A Note on the Theiasmos of Nicias in Thucydides

Thucydides criticises Nicias for being too partial to divination (7.50.4). It is suggested here through the examination of the linguistic nuances of θειασμός and the verb προσκείμενος, that Thucydides assessed him negatively primarily because he took the side of the army-seers. Yet, this criticism ought not to be blown out of proportion. Thucydides’ portrait differs significantly from Plutarch’s who describes Nicias as a diffident man easily gripped by fear and addicted to prophecies. Consequently, Thucydides’ criticism is a small parenthesis in his overall presentation of the Athenian general’s career whose decisions were based on skill, rational criteria and experience (5.16.1).

Foreseeing the Past: Probability and Ancient Greek Decision-Making

The article explores the concept of probability in ancient Greece from a non-scientific perspective and shows how ancient decision-makers used historical data to make calculated decisions and speculate about the future. First, the paper considers how quantitative data was used by ancient Greek communities to make economic projections. It then shows how ancient Greek generals used the same conceptual tools to determine their odds of victory by tallying up and comparing the number and composition of armies and resources available to them and their enemy. In the third section, the paper examines how qualitative probability was articulated through the language of hope and likelihood to formulate chances of success in moments of crisis. Finally, the paper shows that ancient decision-makers implemented “power laws” to adapt to changing circumstances and the flow of new information, as they sought to improve their odds of success relative to their rivals.

Lucretius and the Salty Taste of Sea Air

This article treats the sense of taste in Epicurean thought through the evidence in Lucretius’ De rerum natura. It reconstructs Lucretius’ account of what taste is and how it works, with a view to explaining instances like the taste of salt by the seaside, where we seem to taste at a distance. I argue that such instances are not exceptions, but examples that reveal more about the processes behind them. When analyzed in conjunction with the physiology of taste and the water cycle, the salty taste of sea air confirms the traditional view that the perception of flavor consistently occurs through direct contact with the object of perception, not through indirect contact with an intermediary. Moreover, it advances the understanding of what comes into contact, what the perceiver contributes to taste, and taste’s sensory threshold.

A Possible Aristotle-Fragment in the B-Scholion on Illiad 22.94

The b-scholion on Iliad 22.94 attributes a claim about a venomous snake (δράκων) to Aristotle’s On Animals. Likely because there is no obvious parallel text in Aristotle’s extant works on animals, the reference tends nowadays to be dismissed as inauthentic (though it was taken much more seriously in the 19th century). Further, the Aristotle reference has been consigned to a footnote in the standard edition of the Iliad scholia. This essay reassesses the scholion and considers as possible sources a few different works of Aristotle. It also suggests that the Aristotelian material – whatever its source – was brought in by Homeric scholars to support one side of a debate over the meaning of κακὰ φάρμακα.

Andersen's Code: Aristophanic Obscenity in Thumbelina

In his seemingly innocent fairy tale Thumbelina, Hans Christian Andersen makes two allusions to Aristophanes. One of them is quite explicit, as the author makes a toad produce the sound co-ax, co-ax, brek-ek-eke-kex, which is a quotation from the Frogs. The other allusion is less conspicuous. In one of the first sentences of Thumbelina, an object that a woman needs in order to beget a child is referred to as a barleycorn. As I argue, even though on the surface it can be explained in terms of magic typical for fairy tales, it can be also understood as an obscene allusion to the sexual act. This results from the ambiguity, well-known in Andersen’s time, of the word κριθή, which in Aristophanes’ comedies can mean either barleycorn or penis.

Revisiting the Pylos Episode and Thucydides' 'Bias' against Cleon

The Pylos episode, ending with the capture of almost 300 Spartans who had been cut off on the Sphacteria island, was the first major setback suffered by Sparta during the Peloponnesian war and, at the same time, the first major – and more importantly – unexpected success of Athens, in Peloponnesian territory at that. Without overlooking the military side involved, this paper will primarily focus on the political aspects of this enterprise in an attempt (a) to assess and evaluate Thucydides’ attitude to the protagonists of this episode, Cleon, Nicias and Demosthenes, (b) to better understand the historian’s political stance and judgement through the vocabulary that he employs, and (c) to show that his notoriously presumed bias against Cleon is poorly substantiated and, insofar as it may occasionally occur, it does not interfere with his respect for historical truth.

L’énigme incarnée: Méliot de Logres dans le Haut Livre du Gral

The High Book of the Grail, also known as Perlesvaus, after its main character, an analogon of Perceval who evolves in a universe of blood and violence, is a French Arthurian prose romance of the 13th century. The principle of imperfection on which this romance is set encompasses its narrative composition, the consistency of its allegorical meaning, and the poetics of character. Meliot de Logres can be called an énigme incarnée, as its representation does not tend towards unity, but towards destruction. He is an enigma because of its numerous narrative functions (alter Christus, a man in distress, knight ...), and its symbolical power (he is ‘de Logres’, which suggests a moral signification, he embodies spiritual greatness that the romance does not develop). The semiological analysis of this secondary but important character is a way to understand the many problems aroused by the scripture of the High Book of the Grail. Meliot is not only a double: through him, we can see the complexity and intricacy of the romance as a whole.

Mythenauslegung, römische Königszeit und der Tod des Kaiser Valens: Christliche Interpretationen von Orosius bis Isidor von Sevilla

Chronicles became the dominant historical genre in the transition period between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. While individual authors tended to build one on another, they also exerted considerable licence in rearranging the tralaticious material they found in previous compilations. Comparing Latin with Greek authors– Orosius, Isidore of Seville, Gregory of Tours, and John Malalas – the present contribution argues that all of these historical works, while summarising the history of antiquity, reflect discourses of their own day and age. These differences can be appreciated in comparing their specific views on the origin of sin in the world, on king Numa, and on the death of the Arian emperor Valens.

Herodotus 9.85 and Spartiate Burial Customs

At 9.85 Herodotus states that after the Battle of Plataia, the Lakedaimonians buried their dead in three separate graves: one for the ἱρέες, one for the rest of the Spartiates, and one for helots. Taken together with 9.71, this passage suggests that all of the Spartiates decorated for bravery at Plataia were priests, which seems prima facie improbable. The interpretive challenges presented by 9.85 have been the subject of lively scholarly debate since the eighteenth century because this passage potentially provides important evidence for Spartiates’ funerary, religious, and educational customs. With an eye to facilitating future research, this article offers a detailed conspectus of the extensive collection of relevant scholarship and, in part by drawing upon evidence from the archaeological excavations of the Tomb of the Lakedaimonians in the Kerameikos, identifies one reading, which involves athetizing part of 9.85, as the preferred interpretive approach.

The Son of Pharnabazos and Parapita, a Persian Competing in the Olympic Games: Xenophon Hellenica 4.1.39-40

This article seeks to develop, with some significant change, the arguments put forward by Bresson to show that a Persian boy, the son of Pharnabazos, was allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. It is argued that at Olympia his admission was supported by his older Spartan lover, himself an Olympic athlete, and by the Spartan king Agesilaos who acted as the boy’s guardian. These arguments support the view recently advanced by Nielsen and, at greater length, by Remijsen that non-Greeks were not excluded from competing in the Olympic Games