Socratic Humor in the Hellenistic Period

2018 ◽  
pp. 157-178
Author(s):  
John Lombardini
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period

This chapter begins with an overview of the legacy of Socratic humor within Stoic and Epicurean philosophy in order to indicate how this legacy continued to be debated beyond the classical period. It then turns to Diogenes of Sinope and the topic of Cynic humor more broadly. Using Xenophon’s Symposium (and, in particular, Xenophon’s depiction of Antisthenes’s use of humor in that work), it is argued that Cynic humor possesses a plausibly Socratic connection. Looking to Lucian’s Demonax then illustrates how such Cynic humor more closely resembles the direct forms of mockery found in Aristophanes and (occasionally) in Xenophon, rather than the indirect forms of irony associated with the Platonic Socrates. The final section of the chapter analyzes how such Cynic humor is linked to the Cynic attempt to live in accordance with nature.

scholarly journals The Discourses of Identity in Hellenistic Erythrai: Institutions, Rhetoric, Honour and Reciprocity

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-107
Author(s):  
Peter Liddel
Keyword(s):  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Weak State

Abstract Recent research in the field of New Institutionalist analysis has developed the view that institutions are grounded not only upon authoritative rules but also upon accepted practices and narratives. In this paper I am interested in the ways in which honorific practices and accounts of identity set out in ancient Greek inscriptions contribute towards the persistence of polis institutions in the Hellenistic period. A diachronic survey of Erythraian inscriptions of the classical and Hellenistic periods gives an impression of the adaptation and proliferation of forms of discourse established in the classical period. It demonstrates the ongoing prominence of the rhetoric of identity in conversations that went on not only between peer polities and within real or imagined kinship groups but also in negotiations between powerful and weak state entities and in inward-facing discourses on euergetism.

The shape of musical improvisation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton Mermikides ◽  
Eugene Feygelson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
Musical Space ◽  
The Third

This chapter presents practitioner–researcher perspectives on shape in improvisation. A theoretical framework based in jazz improvisational pedagogy and practice is established, and employed in the analysis of examples from both jazz and classical-period repertoire. The chapter is laid out in five sections. The first section provides a brief overview of improvisational research, while the second discusses the concept of improvisation as ‘chains-of-thought’ (a logical narrative established through the repetition and transformation of musical objects). The third reflects upon improvisation as the limitation and variation of a changing set of musical parameters. Using this concept, the fourth section builds a theoretical model of improvisation as navigation through multidimensional musical space (M-Space). The final section uses this model in a detailed analysis of the nineteenth-century violinist Hubert Léonard’s cadenza for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Op. 61.

The Chorus in New Tragedy

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-82
Author(s):  
Lucy C. M. M. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Dramatic Structure ◽  
Dramatic Activity ◽  
Poetic Composition

This chapter brings together known and possible fourth-century choral tragic texts, analysing and evaluating the chorus’ dramatic activity in the later Classical period. Beginning with the Rhesus once attributed to Euripides, it examines the innovations and dramatic potential of this tragedy’s chorus in performance. In particular it highlights the unique instances of a fragmented choral voice, a striking independence in the chorus’ character, and the use of separated strophic pairs for dramatic structure. There follows an evaluation of the possible fragments of fourth-century tragic choral speech or song, and closer consideration of three such fragments all incidentally linked to the tragedian Astydamas. In these fragments the chapter views further signs of activity, choral interaction with actors, and literary play. A final section introduces a comparison with lyric poetic composition in the fourth century, taking Philodamus’ Paean to Dionysus as an illuminating example of sophisticated and potent choral performance in the fourth century.

An overlooked treatise in Greek political thought: An essay on 2 Maccabees as a Hellenistic politico-theological manifest

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-131
Author(s):  
Doron Mendels
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Sitz Im Leben ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Delian League ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theological Message

This essay does not dwell yet again on traditional issues associated with 2 Maccabees usually discussed through a Jewish lens by dozens of modern scholars. It also does not view the book within its traditional Jewish Hellenistic “Sitz im Leben,” with its self-evident Hellenistic-Jewish reading audience, and its aim is neither to draw a distinction between Greek topoi and biblical motifs nor to discuss its values as an historical text. Rather, the article assumes a pagan reading publicum alongside a Jewish Hellenistic one that, in contradistinction with its Jewish audience, could easily see in 2 Maccabees a standard narrative of a life in a Greek polis under foreign rule, where the “ancestral constitution” plays a significant role, so typical of Greek poleis from the classical period (Delian league) through the Hellenistic era (Macedonian Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires). Reading the book as a Greek would have can give us new insights concerning its socio-political and theological message (independently of its Jewish one). The article reconstructs a politeia as a learned Greek would have done. The book can actually be read as a reflection, or rather a microcosmos of the second century B.C.E. in the Greek sphere during the Hellenistic period. The overall message of the book emerges different than that broadcasted to the Hellenistic Jews, and constitutes a rich mine of theoretical information about the relationship between a subject city and an empire.

The Trefoil Style and second-century Hadra Vases

1980 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Local Significance

The Hellenistic period in the Aegean is one notoriously devoid of firmly established chronological markers with more than local significance and which might be used to divide the cultural material into smaller groupings. This is especially true for pottery. The Aegean basin was parcelled out among numerous ceramic provinces which, though all were obviously heirs to the traditions established in the Classical period, yet managed to interpret any new ideas in their own way and at their own speed. These apparently newly emerged styles were in fact of hoary antiquity. They represent the resurgence of local mores and traditions in pottery manufacture whose existence in the Classical and Archaic periods had been well-nigh overlooked by the excessive concentration on the study of the products of Corinth and Athens. Their re-emergence was occasioned by two factors consequent on the establishment of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The first was the collapse of Attic pottery production as a result of a series of disastrous wars and defeats in the later fourth and early third centuries B.C. The second was the very real prosperity enjoyed by the provincial centres in the newly Hellenised world.

Olympia en de Olympische Spelen in de Romeinse tijd

Lampas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Onno van Nijf
Keyword(s):  
Southern Italy ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Active Centre ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Imperial Period

Abstract Most studies of the ancient Olympic Games focus on the Classical period. This is a bit surprising, as it has been established that the Hellenistic and Roman periods constituted the hey-days of Greek sport. In the Hellenistic period, a shared sports and festival culture was one of the main ingredients of an imagined community of Greek cities stretching from southern Italy as far as the Tigris, and beyond. In the Roman Imperial period, sport flourished even more. With Roman support an integrated festival network arose with an empire-wide pull but gravitating in the Eastern provinces. Olympia was the active centre of this system. In this overview, I shall first discuss the athletes who gathered in Olympia, and then the reputation and attractiveness of the Games. I shall conclude with a discussion of some material aspects of the sanctuary.

Rhetoric, Trickery, and Tyranny: Testimonies on Sophists of the Hellenistic period

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-272
Author(s):  
Jan Erik Heßler
Keyword(s):  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Selection Of

In this article, I would like to provide a reappraisal of sophistic activities during the Hellenistic period. An analysis of passages in Philodemus, Posidonius, and several more fragmentary sources can show that there is a continuous and lively tradition of sophistic teaching and rhetoric from the Classical period until Imperial times. The texts give the impression that characteristic features of Hellenistic sophists point towards the generation of Gorgias and his colleagues as well as towards the star speakers of the Second Sophistic. The traditional but outworn negative image of the Hellenistic sophists and Hellenistic rhetoric in general can be explained as a result of the source situation, the decentralisation of schools and performance spaces, and a Classicistic bias of ancient and modern authors. In the end, the testimonies allow for more conclusions than generally thought. A selection of related sources is provided in an appendix.

scholarly journals COINS FROM EXCAVATIONS AT THE «T-4» SECTOR IN OLBIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-318
Author(s):  
R. O. Kozlenko ◽  
I. M. Sheiko ◽  
A. Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Asia Minor ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The West ◽  
The City

Coins from the excavations of the «T-4» site in 2018—2020, located in the Terrace City of Olbia, are introduced into scientific circulation. The total number of coins found during three years of research is 154 items, half of which are dolphin-shaped coins. These include a treasure of coins and bronze items, which, in particular, contained 26 casted dolphin-shaped coins. The coin in the shape of a «wheel» from the West Pontic city of Istria also belongs to the Classical period. Coins of the Hellenistic era from the excavations at the «T-4» sector are represented by denominations with images of Apollo, Demeter and the eagle on a dolphin, Tyche in a crown in the shape of a tower and an archer, and borysthenes coins. Among the numismatic monuments of this time is a rare coin of the city of byzantium of the IV c. BC, which confirms the evidence of the Olbian inscription (НО 9) on trade contacts between these cities during the Hellenistic period. The latest coins of the pre-Getae Olbia are represented by coins of the Asia Minor city of Amis, which are dated by the end of the II — the first half of the I c. BC. These are tetrachalkos with images of the Ares head in a helmet and a sword in sheath, and Aegis with the head of Medusa and Nike. Their appearance in Olbia is associated with the inclusion of the city in the Pontic state of Mithradates VI Eupator, in particular the localization of the Pontic garrison in Olbia. Coins of Roman times are represented by Olbian assarius such as Zeus / eagle of the middle of the I c. AD, dupondius of the second half of the II c, AD and a tressis depicting the Roman Empress Julia Mamaeia, which belongs to the last series of monetary units of the Olbian autonomous minting. In general, the available numismatic material from the excavations of the T-4 site is dated from the second half of the VI c. BC, and until the cessation of coinage in the second third of the III c. AD, i. e. covers all major chronological periods of existence of Olbian polis.

agoranomoi, Greek

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Bresson
Keyword(s):  
Market Price ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Weights And Measures ◽  
Food Shortages

The agoranomoi were the magistrates who, in the Greek cities, were in charge of policing and organizing the market. Their role was to make sure that transactions were conducted according to the laws of market, which primarily meant preventing cheating on the quality of the goods offered for sale and on the weights and measures used by sellers. Their tasks could also include watching over the nature and quality of the coins used as means of exchange. They were in charge of monitoring prices and, in some cases, they set prices of goods—some basic foodstuffs like fish or meat. They also had to make sure that the market supply of essential goods remained adequate. The number of agoranomoi decreased in the late Hellenistic period (in Athens, from ten in the Classical period to only two). Late Hellenistic and Roman period magistrates belonged to the well-to-do stratum of the population in the cities, and the agoranomoi were no exception. This allowed them if necessary to buy grain to supply the market from their own pockets, then to sell it below the market price, thus partly alleviating the food-shortages.

Cyrene Papers: The Final Report. Richard Norton's Exploration of the Northern Necropolis of Cyrene (24 October 1910 – 4 May 1911): From Archives to Archaeological Contexts

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 9-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Santucci ◽  
J.P. Uhlenbrock
Keyword(s):  
Fine Arts ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
History Of ◽  
Museum Of Fine Arts

AbstractThe rock-cut tombs of Cyrene's Northern Necropolis have survived to the present day in a pitifully ruinous state because of the looting that has taken place since antiquity and because of their frequent re-use as dwellings or stables. An important archive of typewritten reports, photographs, sketches, and correspondence pertaining to this necropolis is preserved principally in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and documents the first officially-sanctioned archaeological excavation at Cyrene. This was conducted by an American archaeological mission lead by Richard Norton from October 1910 to the end of April 1911 and was jointly sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The documents, particularly those that chronicle the excavation of four tombs and their associated finds, represent an important resource for our understanding of the history of the exploration of this necropolis. They not only offer information on individual monuments, but they also illustrate the typological range of artefacts selected for funerary ritual from the late Classical period into the second century AD, but principally during the Hellenistic period. Additionally, the documents reveal particular funerary practices, such as the successive re-use of tombs that took place at least from the late Hellenistic period onwards.

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