The λεπάς in Alcaeus

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-37
Author(s):  
Francesco Buè
Keyword(s):  
Original Performance ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Figure Of Speech ◽  
New Interpretation

In the Alcaeus fragment 359 Voigt, the philological problems are linked not only with an unclear textual tra dition, but also with the interesting and unexpected association between the λεπάς (a type of shellfish) and the tortoise (χέλυς): this ambiguous linkage is created by the poet to arouse an emphatic effect in his audience. The historical and philological elements provided by Athenaeus in his quotation of the poem lead most scholars to accept the textual conclusions of Wilamowitz (χέλυς instead of λεπάς). Nevertheless, the exegetical reading proposed by the German philologist (i.e. a riddle) can be put in doubt and replaced by a new interpretation based on the analysis of the context in which the poem is cited (a gastronomic passage of the Deipnosophists) and on that of the original performance (the banquet of Alcaeus and his ἑταιρεία). In light of this analysis, the little more than two Alcaic verses can be interpreted as a metaphorical apostrophe. In fact, Alcaeus seems to address the shellfish λεπάς and nickname it χέλυς, arousing a highly ironic effect among the συµπόται. This figure of speech is based on the capacity of both the λεπάς and χέλυς to be used to make sounds, even though the differences between these two elements of the symposium make the association paradoxical. A series of several fish-plates provided at the end of the article draws attention to the presence of shellfish—which seems to be less evident than the presence of the χέλυς—at the ancient Greek symposia.

scholarly journals Before the Première: Recording the Performance of Ancient Greek Drama

Dramaturgias ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Eleonora Rocconi
Keyword(s):  
Greek Language ◽  
Original Performance ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Linguistic Code ◽  
High Level ◽  
Ancient Texts

Ancient Greek theatre, a multimedia spectacle (originally conceived for a unique performance) which involved words, music, gestures, and dance, has always been a challenge for scholars investigating its original performance. This paper explores the possibilities of the performative elements of the plays to be recorded during their theatrical staging, that is, before their première. More in detail, it examines the probability that — given the rhythmic and melodic nature of ancient Greek language and the descriptive and/or perlocutionary character of the scenic information within the texts — the authors could inscribe music and gestural expressiveness into the linguistic code. The high level of ‘performativity’ implied in these ancient texts probably delayed the need for a technology that could record their different multimedia components. 

scholarly journals Sangku Mencari Riang: Pertemuan Sangkuriang dan Oidipus dalam Perlawanan terhadap Takdir dan Nasib

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giri Mustika Roekmana
Keyword(s):  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Dynamic Structure ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Work Space ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Folk Theater ◽  
Great Attraction ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
New Perspective

“Sangku mencari Riang” menceritakan pertemuan antara mitos Sangkuriang dari Sunda dan Oidipus dari Yunani Kuno. Cerita ini dibuat sebagai kelanjutan dari cerita rakyat Sangkuriang dengan kisah tragedi Yunani Oidipus Raja karya Sophocles. Cerita yang diciptakan melalui pendekatan intertekstualitas dan interpretasi ini menawarkan makna baru. Cerita ini dibentuk berdasarkan konsep teater rakyat Sunda yang fleksibel dan dinamis dikombinasikan dengan elemen teater Yunani klasik yang melibatkan peran paduan suara dengan kata-kata puitis dalam dialog. Selain itu, penggunaan media dan topeng untuk menyempurnakan karakter menghasilkan estetika bagi penonton. Oleh karena itu, perpaduan konsep antara mitos Sunda dan tragedy Yunani ini memberikan perspektif baru dalam ruang kerja penciptaan seni teater. Hasil kolaborasi dua konsep akan terlihat dalam pertunjukan dengan kekuatan musik, tematik, estetika visual, dan dinamika oral. Dengan cara ini mampu menimbulkan daya tarik bagi para penonton.Kata kunci: cerita rakyat, intertext, mitos Sunda, teater Yunani.ABSTRACTSangku Looking For Riang Theatre: performances: Sangkuriang meetings and Oedipus in the fight against Destiny and Fate. “Sangku Mencari Riang” is a story which describes the meet of Sangkuriang from Sundanese and Oidipus from Ancient Greek. This story was created as a continuation story of folklore Sangkuriang of Sunda with the story of the Greek tragedy of Sophocles’s work, that is Oidipus the King. Through the intertext study, then, a new interpretation of the story was created, and finally the story of “Sangku Mencari Riang” was offered with its new meaning as well. This story will be perfomed to approach the concept of the folk theater of Sundanese which is regarded as flexible and dynamic, and has a dynamic structure. This concept will be combined with some elements found in the classical Greek theater, in which there is a choir role with poetic words in any dialogues on the performance. Moreover, the use of media which gives the impression of refinement masks of the characters and the ritualistic and aesthetic views for spectators are given to this concept as well. Therefore, these two concepts will provide a new perspective in the work space of theatrical arts creation. Then the result of the collaboration between the two concepts will be seen in the performance with musical powers, essential thematic, visual aesthetics, and oral dynamics, and afterward it will be supposed to give rise to any great attraction for the spectators.Key words: folklore, intertext, Sundanese myth, Greek Theater.

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.

Greco antico o coreano moderno? Qualche dubbio su un’iscrizione da Kara Kamar

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 203-215
Author(s):  
Maurizio Riotto
Keyword(s):  
Significant Part ◽  
Korean Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
New Interpretation

Abstract This paper proposes a new interpretation of a controversial inscription found in 1988 at Kara Kamar, Uzbekistan. Despite several problems in its reading and interpretation, in fact, the inscription has been generally considered a dedicatory (?) epigraph written in ancient Greek. This paper, however, shows that a significant part of the inscription makes sense when considered written in Korean language and alphabet. Therefore, the paper suggests the possibility that the author of the epigraph might have been a Korean individual lived in modern/contemporary epoch.

The Philosophy of Imagination

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorthe Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Phenomenological Tradition ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenological ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
New Interpretation

In this chapter various understandings of imagination from antiquity to the present day are presented and interpreted. On this background a new interpretation of imagination grounded in a philosophy of experience is introduced. With a departure point in contemporary philosophy as well as ancient Greek and Jewish thought, the author presents the theories of imagination formulated by Plato, Aristotle, and Kant, along with interpretations of their thinking from the hermeneutic phenomenological tradition. Other important positions from the medieval and modern periods are also addressed, including those of Vico and Baumgarten. The chapter shows that imagination is essential to cognition, moral action, and aesthetic experience. It is also evidenced from this chapter that imagination is crucial to a kind of thinking that has been called “sensitive,” “aesthetic,” and “expanded” and that is a presupposition of thinking and acting led by both reason and understanding.

Irony

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Colebrook
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Method ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Figure Of Speech ◽  
Truth Claims

Irony is both a figure of speech and a mode of existence or attitude toward life. Deriving from the ancient Greek term eironeia, which originally referred to lying, irony became a complex philosophical and rhetorical term in Plato’s dialogues. Plato (428/427 or 424/423–348/347 bce) depicts Socrates deploying the method of elenchus, where, rather than proposing a theory, Socrates encounters others in conversation, drawing out the contradictions and opacities of their arguments. Often these dialogues would take a secure concept and then push the questioning to a final moment of non-knowledge or aporia, exposing a gap in a discourse that his interlocutors thought was secure. Here, Socratic irony can be thought of as a particular philosophical method and as the way in which Socrates chose to pursue his life, always questioning the truth of key ethical concepts. In the Roman rhetorical tradition irony was theorized as a rhetorical device by Cicero (106–43 bce) and Quintilian (c.35–c.96 ce), and it was this sense of irony that was dominant until the 18th century. At that time, and in response to the elevation of reason in the Enlightenment, a resurgence of satire emerged: here the rigorous logic of reason was often repeated and in a parodic manner. At this time, modern irony emerged, which was subtly different from satire in that it did not simply lampoon its target, but suggested a less clear position of refined and superior distance. The German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) was highly critical of what came to be known as Romantic irony, which differed from satire in that it suggested a subtle distance from everyday discourse, with no clear position of its own. This tendency for irony to be the negation of truth claims, without having any clear position of its own, became ever more intense in the 20th century with postmodern irony, where irony was no longer a rhetorical device but became a manner of existing with no clear commitment to any values or beliefs. Alongside this tradition of irony as a distanced relation to one’s speech acts, there was also a tradition of dramatic, cosmic, tragic, or fateful irony, where events might seem to act against human intentions, or where human ambition would seem to be thwarted by a universe that almost seems to be judging human existence from on high.

Adaptation of Iranian and Semitic loanwords in the Ancient Greek language: 'garden' / ' garden of Eden’ (on the example of the lexemes παράδεισος and a number of γάνος-γανναθ — (αλ)γοναιναθ)

Litera ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 30-50
Author(s):  
Tycho Davydov ◽  
Andrey Ivanovich Gorshkov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Special Contribution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Critical Coverage

The object of this research is the problems of functionality of Iranian and Semitic loanwords in the Ancient Greek language, while the subject is the lexemes παράδεισος, γάνος, γανναθ, (αλ)γοναιναθ. The authors meticulously examine such aspects of the topic as the morphological and phonetic assimilation of foreign language lexicon, nonobservance of phonotactics of the Greek language, impact of folk etymology upon the word form , absence of diacritics in conveying Semitic borrowings in the Greek language. Special attention is given  to the problems of etymologization, nuances of dictionary definitions throughout different periods: classical, Hellenistic, Hellenistic-Roman, Late Antique, and Byzantine. It is noted that over time, close ties with barbarian peoples affected the Greek language itself. The main conclusion consists in determination of the gradation of lexemes under review in accordance with the degree of their adaptation to the Greek phonetics and phonotactics, as well as morphology. The author's special contribution to this research consists in proving the results and conclusions of a range of previous studies, as well as in critical coverage of the controversial concepts. The novelty lies in the proposed etymology of the lexeme παράδεισος, and the new interpretation of its vocalism. The relevance of this work lies in involving rare lexicon, which previously has not received due attention within the existing scientific tradition.

scholarly journals The evolution of the Ancient Greek deverbal pragmatic markerságe, íthiandphére

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-91
Author(s):  
Samuel Zakowski
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Diachronic Development

AbstractIn this paper, I look at the Ancient Greek expressionságe, íthiandphére, which are all usually translated as ‘come (on)’. After discussing some existing accounts of these items, I look at their structural – syntactic properties and argue that they can be regarded as pragmaticalized imperatives. Then, I propose a new interpretation of their function – on this analysis, they can be regarded as conversational “boosters”, increasing the degree of strength of the illocutionary point of the utterance. Finally, I look at their diachronic development – in the corpus under consideration,ágeis gradually replaced byíthias the expression used with other imperatives, whilephéredevelops as the preferred expression for use with non-imperative directive utterances.

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