scholarly journals ‘DAY WATCH’ OR BAYWATCH? A NOTE ON ΗΜΕΡΟΣΚΟΠΟΣ (AR. LYS. 849)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Mark Janse

Abstract This article argues that ἡμεροσκόπος at Lys. 849 constitutes a pun based on iotacism, a well-known feature of female speech in fifth-century Athens aptly illustrated by Socrates in Plato's Cratylus. By describing herself as ἡμεροσκόπος ‘day watch’ pronounced as ἱμεροσκόπος ‘lust watch’, Lysistrata perverts the military term associated with the occupation-plot to a sexually charged word associated with the strike-plot. Its use would be very appropriate in a scene in which the φαλληφόρια of the men (not just Cinesias’ but later on also the Spartan herald's and the Spartan and Athenian delegates’) become the subject of a φαλλοσκοπία by the women (not just Lysistrata but later on also the chorus of women) and perforce also by the onlooking audience. Additional contemporary evidence from orthographic mistakes made by schoolboys suggests that Athenian elite women of the late fifth century were the avant-garde of socially prestigious innovations such as iotacism, which would definitively catch on with the male population in the fourth century and change the face of Greek phonology forever.

1940 ◽  
Vol 9 (27) ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
T. B. L. Webster

‘If a man were a good painter, he could deceive children and fools by painting a carpenter and showing it from a long way off, because it would seem really to be a carpenter.’ Plato here (Republic, 598c) is undoubtedly describing realistic painting, perhaps not so photographically realistic as the paintings in Pompeii or the painting that we know to-day, but painting which aimed at producing a likeness and rendering the appearance of the original. Such pictures can be seen on the vases of the fourth century and of the late fifth century b.c., for instance the two women on a red-figured perfume vase in the Manchester School of Art, which was painted about the time of the dramatic date of the Republic (Pl. I). But if we go back rather over a hundred years to the black-figure vase reproduced by Mr. Austin in Greece and Rome, vol. vii, we are in a completely different world of flat figures in conventional poses, and if we go further back still to the Geometric vase (Fig. I) which forms the subject of Mr. Austin's article, we are yet further from the world of ‘likeness’. These early Greek painters cannot have wanted to produce likenesses; but what was their aim ?


1954 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 151-157
Author(s):  
H. C. Baldry

This article is a survey of familiar ground—those passages of the Poetics of Aristotle which throw light on the treatment of legend by the tragic poets. Although sweeping generalizations are often made on the use of the traditional stories in drama, our evidence on the subject is slight and inconclusive. We have little knowledge of the form in which most of the legends were known to the Attic playwrights, for the few we find in the Iliad and Odyssey appear there in very different versions from those they take on in the plays, and the fragmentary remains of epic and lyric poetry between Homer and the fifth century B.C. present us with a wide field for speculation, but few certain facts; while vase paintings and other works of art supplement only here and there the scanty information gained from literature.The comments of ancient writers on this aspect of tragedy are surprisingly few, and carry us little farther. The Poetics stands out as the one source from which we can draw any substantial account of the matter. Even Aristotle, of course, is not directly concerned with the history of drama, and deals with it only incidentally in isolated passages; and in considering these it must constantly be borne in mind that he is discussing tragedy as he knew it in the late fourth century, for the benefit of fourth-century readers. But even so, his statements are the main foundation on which our view of the dramatists' use of legend must be built.


1957 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
G. T. Griffith

It seems uncertain whether the Macedonian infantrymen of Philip II had breast-plates or not. How much it matters, too, is also perhaps uncertain, though obviously it mattered not a little to the men themselves at the time, whether or not they carried on them that combination of strength and of weight, of moral comfort and physical encumbrance, that a breastplate meant to the man inside it. There may perhaps be something in this question, too, for the social historian as well as for the military specialist.That Greek hoplites of the archaic period normally wore breastplates appears from vase-paintings, especially those proto-Corinthian examples which show combats not of individuals but of opposing phalanxes: it appears, too, from Tyrtaeus. Xenophon in theAnabasis, when he makes a passing remark about casualties on one occasion, gives the same impression about the Ten Thousand, who were predominantly a hoplite force. But breastplates were not uniform. Metal ones could vary greatly in weight, and there were variants (πĩλοι, σπολάδες) that were probably quite light in metal, on linen or leather. It has been suggested with some likelihood that in the fifth century the solid metal type virtually went out of use. If this were so, then the peltasts of the early fourth century would represent a logical development from a hoplite who had already become lighter than of old. It would seem logical for the pekast to have no breastplate at all, an arrangement incidentally that might suit well the mercenaries of the day who often were peltasts, and who were often poor men unlikely to own expensive equipment. But in spite of their occasional spectacular successes even against hoplites, the peltasts did not supersede them, so far as can be seen, in the citizen armies of the Greek cities. Indeed in the Hellenistic period still, in a treaty of about 270 B.C. between the Aetolians and the Acarnanians, the clause providing for reciprocal military aid distinguishes between three classes of infantry: (1) those who wore breastplates (πανοπλίαν), (2) those wore τὸ ἡμιθωράκιον, and (3) those who had no defensive armour (ψιλῲ). The first class is presumably, still, the hoplite.


1905 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 157-162
Author(s):  
K. A. McDowall

Of all types of Heracles in Greek art, that with the apples of the Hesperides is perhaps the most familiar. Yet in the archaic period it scarcely occurs, and even in the fifth century, though the scene is often represented among the Labours, when accessory figures are consequently present, there are few examples of the hero holding the apples in free sculpture. With the fourth century, however, the subject becomes common, for it is to Lysippus and his followers that we owe the type of the Wearied Heracles holding the apples, which has given rise to the popular conception. That this became the stock representation to the ancient world as to the modern we learn from Suidas καὶ γράφουσι δορὰν λέοντος φοροῦντα, καὶ ῥόπαλον φέροντα, καί γε μῆλα κρατοῦντα. The earliest representation of the type, best known from the Heracles Farnese, appears to be on a tetradrachm of Alexander, and there can be little doubt that its origin is due to Lysippus. The replica in the Pitti bears the inscription ΛΥΣΙΠΠΟΥ ΕΡΓΟΝ.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Petts

This study explores the impact of recent discoveries on our understanding of the transition from the Roman to early medieval periods in northern England. Using the Tees Valley as a case study, it shows how modern interpretations of this process have focused primarily on the afterlife of the military sites in the region. However, the increased identification of significant Roman civilian settlements forces us to reconsider the dominant narratives and rethink the underlying processes that influenced the move from Roman-controlled frontier society in the fourth century to a fifth century society comprising both culturally Anglo-Saxon social groups and sub-Roman successor polities. A wider consideration is also given to how the changing patterns in the use of space and in refuse disposal strategies can be used to shed light on wider patterns of changing social identity in the later fourth century AD.


1944 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie D. Ure

In Volume LVI of this Journal I published a series of. Attic stemless kylikes with red-figure painting outside and stamped or incised patterns inside. These run from about the middle to the end of the fifth century. Characteristic of the early part of the fourth century, though the earliest examples are to be dated before the end of the fifth, is a series of cup-kotylai with similar decoration which forms the subject of this paper.The cups range in size from a height of 0·09 m. with a diameter of 0·165 m. to a height of 0·06 m. with a diameter of 0·12 m. Their deep and comparatively narrow bowls presented more difficulties to the stamper than the shallow kylikes and restricted his designs to smaller and simpler patterns.The earliest group consists of a pair of cups from the same hand. The stamped pattern shows five or six separate palmettes set closely round a small incised central circle and surrounded by a pair of incised circles.


1935 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Maidment

The history of Attic comedy after the fifth century is not simple. The comic fragments are obscure, because they are fragments: and the ancient interpreters, because they are determined to interpret. But the subject still remains interesting and important, especially in so far as it is concerned with Middle Comedy, which filled the gap between Aristophanes and Menander. Formally and materially, Menander was a modern, while Aristophanes was not: and it was during the fourth century that the ground was being prepared for the change. Now one of the most noticeable differences between Old and New Comedy was the altered position of the chorus; and although the very mixed assortment of facts available makes coherent conclusions difficult, I think it worth enquiring how much can be known of the chorus after Aristophanes.


Author(s):  
Manisha Sharma

Existentialism, a quite contemporary dogma apparent in the philosophical and literary work of Sartre, was much in vogue in the European literature dating back from mid-twentieth century. Existentialism dealing greatly with the alienated trepidation, preposterousness, prejudice, escapism, over attraction for liberation, started becoming the subject matter of almost all the writers of the modern age. As an avant-garde novelist, Anita Desai in “Fire on the Mountain” exhibits a strong inclination towards the existentialist interpretation of the human predicament.” Desai’s characters of Nanda Kaul, Raka and Ila Das are studies of women in the utter maze of isolation and ennui. The novel espouses the universal human struggle for survival, especially in the face of a never ending spiral of human failures and misfortunes.


1961 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Ward-Perkins

It is very unlikely indeed that any substantial urban community survived the events which culminated in the fall of the Western Empire. If the inscriptional evidence has been read aright, Veii was already in full decline in the fourth century. The reasons may well have been in the first place economic, namely the concentration of such wealth as there was in the hands of the well-to-do landlords whose villas are so conspicuous a feature of the local countryside, at the expense of a township which, lying off the main road and lacking any particular resources, had already begun to be something of an anachronism two or three centuries earlier. At the same time it lay near enough to the main road to be vulnerable to any marauding army; and, unlike so many other ancient Italian towns, it had no impregnable hilltop fortress to which its inhabitants could withdraw. As a functioning community Veii may well have ceased to exist by the fifth century.The villas were less exposed, those of them at any rate that lay off the main roads; and representing as they do a less complex economy than that of the towns, they were more resilient in the face of disaster. Even at an earlier date there are very few traces of any intensive agricultural specialisation, and a great many of them were certainly still functioning in Late Antiquity.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 353-373
Author(s):  
Andrzej Hołasek

At the beginning of the fourth century the legal situation of Christians in the Roman Empire changed dramatically. Thanks to the Emperor Constantine they were no longer persecuted, and their faith became religio licita. From that point onwards the views of Christians on the state began to evolve. It was a long-term process, and happened at a varied pace. One of the aspects of this transformation was the change of Christian attitude to military service. It needs to be said that, from this perspective, the Church legislative sources have not been examined in a great detail. This article aims to take a closer look at several of the sources that include Church regulations relating to military service of the fourth and fifth cen­turies. These include, i.a., Canons of Hippolytus; Letters of St. Basil; Apostolic Constitutions and Canons of the Apostles. In addition, the article discusses the rel­evant contents of synodal and council canons from said period. These regulations show the adaptation of Church legislature to the new circumstances, in which the Roman state stopped being the persecutor and became the protector of Christianity. The analysis of numerous documents confirms that Christians were present in the Roman army already in the third century. Because of the spilling of blood and the pagan rites performed in the army, the Church hierarchs strongly resisted the idea of allowing Christians to serve in the military. Church regulations from the third century strictly forbade enlisting in the army, or continuing military service for those who were newly accepted into the community, for the reasons mentioned above. From other documents, however, we learn that the number of Christians in the army was nonetheless increasing. Many were able to reconcile military service with their conscience. At the beginning of the fourth century emperor Constantine granted Christians religious freedom. He allowed Christian soldiers to abstain from invoking pagan gods while swearing military oath (sacramentum), and to participate in Sunday services. The empire was slowly becoming a Christian state. It is for this reason that in the Church regulations from the fourth and fifth century we find accep­tance for the presence of Christians in the army. Even though killing of an enemy required undertaking penance, it was no longer a reason for excommunication with no possibility of returning to the Christian communion. The Church expected Christian soldiers to be satisfied with their wages alone, and to avoid harming oth­ers through stealing, forced lodging or taking food. The Church in the East no lon­ger considered it wrong to accept gifts for the upkeep of clergy and other faithful from the soldiers who behaved in a correct manner. From the mid-fourth century performing religious services started being treated as separate from performing a layperson’s duties. For this reason the bishops, in both parts of the empire, de­cided that clergy are barred from military service. In the West, those of the faithful who enlisted with the army after being baptised could no longer be consecrated in the future. In the East, the approach was less rigorous, as the case of Nectarius, the Archbishop of Constantinople, shows. By the end of the fourth century, the West adopted very strict rules of public penance for soldiers – the Popes reminded in their letters to the bishops in Spain and Gaul that after performing the public pen­ance, the soldiers were forbidden to return to the army. We should not forget that the change in the attitude of the Church to military service was also affected by the political-military situation of the Empire. During the fourth and fifth centuries its borderlands were persistently harassed by barbar­ian raids, and the Persian border was threatened. Let us also remember that the army was not popular in the Roman society during this period. For these reasons, the shifting position of the Church had to be positively seen by the Empire’s ruling elites. The situation became dramatic at the beginning of the fifth century, when Rome was sacked by barbarians. Developing events caused the clergy to deepen their reflections on the necessity of waging war and killing enemies. Among such clergymen was St. Augustine, in whose writings we may find a justification of the so-called just war. Meanwhile, in the East, the view that wars can be won only with God’s help began to dominate.


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