DOCSLIB.ORG

Artemis and Virginity in Ancient Greece

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Artemis and Virginity in Ancient Greece SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA FACOLTÀ DI LETTERE E FILOSOFIA DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN FILOLOGIA E STORIA DEL MONDO ANTICO XXVI CICLO ARTEMIS AND VIRGINITY IN ANCIENT GREECE TUTOR COTUTOR PROF. PIETRO VANNICELLI PROF. FRANCESCO GUIZZI 2 Dedication: To S & J with love and gratitude. Acknowledgements: I first and foremost wish to thank my tutor/advisor Professor Pietro Vannicelli and Co- Tutor Professor Francesco Guizzi for agreeing to serve in these capacities, for their invaluable advice and comments, and for their kind support and encouragement. I also wish to thank the following individuals who have lent intellectual and emotional support as well as provided invaluable comments on aspects of the thesis or offered advice and spirited discussion: Professor Maria Giovanna Biga, La Sapienza, and Professor Gilda Bartoloni, La Sapienza, for their invaluable support at crucial moments in my doctoral studies. Professor Emerita Larissa Bonfante, New York University, who proof-read my thesis as well as offered sound advice and thought-provoking and stimulating discussions. Dr. Massimo Blasi, La Sapienza, who proof-read my thesis and offered advice as well as practical support and encouragement throughout my doctoral studies. Dr. Yang Wang, Princeton University, who proof-read my thesis and offered many helpful comments and practical support. Dr. Natalia Manzano Davidovich, La Sapienza, who has offered intellectual, emotional, and practical support this past year. Our e-mail conversations about various topics related to our respective theses have been stimulating, thoughtful, and challenging. Lastly, I wish to thank Princeton University for granting me a sabbatical to conduct research for this thesis. Particular thanks go to professors Robert Kaster, Christian Wildberg, Joshua Katz, Denis Feeney, and Walter Hinderer and to Dimitri Gondicas and Karin Trainer 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents …………………………..………………………….……………..3 List of Abbreviations………...………………………………………………….……5 Abstract ………………………………….………………….……………………….13 Introduction ………………………………….………………….…………………..14 Previous scholarship……………………………………………………………...14 Objective of the thesis…………………………………………………………....17 Defining virginity………………………………………………………………..,20 Recent scholarship………………………………………………………………..22 Chapter outline…………………………………………………………………...24 Contribution of the thesis………………………………………………………...28 Chapter 1: Artemis, the Divine Virgin ………..…………………………………...30 1.1 The many facets of Artemis…………………………………………..32 1.2 Artemis and Apollo…………………………………………………...34 1.3 Animals – wild and virginal…………………………………………..38 1.4 Plants and healing……………………………………………………..41 1.5 Borders and waters…………………………………………………….44 1.6 Epithets……………………………………………………………..….44 1.7 Attributes………………………………………………………………46 1.8 Physical aspects………………………………………………………..47 1.9 Relationship to men and women………………………………………47 1.10 Temples and festivals………………………………………………….51 1.11 Artemis Ephesia………………………………………………………..52 1.12 Artemis Brauronia……………………………………………………..59 1.13 Deer and the Nebreia………………………………………………..…67 1.14 The Amazons…………………………………………………………..70 Chapter 2: The Sacrifice of Two Virgins: Iphigenia and Hippolytus…..……...…74 2.1 Human (virgin) sacrifice……………………………………………….74 2.2 Iphigenia……………………........……………………………………..80 2.3 Hippolytus………………………………………………………………85 2.4 Hair…...………………………………………………………………...90 2.5 Animal sacrifice………………………………………………………...91 Chapter 3: Παρθενεία and σωφροσύνη ………………………………..…………...97 3.1 The concept of sophrosyne…..…………………………………………97 3.2 The concept of partheneia……………………………………………...102 3.3 Prophecy and virginity…………………………………………………103 4 3.4 Attitudes towards virginity……………………………………………..105 3.5 Attitudes towards the body……………………………………………..108 3.6 Moderation and the consumption of animals…………………………..109 3.7 Christian vegetarians…………………………………………………...114 Chapter 4: Artemis as “Choregos”: Music, Gymnastics, and Friendship ………..115 4.1 Athletic competitions for boys and girls…………………………….…118 4.2 Horse herds: Archaic sororities and fraternities…………………….….120 4.3 Taming of young men and women………………………………….….122 4.4 Education and friendship……………………………………………….125 4.5 Gender inversion………………………………………………………..132 4.6 The Thesmophoria festival……………………………………………..136 Chapter 5: The Abduction, Rape, and Death of Virgins………..……………..........138 5.1 Chase and abduction of boys and girls in puberty rituals………………141 5.2 Dead virgins…………………………………………………………….144 5.3 Three Greek virgins metamorphosed into animal form………………...147 Chapter 6: Conclusion, Puberty and the Power of the Virgin………..…….............154 6.1 The Ojibwa: Bears, prophets, athletes, choristers………….…………...154 6.2 Menarche and the ability to generate life……………………………….158 6.3 The power of the virgin: The extra-ordinary and rituals of transition.…167 Epilogue…………………………………………….……….........................................171 Appendix: Female Virgins in the Early Christian Church…….…….…………......173 Bibliography.….………………………………………………………………….........182 Illustrations………..………………………………………….……………………......203 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS: ANCIENT AUTHORS AND WORKS Ael. Aelianus NA De natura animalium VH Varia Historia Aesch. Aeschylus Ag. Agamemnon Cho. Choephoroe Eum. Eumenides PV Prometheus Vinctus Sept. Septem contra Thebas Supp. Supplices Alc. Alcaeus Alcm. Alcman Ammon. Ammonius grammaticus Andoc. Andocides Anecd. Bekk. Anecdota Graeca, ed. I. Bekker, 3 vols. (1814-21) Anecd. Ox. Anecdota Graeca e codd. MSS. Bibl. Oxon., ed. J. A. Cramer 4 vols. (1835-7) Anecd. Par. Anecdota Graeca e codd. MSS. Bibl. Reg. Parisiensis, J. A. Cramer (ed.), 4 vols. (1839-41) Ant. Lib. Antoninus Liberalis Met. Metamorphoses Anth. Pal. (AP) Anthologia Palatina Ap. Rhod, Apollonius Rhodius Argon. Argonautica Apollod. Apollodorus mythographus Bibl. Bibliotheca Epit. Epitome Apollonius Apollonius paradoxographus Mir. Mirabilia Apul. Apuleius Met. Metamorphoses Ar. Aristophanes Eccl. Ecclesiazusae Eq. Equites Lys. Lysistrata Pax Pax Plut. Plutus Ran. Ranae Thesm. Thesmophoriazusae Ar. Byz. Aristophanes Byzantinus Archil. Archilochus Arist. Aristotle Ath. Pol. Athēnaiōn Politeia De. an. De anima 6 Div. somn. De divinatione per somnia Eth. Nic. Ethica Nicomachea Gen. an. De generatione animalium Gen. corr. De generatione et corruptione Hist. an. Historia animalium [Mir. ausc.] See Mir. ausc. Under M Part. an. De partibus animalium Pol. Politica Sens. De sensu Arr. Arrian Tact. Tactica Ath. Athenaeus Athenagoras Athenagoras Leg. pro Chrst. Legatio pro Christianis, Auct. ad Her. Auctor ad Herennium August. Augustine Conf. Confessions Ep. Epistulae Aul. Gell. See Gell. Bacchyl. Bacchylides (ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler, 1970) Basil. Basilius, De virg. De virginitate Callim. Callimachus Hymn 2 Hymn to Apollo Hymn 3 Hymn to Artemis Hymn 4 Hymn to Delos Hymn 5 Hymn to Athena Hymn 6 Hymn to Demeter Cato, Cato Agr. Orig. De agricultura or De re rustica Origines Cic. Cicero (Marcus Tullius) Div. De divinatione Nat. D. De natura deorum Off. De officiis Tusc. Tusculanae Disputationes CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum Clem. Al. Clemens Alexandrinus Paed. Paedagogus Protr. Protrepticus Strom. Stromateis Cod. Iust. Codex Iustinianus Cod. Theod. Codex Theodosianus Columella, Rust. Columella, De re rustica Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum,ediderunt E.L. Leutsch et F. G. Schneidewin. Gottingae. Vandenhoeck et Ruprecht, 1839-1851. CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Dem. Demosthenes De cor. De corona Democr. Democritus 7 De vir. ill. De viris illustribus (auctor ignotus) Diehl, Anth. Lyr. Graec. E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca (1925; 2nd ed. 1942; 3rd ed. 1949-52) Dio Cass. Dio Cassius Dio Chrys. Dio Chrysostomus Or. Orationes Diod. Sic. Diodorus Siculus Diog. Laert. Diogenes Laertius De clarorum philosophorum vitis, dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus (Olympiodorus, Ammonius, Iamblichus, Porphyry, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Plotinus et Isidorus). A. Westermann (Ed.)(1862). Paris: Didot. Dion. Hal. Dionysius Halicarnassensis Ant. Rom. Antiquitates Romanae Dem. De Demosthene Lys. De Lysia Rhet. Ars rhetorica Epicharm. Epicharmus. G. Kaibel, Comicorum graecorum fragmenta (1958 [1899-]) Epigr. Gr. G. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta (1878) Epiph. Adv. haeres. Epiphanius, Adversus haereses Eratosth. Eratosthenes Etym. Magn. Etymologicum Magnum Eur. Euripides Alc. Alcestis Bacch. Bacchae Cyc. Cyclops El. Electra Hec. Hecuba Hel. Helena HF Hercules furens Heracl. Heraclidae Hipp. Hippolytus IA Iphigenia Aulidensis IT Iphigenia Taurica Med. Medea Phoen. Phoenissae Supp. Supplices Tro. Troades Euseb. Eusebius Chron. Chronica Hist. eccl. Historia ecclesiastica Praep. evang. Praeparatio evangelica Vit. Const. Vita Constantini Eust. Eusthatius Il. Ad Iliadem Od. Ad Odysseam FHG K. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum 8 (FHG) 4. Paris: Didot, 1848-1874 FGrH F. Jacoby. Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (1923-) Gell. Aulus Gellius NA Noctes Atticae Harp. Harpocration Hdt. Herodotus Heraclid. Pont. Heraclides Ponticus Hes. Hesiod Cat. Catalogus mulierum Op. Opera et Dies Th. or Theog. Theogonia (Merkelbach-West (M-W) Hesiodi Theogonia: Opera et dies: Scutum, ediderunt R. Merkelbach et M. L. West. Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxonii: E Typographeo Clarendoniano (1970) Hsch. Hesychius Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon. Ed. Kurt Litté v. 1 (1953) (Lys. Fr. Harp. 54.6) (Anecd. Bekk. I 234) Hieron. Hieronymus (see Jerome) Hippoc. Hippocrates Aer. De aera, aquis, locis [Ep.] Epistulae Vir. De virginibus morbis (Littré, É., 1853) Ouvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 8. Paris: Baillière.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • OVID Metamorphoses
    Metamorphoses Ovid, Joseph D. Reed, Rolfe Humphries Published by Indiana University Press Ovid, et al. Metamorphoses: The New, Annotated Edition. Indiana University Press, 2018. Project MUSE. muse.jhu.edu/book/58757. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/58757 [ Access provided at 20 May 2021 05:17 GMT from University of Washington @ Seattle ] book FIve The Fighting of Perseus* So Perseus told his story, and the halls Buzzed loud, not with the cheery noise that rings From floor to rafter at a wedding-party. No; this meant trouble. It was like the riot When sudden squalls lash peaceful waves to surges. Phineus was the reckless one to start it, That warfare, brandishing his spear of ash With sharp bronze point. “Look at me! Here I am,” He cried, “Avenger of my stolen bride! No wings will save you from me, and no god Turned into lying gold.”* He poised the spear, As Cepheus shouted: “Are you crazy, brother? What are you doing? Is this our gratitude, This our repayment for a maiden saved? If truth is what you want, it was not Perseus Who took her from you, but the Nereids Whose power is terrible, it was hornèd Ammon, It was that horrible monster from the ocean Who had to feed on my own flesh and blood, And that was when you really lost her, brother; 107 lines 20–47 She would have died—can your heart be so cruel To wish it so, to heal its grief by causing Grief in my heart? It was not enough, I take it, For you to see her bound and never help her, Never so much as lift a little finger, And you her uncle and her promised husband! So now you grieve that someone else did save her, You covet his reward, a prize so precious, It seems, you could not force yourself to take it From the rocks where it was bound.
    [Show full text]
  • Marathon 2,500 Years Edited by Christopher Carey & Michael Edwards
    MARATHON 2,500 YEARS EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SUPPLEMENT 124 DIRECTOR & GENERAL EDITOR: JOHN NORTH DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: RICHARD SIMPSON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS PROCEEDINGS OF THE MARATHON CONFERENCE 2010 EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2013 The cover image shows Persian warriors at Ishtar Gate, from before the fourth century BC. Pergamon Museum/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. Photo Mohammed Shamma (2003). Used under CC‐BY terms. All rights reserved. This PDF edition published in 2019 First published in print in 2013 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org ISBN: 978-1-905670-81-9 (2019 PDF edition) DOI: 10.14296/1019.9781905670819 ISBN: 978-1-905670-52-9 (2013 paperback edition) ©2013 Institute of Classical Studies, University of London The right of contributors to be identified as the authors of the work published here has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Designed and typeset at the Institute of Classical Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory note 1 P. J. Rhodes The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship 3 Christopher Pelling Herodotus’ Marathon 23 Peter Krentz Marathon and the development of the exclusive hoplite phalanx 35 Andrej Petrovic The battle of Marathon in pre-Herodotean sources: on Marathon verse-inscriptions (IG I3 503/504; Seg Lvi 430) 45 V.
    [Show full text]
  • Hesiod Theogony.Pdf
    Hesiod (8th or 7th c. BC, composed in Greek) The Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are probably slightly earlier than Hesiod’s two surviving poems, the Works and Days and the Theogony. Yet in many ways Hesiod is the more important author for the study of Greek mythology. While Homer treats cer- tain aspects of the saga of the Trojan War, he makes no attempt at treating myth more generally. He often includes short digressions and tantalizes us with hints of a broader tra- dition, but much of this remains obscure. Hesiod, by contrast, sought in his Theogony to give a connected account of the creation of the universe. For the study of myth he is im- portant precisely because his is the oldest surviving attempt to treat systematically the mythical tradition from the first gods down to the great heroes. Also unlike the legendary Homer, Hesiod is for us an historical figure and a real per- sonality. His Works and Days contains a great deal of autobiographical information, in- cluding his birthplace (Ascra in Boiotia), where his father had come from (Cyme in Asia Minor), and the name of his brother (Perses), with whom he had a dispute that was the inspiration for composing the Works and Days. His exact date cannot be determined with precision, but there is general agreement that he lived in the 8th century or perhaps the early 7th century BC. His life, therefore, was approximately contemporaneous with the beginning of alphabetic writing in the Greek world. Although we do not know whether Hesiod himself employed this new invention in composing his poems, we can be certain that it was soon used to record and pass them on.
    [Show full text]
  • MYTHOLOGY – ALL LEVELS Ohio Junior Classical League – 2012 1
    MYTHOLOGY – ALL LEVELS Ohio Junior Classical League – 2012 1. This son of Zeus was the builder of the palaces on Mt. Olympus and the maker of Achilles’ armor. a. Apollo b. Dionysus c. Hephaestus d. Hermes 2. She was the first wife of Heracles; unfortunately, she was killed by Heracles in a fit of madness. a. Aethra b. Evadne c. Megara d. Penelope 3. He grew up as a fisherman and won fame for himself by slaying Medusa. a. Amphitryon b. Electryon c. Heracles d. Perseus 4. This girl was transformed into a sunflower after she was rejected by the Sun god. a. Arachne b. Clytie c. Leucothoe d. Myrrha 5. According to Hesiod, he was NOT a son of Cronus and Rhea. a. Brontes b. Hades c. Poseidon d. Zeus 6. He chose to die young but with great glory as opposed to dying in old age with no glory. a. Achilles b. Heracles c. Jason d. Perseus 7. This queen of the gods is often depicted as a jealous wife. a. Demeter b. Hera c. Hestia d. Thetis 8. This ruler of the Underworld had the least extra-marital affairs among the three brothers. a. Aeacus b. Hades c. Minos d. Rhadamanthys 9. He imprisoned his daughter because a prophesy said that her son would become his killer. a. Acrisius b. Heracles c. Perseus d. Theseus 10. He fled burning Troy on the shoulder of his son. a. Anchises b. Dardanus c. Laomedon d. Priam 11. He poked his eyes out after learning that he had married his own mother.
    [Show full text]
  • Homer – the Iliad
    HOMER – THE ILIAD Homer is the author of both The Iliad and The Odyssey. He lived in Ionia – which is now modern day Turkey – between the years of 900-700 BC. Both of the above epics provided the framework for Greek education and thought. Homer was a blind bard, one who is a professional story teller, an oral historian. Epos or epic means story. An epic is a particular type of story; it involves one with a hero in the midst of a battle. The subject of the poem is the Trojan War which happened approximately in 1200 BC. This was 400 years before the poem was told by Homer. This story would have been read aloud by Homer and other bards that came after him. It was passed down generation to generation by memory. One can only imagine how valuable memory was during that time period – there were no hard drives or memory sticks. On a tangential note, one could see how this poem influenced a culture; to be educated was to memorize a particular set of poems or stories which could be cross-referenced with other people’s memory of those particular stories. The information would be public and not private. The Iliad is one of the greatest stories ever told – a war between two peoples; the Greeks from the West and the Trojans from the East. The purpose of this story is to praise Achilles. The two worlds are brought into focus; the world of the divine order and the human order. The hero of the story is to bring greater order and harmony between these two orders.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Mythology
    Greek Mythology The Creation Myth “First Chaos came into being, next wide bosomed Gaea(Earth), Tartarus and Eros (Love). From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night. Of Night were born Aether and Day (whom she brought forth after intercourse with Erebus), and Doom, Fate, Death, sleep, Dreams; also, though she lay with none, the Hesperides and Blame and Woe and the Fates, and Nemesis to afflict mortal men, and Deceit, Friendship, Age and Strife, which also had gloomy offspring.”[11] “And Earth first bore starry Heaven (Uranus), equal to herself to cover her on every side and to be an ever-sure abiding place for the blessed gods. And earth brought forth, without intercourse of love, the Hills, haunts of the Nymphs and the fruitless sea with his raging swell.”[11] Heaven “gazing down fondly at her (Earth) from the mountains he showered fertile rain upon her secret clefts, and she bore grass flowers, and trees, with the beasts and birds proper to each. This same rain made the rivers flow and filled the hollow places with the water, so that lakes and seas came into being.”[12] The Titans and the Giants “Her (Earth) first children (with heaven) of Semi-human form were the hundred-handed giants Briareus, Gyges, and Cottus. Next appeared the three wild, one-eyed Cyclopes, builders of gigantic walls and master-smiths…..Their names were Brontes, Steropes, and Arges.”[12] Next came the “Titans: Oceanus, Hypenon, Iapetus, Themis, Memory (Mnemosyne), Phoebe also Tethys, and Cronus the wily—youngest and most terrible of her children.”[11] “Cronus hated his lusty sire Heaven (Uranus).
    [Show full text]
  • View / Download 2.4 Mb
    Lucian and the Atticists: A Barbarian at the Gates by David William Frierson Stifler Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ William A. Johnson, Supervisor ___________________________ Janet Downie ___________________________ Joshua D. Sosin ___________________________ Jed W. Atkins Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 ABSTRACT Lucian and the Atticists: A Barbarian at the Gates by David William Frierson Stifler Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ William A. Johnson, Supervisor ___________________________ Janet Downie ___________________________ Joshua D. Sosin ___________________________ Jed W. Atkins An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by David William Frierson Stifler 2019 Abstract This dissertation investigates ancient language ideologies constructed by Greek and Latin writers of the second and third centuries CE, a loosely-connected movement now generally referred to the Second Sophistic. It focuses on Lucian of Samosata, a Syrian “barbarian” writer of satire and parody in Greek, and especially on his works that engage with language-oriented topics of contemporary relevance to his era. The term “language ideologies”, as it is used in studies of sociolinguistics, refers to beliefs and practices about language as they function within the social context of a particular culture or set of cultures; prescriptive grammar, for example, is a broad and rather common example. The surge in Greek (and some Latin) literary output in the Second Sophistic led many writers, with Lucian an especially noteworthy example, to express a variety of ideologies regarding the form and use of language.
    [Show full text]
  • Homer and Hesiod
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (Classical Studies) Classical Studies at Penn 1-1-1997 Homer and Hesiod Ralph M. Rosen University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons Recommended Citation Rosen, R. M. (1997). Homer and Hesiod. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/7 Postprint version. Published in A New Companion to Homer, edited by Barry Powell and Ian Morris, Mnemosyne: Bibliotheca classica Batava, Supplementum 163 (New York: Brill, 1997), pages 463-488. The author has asserted his right to include this material in ScholarlyCommons@Penn. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/7 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Homer and Hesiod Abstract One of the most frustrating aspects of Homeric studies is that so little literary material outside the Homeric corpus itself survives to enhance our understanding of the cultural landscape of the period. Recent scholarship suggests that a large and diverse poetic tradition lay behind the figure we refer to as "Homer," but little of it survives. Indeed we have little continuous written Greek for another century. The one exception is Hesiod, who composed two extant poems, the Theogony and Works and Days, and possibly several others, including the Shield of Heracles and the Catalogue of Women. As we shall see, while Hesiodic poetry was not occupied specifically with heroic themes, it was part of the same formal tradition of epic, sharing with Homer key metrical, dialectal, and dictional features.
    [Show full text]
  • VENUS and ADONIS (Published in 1593) 'Vilia Miretur Vulgus; Mihi
    VENUS AND ADONIS (Published in 1593) 'Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. ' TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD. RIGHT HONORABLE, I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden: only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god-father, and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish and the world's hopeful expectation. Your honour's in all duty, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn, Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chase; Hunting he loved, but love he laugh'd to scorn; Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him, And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him. 'Thrice-fairer than myself,' thus she began, 'The field's chief flower, sweet above compare, Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man, 10 More white and red than doves or roses are; Nature that made thee, with herself at strife, Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.
    [Show full text]
  • Pindar Fr. 75 SM and the Politics of Athenian Space Richard T
    Pindar Fr. 75 SM and the Politics of Athenian Space Richard T. Neer and Leslie Kurke Towns are the illusion that things hang together somehow. Anne Carson, “The Life of Towns” T IS WELL KNOWN that Pindar’s poems were occasional— composed on commission for specific performance settings. IBut they were also, we contend, situational: mutually im- plicated with particular landscapes, buildings, and material artifacts. Pindar makes constant reference to precious objects and products of craft, both real and metaphorical; he differs, in this regard, from his contemporary Bacchylides. For this reason, Pindar provides a rich phenomenology of viewing, an insider’s perspective on the embodied experience of moving through a built environment amidst statues, buildings, and other monu- ments. Analysis of the poetic text in tandem with the material record makes it possible to reconstruct phenomenologies of sculpture, architecture, and landscape. Our example in this essay is Pindar’s fragment 75 SM and its immediate context: the cityscape of early Classical Athens. Our hope is that putting these two domains of evidence together will shed new light on both—the poem will help us solve problems in the archaeo- logical record, and conversely, the archaeological record will help us solve problems in the poem. Ultimately, our argument will be less about political history, and more about the ordering of bodies in space, as this is mediated or constructed by Pindar’s poetic sophia. This is to attend to the way Pindar works in three dimensions, as it were, to produce meaningful relations amongst entities in the world.1 1 Interest in Pindar and his material context has burgeoned in recent ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54 (2014) 527–579 2014 Richard T.
    [Show full text]
  • The Myth of Aphrodite and Adonis in Roman Mosaics of Jordan, Arabia
    JMR 8, 2015 1-16 The Myth of Aphrodite and Adonis in Roman Mosaics of Jordan, Arabia, Antioch, Mauretania Tingitana and Hispania Ürdün, Arabistan, Antakya, Mauretania Tingitana ve Hispanya’daki Roma Mozaikleri Üzerinde Aphrodite ve Adonis Miti José María BLÁZQUEZ* (Received 9 February 2015, accepted after revision 29 October 2015) Abstract The myth of the love between Aphrodite and Adonis has a Syrian origin. It was known in Greece since 700 B.C. The early Greek vases, Athenian black figure vases and Athenian red figure vases do not represent it. It appears in Corinthian mirrors from the mid-4th century B.C. A huge celebration took place in the Ptolemaic court in Alexandria in honour of Adonis. During the Roman Empire it was represented in several Roman mosaics in An- tioch. The myth is not known in mosaics of Orient, Greece and Northern Africa. It was represented in Madaba during the mid-4th century A.D. In Western Roman mosaics it was represented in Lixus, Mauretania Tingitana, and in several mosaics of Hispania. A celebration in honour of Adonis took place in Hispalis in 287 A.D. Keywords: Aphrodite and Adonis, greek vases, mirror of Corinth, Ptolemaios, not Orient, not Northern Africa, Antioch, Lixus, Hispania, Hispalis. Öz Aphrodite ve Adonis arasında yaşanan aşk miti Suriyeli bir kökene sahiptir. Yunanistan’da, İ.Ö. 700’lerden beri bilinmektedir. Erken Yunan vazoları, Atina siyah ve kırmızı figürlü vazolar bu konuyu betimlememektedir. Bu konu, İ.Ö. 4. yüzyıl ortalarında, Korint paralellerinde görünmektedir. İskenderiye’de, Ptolemaios Hanedanı sarayında, Adonis onuruna büyük törenler düzenlenmekteydi. Roma İmparatorluğu Dönemi’nde, Antakya’da birçok Roma mozaiği üzerinde bu konu tasvir edilmiştir.
    [Show full text]
  • Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess and the Secrets of Eleusis
    In memory of Blaise Daniel Staples, my companion and soul mate. He is dearly missed. PREFACE by Huston Smith WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO PUBLISH Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, there were those who advised me not to do so, saying that it would destroy my reputation. Time has proved them wrong. As the religious significance of these substances comes to be increasingly accepted—the glaring exception being the Food and Drug Administration—the sales of that book (favorably reviewed from the beginning) continue to rise. As does my conviction of the importance of the issue, and I will say why. The great achievement of the linguist Noam Chomsky, who was my colleague during the fifteen years I taught at MIT, was to discover the universal grammar that every spoken language–– English, Chinese, French, whatever––must conform to, for it seems to be imprinted into the human brain. I, for my part, have worked out the universal grammar of religion to which authentic religions conform. Reduced to a single sentence, that grammar concludes that Reality is Perfect, and that human beings should do their best to conform their lives to that perfection. Reality’s perfection seems to be contradicted by perception of the world, but this is not surprising, for Reality is Infinite and our minds are not. Out minds must expand if they are to receive even glimpses of the Infinite Perfection. Thus the question is: how can they do this? Perfect Reality has provided a way. Through the entheogens, to be sure, but here we come to a point that has been under-noticed in the discussion of this important subject.
    [Show full text]