scholarly journals The Old Man and the Bee – Zur Entwicklung eines literarischen Motivs

Philologus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 164 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-176
Author(s):  
Dominik Berrens
Keyword(s):  
Latin Literature ◽  
Small Farm ◽  
The People ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Frequent Motif ◽  
Ancient Literature

AbstractAlthough bees are a frequent motif in ancient literature, the people who work with bees are often left in the background. An exception is the motif of the older man on his – usually small – farm who lives from and with his bees. The article shows that this motif is a topos that appears in various texts of Greek and Latin literature of the imperial period. Depending on the intention behind these representations, different elements of the motif may be emphasised or omitted. These variations, and how the motif develops, are here shown through the example of different passages.

scholarly journals Introduction

Ramus ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
A.J. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Adequate Description ◽  
Literary Value ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ars Amatoria

oratio certam regulam non habet; consuetudo illam ciuitatis, quae numquam in eodem diu stetit, uersat.Style has no fixed rules; the usage of society changes it, which never stays still for long.Seneca Epistle 114.13This is the first of two volumes of critical essays on Latin literature of the imperial period from Ovid to late antiquity. The focus is upon the main postclassical period (A.D. 1-150), especially the authors of the Neronian and Flavian principates (A.D. 54-96), several of whom, though recently the subject of substantial investigation and reassessment, remain largely unread, at best improperly understood. The change which took place in Roman literature between the late republic/early Augustan period and the post-Augustan empire, between the ‘classicism’ of Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Livy and the ‘postclassicism’ of Seneca, Lucan, Persius, Tacitus is conventionally misdescribed (albeit sometimes with qualifications) as the movement from Golden to Silver Latin. The description misleads on many counts, not least because it misconstrues a change in literary and poetic sensibility, in the mental sets of reader and audience, and in the political environment of writing itself, as a change in literary value. What in fact happened awaits adequate description, but it seems clear that the change began with Ovid (43 B.C. to A.D. 17), whose rejection of Augustan classicism (especially its concept of decorum or ‘appropriateness’), cultivation of generic disorder and experimentation (witness, e.g., Ars Amatoria and Metamorphoses), love of paradox, absurdity, incongruity, hyperbole, wit, and focus on extreme emotional states, influenced everything that followed. Ovid also witnessed and suffered from the increasing political repression of the principate; he was banished for — among other things — his words, carmen. And political repression seems to have been a signal factor, if difficult to evaluate, in the formation of the postclassical style.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Daniel Jolowicz
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Latin Poetry ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Multiple Parameters ◽  
Imperial Period

This Introduction contextualizes the question of imperial Greek engagement with Latin literature within scholarship on the period often labelled as the ‘Second Sophistic’. It establishes the multiple parameters of ‘Greek biculturality’ in order to soften the traditional dogma according to which Greeks would not read Latin (and certainly not Latin poetry) (Section 0.1). It addresses questions of Greek–Roman bilingualism (0.2), the evidence of Latin papyri (especially Vergil) in the context of education (0.3), and gathers together the scattered literary evidence for Greek awareness of Latin poetry (0.4). It then focuses on two contexts, the festival circuit and libraries, in which Greeks may have engaged with Latin poetry (0.5); the archaeology and epigraphy of cities such as Ephesus and Aphrodisias (cities also associated with the novelists) are called upon in establishing this picture. The following section (0.6) sets up the methodology governing allusion and intertextuality, phenomena that are integral to the argument of the book. The final section (0.7) sounds a note of caution about any attempt to draw homogenizing conclusions about ‘Greeks of the imperial period’, a group of great chronological and geographical diversity.

The Reforming Tsar: The Redefinition of Autocratic Duty in Eighteenth-Century Russia

Slavic Review ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia H. Whittaker
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
The People ◽  
Imperial Period

Don't lead the people to expect miracles. It is necessary to expunge from people's minds a belief in the "good tsar," in the assumption that someone at the top will impose order and organize change–Mikhail Gorbachev, 1988The idea of the "good tsar" originated in Muscovite times and obviously has since become a commonplace of Russian political culture. However, Gorbachev's statement does not really define a "good tsar" but what should instead be called a "reforming tsar," a term that more aptly characterizes the changed expectations of a ruler in the Imperial period of Russian history

On Translating Aristophanes: Ends and Means

1973 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan H. Sommerstein
Keyword(s):  
General Reader ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Literature

There will never be a perfect translation of Aristophanes. There have been many translations, with many and diverse merits: one thinks of the poetical grace of F. L. Lucas, the deftness of Godley and Bailey, the easy naturalness of John and Patricia Easterling, the zest of B. B. Rogers, the modernity of Douglass Parker and his associates; but combine all these and you are still left a long way from a perfect translation—for there is much truth in the paradox that the only really perfect translation is the original. The Greek and Latin scholar is more aware of this than most people, and the lover of Aristophanes more still. Yet translations there must be—not only for the ‘general reader’, but increasingly nowadays for the student who wants to know more about ancient literature but is not yet (and in too many cases may never be) competent to study it in the language in which it was written; nor should we forget those who produce plays, and those who go to see them. And it matters a great deal whether the people who meet Aristophanes in these ways are brought to appreciate his qualities as comedian and dramatist. For Aristophanes' own contemporaries did, Plato among them; and if he was really boring or obscure or both (so the reader may argue), his contemporaries must have been so too.

scholarly journals Az archaikus költészet szerepe Ioachimus Vadianus költészetelméletében

2018 ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Orsolya Bobay
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
Ancient Literature

The aim of my study is the analysis of the views on the archaic Latin literature in the early modern works based on the theory and practice of poetry, especially in the Swiss humanist’s, Joachim von Watt’s work (De poetica et carminis ratione). The concepts of poeta vates, poeta theologus, and poeta eruditus are commonly used by the Italian authors – who knew the most important authors of the early Roman literature regarding this period ‒ in order to emphasize the moralistic and social morals of the archaic poetry’s lecture. Some of the authors – for example Pietro Crinito ‒ following Suetonius emphasized the historical analysis of the ancient literature in a particular way. The innovation of Joachim von Watt’s work was the adaptation of this view of the Italian authors, and it is not present in the works of other Viennese humanists on poetry in the first half of the 16th century.

revision in Greek and Latin literature

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Alexander Gurd
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Working Alone

Revision happens when a text is changed. Its most common name in Greek was διόρθωσις; in Latin, emendatio. It was practised by writers of all styles and levels of ability, working alone and in consultation with others, and in many different genres. Evidence for revision comes from papyri and from descriptions in ancient literature. It occurred on papyri, in wax tablets, and in authors’ minds as they prepared a text, and it was understood by ancient writers as either the inevitable consequence of error or as a valuable exercise leading to greater cognitive and political skill. In addition to reminding us of the fluidity of textuality and the always contingent nature of every literary formation, the study of revision provokes reflection on the relationship between literature and natural language, and on writing’s place in social exchange.

Punic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Baurain
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Africa ◽  
Literary Output

This chapter focuses on the Punic literature of the Roman imperial period. Since Punic works have not survived from either the Punic city or the Roman city, investigations on Punic literature can only be based on indirect testimonies—including Neo-Punic epigraphy, a temporary survival of the Neo-Punic language and writing, and fragments in translation attributed to Mago the agronomist—or on a cautious assessment of the cultural mood in the Punic city and the role the neighbouring Numidian population may have played in the conservation of the Punic literary output. From this viewpoint, the fate meted out in 146 bce, just after the fall of Carthage, by the Roman Senate to the Agronomic Treatise written by Mago in Punic and to the libri Punici most probably written in Greek is worth special attention because these works could have been one of the stimuli for the Graeco-Latin literature that flourished in Roman Africa right up to the late imperial period. As for other writings in Punic, kept in the archives of Carthage in Punic times, they probably served primarily to preserve traditional knowledge. The contents and the long and turbulent history of the handwritten archives assembled much later in Timbuktu and elsewhere in Mali provide a glimpse into the diversity of topics treated in the Punic language and writing by Carthaginians who lived before 146 bce. As for the Roman city, there is nothing tangible that would support the idea of a ‘renaissance’ in Punic literary output.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 326-330
Author(s):  
Daniel Jolowicz
Keyword(s):  
Latin Poetry ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Achilles Tatius ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
System P ◽  
Literary System

The conclusion offers some final thoughts on the question pursued in this monograph, namely the Greek novelists’ engagement with Latin poetry, and what this means for how we model Graeco-Roman relations in the imperial period. It summarizes the findings of Chapters 1–7 and places them side by side in a way that clarifies how the different novelists approach the institution of Latin literature. At least for the three authors in question (Chariton, Achilles Tatius, Longus), the approach to Latin poetry is systematic rather than piecemeal. Allusion to Latin poetry is often playful, and occasionally ideological and potentially subversive (for example, Longus and the Aeneid). The conclusion also addresses the sociological problem of Greek imperial engagement with Latin literature: Greek literary men of the first two centuries CE were, it is suggested, habituated to practices that ensured the preservation of the Greek literary system as it stood. Failure to acknowledge the existence of a Latin poetic tradition in an overt manner served as one way of controlling the literary system.

The Life of Saint Theodotus of Ancyra

1982 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 93-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Second Life ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Main Stream ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
Insight Into

In December 1981, as this paper was being composed, there came the news of the tragic death of Colin Macleod. With shocking suddenness one had lost a former tutor, colleague and friend, whose passion, seriousness and total modesty were, in themselves, a reflection of the value and importance which he attached to ancient literature, and an inspiration to those who admired him both as a person and as a scholar. Apart from his work in the main stream of Classical writings he devoted much time and study to Patristic authors, and it does not seem inept that this examination of a fourth-century Saint's Life should be dedicated, with great sadness, to his memory.In 1901 the Vatican scholar, Pio Franchi de' Cavalieri, published excellent editions, based on new manuscript recensions, of the Lives of two Anatolian saints, St. Theodotus of Ancyra and St. Ariadne of Prymnessus. The second Life, and a supplement to it published in the following year, have provided the material for a recent study by L. Robert, who demonstrates in detail that many biographical details found in it can be traced back to inscriptions of the Imperial period, thus providing, among other things, a valuable insight into its manner of composition.

Papyrology and Ancient Literature

2011 ◽  
pp. 281-302
Author(s):  
Timothy Renner
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek Literature ◽  
Egyptian Literature

This article discusses literary and subliterary papyri; papyri and Egyptian literature; the study of Greek literature; and papyri and Latin literature. The texts inscribed on these materials are the source for the longest and most important Egyptian literary compositions known from the Pharaonic and Hellenistic periods. “Subliterary” papyri include papyri containing texts such as commentaries, lexica, and grammatical treatises, which are in some sense ancillary to the study of the major genres and have traditionally been so regarded. Hieratic and demotic papyri, including wooden writing boards and ostraca, are responsible for our knowledge of most of the Egyptian texts that contain narrative tales and fables, instructions or precepts, and love poetry. Meanwhile, the body of ancient Greek literature continued to expand on the basis of papyrological evidence.

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