El fénix, el basilisco y el dragón: trascendencia de la animalia fabulosa y su simbolismo en los libros de emblemas

RESUMEN: Entre los materiales que los Libros de Emblemas utilizaron para llevar a cabo el propósito de instruir a sus receptores, están los discursos sobre animales fabulosos que los autores recopilaron y adaptaron de diversas fuentes literarias pertenecientes a la Antigüedad clásica y a la Edad Media. Por esta razón la emblemática también es el producto de la asimilación del conocimiento anterior que se tiene sobre animales reales o no. En este tenor, el objetivo de este artículo es comprobar, a través de ejemplos que provienen de la animalia fabulosa, que las representaciones emblemáticas de estos libros asimilan la información proveniente de los antiguos doctos para otorgarles renovada continuidad en cuanto a la función y simbología de las descripciones zoológicas. Para lo anterior, recurriré al análisis del ave fénix, el basilisco y el dragón en el contexto antes mencionado. ABSTRACT: Among the materials that the Emblem Books used to carry out the purpose of instructing their recipients are the discourses on fabulous animals that the authors compiled and adapted from various literary sources belonging to classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. For this reason, emblematic is also the product of the assimilation of previous knowledge about real or not real animals. In this sense, the aim of this article is to prove that the emblematic representations of these books assimilate the information coming from the ancient scholars to give them renewed continuity in terms of the function and symbolism of zoological descriptions. For the above, I will resort to the analysis of the phoenix, the basilisk and the dragon in the aforementioned context.

Does the rite of Forefathers' Eve really derive from the Old Prussian "feast of the goat"? An attempt to resolve inaccuracies related to Mickiewicz's vision of the origin of the rite of Forefathers' Eve

In the second edition of the preface to “Forefathers' Eve” part two, Mickiewicz mentioned the distant origin of the rite of Forefathers' Eve, which, according to the romantic poet, in pagan times, was known as the "feast of the goat". The Slavic bard obtained information about the Old Prussian ceremonial sacrifice of the goat through the “Chronicle of Prussia” by Simon Grunau. Until now, researchers mainly thought that this way he wanted to allude to classical antiquity, since he associated the “feast of the goat” with “the song of the goat”, and thus with the origin of Greek tragedy. The purpose of this article is to identify what type of festivity the “feast of the goat” is and to see whether it can really be identified with the rite of Forefathers' Eve.

Periodization of Antiquity’s History in Studies of I. M. Grevs and N. I. Kareev in Late XIX — Early XX Centuries

The periodization of history and the definition of the framework of Antiquity and the Middle Ages were questions open for scientific discussion at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, when the Russian school of ancient and medieval studies was actively developing in Russia and especially in St. Petersburg. The concept of I. M. Grevs was that the Roman Empire marked the beginning of Late Antiquity with its special economic structure in the form of large land ownership, but this period ended with the onset of the era of barbarian kingdoms. I. M. Grevs separated the Roman Empire from the period of classical Antiquity and at the same time showed its difference from the way of the early Middle Ages. In his courses on general history, read after I. M. Grevs, N. I. Kareev described the ancient universal monarchies, which sought to extend their power to the limits of the ecumene and unite the various traditions of organizing power. It should be concluded that N. I. Kareev supplemented the periodization proposed by I. M. Grevs, finding in the Ancient world the same turning point in the form of the Hellenistic monarchy, similar to that found in Late Antiquity by I. M. Grevs.

The Mythical Underworlds of Francis Stevens and Daphne du Maurier

This article analyses two stories by women writers (The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens (1952) and The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier (1964)), which could both be considered as belonging to the genre of science fiction. These stories do not follow the ‘canonical’ or more popular type of underworld narrative, especially the idea of the katabasis or descent to the underworld and the encounter with the dead, a motif which has often been present in Western culture since classical antiquity and has generated numerous narratives. Rather, they evoke the classical myth of the underworld through the use of certain names (such as Charon and Cerberus) as well as exploring other concepts which coincide with ancient Greek accounts of the topography and inhabitants of the world of the dead, the realm ruled over by Hades.

ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ ΕΚΤΩΡ Studi in onore di Willy Cingano per il suo 70° compleanno

The volume collects thirty-six essays honouring Ettore (‘Willy’) Cingano, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Current and former colleagues, students, and friends have contributed new studies on various aspects of Classical antiquity to celebrate his seventieth birthday. The work consists of seven main sections, mirroring and complementing Willy’s research interests. We start with the subjects to which Willy has contributed the most during his career, early Greek hexameter poetry (chapters 2-6: Calame, Coward, Currie, Meliadò, Sider) and lyric, broadly intended (chapters 7-15: Spelman, Cannatà Fera, Le Meur, Prodi, Tosi, Vecchiato, Hadjimichael, D’Alessio and Prauscello, de Kreij). Next come tragedy (Lomiento, Dorati), Hellenistic and later Greek poetry (Perale, Hunter, Bowie, Franceschini), historiographical and other Greek prose (Andolfi, De Vido, Gostoli, Cohen-Skalli, Kaczko), Latin poetry (Barchiesi, Garani, Mastandrea, Mondin), and finally linguistics and the history of scholarship, ancient and modern (Benuzzi, Cassio, Giangiulio, Guidorizzi, Tribulato). The volume is bookended by a collection of translations from medieval and modern Greek poetry (Carpinato) and a reflection on the dynamic aspect of the sublime (Schiesaro).

Religion and Classical Europe, Twelfth Century bce–600 ce

In a history of religion and Europe classical Antiquity is both an example of difference, that is, the polytheistic systems of Greek and Roman religions, and the beginnings of the monotheistic religions, which became the mainstream in medieval and modern Europe. Drawing on the rituals, symbols, and patterns of polytheism as the legacy of the palace cultures in the Ancient Near East and Greece (until 1200 bc), the city-states (poleis) adapted these to non-autocratic societies (polis-religion). In the empires of Hellenism and the Roman Empire itself, religions were not part of a power structure (e.g. a ruler-cult). Rather their urban character allowed a plural neighbourhood, in which the monotheistic religions were well integrated. In late Antiquity a long transformation formed the Middle Ages, when with the rise of Islam the Mediterranean became divided into three parts: the Islamic south, Greek Orthodoxy in the east, and Latin-speaking ‘Europe’ in the north-west.

Pottery, Glass, and the Pictorial Habit between Late Republic and Early Empire

In the period of classical antiquity, art objects, especially objects of ceramic and glass, were not always used as image bearers to the same extent. Depending upon the prevalent pictorial habit, the phenomenon of images was by no means de rigueur, and imagery was used optionally depending upon the historical, political, and social situation. This chapter focuses on the late Roman Republic and the early imperial period. Like no other period of antiquity, the time span between the second century bce and the first century ce was a phase of accelerated change and upheaval but also one of consolidation. In this period, a pictorial habit developed that differed enormously from the artistic practice of the preceding period and that also continued into the imperial period. Furthermore, imagery was no longer limited to consumption by the elite class but was also available to the broader population. The development of ceramic and glass as visual media provides an excellent example of the profound changes in the culture of the image.