scholarly journals Performing Ploutos

Author(s):  
Isabell Wagener

The question of the relation of ritual and theatre has long been debated and may never come to a satisfying result. Nevertheless, certain features of theatrical performances, especially in the ancient Greek poleis, show a close connection of both performative acts. In particular, there is a strong interdependence of the dramatic agon and religious festivals, such as the Great Dionysia and the Lenaia. The aim of this article is to shed a new light not only on the relation of theatre and ritual, but also on the reception of theatre in the visual arts and the impact it had on religious developments of that time. I hereby focus on the heightened emergence of personifications in the middle of the 5th century BC which is reflected in a number of personifications who appear on stage in the Aristophanic comedies. One of them is Ploutos, the personified Wealth and one of the main characters in the homonymous play. By combining the representation of Ploutos in the visual arts with the literary sources on his person, a new image of this personification emerges. Through recapturing fragments and fractures of the multifaceted personification Ploutos, a process of transformation and adaption shows through that accommodates not only the relation of ritual and theatre, but also highlights the extraordinary standing of personification in the ancient Greek pantheon.

2021 ◽  

From the Trojan War to the sack of Rome, from the fall of Constantinople to the bombings of World War II and the recent devastation of Syrian towns, the destruction of cities and the slaughter of civilian populations are among the most dramatic events in world history. But how reliable are literary sources for these events? Did ancient authors exaggerate the scale of destruction to create sensational narratives? This volume reassesses the impact of physical destruction on ancient Greek cities and its demographic and economic implications. Addressing methodological issues of interpreting the archaeological evidence for destructions, the volume examines the evidence for the destruction, survival, and recovery of Greek cities. The studies, written by an international group of specialists in archaeology, ancient history, and numismatic, range from Sicily to Asia Minor and Aegean Thrace, and include Athens, Corinth, and Eretria. They highlight the resilience of ancient populations and the recovery of cities in the long term.


Author(s):  
Alistair Fox

This book investigates the coming-of-age genre as a significant phenomenon in New Zealand’s national cinema, tracing its development from the 1970s to the present day. A preliminary chapter identifies the characteristics of the coming-of-age film as a genre, tracing its evolution and the influence of the French New Wave and European Art Cinema, and speculating on the role of the genre in the output of national cinemas. Through case studies of fifteen significant films, including The God Boy, Sleeping Dogs, The Scarecrow, Vigil, Mauri, An Angel at My Table, Heavenly Creatures, Once Were Warriors, Rain, Whale Rider, In My Father’s Den, 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous, Boy, Mahana, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, subsequent chapters examine thematic preoccupations of filmmakers such as the impact of repressive belief systems and social codes, the experience of cultural dislocation, the expression of a Māori perspective through an indigenous “Fourth Cinema,” bicultural relationships, and issues of sexual identity, arguing that these films provide a unique insight into the cultural formation of New Zealanders. Given that the majority of films are adaptations of literary sources, the book also explores the dialogue each film conducts with the nation’s literature, showing how the time frame of each film is updated in a way that allows these films to be considered as a register of important cultural shifts that have occurred as New Zealanders have sought to discover their emerging national identity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-378
Author(s):  
Clint Burnett

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.


Author(s):  
Derek Attridge

The question this book addresses is whether, in addition to its other roles, poetry—or a cultural practice we now call poetry—has, across the two-and-a-half millennia from the composition of the Homeric epics to the publication of Ben Jonson’s Works and the death of Shakespeare in 1616, continuously afforded the pleasurable experience we identify with the crafting of language into memorable and moving rhythmic forms. Parts I and II examine the evidence for the performance of the Iliad and the Odyssey and of Ancient Greek lyric poetry, the impact of the invention of writing on Alexandrian verse, the performances of poetry that characterized Ancient Rome, and the private and public venues for poetic experience in Late Antiquity. Part III deals with medieval verse, exploring the oral traditions that spread across Europe in the vernacular languages, the importance of manuscript transmission, the shift from roll to codex and from papyrus to parchment, and the changing audiences for poetry. Part IV explores the achievements of the English Renaissance, from the manuscript verse of Henry VIII’s court to the anthologies and collections of the late Elizabethan period. Among the topics considered in this part are the advent of print, the experience of the solitary reader, the continuing significance of manuscript circulation, the presence of poet figures in pageants and progresses, and the appearance of poets on the Elizabethan stage. Tracking both continuity and change, the book offers a history of what, over these twenty-five centuries, it has meant to enjoy a poem.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 2012-2027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Aufderheide ◽  
Tijana Milosevic ◽  
Bryan Bello

Author(s):  
Dmitriy Sergeevich Kovalev

Arterial hypertension (AH) refers to an increase in blood pressure above the level of 140/90 mm Hg; the risk of cardiovascular complications increases significantly with this pathological condition. Thus, arterial hypertension is an independent risk factor for the development of prediabetes / type 2 diabetes mellitus, heart failure, coronary heart disease, chronic kidney damage, and multifocal atherosclerosis. The frequency of arterial hypertension occurrence varies in different countries: in particular, it is from 23 to 36% for the European population, according to various literary sources. The main goal of treatment is to minimize the overall risk of developing cardiovascular complications. This involves the impact on all identified reversible risk factors, such as smoking and high cholesterol levels, and most importantly, appropriate treatment of concomitant diseases (diabetes mellitus, thyroid gland pathology, kidney disease, etc.), as well as the correction of high blood pressure.


Literator ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger M. Field

Sigmund Freud’s reading of the classics and Greek mythology is well documented. By contrast, Edward Said’s reading of Freud has received little attention. This article considers three main issues: how Said and Freud thought about and used ancient and classical Greek literature; the ways in which Said has read Freud reading the ancient and classical worlds; the significance of ambivalence and analogy for these readings. The article concludes that there is a necessary relationship between analogy and ambivalence. Primarily chronological, the reading also draws on Freud’s notions of latency and repression to track how Said’s approaches to ambivalence and analogy changed. In the case of Said, it is possible to attribute some of these changes to the impact of Bernal’s Black Athena, which encouraged him to review the notions of ancient Greek society which underpin Orientalism, and to Bernal’s narrative inspiration, Kuhn’s The structure of scientific revolutions. Latency and repression make it possible to posit prehistories. Therefore, the article also examines the ways in which Freud and Said have been obliged to assume continuities between prehistory and history, and between individual and mass psychology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41
Author(s):  
A. M. Gareyev ◽  
I. A. Popelnyuk ◽  
D. M. Stadnik

А method based on comparing oscilloscope patterns of operational parameters with reference curves is one of the most promising methods of diagnosing hydraulic systems among the existing ones. Its implementation does not allow accurate localization of the faulty unit in the system and quantitative estimation of the magnitude of the fault. To eliminate these shortcomings, it is advisable to use simulation models of hydraulic units, taking into account typical faults of a hydraulic system. Their use makes it possible to evaluate the effect of a particular malfunction on the change of dynamic parameters at the stage of mathematical modeling. As a result of the analysis of statistical information and literary sources, characteristic faults of hydraulic systems are identified. Their causes and the impact on the operation of hydraulic units are examined. Simulation models of units taking into account typical faults are described in the Matlab / Simscape software package. They are implemented using a typical hydraulic system as an example. Dynamic characteristics of a hydraulic system in a healthy condition and those of a system with one of the characteristic faults are compared.


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