The article revisits Aristophanes’ Daitales fr. 233 which is often taken as (the only) evidence of Homeric glosses being drilled by Athenian youth as part of their school education in 5th c. BC. The author discusses in detail the context of Aristophanic citation in Galen’s work, the state of the text of the fragment and its modern interpretations. In fact, nothing in the text itself directly suggests that learning glosses was part of the traditional school education in Athens. On the contrary, it can be argued that Aristophanes presented glosses as linguistic innovations and intellectuals studying them as sophists. The parallels between Daitales and Clouds, as well as Plato’s Kratylos and other fifth-century texts must be taken into account when interpreting the dialogue between the Father and his Son in fr. 233. As a conclusion, the author suggests that the characters of Daitales should be interpreted differently: the Old Man in this episode of the play is not opposing the sophistic teachings, but rather using these in his argument as an instrument to demonstrate the Licentious Son his ignorance. The latter is apparently not a follower of the sophists and defends himself with his more practical knowledge of legal terms
The article deals with a passage from the prologue of Aristophanes’ Acharnians, vv. 30–31. Close reading of the passage and analyzing each verb of the series in vv. 30–31 shows that the entire series of verbs in Acharnians 30–31 describes Dikaiopolis’ suffering and constitutes the culmination of the woes listed in his monologue. This last and greatest of his woes cannot be mere annoyance at having come first to the Pnyx and not knowing how to kill time. στένω must mean a lament tragic in tone, and κέχηνα intensifies this vocal lament though adding a comic bathos. σκορδινῶμαι does not refer here to drowsy stretching as it is usually interpreted by scholars but to convulsions of rage and despair. πέρδομαι indicates acuteness and intensity of Dikaiopolis’ disappointment; the relationship between σκορδινῶμαι and πέρδομαι is similar to that between στένω and κέχηνα, where the second verb emphasizes and marks the culmination of the first (“I’m moaning so much that my mouth is open wide” and “I’m convulsed to the point of farting”). παρατίλλομαι must mean “to tear out the hair on one’s head”, a gesture that is obviously a sign of sorrow and despair. The verbs γράφω and λογίζομαι describe Dikaiopolis writing out and assessing his debts sitting in the assembly place. The lines that follow are tightly connected to 30–31 and explain the reason for the protagonist’s despair: Dikaiopolis dreams of the countryside and hates the city, but due to the war cannot return to the country (32–33); his hatred of the city is further explained by the enormous expenses city life entails.
The paper deals with the embryological teaching of Empedocles, the ancient Greek philosopher from Acragas, who lived in the 5 th century BC. The article is focused on the mechanisms by which children inherit their parents’ features in the doctrine of Empedocles. The available fragments and evidence on the teachings of early Greek philosophers often provide distorted and sometimes contradictory information. This paper attempts to carefully analyze all the evidence regarding inheritance mechanisms and bring it into an agreement with each other without resorting to abandoning some of the fragments. The most extensive information is provided to us by Censorinus, the 3rd century Roman writer, who in 238 AD wrote the treatise De die natali to congratulate his patron Caerelius on his 49th birthday. The article comments in detail on the testimony of Censorinus (De die natali, 6. 6 = 31 A 81 DK) concerning Empedocles’ views on the inheritance of parental traits by children, as well as the contradictory messages by Aetius (Aët. 5. 11. 1 = A 81) and Aristotle (De gen. an. I, 18, 723a23; IV, 1, 764a1f.; 765a 8 = 31 A 81 DK). The analysis conducted by Erna Lesky in her famous monograph of 1950 was expanded and supplemented in this article. In addition, the study takes into account the evidence of cases where children do not resemble their parents. Empedocles justifies these cases by popular superstitions, which were widespread in Europe up to the 20th century.
In 2015, Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker, while excavating the so-called “Tomb of a warrior with a griffin”, discovered an agate seal with an extraordinarily detailed depiction of a combat scene. It shows a warrior armed with a sword only, bending over his adversary’s shield, grabbing him by the crest of his helmet and using it as leverage to render him absolutely powerless. The article studies the image on the Pylos combat agate as a reflection of an early epic narrative. It is shown that the account of the combat between Menelaus and Paris in the Iliad (3. 369–376) is an elaboration on a traditional epic narrative that was preserved in the text of the Iliad as a rudimentary motif (following Th. Zelinsky’s terminology). The comparison of this narrative with the Pylos combat agate allows us to comment the Homeric episode in a new way, insofar as it preserves the description of the type of helmet that was in use in the 16th–15th centuries BCE. This helmet would have permitted the adversary to turn the helmeted warrior’s head in the way that is depicted on the Pylos combat agate. It is noteworthy that the Homeric account begins with “were it not for…”, negating the version of events that was the basis of the earlier epic narrative. As a result, we are able to reconstruct several fragments of the heroic epos going back to early Mycenaean times, unsurprisingly connected (as already surmised by Ruijgh) with Peloponnesus of the 17th–15th centuries BCE.
В статье исследуются неопубликованные примеры прогимнасм на древнегреческом и латинском языках, созданные первыми учениками Софрония Лихуда во время прохождения ими курса греческой и латинской риторики в конце XVII века в Москве. Сборники с этими текстами сохранились в трех кодексах из Отдела рукописей Российской национальной библиотеки. Они посвящены проработке целого ряда риторических упражнений из классического греческого позднеантичного пособия Афтония Антиохийского: этопее, энкомию, псогосу, хрии, общему месту, опровержению и подтверждению. Как и в поздневизантийских сборниках прогимнасм, ни одна из рукописных тетрадей первых учеников Лихудов не включала упражнения на басню, экфрасис, тезис и введение закона; однако все они, за исключением введения закона, изучались в сокращенной форме в рамках других прогимнасм. Темы упражнений, которые предлагал Софроний Лихуд, в основном были христианского характера: плач Иосифа, предательство Иуды, похвала Рождеству, святым и мученикам, богословские дебаты и многое другое. Информация, сохранившаяся на полях рукописей, позволила идентифицировать имена авторов (Николай Семенов Головин, Алексей Кириллов, Федор Поликарпов и Федор Герасимов, Федот Агеев, Иосиф Афанасьев, Петр Постников, Палладий Рогов, греки Анастасий и иеродиакон Дионисий), а также определить необходимые элементы выполняемого упражнения. Исходя из полученного материала, мы можем заключить, что Софроний Лихуд, сочетая на своих уроках лучшие элементы как византийской, так и латинской иезуитской риторической подготовки, придерживался традиций современных ему греческих школ
This paper sheds new light on two Greek texts accompanying Aeschylus’ Prometheus Vinctus, in the fifteenth-century manuscript Q No. 2 of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. The first text is a didactic poem on iambic versification, allegedly composed by Michael Psellos, and the other one is a mixture of book epigrams related to the subject of the Prometheus Vinctus. August Nauck studied the manuscript and published these texts. All further mentions of the manuscript depend on Nauck’s readings, which nobody seems to question. In the latest edition of Psellos, prepared by Westerink, the manuscript from St Petersburg has not been taken into account, albeit the editor mentions Nauck’s publication. As for the epigrams, they have been published several times, also without taking that manuscript into account. A new study of the codex shows that Nauck’s edition contains several minor misreadings, therefore, I propose a new edition, based on the St Petersburg manuscript, as well as other manuscripts bearing same or similar verses, which were, apparently, unknown to him. Analyzing the epigrams on Prometheus, I compare our manuscript with others which contain the same verses (usually in different order). I try to explain some of the mistakes in these texts and correct them, as well as to compare them with other readings.
In her critical edition of the Passio Nazarii, Celsi, Geruasii et Protasii (BHL 6043), a text dated to the 6th or 7th century AD and probably translated from Greek, Cecile Lanéry introduces several conjectural changes aimed at language standardization. The author of the present article takes issue with several of her conjectures and suggests that in each case the transmitted text actually stands criticism and should probably be left unchanged. At 2.3, the transmitted alapas is not to be changed to alapis with percutio, since percutio with both the accusative of direct object and the accusative of a word meaning “blow” is several times reliably attested in the Vetus Latina, and in one of these instances the word used for “blow” is actually alapa. At 5.1, et in the expression uocans Nazarium et dixit ei should not be deleted, since there are numerous parallels for this syntax in Late Latin. At 8.2, in carcerem is to be retained as a possible way to describe position in Late Latin, whether confusion of expressions denoting position and direction or hypercorrect graphic -m is at issue. At 12.1, the form imperatori is to be retained as a possible orthographic variant for the ablative in Late Latin
Der Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit drei Passagen aus Asconius’ Kommentar zu den Reden Ciceros. Im ersten der behandelten Fragmente berichtet Asconius, dass Ciceros Tochter Tullia im Wochenbett im Haus ihres Ehemannes P. Lentulus verstorben sei. Diese Darstellung steht im Gegensatz zur in der Forschung fast allgemein akzeptierten, wenngleich auf indirekte Quellenzeugnisse gestützten, Meinung, dass Tullia auf Ciceros tuskulanischer Villa verschieden sei, nachdem sie einen Sohn im Haus ihres Vaters in Rom geboren habe. Asconius’ Zeugnis wird der Nachricht Plutarchs (Cic. 41, 7–8) gegenübergestellt, in der die gleiche Version überliefert ist. Der Verfasser gelangt zur Schlussfolgerung, dass der Darstellung der beiden Autoren eine gemeinsame Quelle zugrunde liegt, nämlich die von Tiro verfasste Biographie Ciceros, in der nur der Geburtsort des Kindes Tullias, aber nicht der Todesort seiner Mutter angegeben wurde. Gestützt auf diese Information, kamen Asconius und Plutarch unabhängig voneinander zum folgerichtigen, aber irrtümlichen Schluss, dass Tullia im Haus ihres ehemaligen Ehemannes verstorben sei. In der zweiten Passage erwähnt Asconius, dass M. Licinius Crassus im Richterkollegium im Majestätsprozess des C. Cornelius im Jahre 65 saß. Im selben Jahre bekleidete Crassus die Zensur. Allerdings waren die amtierenden Magistrate von den Geschworenen ausgeschlossen. Da der Corneliusprozess in den späten Frühling oder die erste Hälfte des Sommers datiert werden kann, ist zu vermuten, dass Crassus zu diesem Zeitpunkt das Amt aufgab. Im dritten Teil des Aufsatzes wird Asconius’ Bericht über den Mord an Lucretius Afella untersucht. Nach Asconius wurde Afella von einem gewissen L. Bellienus ermordet, während Plutarch berichtet, dass Afella von einem der Zenturionen Sullas erschlagen worden sei. Der Verfasser kommt zum Schluss, dass diese zwei Menschen identisch sind, obwohl ihre mögliche Identität in der Forschung üblicherweise in Zweifel gezogen wird
The article concerns the semantic nuances of the verb faxo in the Plautus’ language. The vast majority of the occurrences demonstrate causative semantics, but there are a few cases where such a meaning can hardly be seen. De Melo singled out the two occurrences in which faxo can be treated as either an adverb similar to forsitan or a parenthetical expression with the meaning “I assume.” The author of the article has found some more examples of the non-causative use of faxo and tried to find out which of De Melo’s suggestions is preferable. On the grounds of the grammaticalization principles suggested by Hopper and Heine, there has been traced the stages of grammaticalization of faxo in the language of Roman comedy, with particular attention to the broader context. It is demonstrated that the causative meaning which transpires in many examples tends to emerge in the “bridging contexts” of grammaticalization, while the transition to the semantics under consideration occurs at the following stage, i. e. in the “switch context”. Having analyzed all the occurrences of faxo against the broader contexts and comparative data from other languages, the author concludes that the rare sigmatic future faxo had over time become a semi-grammaticalized marker of the speaker’s stance, which allowed both evidential (inferential) and modal-epistemic interpretation
The Greek grammarian and lexicographer, Hesychius of Alexandria (5 th–6th c. CE) included a Pamphylian gloss: βουρικυπάρισσος ἡ ἄμπελος. Περγαῖοι in his dictionary of rare and dialectal words. Based on a microphilological and lexical analysis, I suggest that the Greek text should be read as follows: βουρίꞏ κυπάρισσος ἢ ἄμπελος. Περγαῖοι (“bourí: cypress or grapevine. Citizens of Perge”). The Pamphylian gloss in question represents two different borrowings of terms originating in the Near East. The first item βουρίꞏ κυπάρισσος (‘cypress’) seems to have been borrowed from Akkadian burāšu(m) ‘a kind of conifer tree; juniper or cypress’ with a Lycian intermediary (Akk. burāšu → Luw. *burašiš > Lyc. *burehi > *burhi → Pamph. βουρί), whereas the second one βουρίꞏ […] ἄμπελος (‘grapevine’) reflects a separate loanword from an Anatolian source, cf. Hitt. and Luw. muriš c. ‘a grapevine, a vine, a cluster or bunch of grapes or other fruit’. The Pamphylian dialect of Ancient Greek represents an extraordinary idiom, which was used in the neighbourhood of numerous Anatolian languages such as Lycian, Milyan, Sidetic, Pisidian and Cilician. It is therefore not surprising that the Pamphylian Greeks borrowed a number of cultural terms for plants from an Anatolian Indo-European source, as well as from Akkadian or other West Semitic languages via Luwian and Lycian. Additionally, other possible Anatolian borrowings into Ancient Greek (e. g. Gk. dial. βωληνή ‘a type of grapevine’, μῶλαξ ‘id.’ vs. Hittite maḫlaš c. ‘grapevine, Vitis vinifera L.’) are mentioned and reviewed
In this paper, I demonstrate that the early Stoics adhered to a normative theory that may be called intentionalist: the moral significance of any action is not determined by its material content, but by the virtuous or vicious disposition of the agent’s soul and the intentions arising from this disposition. Since according to Stoics all people are divided into virtuous sages and vicious non-sages, all the actions of the former are morally right (κατορθώματα), whereas those of the latter are morally wrong (ἁμαρτήματα), even if they are materially identical. On the other hand, some statements in the Stoic fragments can rather be characterized as deontological: in this case, certain materially defined types of action (stealing, lying, adultery, etc.) seem to be presented as morally wrong in themselves. The paper’s central thesis is that such statements do not contradict the basic Stoic intentionalism but can be interpreted as consistent with it. Such an interpretation becomes possible under two conditions: firstly, if one takes into account how exactly the notions of κατόρθωμα and ἁμάρτημα relate to the Stoic notions of appropriate and inappropriate action (καθῆκον and παρὰ τὸ καθῆκον), and, secondly, if one examines the Stoic position on the moral status of lying, which is very revealing in this respect
Ancient authors did not leave us any description of ancient interpreters, and neither their usual functions nor possible social positions are known to us. Although this can be partially restored from written sources, the whole picture remains in the shadows. We are not aware of the ways in which people became interpreters in Antiquity, whether such a profession actually existed, and to what extent it is possible to apply the modern understanding of interpreters to ancient times. Finally, there are many dark corners in our understanding of historical specifics: the functions, social status and ethnic origin of interpreters obviously varied in different cultures and time frames. The use of a word or an expression defining the interpreter is another issue, for Greek ἑρμηνεύς, a traditional lexeme in dictionaries of Ancient Greek (LSJ, GE, DELG, GEW, EDG, Woodhouse), does not, in fact, always denote someone related to this line of work. In Xenophon’s Anabasis a person named Pigres is described as ἑρμηνεύς and one of the companions of Cyrus the Younger in his belligerent attempt to overthrow Artaxerxes II. Pigres is usually understood as an interpreter (Gehman, Lendle, Rochette, Wiotte-Franz, Stoneman etc.), but is there a solid basis for such understanding? What do we know about him? What does Xenophon tell us about his responsibilities? The study shows that Pigres’ identity should be understood in relation to the usage of the word ἑρμηνεύς in V–ΙV BCE and to the sociocultural context of Asia Minor under the rule of the Achaemenid dynasty