Ancient Epidemics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Animal Sacrifice ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Public Holidays

This chapter begins with human and animal sacrifices to appease the gods during pestilence, but shows that such acts were extremely rare and, when they occurred, quickly disappeared or changed form often to animal sacrifice. It investigates the scapegoat in ancient epidemics, showing the concept as far removed from present-day notions. The ancient one was often a volunteer, exemplary of self-sacrifice for the greater good of the community. Instead of being outcasts, foreigners, or despised minorities (for whom we reserve the term today), in antiquity, almost without exception, they were the elites. More emphatically, from literary and historical descriptions of the fifth century BCE to the sixth CE Justinianic Plague, the chapter charts societal reactions to epidemics, finding that they spawned acts of altruism, public holidays, and self-sacrifice. Instead of blaming or inflicting violence on ‘others’, epidemics were forces for unity, healing rifts between classes, factions, and regions at war.

Where was the Altar?

1991 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Ashby
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Animal Sacrifice ◽  
Usual Assumption ◽  
Central Location ◽  
The City

After centuries of study, an untold number of scholars have agreed that the City Dionysia of fifth-century Athens involved an animal sacrifice to the god Dionysos, and that this event took place in the theatre before the beginning of the play competition. The usual assumption has been that this sacrifice was offered upon an altar situated at the exact center of a circular orchestra.This placement fits well with the theory that tragedy grew from a dithyrambic chorus dancing in a circle around the altar of Dionysos. But now that the dogma of the originally circular orchestra has been questioned, some attention must also be given to the location of the altar, a supposedly standard piece of theatre furniture. The following pages will (1) discuss the origin of the concept of a centrally located altar; (2) examine the literary, artistic, and architectural evidence which relate to altar placement; and (3) suggest a possible alternative to the central location.

Socialism and Civilized Society

Leonard Woolf ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 161-187
Author(s):  
Fred Leventhal ◽  
Peter Stansky
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Cooperative Movement ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
East End ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Fabian Society ◽  
First World

Leonard’s autobiography reveals his apolitical upbringing, although exposure to East End poverty and the experience of the First World War turned him into a political animal. The Fabian Society and the Cooperative movement converted him to socialism, while he continued to cherish the conviction that there is no higher value than the individual. He always defined civilization by reference to fifth-century Athens, which embraced freedom, equality, and tolerance. It was this belief that led him to deplore Stalinism as a travesty of Marxist objectives. In his later political writings, imbued with anti-communist sentiments, he argued that it was never right to do a great evil so that a greater good might result, a view that prompted heated exchanges with Kingsley Martin. In addition to writing polemical books and articles, he devoted more than thirty years to his magnum opus, the two-volume After the Deluge and its successor Principia Politica, a resounding defense of liberal values in the face of human aggression and an exploration of communal psychology, whose prolixity received a cool reception from critics.

Goals and the Use of Deception: Lying for the Greater Good

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Koning ◽  
Wolfgang Steinel ◽  
Ilja van Beest ◽  
Eric van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Greater Good

C. S. Lewis & John Hick on Theodicy: Superficially Similar but Significantly Different

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28
Author(s):  
Brian M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
John Hick ◽  
Broad Category ◽  
Gratuitous Evil ◽  
Moral Perfection ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Greater Good

In the April 2014 edition of The Journal of Inklings Studies, Mark S. M. Scott compared the theodicies of C. S. Lewis and John Hick, concluding that there are ‘significant structural and substantive affinities’ between the two. In my essay, I too analyze these theodicies but arrive at a different conclusion. I argue two points: First, I argue that Lewis’ and Hick’s theodicies bear merely superficial similarities. Second, and more importantly, I argue that they stand in significant opposition to one another at fundamental points. The purpose of this essay is to set Lewis’ views on suffering apart from Hick’s and to suggest that, in the end, perhaps Lewis’ theodicy should not be included in the broad category of ‘greater-good’ theodicies, and would therefore be immune to attacks leveled against Hick’s theodicy as well as the various attacks leveled against the greater-good approach in general. For those who reject the greater-good approach and who hold that gratuitous evil does not count against God’s moral perfection, Lewis’ theodicy could serve as a helpful starting point from which one could develop more thoroughly a non-greater-good theodicy.

Thresholds of Time and Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-28
Author(s):  
Susan Milbrath
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Animal Sacrifice ◽  
Cardinal Directions ◽  
Death Imagery

Analysis of the iconography in a directional almanac on Codex Borgia pages 49–52 invites comparison with almanacs in a related set of divinatory manuscripts known as the Borgia Group, but one aspect of the Codex Borgia almanac remains unique. It records real-time dates employing the central Mexican system of year dates that help identify the images as year-end rituals. These fifteenth-century dates correlate with the last twenty-day “month” in the year, known as Izcalli in the Valley of Mexico and neighboring Tlaxcala. Izcalli rituals in February involved drilling a new fire, the erection of sacred trees, and animal sacrifice, all of which appear on Borgia 49–52. During Izcalli, human sacrifice was performed only every fourth year, a pattern like that seen in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Cospi, where death imagery and decapitated humans appear prominently on the fourth year-bearer page, associated with the southern direction. Borgia Group codices also depict trees and birds representing the four cardinal directions. These are most prominent on Codex Fejérváry-Mayer page 1 in a cosmogram representing two different calendar formats, like those seen in the Borgia almanac. The 5 × 52-day format was used to measure the solar year and Venus cycle, and a second set of day signs appears in a 4 × 65-day pattern useful in calculating the fifty-two-year cycle and the Venus cycle. This provides a subtext for understanding the dates represented on Borgia 49–52 and the extension of the almanac on page 53, where the Venus almanac begins.

Un intricato processo ad Atene: Eufileto uccide Eratostene, seduttore della moglie (Lysias, Or. I: De Eratosthenis caede apologia)

Vox Patrum ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 449-464
Author(s):  
Orazio Antonio Bologna
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Don Juan ◽  
Young Wife

In Athens in the late and early fifth century B.C. Eratosthenes, a well-known real Don Juan was killed. He sets his eyes on a young wife and seduces her, she is the wife of Euphiletus, a modest farmer, who spent a lot of time in countryside, away from his wife. Euphiletus, after the birth of his (first) son, places full faith in his wife. Having been in­formed about the affair, he catches her in adultery and, in front of some witnesses, kills Eratosthenes. The victim’s relatives hold a trial against the murderer, who before the Court gives a brilliant oration, written by Lysia one of the greatest orators of Athens.

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