scholarly journals From Purāṇic to Folk: the ‘Kirātārjunīyam Ballade’ and Visuals

Eikon / Imago ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 355-366
Author(s):  
Raju Kalidos Kesava Rajarajan
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Classical Work ◽  
Later Phase

The present article aims to examine a folk literary motif from the ‘Kirātārjunīyam’. Kirāta (hunter-Śiva) and Arjuna once needed to clash with each other during the forest life of the Pāṇḍavas. Arjuna wanted to obtain the coveted pāśupatāstra from Śiva that could only be awarded to a soldier of mettle to wield the missile efficiently. Arjuna undertook hazardous tapas pleased with which Śiva tested Arjuna and finally awarded the astra. This myth appears in the Mahābhārata dated sometime in the fifth century BCE and its folk origin may get back to the immoral past. This story was retold in a classical work by the poet Sanskrit Bhāravi in eighteen cantos. The article examines a key motif relating to the Penance of Arjuna (cf. the Māmallapuram bas relief) from the Kirātārjunīyam episode, called pañcāgnitapas and how the Penance of Arjuna is retold in the ballad understudy? Several folk motifs of kuṟavaṉ-kuṟatti of Kuṟṟālakkuṟavañci are illustrated in a later phase of the art in Tamilnadu (e.g., the Thousand-Pillared Hall of the Great Maturai Temple of the Nāyaka period). Kirātārjunīyam was a popular motif in sculptural art though the ages.

scholarly journals PINDAR, OLYMPIAN 2.5–7, TEXT AND COMMENTARY—WITH EXCURSIONS TO ‘PERICTIONE’, EMPEDOCLES AND EURIPIDES’ HIPPOLYTUS

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-517
Author(s):  
M.S. Silk
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Divine Retribution ◽  
As If

In 1998, I suggested a new text for a notably corrupt passage in Pindar's Isthmian 5. This article is in effect a sequel to that earlier discussion. In the 1998 article, I proposed, inter alia, that the modern vulgate text of I. 5.58, ἐλπίδων ἔκνισ’ ὄπιν, is indefensible and the product of scribal corruption in antiquity, and that chief among the indefensible products of corruption there is the supposed secular use of ὄπις, as if used to mean something like ‘zeal’. This (as I hope to have demonstrated) is a sense for which there is no good evidence in classical Greek, where ὄπις always has a delimited religious denotation, meaning either (a) ‘gods’ response’, ‘divine retribution’, or else (b) ‘religious awe’ or ‘reverence’ towards the gods, through fear of that response or that retribution. If we discount I. 5.58 itself (and likewise the focus of the present article, O. 2.6), all the pre-Hellenistic attestations can be straightforwardly listed under these headings: (a) Il. 16.388 θεῶν ὄπιν οὐκ ἀλέγοντες, Od. 14.88 ὄπιδος κρατερὸν δέος, Hes. Theog. 221–2 θεαὶ . . . | . . . ἀπὸ τῷ δώωσι κακὴν ὄπιν, Pind. P. 8.71–2 θεῶν δ’ ὄπιν | ἄφθονον αἰτέω, sim. Od. 20.215, 21.28, Hes. Op. 187, 251, 706, along with, seemingly, a fragmentary fifth-century Thessalian verse inscription, CEG 1.120.1 Hansen; (b) Hdt. 9.76.2 θεῶν ὄπιν ἔχοντας, 8.143.2. In addition, one other instance can be interpreted as either (a) or (b), or in effect both: Od. 14.82 (of the suitors) οὐκ ὄπιδα φρονέοντες . . . οὐδ’ ἐλεητύν. In all cases, though, ‘gods’ are specified, usually as a dependent genitive with ὄπις, or else separately but in the near context. Hellenistic and later occurrences of the word are few, and (as I argued in 1998) hints there of a secular reading can actually be taken to reflect misunderstandings based on, precisely, the early corruption in I. 5.

LYKOPHRON AND EPIGRAPHY: THE VALUE AND FUNCTION OF CULT EPITHETS IN THEALEXANDRA

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hornblower
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Local Origin ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Function

The subject of this paper is a striking and unavoidable feature of theAlexandra: Lykophron's habit of referring to single gods not by their usual names, but by multiple lists of epithets piled up in asyndeton. This phenomenon first occurs early in the 1474-line poem, and this occurrence will serve as an illustration. At 152–3, Demeter has five descriptors in a row: Ἐνναία ποτὲ | Ἕρκυνν' Ἐρινὺς Θουρία Ξιφηφόρος, ‘Ennaian … Herkynna, Erinys, Thouria, Sword-bearing’. In the footnote I give the probable explanations of these epithets. Although in this sample the explanations to most of the epithets are not to be found in inscriptions, my main aim in what follows will be to emphasize the relevance of epigraphy to the unravelling of some of the famous obscurity of Lykophron. In this paper, I ask why the poet accumulates divine epithets in this special way. I also ask whether the information provided by the ancient scholiasts, about the local origin of the epithets, is of good quality and of value to the historian of religion. This will mean checking some of that information against the evidence of inscriptions, beginning with Linear B. It will be argued that it stands up very well to such a check. TheAlexandrahas enjoyed remarkable recent vogue, but this attention has come mainly from the literary side. Historians, in particular historians of religion, and students of myths relating to colonial identity, have been much less ready to exploit the intricate detail of the poem, although it has so much to offer in these respects. The present article is, then, intended primarily as a contribution to the elucidation of a difficult literary text, and to the history of ancient Greek religion. Despite the article's main title, there will, as the subtitle is intended to make clear, be no attempt to gather and assess all the many passages in Lykophron to which inscriptions are relevant. There will, for example, be no discussion of 1141–74 and the early Hellenistic ‘Lokrian Maidens inscription’ (IG9.12706); or of the light thrown on 599 by the inscribed potsherds carrying dedications to Diomedes, recently found on the tiny island of Palagruza in the Adriatic, and beginning as early as the fifth centuryb.c.(SEG48.692bis–694); or of 733–4 and their relation to the fifth-centuryb.c.Athenian decree (n. 127) mentioning Diotimos, the general who founded a torch race at Naples, according to Lykophron; or of 570–85 and the epigraphically attested Archegesion or cult building of Anios on Delos, which shows that this strange founder king with three magical daughters was a figure of historical cult as well as of myth.

The tragic aorist

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
New Interpretation

The tragic or ‘instantaneous’ aorist usually has a paragraph to itself in the grammar books, as a distinct but not especially important use of the aorist. It is most common in Athenian drama of the second half of the fifth century, although there are possible examples in Homer and some learned revivals later. The present article offers an entirely new account of these aorists, and entails a new interpretation of the tone of some 75 lines of tragedy and comedy.

scholarly journals Hierarchia wschodnich biskupów w historiografii kościelnej V wieku

Vox Patrum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Sławomir Bralewski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Saint Peter ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Eusebius Of Caesarea ◽  
The Church ◽  
Marked Tendency ◽  
The Way ◽  
Church Historians

Francis Dvornik has expressed the view that, in the Eastern part of the Empire, the principle of accommodation dominated over the principle of the apostolic ori­gin. The situation, he maintained, resulted from the fact that the aforementioned area included excessively numerous sees which were either established by one of the Apostles or were considered to be somehow connected with their activities. Does the conclusion of the Czech researcher find any justification in the way the precedence of bishoprics is depicted in the Greek ecclesiastical historiography of the fifth century? The present article is to give an answer to the question. The analysis of the ecclesiastical historiography in question demonstrates that Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote in the IV th century, while setting a hierarchy of bishops was guided first and foremost by the principle of accommodation. The church historians, however, who compiled their works a mere century later put a decisively lesser stress on Eusebius’ predilection in that matter. Although the narrative of Philostorgius, since fragmentary, is hard to interpret, Socrates’ atti­tude displays a marked tendency of favoring the importance of the apostolic ori­gin, which was most probably taken over from Rufinus of Aquileia. Sozomen tended to tell the difference between the official hierarchy of bishops, which was based on the principle of accommodation, and the structure of bishoprics connec­ted with the Apostles. Theodoretus, in turn, tended to connect both the principles, however, preferring the idea of the Church originated by saint Peter, accordingly of the ecclesiastic structure based on the principle of the apostolic origin. As a consequence, and contrary to F. Dvornik’s thesis, it should be concluded that (at least) the authors of the Ecclesiastic Histories of the fifth century were in favor of the principle of the apostolic origin and maintained it was over the prin­ciple of accommodation.

Greek Inscriptions at Cairness House

1934 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus N. Tod
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Short Account ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
The Subject

Professor J. D. Beazley recently discussed in this Journal (xlix. 1 ff.) a fifth-century Attic relief now preserved in Cairness House, Lonmay, Aberdeenshire. He appended a short account, partly from the pen of Colonel C. T. Gordon, of General Thomas Gordon (1788–1841), who brought to this country that relief and various other antiquities, and of the dispersion of the collection in 1850. The relief, however, remained at Cairness, together with two inscribed stelae, one of which has not been published hitherto, while the other has been regarded as lost. These form the subject of the present article.My warm thanks are due to the late Professor J. Harrower for calling my attention to the inscriptions and supplying me with excellent photographs of them, as also to Colonel Gordon for granting me permission to publish them and for his hospitality at Cairness, where he kindly gave me every facility for examining the stones with a view to verifying and completing the texts I had already deciphered from the photographs.

Fifth Century Chinese Nuns: An Exemplary Case

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Ann Heirman
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Buddhist Nuns ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Similar Issue

According to tradition, the first Buddhist nun, Mah?praj?pat?, accepted eight fundamental rules as a condition for her ordination. One of these rules says that a full ordination ceremony, for a nun, must be carried out in both orders: first in the nuns’ order, and then in the monks’ order. Both orders need to be represented by a quorum of legal witnesses. It implies that in the absence of such a quorum, an ordination cannot be legally held, in vinaya terms. This was a major problem in fifth century China, when, as a result of a wave of vinaya translations, monastics became aware of many detailed legal issues, including the rule on a dual ordination for nuns. Since the first Buddhist nuns in China were ordained in the presence of monks only, doubt was raised on the validity of the Chinese nuns’ lineage. The discussion came to an end, however, when in ca. 433 a so-called ‘second ordination ceremony’ could be held, now in the presence of a sufficient number of Sinhalese nun witnesses. Today, a similar issue is raised again, since in two of the three active Buddhist ordination traditions, nuns arguably cannot be legally ordained due to the absence of a nuns’ order of that particular tradition to provide a legal quorum of witnesses. In the present-day debates on the possible (re-)introduction of a nuns’ lineage in both these traditions, the historic case of the fifth century Chinese nuns is often referred to. The present article examines firstly in which ways technical issues discussed fifteen centuries ago lingered on among the most prominent Chinese vinaya masters, and secondly how these same issues still fuel and influence present-day discussions.

Ancient and Modern Greek

1960 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
B. E. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Third ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Linear B

A question which occurs frequently to classical students and others concerns the relation between ancient and modern Greek. It is the purpose of the present article to indicate in as brief a fashion as possible the lines on which the question might be approached.Perhaps the most amazing thing about Greek is that in the period over which our written records extend—in over three millennia, since the decipherment of Linear B—it has changed so little. Whereas a student of Latin would be ill-equipped to read a modern Italian newspaper, a person with a good working knowledge of classical Greek would not only find an Athenian newspaper intelligible for the most part, but would be amazed at the remarkable likenesses between the ancient and the modern languages. For the vocabulary of a Greek newspaper is probably 99 per cent, of classical origin and modern Greek has retained much of the cumbersome grammar of the ancient language—and ancient Greek has got a cumbersome grammar, when we consider that its verb has over four hundred forms as compared to sixty or so in French and two in Afrikaans. Thus the declension of φίλος is precisely the same now (except for the absence of the dual, which was obsolescent in Xenophon's day, and of the dative) as it was in the fifth century B.c. The conjugation of the present of ἒχω is identical with that of the classical verb, although the third plural ending -ουσι occurs mostly dialectically, e.g. in Cypriot, and has been largely replaced by -ουν.

The Plays of Bhāsa

1921 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-382
Author(s):  
A. Banerji-Śāstrī
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sanskrit Series ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

Towards the beginning of the fifth century a.d. Kālidāsa made his début with an apology for his temerity in addressing an audience accustomed to such old, wellestablished authors as “Bhāsa and others”. After the lapse of fifteen centuries Kālidāsa has held his own, while Bhāsa is practically forgotten. The reason is not the decisive verdict of Time, but the unfortunate loss of his works. But lately came a surprise. In 1912 Gaṇapati Śāstrī discovered and published thirteen dramas in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, and claimed them as Bhāsa's. For the past eight years Orientalists have been considering this claim, the general trend of opinion being unfavourable. The present article proposes to supplement the progress already made in the investigation of this question, and to point out the facts practically settled, thus paving the way for further research.

Sidelights on the chronology of St Patrick

1949 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. 247-260
Author(s):  
Ludwig Bieler
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Satisfactory Answer

In the present article I shall not discuss fully the question of Patrician chronology. I shall merely offer some remarks on fifth century entries in the Irish annals which attracted my attention during a recent study of the chronology of St Patrick. After the labours of MacCarthy, Burp and O’Rahilly we are at last In a position to ask the relevant questions, even if we cannot always give a satisfactory answer. Yet as regards detail, much confusion remains to be disentangled; perhaps the following suggestions will be found helpful towards a final clarification.

On the History of Allegorism

1934 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tate
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Main Motive ◽  
History Of ◽  
Allegorical Interpretation

I have shown in an earlier article that from the second half of the fifth century onwards the desire to defend Homer and Hesiod against accusations of immorality was certainly not the main motive which actuated the allegorical interpreters of the early poets. That desire, no doubt, existed; but the part which it played was wholly a subordinate one. In the present article I propose first to consider allegorism in its earlier stages, and to state my case for holding that the practice of allegorical interpretation cannot have originated in this desire of Homeric partisans to exculpate the poet. My view is that the function of allegorism was originally not negative or defensive but rather (as with Anaxagoras, Metrodorus, etc., in later times) positive or exegetical.

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