Essay Prize‘Ephemeral are Gay Gulps of Laughter’: P. B. Shelley, Louis Macneice, and the Ambivalence of Laughter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Blake Davis
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Louis Macneice ◽  
Critical Exploration

Abstract Ambivalence is the hallmark of Shelley’s poetry, but the ambivalence of Shelley’s often underappreciated wit remains a relatively uncharted area of critical exploration. The characterization of laughter as ‘heartless fiend’ – or ‘heartless friend’ – in Shelley’s sonnet ‘To Laughter’ underscores this very ambivalence while also spotlighting the sociality of laughter. Drawing upon the ancient Greek ambiguities of laughter as socially divisive and socially integrative, laughter in Shelley’s poetry vacillates between ostracizing bursts and harmonizing glee. This essay explores the ambivalence of Shelleyan laughter and its echo in the poetry of Louis MacNeice, prompted by the modern poet’s early interest in ‘a comparison of Shelley & Nietzsche & a deification of laughter’. MacNeice’s realist leanings remain coloured by Romantic predispositions throughout his career. With attention to Shelley and MacNeice’s Classical backgrounds, this essay reveals how Shelleyan laughter echoes throughout MacNeice’s poetry and, in its ambivalence, unveils the extent to which identity is unfixed for both poets.

Ancient Marble Sculpture: Geochemical Characterization of Surficial Weathering Products

1988 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley V. Margolis ◽  
Frank Preusser ◽  
W.J. Showers
Keyword(s):  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotopes ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Geochemical Characterization ◽  
Carbon Isotopic ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopic

AbstractQuantitative scientific determination of the authenticity and age of marble sculpture is an important goal of geo-archaeologists and conservation scientists. Geochemical and petrographic techniques are used here to investigate rock weathering and mineral alterations responsible for the “patina” and alteration layers on marble sculpture. We present oxygen and carbon isotopic, scanning electron microscopic and electron microprobe analyses of both fresh marble and weathering crusts materials from cores taken from Cycladic and Archaic Greek sculptures and from ancient quarries, to evaluate these techniques as indicators of antiquity.Calcitic marbles exhibit an altered weathering crust of variable thickness, where calcite has been recrystallized and interpenetrated with inclusions of iron oxide, clay minerals, gypsum and other authigenic minerals. The thickness and composition of these crusts varies with soil and water chemistry as well as marble density, texture and age.Microprobe analyses indicate trace element gradients from fresh to weathered calcite. Carbon and oxygen isotopes can differentiate between insitu alteration and precipitated carbonate. Dolomitic marbles can exhibit calcitic surficial layers formed by dedolomitization, which can be confirmed by isotopic and microprobe analyses.Analyses of known forgeries, ancient quarry samples and artificially weathered marbles have further documented our criteria and show that the majority of diagnostic geochemical and mineralogical features seen on ancient Greek sculptures cannot be accurately duplicated by artificial means.

scholarly journals La astucia en la conceptualización platónica de σοφία

Nova Tellus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Trinidad Silva Irarrázaval
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
The Subject

Considering the importance of cunning in the characterization of σοφία in the Ancient Greek tradition, from the literature of the archaic period to the Socratic circle, it is striking that in Plato there is no such thing as a cunning σοφός. Apart from the Lesser Hippias, which offers an ambiguous assessment of Odysseus πολυτροπία, the σοφός is almost never defined by its intelligence —this is not a distinctive feature of the σοφός or φιλόσοφος— but rather by the knowledge of certain things. The lack of treatment has led to most interpreters to neglect the subject. In order to remedy this situation, in this article I offer an interpretation that diagnoses the absence of an attribute such as cunning in the conceptualization of σοφία in Plato, but not as the result of simple condemnation or censorship as argued, for example, by Detienne and Vernant 1978 and suggested by Montiglio 2011. In this paper I propose that Plato would manifest a lack of interest regarding these attributes. From the analysis of the Platonic corpus I seek to demonstrate that, although attributes of intelligence are considered advantageous and desirable qualities, the have only instrumental value with respect to the attainment of truth and good.

Gadamerian and Chinese Philosophical Reflections on the Developments of Chung-ying Cheng’s Post-Dialogue Onto-hermeneutic Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-356
Author(s):  
Lauren F. Pfister
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Hermeneutic Philosophy ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Chinese Philosophers

Abstract In light of developments in Chung-ying Cheng’s (1935-) onto-hermeneutic philosophy during the years after his dialogue with Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) took place in Heidelberg in May 2000, I explore several new issues related to Cheng’s understanding of Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy. First of all, I argue that Cheng has not addressed the vital concept of the “inner word” in Gadamer’s Truth and Method, and point toward some of its fecund hermeneutic significance, especially with regard to its characterization of Sprache/Language and its dynamics within human understanding. Secondly, I underscore the fact that Cheng (and the majority of other contemporary Chinese philosophers) have not understood the profound impact of Christian philosophical writings in Gadamer’s work, particularly in his claim that Christian ontology offers an alternative to ancient Greek ontologies that are “categorically significant.” Finally, I describe and analyze the development of a new theistic understanding of reality within Cheng’s post-dialogue publications, suggesting ways of critically advancing his claims in the light of Gadamer’s account of the “inner word” and the Christian ontological claims grounded in the logos-theology as presented in the prologue to the Gospel of John.

Asyndeton, Immersion, and Hypokrisis in Ancient Greek Rhetoric

2019 ◽  
pp. 210-232
Author(s):  
Alessandro Vatri
Keyword(s):  
Oral Delivery ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Figure Of Speech ◽  
Greek Rhetoric ◽  
Iconic Language

In the ancient Greek rhetorical tradition asyndeton is often discussed in connection with vivid and emotional language. The primary effects of this figure of speech are those of multiplication and rapidity in the first place. Both effects stem from the iconic character of paratactic sequences and from the cognitive effects that the absence of connectives determines in the comprehension of such linguistic constructions. These properties of asyndeton make it a suitable ‘ingredient’ to be combined with other rhetorical devices in order to induce a variety of psychological effects in the audience or readership of a text. Asyndeton is often presented as a ‘catalyst’ that merely enhances the effects of other figures, but in some cases its very presence is recognized as central to the rhetorical characterization of a passage. The rhetorical effectiveness of asyndeton is boosted by appropriate ‘dramatic’ recitation (hypokrisis), as Aristotle and Ps.-Demetrius observe, and could be lost in plain oral delivery or solitary reading. Unsurprisingly, Greek rhetoricians preferentially draw examples of asyndeton from performing genres. In such contexts, iconic language may effectively produce an immersive experience and, as a consequence, be a powerful instrument of persuasion.

scholarly journals Teaching Modern Greek to Classicists

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
Jerneja Kavčič ◽  
Brian Daniel Joseph ◽  
Christopher Brown
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
The 19Th Century

The ideology of decline is a part of the history of the study and characterization of the Greek language from the Hellenistic period and the Roman Atticist movement right up to the emergence of katharevousa in the 19th century and the resulting modern diglossia. It is also clear, however, that there is an overwhelming presence of Ancient Greek vocabulary and forms in the modern language. Our position is that the recognition of such phenomena can provide a tool for introducing classicists to the modern language, a view that has various intellectual predecessors (e.g., Albert Thumb, Nicholas Bachtin, George Thomson, and Robert Browning). We thus propose a model for the teaching of Modern Greek to classicists that starts with words that we refer to as carry-overs. These are words that can be used in the modern language without requiring any explanation of pronunciation rules concerning Modern Greek spelling or of differences in meaning in comparison to their ancient predecessors (e.g., κακός ‘bad’, μικρός ‘small’, νέος ‘new’, μέλι ‘honey’, πίνετε ‘you drink’). Our data show that a beginners’ textbook of Ancient Greek may contain as many as a few hundred carry-over words, their exact number depending on the variety of the Erasmian pronunciation that is adopted in the teaching practice. However, the teaching of Modern Greek to classicists should also take into account lexical phenomena such as Ancient-Modern Greek false friends, as well as Modern Greek words that correspond to their ancient Greek predecessors only in terms of their written forms and meanings.

Telling Tales about the King

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-94
Author(s):  
Christopher de Lisle
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Military Leader ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
General Truth ◽  
The Way

Α‎necdotes about Agathokles in our literary sources were told because they were thought to illuminate his character or a general truth about the world and indicate how he was fitted into the broader dialogue on autocracy and power. There is a clash between the characterization of Agathokles as an effective military leader and as a monstrous tyrant, resulting from the nature of the lost historical narratives and from the way Agathokles was used by subsequent interlocutors: his successors in Sicily, the Romans, and authors looking for exempla. Many of the anecdotes are shared with mythical figures, mainland Greek and Sicilian tyrants, Hellenistic kings, and non-Greek rulers. The distinction between different types of autocrat was less important in ancient Greek and Latin discourse than their common features.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA

Neurosurgery ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 1183-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Eboli ◽  
James L. Stone ◽  
Sabri Aydin ◽  
Konstantin V. Slavin
Keyword(s):  
Trigeminal Neuralgia ◽  
Facial Pain ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Neurovascular Compression ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
John Hunter ◽  
The Face ◽  
Neurological Surgeon

Abstract TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA IS a well known clinical entity characterized by agonizing, paroxysmal, and lancinating facial pain, often triggered by movements of the mouth or eating. Historical reviews of facial pain have attempted to describe this severe pain over the past 2.5 millennia. The ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates, Aretaeus, and Galen, described kephalalgias, but their accounts were vague and did not clearly correspond with what we now term trigeminal neuralgia. The first adequate description of trigeminal neuralgia was given in 1671, followed by a fuller description by physician John Locke in 1677. André described the convulsive-like condition in 1756, and named it tic douloureux; in 1773, Fothergill described it as “a painful affection of the face;” and in 1779, John Hunter more clearly characterized the entity as a form of “nervous disorder” with reference to pain of the teeth, gums, or tongue where the disease “does not reside.” One hundred fifty years later, the neurological surgeon Walter Dandy equated neurovascular compression of the trigeminal nerve with trigeminal neuralgia.

Platons Erfindung. Des Wahnsinnigen Dichters

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renate Schlesier
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
First Time

Die Charakterisierung des Dichtungsakts als eines Zustands von Vernunftlosigkeit und Ekstasis ist nicht, wie Platon (gefolgt von vielen Interpreten bis heute) behauptet, eine uralte – angeblich auch bei den früheren Dichtern dokumentierte – antike griechische Tradition, sondern eine Erfindung Platons. Dazu gehört auch die Gleichsetzung dichterischer Inspiration mit göttlicher Besessenheit, die Platon als erster vollzieht. Platons subversive Erfindung des wahnsinnigen Dichters steht im Dienst seines Modells des Philosophen, der wie der Dichter über Enthusiasmos verfüge, aber anders als dieser auch über Intellektualität. The characterization of the poetic act as a state of irrationality and ecstasis does not, as Plato pretends (followed by many interpreters until today), correspond to the oldest ancient Greek tradition – allegedly documented by the earlier poets as well –, but is Plato’s invention. As part of this invention Plato identifies for the first time in history poetical inspiration with divine possession. Plato’s subversive invention of the mad poet is the basis for his model of the philosopher who himself shall dispose of enthusiasm, as the poet does, but who shall moreover dispose of intellectuality.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document