Mnemosyne
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1568-525x, 0026-7074

Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Attila Németh

Abstract Seneca’s masterful application of metaphors often illuminates some Stoic technical terminology in contexts, which render them meaningful and familiar to his Roman readers. In this paper I argue that in certain instances, these metaphors are also used to organize whole systems of concepts that refer to an essential theoretical component of Seneca’s philosophy. By studying the literary and philosophical context of these metaphors, I reconstruct Seneca’s requirement for moral self-improvement in his Epistles and propose that his conception of conscientia or ‘moral conscience’—a notion scattered throughout his writings but which, as the examination of his systematic metaphors will prove, has a consistent, identical function everywhere it appears—points to some novel rational characteristics of the philosopher’s conception of the self.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Rutger Allan ◽  
Emilie van Opstall

Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. v
Author(s):  
Mirjam Elbers ◽  
Christoph Pieper
Keyword(s):  

Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-112
Author(s):  
Ewen Bowie

Abstract The article attempts to set out evidence for various forms of Greek high culture in Bithynia from the fifth century BC to the middle of the third century AD, taking as a cut-off point the tetrarchic period in which Diocletian’s choice of Nicomedia as a capital had a marked impact on its and other Bithynian cities’ cultural life. The preliminary prosopography lists representatives of Greek culture by city, subdividing into the categories doctor, grammaticus, historian, philosopher, poet, rhetor or sophist, and scholar (with a sprinkling of other performers). Only Nicaea, with 30 names, makes a strong and persistent showing; of other cities only Nicomedia musters more than 10 names, though Prusa and Prusias ad mare produce several doctors. Prusias ad Hypium, by contrast, can boast only a single philosopher, perhaps a rhetor who moved to Nicaea, and a visiting tragic performer.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-206
Author(s):  
Danny Praet

Abstract The Vita Apollonii leaves much open to interpretation. In 4.45 Philostratus tells us about a young woman who was thought dead by her family and the whole of Rome. Apollonius whispers something in her ear and the maiden starts talking again. The narrator comments it was impossible for the bystanders and still is impossible for him to say whether the girl was really dead or not: whether it was a case of Scheintod which proved Apollonius’s extraordinary powers of observation or whether it was a resurrection-miracle which would signal a special ontological status for ‘the man’ from Tyana. In his suspension of judgment, Philostratus uses the words arrhêtos hê katalêpsis combining a technical term from Stoic epistemology (katalêpsis) with a concept related to the Mysteries (arrhêtos). We discuss the Philostratean interpretative strategies, link them to the Pythagorean tradition of selective communication, and read the reference in this chapter to the story of Alcestis to the epistemological debates between Stoics and Skeptics about the limits of human wisdom.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-144
Author(s):  
Alberto Camerotto

Abstract In the pamphlet On Salaried Posts in Great Houses Lucian of Samosata analyzes the problem of the impossible relationship between misthos, ‘money’, and paideia, ‘culture’ and ‘teaching’. Money is an indispensable asset for the necessities of life. But starting with Socrates and the Sophists it becomes problematic. In Lucian’s satire the attack is directed at philosophers and the marketing of culture in the Roman Empire at the time of the Second Sophistic.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Jones
Keyword(s):  

Abstract The Greek γραµµατικός combined several functions: as editor and expounder of texts, linguist, librarian, lecturer, courtier and sometimes as ambassador for his monarch or city. In due course Latin-speaking grammatici applied philological skills developed at Alexandria to their own literature, and served as librarians in the great libraries of the imperial period. The present paper studies some Greek γραµµατικοί active in Rome, particularly Alexander of Cotiaeon, appointed by Antoninus Pius as tutor to the princes Marcus and Lucius, and also the teacher of Aelius Aristides. As Aristides’ tribute to him shows, Alexander was not only a notable critic and influential teacher, but acted as a benefactor (εὐεργέτης) of his native city, in this respect comparable to the sophists who were his contemporaries.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168
Author(s):  
Marije Martijn

Abstract In the Myth of Er, Plato describes the ‘Spindle of Necessity’, a contraption presenting the cosmos as guided by Sirens and Fates, and ascribes different colours to the planets (Rep. 616e-617a). This paper argues that Plato probably used astronomical data for that passage, but possibly gave them a metaphorical sense, and discusses the likelihood of his having used Mesopotamian sources. The second half of the paper studies receptions of and allusions to the image, with context-based astronomical, political, and metaphysical features. Cicero adjusted the image to contemporary astronomy, and to the political function of the cosmic structures in the Somnium Scipionis. His commentator Macrobius emphasizes empirical correctness, but possibly with metaphysical undertones. Apuleius’ Metamorphoses alludes to the image in a portrait of Isis, perhaps to refer to her metaphysical role. Finally, Proclus interprets the Platonic passage as primarily metaphysical, and pointing to truths beyond astronomical phenomena.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. i-iv

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