Maximus of Tyre on the Zeus of Homer and Plato

The present article discusses the ingenious account of Zeus that was put forward by Maximus of Tyre in his Orations IV and XXVI. When reading into Homer various Platonic and Stoic concepts, Maximus originally amalgamates the notion of Demiurge with that of Providence. As he thus unearths Homer’s latent theology, Maximus not only praises the heritage of Greek culture but also demonstrates the close affinity between poetry and philosophy.

Phylogeny of the Neotropical element of the Randia clade (Gardenieae, Rubiaceae, Gentianales)

Background and aims – Generic limits of the tropical tribe Gardenieae (Ixoroideae, Rubiaceae) have partly remained unsettled. We produced a new phylogeny of the Randia clade, with emphasis on its Neotropical clade comprising five genera (Casasia, Randia, Rosenbergiodendron, Sphinctanthus, and Tocoyena). The result was subsequently used to evaluate and discuss: a) the respective monophyly of the above-mentioned genera and their interrelationships; b) relationships within Tocoyena and the evolutionary relevance of its subgeneric classification; and c) the monophyly of the morphologically variable T. formosa.Material and methods – We examined the phylogeny of the Randia clade based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of sequence data from two nuclear (ETS and Xdh) and two plastid (petB-petD and trnT-F) DNA regions from 59 individuals (including seven representatives from the remaining Ixoroideae).Key results – The Neotropical clade of the Randia clade comprises three major lineages, the Randia armata subclade, the Randia-Casasia subclade and the Rosenbergiodendron subclade. Neither Casasia nor Randia is monophyletic. Tocoyena is sister to Rosenbergiodendron + Sphinctanthus and is subdivided into three lineages: the Tocoyena pittieri group, the Tocoyena guianensis group, and the core Tocoyena. Tocoyena williamsii is paraphyletic with respect to T. pittieri. Tocoyena formosa is polyphyletic and should be re-circumscribed.Conclusions – Our results demonstrate the monophyly of each of the relatively species-poor genera Rosenbergiodendron, Sphinctanthus, and Tocoyena, and confirm their close affinity. The serial classification of Tocoyena does not reflect the evolutionary history of the genus. The paraphyly of T. williamsii with respect to T. pittieri, together with their morphological similarities and geographic distributions, support the inclusion of the former in the latter. Our study calls for additional phylogenetic work on Casasia and the more species-rich genus Randia. While the respective monophyly of both genera is rejected here, future work with a broader representation of Randia is needed.

On the Margin of ”Satantango”. Some Remarks on Slow Cinema

Athough Satantango by Bela Tarr is usually regarded as a perfect representative of slow cinema and certainly deserves this reputation, it is worth remembering that it shares some features with other currents of modern cinema. Its networkish structure and unreliable narration place it close to puzzle films; its close affinity with the Krasznahorkai novel, on which it is based, makes it a form of impure – that is – hybrid cinema; due to an accumulation of evil deeds, tragic and sensational events, it resembles films of action. But, first of all, it is a paramount example of slow cinema, and as such it enables one to grasp the essential features of this genre. According to certain views, often built on the foundation of Andre Bazin theory, slow cinema imitates natural human perception and therefore is inherently realistic. This is not true, though. Instead of a reality effect, slow cinema produces rather a verfremdung effect, which in turn enhances the big potential of slow cinema in inducing transcendental or religious states in a viewer’s mind. Satantango explores this potential, drawing on the religious connotations of Krasznahorkai novel.

The smooth, spire-bearing brachiopods after the terminal Ordovician extinction through lower Llandovery in the central Oslo region, Norway

Strata of the Solvik Formation in the central Oslo region (upper Hirnantian to upper Aeronian) are rich in atrypides that elucidate the evolution of this group. A few athyridide brachiopods are also present. Eleven taxa of smooth spire-bearers are described taxonomically using fossils and peels. Among these occur one new genus, Eisaella, and five new species: Eisaella uniplicata, Thulatrypa huangi, T. vikenensis, ?Becscia pentagona, and Shelvothyris bivittata. Atrypides make up 30% (24 genera) of the total brachiopod genera in the Solvik Formation, more than one third of the known global atrypide fauna during that interval. Most are members of the family Lissatrypidae, illustrating the evolution of this group from upper Hirnantian and lower Silurian strata. These show close affinity to each other attesting to ongoing radiation. The new genus Eisaella is a likely ancestor of Lissatrypa, while Meifodia displays a gradual evolution through the formation. Atrypides were most diverse at the base and top of the Solvik Formation due to heterogony in environments and water depth, but were less diverse in the comparatively constant environmental setting of the late Rhuddanian time. The basal assemblages with few atrypides from shallow facies may be compared to the shallow Cathay Fauna of China. Most of the abundant Norwegian atrypide fauna is found in deeper water with few comparable faunas known globally. The Oslo region may have served as a center for the evolution and spread of atrypides immediately following the end-Ordovician glacial drawdown in sea level. UUID: http://zoobank.org/508dba95-5501-403d-9a4d-deeb324847c9

Giovanni Bassano’s Divisions. A Computational Approach to Analyzing the Gap between Theory and Practice

“Division Ornamentation Practice” refers to the 16th-century phenomenon of embellishing a known melody in an extemporaneous or more pre-planned manner. 11 division instruction manuals were published by different performers during the 16th century and the first two decades of the 17th century. It is a common belief today that if performers wish to learn how to improvise divisions in a specific performer’s style, they need to practice the performer’s manual. In this paper, I challenge this assumption, demonstrating that, at least with the cornetist and composer Giovanni Bassano, there is an unsurmountable gap between his manual ornamentations, called here figurations, and the figurations he used in his division pieces. Surprisingly, in fact, Bassano uses less than 3% of his manual figurations in his division pieces. This raises the intriguing question of whether it is effective to practice Bassano’s manual figurations in learning to improvise in his style. I proposed three computational models to examine this question. None of them yield an overlapping ratio that suggests close affinity between the manual figurations and the division figurations that Bassano used in his division pieces. Moreover, I show that Bassano’s manual figurations are longer, faster and have a higher pitch range than the division figuration. Based on these findings, I recommend performers who wish to improvise in Bassano style to practice his figuration divisions rather than his manual figurations.

Immersion

This chapter presents various kinds of immersion, in which terms such as presence, participation, curiosity, and reflection are relevant aspects of public communication. It reconsiders some traditional schemes of communication and their applications in theater and performance studies as well as aesthetic theories that underline the position of the beholder. To make ideas of the spectator’s immersive involvement as concrete as possible, it refers to a contemporary trilogy of plays performed as Women in Science, in which various communicative strategies and techniques were employed. The attention is directed toward the watching B(eholder) as constitutive of theatrical communication, while the performing A(gent) can assume a wide variety of shapes. The beholder’s immersion has a close affinity to political activities.

Revisiting the morphology and systematic placement of the enigmatic Cretaceous ommatid beetle Bukhkalius lindae (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae)

The systematic position of Bukhkalius lindae (Jarzembowski et al. 2017) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is revised based on a re-examination of the type specimen. Our observation confirms that B. lindae lacks unique apomorphies of Tetraphalerus Waterhouse, in which it was originally placed, including complete antennal grooves and mushroom-shaped micro-tubercles. It is well justified to place it into a separate genus, i.e., Bukhkalius Kirejtshuk & Jarzembowski, 2020. The incomplete but distinct antennal grooves and the Tetraphalerus-like mouthparts of B. lindae suggest that it has a close affinity to Tetraphalerus. Therefore, B. lindae may represent a missing link bridging the morphological gap between extant ommatid subfamilies Tetraphalerinae and Ommatinae.

The relator noun construction in Assamese

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of relator noun constructions in Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the eastern part of India by a majority of people living in the state of Assam. The construction consists of a relator noun that functions as a head, and a genitive case marked noun that functions as a dependent. Semantically, most of the relator nouns encode spatial relation, such as place, path. However, some other relator nouns signal other relations, such as the ‘for’, ‘about’ etc. The occurrence of relator nouns is not an unusual phenomenon in Indo-Aryan languages. It has been analyzed as adpositions in many Indo-Aryan languages. However, I argue that the syntax of Assamese does not allow this analysis. It forms a distinct syntactic category, the behaviour of which is not similar to adpositions. Further, Assamese shares some close affinity regarding the relator noun construction with the neighbouring Tibeto-Burman languages such as Boro and Dimasa, rather than with the Indo-Aryan languages. Thus, this paper further investigates whether the resemblance occurs as a result of language contact or by accident.

Bhaja

Two dedicatory inscriptions discovered at Bhaja form the subject of this article. These are on wooden ribs have a close affinity, calligraphically, with Ashokan edicts. These are the earliest epigraphs on wood found in India.

DON KAY (b. 1934)Four Bird Songs from Shaw Neilson (2005)

This chapter describes Tasmanian composer Dan Kay’s Four Bird Songs from Shaw Neilson (2005). The texts for this pleasing, fluent cycle are by the farmworker-poet Shaw Neilson, and reflect his close affinity with the natural world, especially the life of waterbirds. Kay’s palpable empathy with these unsophisticated but burningly sincere poems draws music of clarity and refinement. The frequent modal melodies and minor harmonies cannot help but call to mind Vaughan Williams and the English folk-song tradition, but Kay manages to inject an individual flavour by means of chromatic shifts and varied rhythms, especially in the last two, slightly longer, songs. A light young baritone with a safe high register would be ideal here. The piano writing is clear and uncluttered, with simple, repeated figurations, and there is no need to force the voice. Standard notation is used throughout.