não apenas a evolução literária de tais personagens, mas também como essas figuras - e os géneros e autores principais anteriores nos quais estavam inseridas - moldaram a paideia da Antiguidade Tardia e, por sua vez, foram moldadas e adaptadas para se adequarem às expectativas sociais contemporâneas.
PDF
