scholarly journals The moral power of the word: Ethical literature in Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Przemysław Paczkowski
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Fighting Spirit ◽  
Moral Power

AbstractAccording to an old legend, during the Messenian Wars in Laconia in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Athenians sent the poet Tyrtaeus to the Spartans who were close to being defeated; he aroused in them the fighting spirit and renewed Spartan virtues. Philosophers in antiquity believed in the psychagogical power of the word, and this belief provided the foundation for ancient ethical literature, whose main purpose was to call for a spiritual transformation and to convert to philosophy. In this paper, I would like to demonstrate what tradition philosophy referred to in these efforts; what concept of man supported that belief; finally, what literary genres were used by ancient philosophers in ethics.

scholarly journals Metamorphōsis Between Ovid, The Theōsis Of Andrew Of Crete And The Byzantine Humanism Of Leo Vi

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Jan Dominik Bogataj
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Crucial Difference

The paper addresses the Greek term μεταμόρφωσις, which links Ovid’s famous Metamorphoses with Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain (Mt 17:1–8; Mk 9:2–8; Lk 9:28–36). In addition to early Jewish mystical and apocalyptic traditions, it is Greco-Roman pagan literature that may be identified as a source for this gospel account. The latter went on to elicit a rich patristic and Byzantine response (Andrew of Crete, In transfigurationem 1 [Or. 7]; Leo VI the Wise, Hom. 10.11.39), which is the focus of the present study. The comparison of literary genres, philological and semantic analysis of the term μεταμόρφωσις, and confrontation of the different influences reveals the crucial difference between the two general contexts (pagan and Christian), at the same time enhancing our understanding of both. While Ovid’s numerous apotheoses are recognised as an important contribution, they differ from the patristic term θέωσις in their lack of inner, spiritual transformation.

Spiritual transformation and character strength development

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Schnitker ◽  
Justin L. Barrett ◽  
Robert A. Emmons
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Strength Development ◽  
Character Strength

Late Antique Letter Collections

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Social ◽  
Letter Writer ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Letter Collection ◽  
Latin Letter

This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.

Through the Lens of Gurdjieff

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
Michael Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Eastern Asia ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Successive Generations ◽  
Spiritual Conversation

G. I. Gurdjieff (c.1866–1949) was born in Gyumri, Armenia and raised in the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor. He also traveled extensively throughout Turkey to places of pilgrimage and in search of Sufi teachers. Through the lens of Gurdjieff’s notion of legominism, or the means by which spiritual teachings are transmitted from successive generations, this article explores the continuing significance of spiritual practice and tradition and the ways that these forms remain relevant in shaping contemporary trends in spirituality. Beginning with Gurdjieff’s use of legominism, the article provides reflection on some early findings done in field research in Turkey— through site visits, interviews and participant-observation—conducted in the summers of 2014 and 2015. The aim of the project is both to meet individuals and groups, particularly connected to Sufism, that may have some contact with the influences that Gurdjieff would have been familiar with, and to visit some of the sites that were part of Gurdjieff’s early background and which served to inform his work. Considerations of contemporary practices include the view of spiritual transmission, and practices of pilgrimage, prayer and sohbet, or spiritual conversation, in an ongoing discourse about spiritual transformation.

Phoenician Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Carolina López-Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Historical Records ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Great Loss ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
Travel Accounts

There was, without a doubt, a Phoenician and Punic literature. Very little of it is extant, but we have enough of it to gauge the great loss. Lacking the advantage of its own manuscript tradition and later cultures devoted to it, Phoenician literature was not systematically preserved, unlike that of the Greeks, Romans, and Israelites. What we have are small pieces that surface among the Classical literary corpus. Despite these unfavorable conditions, an impressive range of literary genres is attested, concentrated in particular genres. Some of this literature aligned with broader ancient Near Eastern tradition: cosmogony, foundation stories, historical records, and other areas that correspond with Phoenician expertise (travel accounts or itineraries, agricultural treatises). Other genres were likely adopted through Greek influence (narrative histories, philosophy). Moreover, from Hellenistic times onward, works by Phoenician authors had to be written and transmitted in Greek in order to survive. Nonetheless, the chapter cautions that we should not lightly categorize them as merely “Greek” literature, at least in the cases in which we know the authors are Phoenicians (including Carthaginians) writing about Phoenician matters.

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