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This study brings together three canonical Greek orators from different periods. Antiphon, chronologically the first in the canon, takes us to the latter part of the 5th century BC, to the Peloponnesian war, echoes of which are heard in his speeches, and which ultimately brought about his downfall and death. Dinarchus on the other hand, the last of the canon, made a name for himself at the end of the Classical period, and lived on to witness the upheavals of the early Hellenistic age. Lycurgus finally whose life and work to some extent chronologically overlaps with Dinarchus provides a glimpse into the traumatic memory of Chaeronea (338 BC) which marked the end of Athens’ imperial ambitions. In this book the reader will find a Polish translation of the extant speeches of the three orators along with a selection of the preserved fragments of their work. The speeches in question all belong to the forensic genre. Their translations are generously annotated and prefaced with an introduction dealing with the authors’ biographies, an outline of the historical moment in which they lived, and a handful of observations about their style and idiolect. In addition, each of the speeches is also provided with more specific remarks which concern the nature of the case at hand, its legal underpinning, and a prosopography of the parties involved in the dispute.
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The analysis of Homer’s influence upon the literatures of various periods and societies is one of the most extensive research subjects associated with literary reception. The Iliad and the Odyssey remain until today one of the most recognisable literary works which arose in European culture, and the research in the poems themselves has been conducted continuously, from the beginning of the existence of philology as a field of study. Unarguably, Homer was also the most popular author in Byzantium, which is testified by the very number of the manuscripts which contain works which are ascribed to the Poet. He was present at all stages of education, although only few people studied the great works of the Greek master in earnest. The majority of the students – the future intellectuals of Constantinople – engaged above all the first book of the Iliad or summaries of this part, whereas Batrachomyomachia, which is attributed to the Poet and which acts as a stepping stone to the reading of the epic poems was familiar to all of those who accomplished the “intermediate” stage of the system of education. In the Byzantine period the text saw the appearance of its imitator, i.e. Theodore Prodromos, the author of Katomyomachia, which is the subject of the present work. The book consists of an introductory part which includes the following: information about the author and the circumstances in which “The War Between Cats and Mice” arose, and an overview of the presence of cat and mice in ancient and Byzantine literature. The bulk of the work consists of an analysis of the text according to a transtextual approach which was put forward by Gerard Genette in an essay entitled Palimpsests. Literature in the Second Degree”. Due to the fact that Katomyomachia constitutes a literary palimpsest based on a different palimpsest, I decided to suggest a concept of a text in the third degree, in an analogous manner to Genette’s concept. The analysis leads to an attempt at establishing the possible conceptual areas for which Prodromos’s text was intended. The study is accompanied by translations of two Greek texts, Katomyomachia and a text which is attributed to Prodromos, Schede tou myos, into Polish.
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The Athenian orator Hyperides of Kollytos (389–322 BC) was considered by ancient critics as second to none other than Demosthenes himself, and in many respects even praised as his superior. His work, however, suffered a very different fortune: his speeches all lost, for a long time he was known only from a handful of fragments quoted by ancient and Byzantine authors. The 19‑th century, however, brought about a series of astounding papyrological discoveries, which, among other things, gave us six of his speeches, preserved in considerable portions, and in one case, in its entirety. These are: 1. Against Demosthenes; 2. Indefence of Lycophron; 3. In defence of Euxenippus; 4. Against Philippides; 5. Against Athenogenes; 6. Funeral oration. The first decade of the 21‑st century saw another major discovery, which brought to light substantial fragments of two other speeches, Against Diondas and Against Timandrus. The present volume provides the first Polish translation of all these texts, followed by a selection of culturally and historically significant fragments.While doing full justice to the high opinion the ancient critics had of Hyperides, this relativelymodest (he is said to have composed seventy two speeches in total) anthology also providesthe modern reader with a unique glimpse into Athenian politics, institutions and mores in theperiod which followed the defeat at Chaeronea (338 BC). This book aims therefore not onlyat offering an accessible translation of Hyperides’ work, but also seeks to flesh out variousquestions and problems raised by these texts (too frequently preserved in a far‑from‑perfectcondition). Its main concern lies in political, social and cultural history, prosopography, andmost importantly – since with only one exception we are dealing here with forensic speeches – Athenian law and its vagaries. The entire corpus of Hyperides’ translated work is prefaced with general introduction which deals with political events in Athens and Greece after Chaeronea, with the biographical tradition of Hyperides, and finally with selected issues in Athenian legal history. Each of the translated speeches and fragments is in addition accompanied with a generous commentary and a detailed introduction, which aims to provide specific background to the case from which the text takes its origin.
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The lexicon contains a complete list of spiritual beings (“powers”) mentioned by name in Nag Hammadi and related texts. They are presented against a broad background of ritual magic texts: “magical” papyri, defixiones, lamellae, and amulets of precious and semi-precious stones. The whole is also supplemented by extracts from patristic literature. The main part of the Lexicon is preceded by an introduction, in which the fundamental originality of the demonology of the Nag Hammadi texts is demonstrated. The book is addressed primarily to researchers interested in late antique Christianity, especially Gnosticism. Specialists in late antique magic will also benefit from it, as the lexicon juxtaposes two source corpora, which are generally considered separately. It is the first comprehensive undertaking of its kind in the world literature on the subject.
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Oedipus by Seneca the Philosopher, whose literary output constitutes one of the most precious monuments of Roman antiquity and which has inspired the most distinguished playwrights across centuries, was alien to the consciousness of the Polish readers due to the lack of modern translations – unlike Sophocles’ works, who is a completely different writer. The Senecan Oedipus is not a tragedy on the triumph of divine oracles upon the humiliated mortal. The cognitive path of the protagonist leads him from a consciousness consumed by religiously motivated fear to liberation. Oedipus casts away light, associated with Apollo’s controlling eye. He blinds himself, which is an act of both sacrifice and rebellion. With his activity he seems to lay the foundation of a new ethics, independent from religion and the violence, which religion makes legitimate. Oedipus’s ethics is based on compassion and man’s responsibility of man and toward man.
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Translated and prepared by Tomasz Sapota, Iwona Słomak; introduction by Tomasz Sapota; footnotes prepared by Iwona SłomakLucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher who lived during Nero’s reign, left a collection of nine tragedies, the only ancient Latin texts representing this genre which were preserved in their entirety. Troades is a lament of women who remain in the ruins of Troy and wait for the results of a drawing which was to indicate the person whom each of these women would become a part of war booty. The text demonstrates how violence reinterprets man’s ideas about himself and how it is that in the world of cadavers, the monotony of suffering, cruelty and rape the order of dissection is brought about: the turn of the wheel of fortune reduces a queen into a slave, a mother into an orphaned widow. The women of Troy face the attempt at establishing the significance of the misfortune which crushed their faith. The power of this piece of drama emanates from its stoical and rhetorical foundations. Cruelty, despair, hopelessness, the loss of “oneself”, of the image of who one is are examined here by the instruments of rational argumentation.
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The present volume comprises the individual works of researchers associated with the Centrum Badań nad Literaturą i Recepcją Bizancjum Uniwersytetu Śląskiego [The Centre of Research in the Literature and the Reception of Byzantium at the University of Silesia]. The authors include both the employees of the Centre and guest contributors from the United States and France, who collaborate with the Katowice-based centre. “Miscellanea I” is the first fruit of the NCN project conducted in the Centre entitled “Historia intelektualna dwunastowiecznego Bizancjum – przejęcie i przekształcenie literatury antycznej” [“The intellectual history of the 12-century Byzantium – the adoption and the transformation of ancient literature”]. The various articles contained in the collection (hence the title – Miscellanea) focus above all on the problem of the reception of the ancient culture and literature in Byzantium, ranging from the work of John Malalas (6th c.), the works of distinguished 12th-century scholars and writers (Theodore Prodromos and Eustathius of Thessalonica) to the politically-engaged output of a late Byzantine philosopher, Gemistos Plethon.
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The focus of this study is the mythical-ideological content of iconography introduced on Roman coinage, giving us an idea about the ancients’ perception and understanding of the past. This past is a construct emerging from the founding myths, or stories about heroes from Rome’s beginnings set in the early, legendary phase of its past. Among them was Aeneas — the forefather, who was a reminder of Troy, and Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars and founders of the city (conditores Urbis), whose childhood fate heralded a great future of Rome and whose deeds led to the birth of the City (Urbs).The past evoked by monetary representations of these characters is reconstructed, the origins and early history of the Romans are explained. In coins, whose content draws on that past, one can see monuments to Rome’s ancient history: memoria rerum Romanarum. Allusions to the earliest beginnings stemmed from the expectations and goals of the issuers of coins. Elements of the Roman myth were brought back from tradition to create an image of gentes or individuals by metaphorically erecting their monuments. In this way, a strong bond was forged between the mythical past conveyed in myths and the issuer’s contemporary times. The past captured on coins changed according to the expectations and goals of their issuers, while coins were primarily „monuments in miniature” to polititians and emperors and were their way of showing recognition for Rome’s tradition and past.Starting from the 3rd century BCE and continuing to as late as the 4th century CE, on Roman coinage there appeared imagery invoking Rome’s origins and early beginnings. Hidden in this imagery was the knowledge about select episodes from the founding tradition possessed by the Romans of that time.More importantly however, these monetary depictions prove the attractiveness and significance of particular mythical themes. At the same time, the contents on coinage provide exceptional examples of the updating and politicizing of the Roman myth. It was manipulated by means of confining it to certain themes while abandoning others. Modifying the themes drawn from myths was to a certain extent determined by the limitations imposed by the numismatic vehicle itself, where there was no room for lengthy inscriptions or elaborate iconography. As a result, only simplified, symbolic versions of stories about Rome’s beginnings were depicted on coinage. They primarily involved images of divine, human, and animal heroes: Mars and Rhea Silvia, Aeneas, Romulus, a she-wolf, etc.Interestingly, however, the message concerning Rome’s origins and early history has not lost any of its vividness over the centuries. These images were presumably not seen as solely mythical episodes but served their issuers’ current goals and interests. Their evolving consisted in a gradual deepening of the significance of singular iconographic themes as they were linked with universal values. These values were either expressed directly in inscriptions accompanying depictions or emerged from the images of the mythical heroes preserved by tradition and transposed into the needs of state ideology. Herein lies the uniqueness of the imagery referring to Rome’s earliest beginnings and most ancient history, as well as the attractiveness of this material for study.The first part of this book discerns the themes featured on coinage of the founding myth from Aeneas to the royal epoch. Rather than reconstructing mythical stories or, based on them, delivering a conceivably consistent and logical lecture, the author attempts to explain the sense of images featured on coins and medallions through references to the literary tradition. This part points out the similarities, originality, or uniqueness of solutions applied to coinage in relation to a broader iconographic tradition. Each successive chapter is devoted to the following heroes: Aeneas, the parents of the founders — Mars and Rhea Silvia, next the she-wolf, Remus and Romulus, and the heroes from royal times — anonymous Sabines, Tarpeia, and Roman kings. The myth reflected on Roman coinage boils down to these characters who — represented in the iconography of coins and medallions — evoke associations with events from the origins and earliest history of Rome.Part two orders the source materials chronologically from the Republic to the years of the Constantine dynasty rule. Succesive chapters address who, when, why, and what particular mythical themes were chosen for their issues. During the Roman Republic, attention was drawn to familial issues, where the Trojan myth was one of the many possible themes articulating the noble background of a gens. The high status of the Julii, especially Gaius Julius Caesar (C. Iulius Caesar), then Augustus, and generally the Julio-Claudian dynasts changed this state of affairs: the private Trojan myth advanced to the status of a state myth. The coin imagery reflected this proces to a certain extent, in it, primarily connecting the themes of Aeneas and Romulus with depictions of the Temple of Divus Augustus. Subsequently, rulers mainly used the theme of Rome’s she-wolf. It was used on a large scale especially in the reign of the Flavian dynasty (69—96) and Maxentius (306—312), but also by other emperors, who sought ideological support for their reign and thus demonstrated their attachment to tradition.This part also shows the reappearance of various mythical themes in the context of anniversaries in the reign of the Antonine dynasty and the “Crisis of the Third Century”. Celebrating the foundation of the City (dies Natalis Urbis) during Hadrian’s rule (117—138) and its subsequent anniversaries, the 900th anniversary in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138—161), and the millennium in the reign of Philip the Arab (244—249) was a favorable occasion for remembering Rome’s beginnings in monetary propaganda.The focus of part three is imperial virtues, virtutes, which were illustrated by three principal iconographic themes, bringing forth the heroes of Rome’s founding myth. They are: Aeneas, mostly depicted as the one who carries out the father and leads out the son, saving them from the danger of death (Pius Aeneas); the she-wolf who takes Romulus and Remus under her care, nurtures and rescues them (Lupa Romana); Romulus depicted as a warrior and a triumpher in one (Romulus tropaeophorus). These three iconographic themes, featured in numerous variants, served as representations of the three values. They are the following: pietas, aeternitas, and virtus. The extent to which the images of Aeneas, the Roman she-wolf, and Romulus were presented in this sense shows their emblematic character. It also proves an immanent connection between the sense of such depictions and primary values in the Roman state, important for the continuity of the empire.Part four begins with references to the origins and earliest history of Rome and their representations on medallions, that is occasional issues, and to a special group of imperial coins bearing replicas of images previously used by other issuers, called imitation and restitution coins (nummi restituti). They offered an exceptional opportunity to comment on the rulers’ approach to the mythical past. In part four, there is also room to discuss the character and scale of images concerning the myth of Rome’s foundation in depictions on provincial coins and the contorniate. Next, the book provides a synthesis of the studied imagery. The numismatic representations have been discussed in terms of their themes and originality. The words inscribed on coins have been analyzed along with the significance of inscriptions as commentary to images.Finally, in the concluding chapter, the determinants and regularities in the selection of themes from the Roman myth have been indicated. Firstly, it has been noted that favorable conditions were created by the then current situation in the empire, emperor’ s personality, and issuer’s own interest, the latter being the interests of gentes during the Republic and those of rulers — the strenghtening of their power — during the empire. Secondly, it has been emphasized that the choice of mythical themes was not random. They were not commonly used, but were always part of political agenda of the issuers.Focusing on the three leading themes: Aneneas, Lupa Romana, and Romulus tropaeophorus, one can discern three periods of their appearance on Roman coinage. The first comprises, generally speaking, the 1st BCE and the second half of the 1st CE. The popularity of the Aeneas theme in that period is well-documented and unprecedented before or after. All the three themes coexist on the coinage from the years c. 120—160. At that time, not only political circumstances and emperors’ tastes determined the choice of those themes, but, as can be inferred from other contemporaneous artifacts, they were also part of certain artistic-ideological convention. The beginning of the next period is marked by Rome’s millennium and its end in the middle of the 4th century. An extremely popular image during the first half of this long period of time was that of a warrior striding with a tropaeum on his arm, while the theme of Lupa Romana, characteristic for this late period, remained a long-lasting preferance.
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The publication is addressed to historians, archaeologists, numismatists and lovers of the ancient world.
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In the third volume of Essays on Antiquity, entitled The Hermeneutics of Wine, we focus our attention on the incessant presence of wine in the Mediterranean culture. In individual articles contained in the present publication, we discuss various aspects of wine and their relation to a specific place and time. The articles are interdisciplinary and they contribute to the reflection upon wine as the phenomenon that is more complex than literature. The Hermeneutics of Wine is at the same time a token of respect and sympathy for Professor Marian Szarmach and an expression of gratitude for his generosity that we experience in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, and elsewhere too.
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The fourth volume of The essays on the antiquity, which is devoted to Lingua coloris, contains nine articles which discuss (from various perspectives) the problem of colour in the antiquity, both in the works of art (sculpture, painting, pottery etc.), as well as in literature – the subject is presented by means of comprehensive analyses of references to specific colours and a discussion of a rhetorical term. // The publication is intended for people who are engaged in the study of and who are interested in the ancient world – classical philologists, experts in the field of literary studies, philosophers, historians, historians of art, archeologists or the experts in the field of religious studies.
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The book I, Euripides presents a wide array of interviews, records of meetings, and remembrances of Teodor Parnicki, published in press from 1957 to 1988. They are programmatic, critical, and autobiographical in character, and they reveal a very interesting image of literary life in the Polish People’s Republic. The texts collected in the book enable a better understanding of the reformulation of the poetics of the historical novel, a goal Parnicki accomplished in the 1950s and 1960s. They also show the turn toward experimental prose in the author’s writings in the subsequent decade and explain Parnicki’s philosophical, theological, and literary inspirations. Parnicki’s biography plays an essential role in both Parnicki’s literary and non-literary work. The changes over time in his autobiographical discourse, itself conditioned by changing political circumstances, are immensely interesting. The first texts gathered in this volume were published during Parnicki’s period in Mexico, when Instytut Wydawniczy PAX [PAX Publishing House] reprinted Aecjusz, ostatni Rzymianin [Aetius, the Last Roman] and Srebrne orły [Silver Eagles], both heralding Parnicki’s return to national literary life. In the 1960s and 1970s, Parnicki published over a dozen novels which were widely commented upon in the press and during literary sessions. The last text reprinted in the volume is a recording prepared by Parnicki for the event promoting his prose, which took place in Moscow several days before his death. By bringing together the texts written during three decades, it is possible to perceive changes in Parnicki’s attitude toward the historical novel and toward literature and the role of the writer. The book I, Euripides gathers texts which have not been published together in any anthology and were written by one of the most outstanding Polish prose writers of the twentieth century.
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The presented work is an attempt to look at Thucydides’s History of the Pelo¬ponnesian War from a very special point of view — from the perspective of a so¬ciologist of literature. Such a monograph can be imagined in several ways. In the variant proposed here, it tries to be, on the one hand, a sociological (not military, but indeed a sociological) reconstruction of a model of the internally and exter¬nally conflicted world of Greek polis, just as it is presented along with its prob¬lems by the Athenian historian, and on the other hand, a very personal study of the reading of Thucydides’ work. The combination of both tasks compels the au¬thor to create an amalgam of an analysis, interpretation, quasi-guide to the His¬tory of the Peloponnesian War and essay (but in an academic, non-literary sense). The author also intends this work to indicate the contexts in which Thucydides’s work can be interpreted in a broader way since for the sociologist of literature it is a bit different than from that of a historian, political scientist, political philoso¬pher or specialist in the theory of international political relations.
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This publication is not a biography of Pompey the Great, since it contains several articles on various spheres of his public activity. The issues addressed in the articles have been selected by the individual authors, therefore the publication does not comprise a comprehensive picture of the life or activity of Pompey the Great. This book, however, deals with issues that are very unique, and not very often discussed in the studies concerning this outstanding Roman. The articles included in the book have been divided into several series of issues related to Pompey's military and political achievements, intellectual attributes of his and his associates, his emotional life, especially some of his marriages, his death and the future generations’ remembrance of this significant figure. Therefore the problems examined here may be of interest to the academics who deal with ancient history, especially with the last century of the Roman Republic, to history students, teachers and antiques-lovers or hobbyists, especially because of the fact that the issues have been addressed in an original, unique way, which is interesting and accessible.
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The present publication’s title alludes to the works of famous American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who introduced the notion “pattern of culture” into cultural studies. In cultures she investigated she indicated rules of reasoning and behaviour that were specific to their participants and the influence of the said rules on the production of certain attitudes and reactions in everyday life, in addition to the ensuing development and realization of cultural norms characteristic of particular groups and societies. The term “pattern of culture” refers us to a complicated universe of norms and values that function always at two levels, of declaration and realization. Looking at norms on the former level reveils to us the existence of collective awareness of the ideal types, which are every individual’s supposed objects of pursuit. Reveiling the latter level od realization, in turn, allows us to verify the extent to which what is declared is genuinely realized and obeyed. (A fragment from the Introduction)
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