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Jewish and Christian Cosmogony in Late Antiquity
Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum Edited by Peter Schäfer (Princeton, NJ/Berlin) Annette Yoshiko Reed (Philadelphia, PA) Seth Schwartz (New York, NY) Azzan Yadin-Israel (New Brunswick, NJ) 155 Jewish and Christian Cosmogony in Late Antiquity Edited by Lance Jenott and Sarit Kattan Gribetz Mohr Siebeck Lance Jenott, born 1980, is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo. He studied History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Washington (Seattle) and Princeton University, and holds a PhD in the Religions of Late Antiquity from Princeton University. Sarit Kattan Gribetz, born 1984, is a post-doctoral fellow at the Jewish Theological Semi- nary and Harvard University. She studied Religion, Jewish Studies, and Classics at Prince- ton University, where she earned an AB and PhD in the Religions of Late Antiquity. ISBN 978-3-16-151993-2 ISSN 0721-8753 (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- graphie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2013 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany, www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed on non-aging paper by Guide-Druck in Tübingen and bound by Großbuchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. Preface This volume presents essays that emerged from a colloquium on the topic of cosmogony (the creation of the world) among ancient Jews and Chris- tians held at Princeton University in May 2010. -
What the Muses Sang: Theogony 1-115 Jenny Strauss Clay
STRAUSS CLAY, JENNY, What the Muses Sang: "Theogony" 1-115 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:4 (1988:Winter) p.323 What the Muses Sang: Theogony 1-115 Jenny Strauss Clay HE PROEM to the Theogony has often been analyzed both in T terms of its formal structure and in relation to recurrent hym nic conventions;l it has also been interpreted as a fundamental statement of archaic Greek poetics.2 While differing somewhat in its perspective, the present investigation builds on and complements those previous studies. Dedicated to the Muses, the patronesses of poetry, the opening of the Theogony repeatedly describes these divini ties engaged in their characteristic activity, that is, singing. In the course of the proem, the Muses sing four times: once as they descend from Helicon (lines 11-21), twice on Olympus (44-50, 66f), and once as they make their way from their birthplace in Pieria and ascend to Olympus (71-75). In addition, the prologue describes the song the goddesses inspire in their servants, the aoidoi (99-101), as well as the song Hesiod requests that they sing for him, the invocation proper (105-15). My aim here is a simple one: to examine the texts and contexts of each of these songs and to compare them to the song the Muses instruct Hesiod to sing and the one he finally produces. I See, for example, P. Friedlander, "Das Pro6mium von Hesiods Theogonie" (1914), in E. HEITSCH, Hesiod (Darmstadt 1966: hereafter "Heitsch") 277-94; W. Otto, "Hesiodea," in Varia Variorum: Festgabe fUr Karl Reinhardt (Munster 1952) 49-53; P. -
Pre-Philosophical Conceptions of Truth in Ancient Greece
Pre-Philosophical Conceptions of Truth in Ancient Greece https://www.ontology.co/aletheia-prephilosophical.htm Theory and History of Ontology by Raul Corazzon | e-mail: [email protected] PRE-PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS OF TRUTH IN ANCIENT GREECE THE PRE-PHILOSOPHICAL USAGE OF ALETHÉIA HOMER Texts: Studies: "As scholars have often pointed out, the word Aletheia only occurs in the Iliad and the Odyssey in connection with verbs of saying, and its opposite is a lie or deception. Someone always tells the truth to another. Of the seventeen occurrences, (a) this triadic pattern is explicit in all but six, and in those few cases the reference to a hearer is clearly implied. Truth has to do with the reliability of what is said by one person to another. What is not so often pointed out are some quite distinctive features of the Homeric use of Aletheia. This is not the only word Homer uses to mean truth; he has a number of other words which mean 'true', 'genuine', 'accurate', and 'precise' (atrekes, eteos, etetumos, etumos). These words, as adjectives or adverbs, occur freely in the midst of stories and speeches. By contrast, Aletheia occurs almost always as a noun or neuter adjective (once the cognate adverb alethes is used). It is the word Homer uses when he wishes to signify 'the truth'. Furthermore, it is very revealing that the sentence, 'Then verily, child, I will tell you the truth', occurs five times in the Odyssey with but minor variations. (b) It is a high-sounding formula used to introduce a speech. The repetition of lines and formulaic phrases-sometimes, indeed, a number of lines-is a feature of the Homeric style. -
Rejoining Aletheia and Truth: Or Truth Is a Five-Letter Word
Old Dominion Univ. Rejoining Aletheia and Truth: or Truth Is a Five-Letter Word Lawrence J. Hatab EGINNING WITH Being and Time, Heidegger was engaged in thinking the Bword truth (Wahrheit) in terms of the notion of un concealment (aletheia).1 Such thinking stemmed from a two-fold interpretation: (1) an etymological analy sis of the Greek word for truth, stressing the alpha-privative; (2) a phenomenolog ical analysis of the priority of disclosure, which is implicit but unspoken in ordinary conceptions of truth. In regard to the correspondence theory, for example, before a statement can be matched with a state of affairs, "something" must first show itself (the presence of a phenomenon, the meaning of Being in general) in a process of emergence out of concealment. This is a deeper sense of truth that Heidegger came to call the "truth of Being." The notion of emergence expressed as a double-negative (un-concealment) mirrors Heidegger's depiction of the negativity of Being (the Being-Nothing correlation) and his critique of metaphysical foundationalism, which was grounded in various positive states of being. The "destruction" of metaphysics was meant to show how this negative dimension was covered up in the tradition, but also how it could be drawn out by a new reading of the history of metaphysics. In regard to truth, its metaphysical manifestations (representation, correspondence, correctness, certainty) missed the negative background of mystery implied in any and all disclosure, un concealment. At the end of his thinking, Heidegger turned to address this mystery as such, independent of metaphysics or advents of Being (un-concealment), to think that which withdraws in the disclosure of the Being of beings (e.g., the Difference, Ereignis, lethe). -
Humor As Philosophical Subversion, Especially in the Skeptics
Humor as Philosophical Subversion, Especially in the Skeptics Richard Bett 1. Introduction Aristotle is not exactly a comedian. He wrote about comedy in the lost second book of the Poetics, and, as discussed in another paper in this volume, he wrote about wittiness (εὐτραπελία) in his ethical works. But he does not exhibit much of either. What humor there is in Aristotle seems to fall into two main varieties. First, there is word-play that engages the reader’s attention, which can perhaps be seen as an instance of a technique he describes in Rhetoric 3.10, that of saying “smart things and things that create a good impression” (τὰ ἀστεῖα καὶ τὰ εὐδοκιµοῦντα, 1410b6).1 Early in the Nicomachean Ethics, he says that in endeavoring to determine the principles (ἀρχαί) of ethics, we should begin (ἀρκτέον) with things known to us (1095b2-4). A little later, introducing the idea of the function (ἔργον) of a human being, he asks whether we can seriously consider that a human being as such (as opposed to people in various occupations) is ἀργόν (1097b28- 30) – which is intentionally ambiguous between “without function” and “lazy.” In De Caelo, introducing the topic of minimal magnitudes, he says that positing such a minimal magnitude (τοὐλάχιστον) will make the biggest difference (τὰ µέγιστα) in mathematics (271b10-11). And in De Interpretatione, discussing names, he says that “non-human 1 Unless otherwise noted, translations are my own. In the case of Timon, I sometimes draw on translations in Bett 2000 and Bett 2015. In the case of Sextus I generally draw on Bett 1997, Bett 2005, and Bett 2012. -
Parmenides' Theistic Metaphysics
Parmenides’ Theistic Metaphysics BY ©2016 Jeremy C. DeLong Submitted to the graduate degree program in Philosophy and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson: Tom Tuozzo ________________________________ Eileen Nutting ________________________________ Scott Jenkins ________________________________ John Symons ________________________________ John Younger Date Defended: May 6th, 2016 ii The Dissertation Committee for Jeremy C. DeLong certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Parmenides’ Theistic Metaphysics ________________________________ Chairperson: Thomas Tuozzo Date Defended: May 6th, 2016 iii Abstract: The primary interpretative challenge for understanding Parmenides’ poem revolves around explaining both the meaning of, and the relationship between, its two primary sections: a) the positively endorsed metaphysical arguments which describe some unified, unchanging, motionless, and eternal “reality” (Aletheia), and b) the ensuing cosmology (Doxa), which incorporates the very principles explicitly denied in Aletheia. I will refer to this problem as the “A-D Paradox.” I advocate resolving this paradoxical relationship by reading Parmenides’ poem as a ring-composition, and incorporating a modified version of Palmer’s modal interpretation of Aletheia. On my interpretation, Parmenides’ thesis in Aletheia is not a counter-intuitive description of how all the world (or its fundamental, genuine entities) must truly be, but rather a radical rethinking of divine nature. Understanding Aletheia in this way, the ensuing “cosmology” (Doxa) can be straightforwardly rejected as an exposition of how traditional, mythopoetic accounts have misled mortals in their understanding of divinity. Not only does this interpretative view provide a resolution to the A-D Paradox, it offers a more holistic account of the poem by making the opening lines of introduction (Proem) integral to understanding Parmenides’ message. -
Illinois Classical Studies
16 Vainglorious Menippus In Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead> aXka. Tcapct vcKpoiq SoyixaTa Lucian, DMort. 6(20).3 ("Pythagoras"). JOELC.RELfflAN Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead are known to the world in two different ways. The most important is through their modem descendants: they are part of Lucian's massive influence on Erasmus, and are frequently imitated in the French and German literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.^ The other is through the study of the literary era that gave them birth: the Greek Second Sophistic, its principles of literary imitation, its allegiance to rhetoric, and its artful irreality. Of these two I am not competent to address the former, except to suggest that the familiarity that Western readers inevitably feel when reading these infernal dialogues does much to obscure what is strange, fantastic, and poetic. But I take issue here with the latter, for the investigation of Lucian's habits of composition and use of motifs, so spectacularly (if sometimes tendentiously) documented by the monographs of Graham Anderson,^ runs the risk of reducing the study of Lucian to a contemplation (and sometimes a rather joyless contemplation) of a second- rate artist's notion of art for art's sake, and would ask us to see as the only content in Lucian the erection of a literary facade and the clever adoption of pretenses and poses. The words of critical appreciation become such things as "graceful," "effortless Atticism," "sophistication," and numerous variations that suggest that we have to do only with shadow and not with * An earlier version of this paper was delivered as a public lecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana in March 1987. -
A Theology of Memory: the Concept of Memory in the Greek Experience of the Divine
A Theology of Memory: The Concept of Memory in the Greek Experience of the Divine Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of Classical Studies Leonard Muellner, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For Master’s Degree by Michiel van Veldhuizen May 2012 ABSTRACT A Theology of Memory: The Concept of Memory in the Greek Experience of the Divine A thesis presented to the Department of Classical Studies Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Michiel van Veldhuizen To the ancient Greek mind, memory is not just concerned with remembering events in the past, but also concerns knowledge about the present, and even the future. Through a structural analysis of memory in Greek mythology and philosophy, we may come to discern the particular role memory plays as the facilitator of vertical movement, throwing a bridge between the realms of humans and gods. The concept of memory thus plays a significant role in the Greek experience of the divine, as one of the vertical bridges that relates mortality and divinity. In the theology of Mnemosyne, who is Memory herself and mother of the Muses, memory connects not only to the singer-poet’s religiously efficacious speech of prophetic omniscience, but also to the idea of Truth itself. The domain of memory, then, shapes the way in which humans have access to the divine, the vertical dimension of which is expliticly expressed in the descent-ascent of the ritual passage of initiation. The present study thus lays bare the theology of Memory. -
California Cosmogony Curriculum: the Legacy of James Moffett by Geoffrey Sirc and Thomas Rickert
CALIFONIA COSMOGONY CURRICULUM: THE LEGACY OF JAMES MOFFEtt GEOFFREY SIRC AND THOMAS RICKERT enculturation intermezzo • ENCULTURATION ~ INTERMEZZO • ENCULTURATION, a Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, announces the launch of Intermezzo, a series dedicated to publishing long essays – between 20,000 and 80,000 words – that are too long for journal publication, but too short to be a monograph. Intermezzo fills a current gap within scholarly writing by allowing writers to express themselves outside of the constraints of formal academic publishing. Intermezzo asks writers to not only consider a variety of topics from within and without academia, but to be creative in doing so. Authors are encouraged to experiment with form, style, content, and approach in order to break down the barrier between the scholarly and the creative. Authors are also encouraged to contribute to existing conversations and to create new ones. INTERMEZZO essays, published as ebooks, will broadly address topics of academic and general audience interest. Longform or Longreads essays have proliferated in recent years across blogs and online magazine outlets as writers create new spaces for thought. While some scholarly presses have begun to consider the extended essay as part of their overall publishing, scholarly writing, overall, still lacks enough venues for this type of writing. Intermezzo contributes to this nascent movement by providing new spaces for scholarly writing that the academic journal and monograph cannot accommodate. Essays are meant to be provocative, intelligent, and not bound to standards traditionally associated with “academic writing.” While essays may be academic regarding subject matter or audience, they are free to explore the nature of digital essay writing and the various logics associated with such writing - personal, associative, fragmentary, networked, non-linear, visual, and other rhetorical gestures not normally appreciated in traditional, academic publishing. -
Diogenes Laërtius: a Moderate Skeptic in the History of Philosophy (Book IX)∗
Philosophy Study, April 2021, Vol. 11, No. 4, 293-302 doi: 10.17265/2159-5313/2021.04.005 D D AV I D PUBLISHING Diogenes Laërtius: A Moderate Skeptic in the History of Philosophy (Book IX)∗ Ramón Román-Alcalá University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain This paper presents the keys and reasons for Diogenes Laërtius’ alleged scepticism, based on an analysis of the general design of his work The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. I believe that it would be manifestly erroneous to seek confirmation of this scepticism solely in Book IX without taking into account the overall structure of the work. A convincing explanation is also provided of one of the most enigmatic and most studied phrases in this work. What did Diogenes mean when he said that Apollonides of Nicaea was ὁ παρ’ ἡμῶν (“one of us”)? Keywords: scepticism, Diogenes Laërtius, sextus, Pyrrho, The Lives of Philosophers The Singular Book IX of “The Lives” Diogenes Laërtius’ work Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers was already relatively well-known in antiquity, due not only to the author’s popularity but also to the singularity of the work, in which he had succeeded in faithfully characterising much of ancient historiography. Moreover, and this is important to highlight in our introduction, taking into account the structure of many of the books and sources mentioned by Diogenes, this work began a new and highly original historiographic genre, which could be called “successions”. Diogenes’ Lives of Philosophers is a singular work. It starts with an introduction focusing on the origins of philosophy (which were undoubtedly Greek), the different classifications of philosophy and philosophers. -
The Demise of Plato's Academy341
141 SKÉPSIS, ANO VII, Nº 10, 2014. MURDER OR NATURAL CAUSES? THE DEMISE OF PLATO'S ACADEMY341 RAMÓN ROMÁN-ALCALÁ (Universidad de Córdoba). E-mail: [email protected] Introduction. History, operating imperceptibly, tends to provide us with an overview of the rise and fall of philosophical movements, an overarching perspective to which we are blinded when studying the key figures within the limits of their time and space. It is fascinating to observe how philosophical doctrines mutate or change course over time, for reasons whose significance for the evolution of the system as a whole become apparent only when that evolution has ended, but which go unnoticed in the heat and clamour of the dialectical battles that shaped it. The moderate scepticism propounded by Arcesilaus342 and Carneades marked the heyday of the Academy; under their followers, the philosophical stance of the Academy shifted towards a striking dogmatism which eventually prompted its downfall. Little by little, scepticism began to fade, giving way first to a semi-dogmatic outlook and later to the most unyielding dogmatism. This shift in position was the reason for the demise, first of Academic scepticism – which was later to be restored with certain 341T his paper forms part of the Research Project I + D + I FFI2012-32989 on skepticism, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. 342 Arcesilaus is the key figure in the academic skepticism, made an innovative reading of Plato's dialogues, and where others saw a positive and systematic doctrine, the dialectical method looked a skeptical argument (to the impossibilities of clear definitions of concepts), cf. -
Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius
SAPERE Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia Schriften der späteren Antike zu ethischen und religiösen Fragen Herausgegeben von Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Reinhard Feldmeier und Heinz-Günther Nesselrath unter der Mitarbeit von Natalia Pedrique und Andrea Villani Band XXV Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary and Interpretative Essays by Katja Maria Vogt, Richard Bett, Lorenzo Corti, Tiziano Dorandi, Christiana M. M. Olfert, Elisabeth Scharffenberger, David Sedley, and James Warren edited by Katja Maria Vogt Mohr Siebeck SAPERE is a Project of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities within the programme of the Union of the German Academies funded by the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Lower Saxony. e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-156430-7 ISBN 978-3-16-153336-5 The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Natio nal- bibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http:// dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This ap- plies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and pro- cessing in electronic systems. This book was supervised by Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (representing the SAPERE Editors) and typeset by Magdalena Albrecht, Janjenka Szillat and Andrea Villani at the SAPERE Research Institute, Göttingen. Printed by Gulde Druck in Tübin- gen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. SAPERE Greek and Latin texts of Later Antiquity (1st–4th centuries AD) have for a long time been overshadowed by those dating back to so-called ‘classi- cal’ times.