Why Humans Do Not Cast Off Old Skin Like Snakes. Knowledge and Eternal Youth in Nicander’s Theriaca

Philologus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 165 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-240
Author(s):  
Olga Chernyakhovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Value Of Knowledge ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Poetic Work

Abstract In Theriaca 343–358, Nicander recounts a rather unusual myth. After Prometheus had stolen fire, Zeus was seeking the thief and, when men delivered Prometheus over to him, he gave them the gift of youth. Humans entrusted the ass to carry this load, but the ass was seized by thirst and sought the help of the snake, who demanded in return the thing he was carrying on his back. This is how the gift of youth given to men fell to the serpent’s lot. Ever since, inevitable old age has weighed upon them, while the snakes cast off their old skin and gain a new one. Like any digression in Hellenistic epic poetry, this parable certainly is intended to entertain the reader, yet it must have a more serious function: by showing that it was only out of stupidity that men gave away their invaluable gift to the ass, Nicander asserts the great value of knowledge for life. Remarkably, it is precisely in this passage that the poet has inserted the acrostic of his name. The idea that his poetic work will ensure the survival of his name for future generations, directly expressed in the closing lines, is here conveyed with the greatest refinement.

scholarly journals Motivy a témata stáří a smrti v básnickém a prozaickém díle Františka Hrubína

2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 557-565
Author(s):  
Iva Málková
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Poetic Work

Themes and topics of old age and death in the poetry and prose by František HrubínThe article goes back to the prosaic and the poetic work by František Hrubín. The essay recalls poetry and segments of prose texts. Monitors the motifs and themes of old age and death. It quotes and interprets the verse, dominated by themes of time, aging, age as of a man from birth to death. Significant contrast is a man-child, an old man and a boy. We recognize the weight of the race, it determines the importance of grandfathers, fathers and grandsons. Thedeath of grandfather determines the lives and values of grandson and of the young man. Aman becomes a father, a man becomes a grandfather, a man remains forever a boy — are also determining the transformation work by František Hrubín. Old age and death are enduring a full part of human life.Мотивы и темы старости и смерти в поэзии и прозе Франтишка ХрубинаCтатья возвращается к поэзии и к прозе Франтишка Хрубина, напоминает стихи ипрозаические тексты, для которых центральными мотивами становятся старение и смерть. Мониторирует восприятие времени Хрубина, созревания, старения, возраст постепенной продолжительности человека от рождения до смерти. Цитирует и интерпретирует стихи, вкоторых преобладают темы времени, старения, старения — постепенной продолжительности человека от рождения до смерти. Значительные контрасты: человек–ребенок, старик–мальчик. Обнаружив вес семье, она определяет важность дедов, отцов и внуков. Смерть деда определяет жизнь внука имолодого человека. Человек становится отцом, человек становится дедушкой, человек навсегда останется мальчиком. Старость и смерть переживaют полнyю часть человеческой жизни.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Ibata
Keyword(s):  
Royal Academy ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Mental Skills ◽  
History Painting ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sister Arts ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Poetic Work

In the decades that followed the creation of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, the sister arts tradition appeared to be as alive as it had been at the beginning of the century. The literary aspirations of British visual artists were nurtured by academic precepts which claimed that by rivalling and adapting the best poetic work, painters would assert their art’s intellectual value and prove that it was a ‘liberal’ occupation, rather than a ‘mechanical’ trade. While the Royal Academy promoted ‘history painting’ and the emulation of epic poetry as the best demonstration of the mental skills employed in painting, a new generation of visual artists sought inspiration in the most exalting and tumultuous productions of the British literary genius, and found in Shakespeare, Milton or Macpherson’s ...

Autobiograficzna refleksja Prudencjusza nad własnym życiem u progu starości

Vox Patrum ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 321-326
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Kołosowski
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Public ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
Rhetorical Studies ◽  
Self Examination ◽  
Poetic Work ◽  
Public Career

The author analyses the beginning of the poetic work of Prudentius (Praefatio) in whom the poet does the self-examination over his own previous life. The poet runs short his own past: the childhood, the beginning of rhetorical studies , errors of the youth, the lawyer’s career , finally the development of the public career. This are quick scenes from following stages of his life. The poet considers, how to live the period of the old age. One ought to talk with himself, to perform the dialogue with the own soul. The old age is the time which man should think about God. The poet wants to laud God with his own word, with her own poetry. Prudentius expresses the conviction that his poesy, lauds God with the day and by night, praises apostles and martyrs, fights with the idolatry and heresies and explains Catholic faith. Such poetry will assure him the salvation.

scholarly journals Canceral Imaginaries

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 129-155
Author(s):  
Donna McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
The Body ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
The Gift ◽  
History Of

This article examines the carceral imaginaries that emerge from the late capitalist structure of organ donation as an issue of short supply. This piece explores this issue through the lens of spatial segregation, arguing that carceral imaginaries are spaces of luxury where donors are segregated from recipients and are thereby legally murdered. The focus is Ninni Holmqvist’s novel The Unit (2008) where the future is structured through gender equality but reproductive normativity. Donors are segregated away in the luxurious unit because they have not repro- duced. Having not produced future generations of labourers, these donors must contribute to the nation by donating their body parts to the reproductive – and therefore productive – members of the nation. Focusing on Sweden’s history of eugenics and on gender equality, this article argues that the very space of care, namely the clinic, which facilitates life-saving treatments also subjects whole populations to violence and death through reproductive norms. Finally, it sug- gests that space is both that through which bodies move, but also the body itself. That is, the segregation of the body’s parts and the idea that space may be divided by borders are mutually constitutive and found both the restrictions of bodily movement through space and murder as the gift of life.

scholarly journals „U Kresu Drogi” – Czesław Miłosz Wiersze Ostatnie / ‘At the End of the Road’ From Czesław Miłosz ’s Last Poems

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 533-546
Author(s):  
Stanisław Stabro
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
The Road ◽  
Czeslaw Milosz ◽  
Important Group ◽  
Orpheus And Eurydice ◽  
The Future ◽  
Traditional Poetry ◽  
Looking Back

Summary Published in 2006, two years after the death of Czesław Miłosz, his volume Last Poems belongs to the late verse of great masters. Taken less literally, in Miłosz’s case this category may well include the poems of To [It] (2000), Druga przestrzeń [The Second Space] (2002) and Orfeuszi Eurydyka [Orpheus and Eurydice] (2002). The collection Last Poems brings together texts that highlight the author’s spiritual, artistic and biographical experience. Some of them extol the power of Eros, set against old age and existential motifs of human wretchedness; some are the product of autothematic reflection; and some more, which form an important group by itself, contain religious ideas and Miłosz’s own credo made ‘at the end of road’. Yet throughout that lyrical and confessional summing-up the tones of defeat and dissatisfaction, spiritual and personal pessimism, self-irony and distance get the better of iron certainty. Looking back at Miłosz’s achievement we may ask ourselves the question how it is going to stand the test of time, increasingly defined by postmodernity and rapid cultural changes. Or, to what extent his, essentially traditional, poetry and its message will hold its appeal to the future generations?

Taonga Moriori: Recording and revival

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maui Solomon ◽  
Susan Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Traditional Practices ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Gift

Moriori culture is one of the most researched in the Pacific, and yet perhaps one of the least well understood. Until the last 30 or so years, history had consigned the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands near New Zealand to being defined as extinct and almost landless. Today Moriori are in a spirit of revival and reconnection with their identity and culture. Through the gift of the Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) software system, laser scanning of rākau momori (tree carvings), and involvement in the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) Project, Moriori are developing an extensive database of cultural landscapes, elder stories, traditional practices and digital records of taonga. The next stage of this research will involve development of an intranet guide to taonga Moriori (ancestral artefacts) in overseas collections. Here we explore the methods and technology that Moriori have been using to assist in the process of preserving taonga for present and future generations to enjoy.

The Multiple Faces of Aging Into Wisdom in Julian Barnes’s The Lemon Table

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 851-858
Author(s):  
Maricel Oró-Piqueras
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Physical Frailty ◽  
Ultimate Result ◽  
To Come

Abstract In The Lemon Table, published in 2004, Barnes introduces 11 short stories with old characters as their main protagonists, a few of them actually close to death. It is precisely their age together with their physical frailty, in most cases, that makes the protagonists reflect on wisdom; that is, what life has taught them and to what extent they can actually contribute to pass on to their knowledge to future generations. Neither Barnes nor the characters within his short stories believe in a straightforward connection between old age and serenity, with wisdom as its ultimate result. On the contrary, each of the protagonists allows the reader to glimpse into his or her own experience of aging and the ways in which they create meaning for their lives at the same time as they try to come to terms with the increasing vulnerability and dependence of their bodies.

BUYER BEWARE

2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. RAPPOPORT
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Women Writers ◽  
Marketing Strategy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Women's Poetry ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Commercial Market ◽  
Thematic Approach ◽  
Poetic Work

In this essay I draw attention to a poetics of giving that runs through the body of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's work. Landon (or "L.E.L.") has most frequently interested scholars either as a poet of tragic love or as evidence that early-nineteenth-century women writers could support themselves in a commercial market. But this dual focus remains problematic. Not only have critics generally oversimpliÞed Landon's relationship to love, commodiÞcation, and sales, but also-and more important for my discussion-their Þxation on her role in the capitalist marketplace has made us less ready to analyze her relationship to the gift, her other strategy of exchange. Through her publishing strategies, as well as through the very language of her poetic work, Landon's simultaneous reliance on both gift and sale models complicates the process of exchange. When Landon claims to give instead of sell, her reader's role is undeÞned, and the obligations that the gift entails put Landon in a position of power. In this essay I explore the marketing strategy, thematic approach, formal style, and legacy of reception that comprise Landon's "gift poetics," and I show how this poetics is signiÞcant both for reading her work and for reconsidering a line of women's poetry neglected by Romantic and Victorian scholarship alike. I argue that L.E.L. does not deal in beauty, love, or self, but in power-and that what we see in her art is, Þnally, a deceptively strong poetics of giving mediated by marketing strategy that treated her poetry as "gifts" in order to sell them.

Production of New and Revised A.A.V.S.O. Charts

1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Clinton B. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Variable Star ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Original Data ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Standard Format ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The Gift ◽  
The University

A “new charts program” for the Americal Association of Variable Star Observers was instigated in 1966 via the gift to the Association of the complete variable star observing records, charts, photographs, etc. of the late Prof. Charles P. Olivier of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). Adequate material covering about 60 variables, not previously charted by the AAVSO, was included in this original data, and was suitably charted in reproducible standard format.Since 1966, much additional information has been assembled from other sources, three Catalogs have been issued which list the new or revised charts produced, and which specify how copies of same may be obtained. The latest such Catalog is dated June 1978, and lists 670 different charts covering a total of 611 variables none of which was charted in reproducible standard form previous to 1966.

The Gift: Cochlear Implant Brings A Year of Change

ASHA Leader ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-9
Author(s):  
Susan Boswell
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
The Gift
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