Un Caso Difficile Nel Testo Della Fisica Di Aristotele (216a29-31) Nel Commentario Di Giovanni Filopono

I commenti neoplatonici ad Aristotele, oltre a dare indicazioni interpretative su questioni di contenuto, possono non solo far riflettere ma anche dare importanti indicazioni sul testo aristotelico e sulla sua traditio textus. In questo saggio verrà illustrato un caso particolarmente significativo, contenuto nel commento alla Fisica scritto da Giovanni Filopono (prima metà del VI secolo): in Phys. 216a29-31, infatti, occorre una lectio (συνίστασθαι) diversa dal testo canonico di Aristotele attestato dai manoscritti (μεθίστασθαι). La competenza filologica di Filopono avvalora particolarmente questa lectio che risulta non aver avuto nell’antichità adeguate testimonianze; infatti, i manoscritti medievali continuano una tradizione diversa. Il caso esaminato intende riportare l’attenzione sull’importanza che la produzione ipomnematica tardoantica può offrire nel valutare, almeno in casi particolari, quale testo dello Stagirita circolasse prima che si costituisse una vulgata aristotelica, quella data dai codici medievali.

La Donna, Il Servo E Il Cittadino

In Po. 1454a 16–28, Aristotele afferma che, per essere ben riusciti, tutti gli ἤθη della tragedia devono essere χρηστά, donne e schiavi compresi. L’aggettivo χρηστός, presente solo in questo luogo della Poetica, comporta importanti problemi esegetici e traduttivi, che hanno dato luogo a molteplici interpretazioni e traduzioni del termine. Posti sotto esame i principali tentativi esegetici di χρηστός in Po. 1454a 16–28 dalla metà del Novecento agli anni Duemila, il presente contributo offre una nuova ipotesi esegetica dell’aggettivo, fondandosi sull’analisi del suo valore semantico in alcuni passi delle commedie di Aristofane e dei discorsi degli oratori attici del IV sec. a.C., sulla concezione della natura della donna e dello schiavo che emerge da Aristot. Pol. I 1253b–1260b 24 e sulla menzione aristotelica del personaggio di Menelao dell’Oreste di Euripide come παράδειγμα πονηρίας ἤθους μὴ ἀναγκαίας (Po. 1454a 28–29).

Perché I Medici Parlano Ancora Il Greco?

Although the extraordinary progress in medicine since the 19th century has made Hippocrates and Galen irrelevant, Greek and Greek-derived terms continue to be used in the medical sciences today. The marked ability of the Greek language to form compounds facilitated the expansion of its medical lexicon. Greek medicine evolved far longer than its modern counterpart; its enduring cachet has lent it an atemporality. This article traces the main stages in the history of the nearly continuous reception of Greek medical nomenclature across more than two millennia. The process is shown to have been inseparable from the transmission and editing of Greek medical texts and their translation into Latin, Arabic, and eventually into vernacular languages. The article also sheds incidental light on the history of translation and transliteration in Europe and the Arab world.

Beer in Antiquity, Antiquity in Beer?

Modern breweries taking inspiration from ancient cultures appear as a quite interesting phenomenon, because beer is absent from the current imaginarium about the ancient Greeks and Romans. Yet it was not unknown to them, as demonstrated by the survey of sources in the first part of the text. Actually, some brewers today are aware of the beverage’s presence in ancient literature and use this knowledge in the naming of their products. Others decide on less direct references, to some historical or mythical characters. Some producers do not limit themselves to names of their brews, but also attempt to reconstruct the ancient drinks. In the second (main) part of the article several cases of each type are presented, together with an analysis of methods of the references’ presentation and explanation to the consumer. Also, some observations are made about the reasons why breweries decide to use ancient themes at all.

Nikos Kazantzakis’ Unshot Adaptations of Don Quixote and Decameron

This article examines two of Nikos Kazantzakis’ unshot screenplays of the early 1930s: his adaptations of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Boccaccio’s Decameron, kept in typed manuscripts at the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum Foundation in Iraklion, Crete. The article analyses Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron in the contexts of early talking cinema and his ideas of the image-language relationship. Written at a time when the artistic value of talking cinema was still debated, Kazantzakis’ adaptations demonstrate that he sought to express ideas with images rather than dialogue (Don Quixote) and use sound as a creative element (Decameron) in ways alluding to Eisenstein’s 1928-1929 writings, with which, as evidence suggests, the Greek author was familiar. Thus, Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron show how a technological development in film history – the coming of sound – and the Soviet film theory influenced this author’s adaptation techniques, while also enhancing our understanding of his creative career as well as the worldwide resonance of Cervantes’ and Boccaccio’s literary milestones.

Thoughts on the Symbolism and Origin of Apollo’s Fight Against the Pythian Snake

The following paper deals with the mythological story about Apollo’s fight against a she-snake at Pytho, where he eventually builds a sanctuary – the Delphic Oracle. First, it is attempted to decipher the terms Pytho, Delphi and Omphalos. A symbolism revolving around an underlying theme of birth is considered. Then, the stories about Apollo and about Kadmos, as well as a motif in Pherecydes’ theogony, and the Anatolian Illuyanka Myth are being presented as subjects of a comparative analysis. This leads to the proposal that all four narratives have a common origin in Western Anatolia or Pre-Greek Hellas.

Once Again on Claudian's Egyptian Origin

The life of Claudius Claudian (c. 370 – c. 404 AD), the great Latin poet active during the reign of Honorius, is unknown, especially the years before his great debut in 395 AD. Communis opinio holds that he was a pagan Egyptian Greek born in Alexandria c. 370 AD, who having come to Italy in 394 AD started a career of a political poet in the service of the elites of the Western Roman Empire. This view codified by Alan Cameron (1970) was challenged by Peder G. Christiansen (1997), who asserted that Claudian was actually a Westerner. The thesis of the poet’s Egyptian origin was defended by Bret Mulligan (2007) and then again attacked by Christiansen and Christiansen (2009). This article aims to reconsider the scarce textual evidence and to put an emphasis on some points that have been underestimated so far: the possibility of Claudian’s early connections with Constantinople and the ruling circles of the eastern capital.

Some reflections on the legend of the Marathon runner (hdt. 6.105, Aristoph. nub. 63–67, Plut. de glor. ath. 347c, Lucian. laps. 3 and the Roman Tradition)

A well-known tradition has it that after the victory of the Greeks over the Persian army at the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.E.) one of the Athenians ran forty kilometres from Marathon to Athens and died soon after his arrival in the city, after giving the good news. However, the story is more complicated than it seems, and several issues have claimed the attention of scholars, such as what the Marathon runner’s name was, what form of greeting he used and whether the episode really happened or not. The first part of my paper offers a reconsideration of the extant sources in order to express my point of view on the abovementioned issues. The second part aims at showing a selection of parallel passages which could possibly prove useful in trying to illustrate how the legend of the Marathon runner evolved into the shape it assumed in the Lucianean account, which is still considered as the ‘official’ version of the story.

Im bann der Würgerin – Kamadme, Lamaštu und Lilith in der Hellas?

The following paper explores some possible connections between Greek and Mesopotamian child-killing demons. First, the main Sumerian/Akkadian demoness Kamadme Lamaštu is being characterized and set in comparison with the lil-demons and their singularisation Lilith. Briefly, their modus operandi is being studied with a focus on strangulation. It is being proposed that the reoccurring meme of children being strangled by these demons comes from a misinterpretation of the anatomy of the human body which manifested in the belief in a rāṭu in Mesopotamia or ὁδός in Greece. This organ was believed to be a “channel” that connects women’s genital system with the respiratory tract. With that in mind, some Greek and Roman demons are being considered as potentially being derived from the aforementioned ancient Near Eastern supernatural beings. Hence, the proposal is put forward that the Greek Hesperides, the Theban Sphinx, the Lesbian Gello as well as the Greco-Roman Stri(n)x have in fact been adopted by the Occident from the East.

On the Greek reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European labiovelars

The present article investigates the problem of the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European labiovelars in Ancient Greek. There have been numerous discussions of the issue, both concerning the origin of such a set of changes and also about the precise formulation of its outcomes and possible analogical changes. The data is drawn from a variety of Greek dialects which reflect the different outcomes of the prehistoric labiovelars. It is discussed at length whether the hypothesis proposed in 1881 that the outcome of the voiced labiovelar */gw/ in Greek was /d/ before the front vowels (both /i/ and /e/ ) is supported by the attested data. It is concluded that such a view would require too many analogical changes and, therefore, that it is better to assume different outcomes before /i/ and /e/ respectively. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the overall picture of the development of labiovelars in Greek requires a new and thorough investigation of the complete material presented in the particular dialects.