The article investigates the reception of Pseudo-Dionysius’s negative theology in Alan of Lille’s philosophical and speculative theological works. In the first part, the paper discusses how Alan ...applied Pseudo-Dionysius’s negative theology to the problem of translatio and the limits of theological language. In the second part, the article sheds light on the problematic textual references and allusions in Alan’s appropriation and remarks about Pseudo-Dionysius. In the final section, the paper argues that despite Alan’s lack of access to the complete Corpus Aeropagiticum, his interpretation and adoption of negative theology is philosophically compelling.
This study compares how two prominent twelfth-century Latin authors and theological opponents, namely the monastic author William of Saint-Thierry (c. 1080–1148) and the school master Peter Abelard ...(1079–1142), variously understood the authority of the controversial yet influential Greek author Origen (c. 184–253) in their works. Modern scholars who study the reception of Origen in the twelfth-century Latin West have, to this point, spoken of an Origenian revival in this period, concluding that Origen was especially popular in the cloister, among Cistercian monks, such as Bernard of Clairvaux and his followers, like William of Saint-Thierry, based on the assumption that as monks they found his writings more relevant. This study seeks to challenge this scholarly narrative by focusing on two authors who are perceived as typifying two different strands of theology, one of a contemplative character developed in the cloister (William) and one making use of dialectics and developed in the emerging schools (Abelard). By demonstrating that the schoolmaster Abelard drew on Origen to a greater degree and in a more transparent manner than his monastic opponent, this study will show that Origen’s popularity in the cloisters was not, as such, a clear point of distinction between them and schools in the way that has usually been claimed by modern scholarship.
Acclaimed and influential, the pre-Raphaelite artist and author William Morris’s long narrative poem
The Story of Sigurd and the Fall of the Niblungs
(1876) fits, at first sight, the Victorian ...interpretation of the Old Norse world. It is essentially a world deprived of the original context, where the heroes were re-moulded within the contemporary frame. However, as the story goes, Sigurd’s life gradually drifts away from that of a Victorian conventional hero: unlike other Old-Norse-made-Victorian heroes preceding him, he fell prey to the power of the dark—the Niblungs or ‘the Cloudy people’. In this case, is he still a hero? If yes, what sort of hero will he be? It is the goal of this paper to address these questions. They will be approached through three successive steps: the first part will introduce the image of the Victorian Old Norse heroes in general as representations of light in contrast to absolute darkness, represented by the two Baldur-themed narrative poems from the 1860s. In the second, Sigurd’s rise and fall as a conventional Victorian hero will be examined through analysing a series of key events in his life. At last, it will be argued that, instead of being a symbol of perfect light, Sigurd is essentially a hero of the grey—a compromise between the idealised and the real, which accords with Morris’s own life experience and perception of heroism.
This paper studies the critical attitude of Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280, magister of the faculty of theology) towards the metaphysical principles of David of Dinant (c. 1160-c.1217, magister of ...the faculty of arts) in the context of the reception of the aristotelian corpus in the 13th century. Albert tries to show that David s interpretation of Aristotle is not accurate and that his ideas are linked with non-peripatetical thinkers.
El trabajo se enmarca en los estudios de la recepción del corpus aristotélico en el siglo XIII y, en particular, en el modo en que su lectura abonó distintas interpretaciones en pugna. En concreto se investiga la actitud confrontativa de Alberto Magno (c. 1200-1280), magister de la facultad de Teología frente a la lectura que David de Dinant (c. 1160-c.1217), magister de la facultad de Artes, realiza de la obra de Aristóteles y los principios metafísicos que sostiene basado en su interpretación. Se muestra de qué manera Alberto Magno pretende mostrar la invalidez de dicha interpretación y la filiación del ideario dinatense con autores no peripatéticos.
This thesis aims to shed new light on the myth of Hercules in medieval texts, by studying its sources and evolution. A particular focus is on little-studied, partially unedited textual material from ...12th to 15th century France. Texts examined include, on the one hand, Latin commentaries on the Classics – on the Metamorphoses in particular – and related mythographic treatises, and, on the other, vernacular historiographical compilations, which evolved in close relation to works of historical romance. On the basis of texts belonging to these distinct traditions, it is possible to consider a large array of Hercules-related materials integrated within different interpretative contexts, to study the evolution of various episodes of the hero’s life within and across textual traditions and to identify intersections between them. A third focus is on the sources and manuscript tradition of the Ovide moralisé, a 14th century French adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, situated at the crossroads of different traditions, which completes the Ovidian narrative with material from a variety of sources. The study of Hercules’ life in the Ovide moralisé attempts to elucidate possible sources of specific episodes that innovate with regard to the Metamorphoses, and to offer new insights into the complex manuscript tradition of the work. This study is accompanied by a provisional critical edition of the life of Hercules in book IX of the Ovide moralisé (lines 1-1036).
Roman Mythography Hays, Gregory
A Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology,
03/2017
Book Chapter
This chapter focuses on the reception of Greek myth by Roman mythographers and talks about Roman myth and its ancient students. A basic canon of Roman mythography was established by the publication ...of Thomas Muncker's Mythographi Latini in 1681. Most of mythographers are interested mainly or exclusively in the stories themselves, or even primarily, interested in the interpretation of myth. Fulgentius in fact gives two interpretations: a historicizing interpretation attributed to 'Solicrates' and a moralizing explanation. Like the Roman mythographers, Robert Graves' own contribution was an eccentric commentary to each myth, which in the case of the Midas chapter ranges from the Bronze Age Mushki to the secret name of Dionysus to speculation about 'scraps of Atlantian lore' and Gaelic legends. Hyginus, Pseudo‐Lactantius and the hypothetical Mythographus Vergilianus are recognizably similar, even if they articulate their material in somewhat different ways.
PDF
