Shows how the aesthetic views of Plotinus and later Neoplatonists have played a role in the history of Western art.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Journal of Aesthetic Education 37.2 (2003) 114-121 [Access article in PDF] TRANSFORMING IMAGES: HOW PHOTOGRAPHY COMPLICATES THE PICTURE, by Barbara E. Savedoff. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2000, 233 pp., $35.00 hardcover. The very title of Barbara Savedoff's book invites us on a journey into photography's multiple roles. Photographic images transform their subjects at the same time that they themselves are the results of transformations. They also (...) complicate comfortable distinctions between fact and fiction because the world from which they come is complicated.This book appears at a time full of fear (felt by some) and excitement (felt by others) sparked by digital image-making, in which the culture of photography is undergoing transformations of its own. It is a passionate time, with some unwilling to throw the still photograph into the "defunct" pile, while others are all too ready to do so. The limits and possibilities of the still photograph need to be redefined if it is going to have any meaning to anyone anymore.Through the din of voices, through the heated discussions, Savedoff's voice rings clear. Her meditations on the nature of still photography and its relation to the pictorial forms that preceded it (painting, drawing, printmaking) and proceed from it (film, digital photography) are written in a style that seeks to include, not exclude the reader. Art is complicated enough. Writing about art need not complicate it further.Savedoff focuses her inquiry on the way photographs transform works of art and other representations. From the insight that this specificity allows, she attempts to build a more general account of photographic transformation. First, she examines the fascination in Western painting — a fascination that has been influenced by legends and literature — with the idea that representations are alive or can come to life. She begins with paintings that actually illustrate such legends. Then she goes on to paintings where the distinction between the "real" and the "represented" is ambiguous. One such type she calls "gestural ambiguity," found frequently in Northern Renaissance and late Italian Renaissance paintings, "where figures that are given the placement and coloring of stone statues are at the same timegiven the expressive aspect or functions of living beings. Artworks are depicted as though they were alive" (p. 14). Another type, "perceptual ambiguity," is found in Postimpressionist paintings, when artworks and "real" things are painted in the same manner (p. 24). The latter type of ambiguity is created when paintings or sculptures within a painting are depicted in a styleand scale similar to their surroundings, blurring the distinction between what is "real" and what is "represented" in the painting.Savedoff uses some excellent examples in analyzing these ambiguities. And just when the reader begins [End Page 114] to question whether, if there are different ways of achieving ambiguity in paintings of artworks, there must also be different purposes for each, Savedoff addresses precisely this. "In paintings from the Renaissance to Impressionism," she writes, "ambiguity is used to further an ideal of illusionism in art: the artwork is shown as capable of life or at least of being confused with real things" (p. 30). Although this kind of ambiguity may animate representations within the painting, it does so without casting doubt on the status of the "real" things depicted. In contrast, ambiguity used in Postimpressionist paintings were done so for quite a different effect: "to undermine any tendency of the painting toward illusionism and to undercut the status of the 'real' things depicted" (p. 30).Although she critiques the nature and purpose of ambiguity in paintings thoroughly, when Savedoff addresses ambiguity in photography her conclusions are not as well defended. In photography, she writes, "perceptual ambiguity"— that is, the blurring of the distinctions between people and representations — can result from the nature of the medium itself: "the stillness, the flatness, and, in black and white photographs, the limitation of monochrome values" (p. 43). A deliberate choice of angle, framing, and lighting by the photographer can alsoreduce the differences. "Gestural ambiguity" in photography, she continues, can be created when the photographer juxtaposes... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Unsaying Life Stories:The Self-Representational Art of Shirin Neshat and GhazelAphrodite Désirée Navab (bio)What connects the two artists in Figures 1 and 2 across time and place? (See pages 40 and 41.) The protagonists seem to be so "at home" in their landscape that they do not stand out as disruptions to a cultural rhythm. They are wearing clothing that symbolizes Iran, and they are in an environment that evokes (...) Iranian art and architecture. In Figure 1, a scene in Shirin Neshat's video Soliloquy (1999), a woman stands near the kind of dome one often sees in Islamic architecture; the compatibility of the curved and the straight lines is striking. The woman is washing herself, possibly in preparation for prayer. Her hands are artistically dyed with henna. Her eyes are closed as the water runs down her face. She seems to be unaware of the camera, involved in a private moment, a purification ritual perhaps. Her clothing, her hands, and the architectural background are all consistent with familiar images of the Middle East. The woman marching in a black chador in a video still by Ghazel (Figure 2) also seems to be quite "at home." The text underneath the image says that both her grandfathers were colonels. This "bothness" is repeated by the text written underneath the image, which appears both in English and in French. She marches to the right of the frame with the straight posture and hint of pants and boots characteristic of a soldier. Like the protagonist in Neshat's video, she neither looks at the camera nor seems to care that it is there. She seems to be re-enacting a private moment of family history.At least, this is what the images say at first glance. Upon closer inspection, the viewer learns that the two protagonists are the artists themselves. They are more than conscious of the camera; they have actually directed these visual narratives. They are posing. This is one role from among many that they could have played. Both artists are native to Iran, but they are [End Page 39] acting in their own productions. They are playing a particular role. They have made the directorial decisions about camera angle and distance, about the time and place, and about the final look of the production. They make images: they are fully aware that they have pictured themselves alongside symbols of Iran. Click for larger view View full resolutionFigure 1.Shirin Neshat. Soliloquy, 1999, production still.So why are they pretending not to be conscious of the camera? The conscious decisions of the artists point to an issue that is left unsaid but whose absence says a lot. Perhaps, beneath all this effort to seem comfortable, there is discomfort as well. Are these people in fact "at home," or has home become foreign to them? Has this alienation propelled these artists to picture themselves together with readily identifiable, traditional markers of Iranian culture? Are these productions a way of re-negotiating their place with their native land, to find a voice, a space from which to speak?Culturally hybrid persons are often caught in the crossfire of prejudices. For hybrid Iranians, these prejudices are exacerbated by international political tensions that fall along three dimensions of limited visions. They include historical prejudice, where each nation dominates the other in the telling of history; cultural prejudice, stemming from mutual suspicion and ignorance; and political prejudice, as a result of inflexibility, of an unwillingness to [End Page 40] envision the other's view. Art can be a powerful means for challenging the stereotypes of mutually antagonistic nations. In autobiographical art, moreover, artists may use the "telling-self" to "unsay" what has been attributed to them through these stereotypes. By literally and metaphorically engaging the public in seeing alternative realities and histories, these artist-philosophers offer an alternative of historical collaboration, cultural knowledge, and political flexibility. Click for larger view View full resolutionFigure 2.Ghazel, Me series, 1997–2000, video still.This deconstructive approach to representation is a significant feature of the camera-based work of two contemporary Iranian women artists: Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) and Ghazel (b. 1966... (shrink)

It has long been known that there is a significant connection between Aphrodite and Semitic goddesses. In Walter Burkert's recent words, ‘Behind the figure of Aphrodite there clearly stands the ancient Semitic goddess of love, Ishtar-Astarte.’ This was already recognized by Herodotus and Philo of Byblos. I want here to note a curious and striking item of connection that has not been noticed.

Alexis de Samos impute à des prostituées athéniennes accompagnatrices de Périclès l’installation d’un culte d’Aphrodite à Samos en 439 av. J.-C. Après analyse du passage et de son contexte, il est proposé qu’Alexis a écrit une œuvre nationaliste, partisane et critique de Périclès et d’Aspasie, et que le sanctuaire a été fondé, sans l’intervention de prostituées, après une victoire navale, en remerciement à Aphrodite, déesse de la navigation en mer.Alexis, the Prostitutes and Aphrodite in Samos. According to (...) Alexis of Samos, Athenian prostitutes founded a cult of Aphrodite in Samos in 439 BC. A reappraisal of the information and its context leads to the hypothesis that Alexis wrote his Samian Chronicles criticising Perikles and Aspasia, and, therefore, that prostitutes were not involved in founding the cult, which was established after a naval victory and in honor of Aphrodite, goddess of seafaring. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyse a literary response to antiquity’s most alluring work of art, the Cnidian Aphrodite. It argues that the ecphrasis of the statue in the Amores develops textual and verbal strategies to provoke in the recipients the desire to see the Cnidia, but eventually frustrates this desire. The ecphrasis thereby creates a discrepancy between the characters’ aesthetic experience of the statue and the visualisation and aesthetic experience of the recipients of the text. The (...) erotic mechanisms of the ecphrasis, simultaneously arousing and frustrating the recipients’ desire, mirror the effect of the statue on its viewers and disclose the erotic programmatics of the whole dialogue. The analysis shows that the Amores surpass the ongoing discourse on love from Plato’s Phaedrus to the ancient novel – and Achilles Tatius and Longus in particular. The Amores, like the nude statue of the Cnidia, threaten to cross all bounds of decency in sexuality. (shrink)

What have the following in common: Epimetheus, Paris, Anchises, and the suitors of Penelope? The ready answer might be that it must have something to do with women, for it requires no great thought to see that the attractions of femininity proved the undoing of three of them, while for Anchises life was never to be the same again after his encounter with Aphrodite. But suppose we add to our first group such figures as Zeus, Priam, Polynices, and Eumaeus? (...) The fates of all these characters as they, appear at certain points in the poetry of Homer, Hesiod, and others give expression i to a network of interrelated sexual and economic anxieties that seem to underlie a { great deal of what the Archaic poets say about the female sex. In this article I 1 propose to explore a particular part of that network, which I have called the ? ‘Pandora complex’, since it is Hesiod′s version of the Pandora myth which provides the classic statement of the male dilemma over women, poised between the conflicting desires for sexual gratification and domestic stability.1. (shrink)

La partie supérieure d'une grande amphore Bichrome découverte en 1987 dans le sanctuaire d'Aphrodite à Amathonte est décorée sur une face de deux taureaux respirant une fleur qui encadrent une inscription syllabique, sur l'autre d'un taureau marchant vers un «arbre de vie» et un arbre. Ce décor exceptionnel s'inspire étroitement des ivoires du type de Nimroud et des coupes en argent chypro-phéniciennes, ce qui situe probablement le vase dans.

La découverte récente de trois deniers en argent d'Othon et Vespasien, qui faisaient partie d'un dépôt de fondation placé sous le mur antérieur de la cella, permet de dater la construction du temple d'Aphrodite à Amathonte dans le dernier quart du Ier s. ap. J.-C. Le temple d'Apollon Hylatès à Kourion est à peu près contemporain et tous deux apportent un témoignage important sur la date des chapiteaux «nabatéens» de Chypre.

La tête féminine en marbre trouvée par l'École française d'Athènes lors des fouilles du rempart Nord d'Amathonte date selon toute vraisemblance de la fin de l'époque hellénistique. Sa physionomie indique qu'il s'agit d'une figure divine, qu'il est difficile d'identifier avec certitude : l'hypothèse la plus vraisemblable est celle d'une image d'Aphrodite, la grande déesse connue sous le nom de Kypria, «la Chypriote », et il est possible que la statue se soit dressée dans le sanctuaire qui est mentionné dans (...) une inscription mise au jour à proximité. (shrink)

A study of the shaping of the blocks of the temple of Aphrodite necessitates a revision of the question of the geometrie definition of the so-called "Nabatean" capitals and an examination of their possible links with the contemporay models with acanthus leaves. Experimental archaeology applied to the carving of a stone example on a quarter scale makes it possible to put forward concrete and confident suggestions in this matter. It can be shown that, starting with a capital of this (...) type, it is possible to continue shaping it so as to produce a model with acanthus leaves, but the production of the latter does not involve the same geometrie precision in its roughly hewn phase. The first from the start is conceived and carved to be presented definitively in this state, while the dressing of the second is generally too rough and imprecise for it to be later transformed into a capital of Nabatean type. The experiment has also made it possible to define clearly the different practical stages in the carving of this member. (shrink)

Catalogue typologique de la céramique du IVe s. av. J.-C. au IIe s. ap. trouvée dans les fouilles du sanctuaire d'Aphrodite. L'absence de dépôt fermé de cette époque a amené- à écarter la céramique commune. Cette céramique se répartit entre les catégories suivantes : céramique à vernis noir, importations attiques et autres, et production locale (plats et assiettes, coupes et bols skyphoi, canthares, formes fermées) — céramique hellénistique à engobe noir et rouge (plats et assiettes, coupes et bols, cratères, (...) skyphoi, vases à relief, cruches et lagynoi) — sigillé orientale A hellénistique (plats et assiettes, coupes et bols), proto-impériale (mêmes formes) et médio- impériale (mêmes formes) ; imitation de la sigillée orientale A. — La sigillée orientale Β n'est représentée que par une forme — sigillée italienne (mêmes formes) — sigillée chypriote (plats et assiettes, coupes et bols, cratères, formes fermées). Étude de l'apport de cette céramique à la chronologie du sanctuaire. (shrink)

Η μελέτη της αρχαιολογικής πανίδας στο ιερό της Αφροδίτης στην Αμαθούντα της Κύπρου αφορά το σύνολο του ζωικού υλικού που χρονολογείται στις ειδωλολατρικές περιόδους. Η αρχαϊκή πανίδα είναι η πιο άφθονη. Παρατηρούμε μια μεταφορά των λάκκων απόθεσης του οστέϊνου υλικού ανάμεσα στην αρχαϊκή περίοδο και τις επόμενες. Τα ειδωλόθυτα είναι όλα κατοικίδια ζώα και συγκεκριμένων λιγοστών ειδών : βόδι, αρνί και κατσίκα· ο χοίρος απουσιάζει. Η εξέταση του τρόπου με τον οποίο σφαγιάζονταν τα ζώα φανερώνει αρχικά την απουσία κι έπειτα (...) τη σπανιότητα λειψάνων από τη σπονδυλική στήλη. Το μέγεθος των βοειδών εξελίσσεται : από μικρόσωμα ζώα κατά την κλασική περίοδο, αυξάνονται λίγο στις κατοπινές. (shrink)

Ένα δεύτερο αντίτυπο της επιγραφής που αναφέρει ένα ιερό του Τίτου και της Αφροδίτης και μια κεφαλή αγάλματος, που αποδίδεται στην Αφροδίτη και χρονολογείται στα μέσα του 2ου αι. π. Χ., ανακαλύφθηκαν σε απόσταση 25 μ και 15 μ αντιστοίχως από τη βόρεια πύλη της κάτω πόλης της Αμαθούντος. Το καινούριο κείμενο επιτρέπει μια βέβαιη νέα ανάγνωση της παλιάς επιγραφής και τεκμηριώνει την ύπαρξη ενός ιερού, που ονομαζόταν «εντός των στηλών». Η έκφραση αυτή σημαίνει πιθανώς ότι τα όρια του ιερού (...) καθορίζονταν από στήλες, καθώς και ότι οι επιγραφές χαράχτηκαν σε αυτές ακριβώς τις στήλες, που οροθετούσαν το ιερό. Το νέο κείμενο στρέφει ξανά το ενδιαφέρον των μελετητών στο Λ. Βρούττιο Μάξιμο και στην αυτοκρατορική λατρεία. Η μικρή απόσταση ανάμεσα στα δύο ευρήματα μας παροτρύνει να αναζητήσουμε κοντά στον τόπο εύρεσής τους ένα ιερό της θεάς, το οποίο ίσως διαδέχθηκε, το 79/80 μ.Χ., έναν ιερό τόπο του 2ου αι. π.Χ. (shrink)

The Sandal-Binder Aphrodite, a witty variation on Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos, is one of the most frequently reproduced sculptural types in Greco-Roman art. Created in a variety of materials throughout the Mediterranean, extant versions of this iconography show the goddess in the act of tying (or possibly untying) her sandal. Although a large number of these works of art date between the first and fourth century CE, most studies on the Sandal-Binder have approached it primarily as an expression (...) of Hellenistic Greek artistic trends. The present study shifts our attention away from the cultural milieu of the Sandal-Binder’s creation to that of its reception. Two well-preserved examples—one from a house in Pompeii and the other from London—attest to the process of translating or adapting this sensual image of Aphrodite to a Roman ideological framework. In both cases, it is through the language of body adornment that this transformation is achieved: while the example from Pompeii (a marble statuette adorned with gold paint) shows the goddess wearing contemporary jewelry and clothing, the diminutive silver figurine from London is part of a fashionable hairpin that points to the dissemination of imperial hairstyles in Rome’s remotest province. By calling attention to their design and function, this essay highlights the complex polysemy of Roman Sandal-Binders and the powerful messages they communicated to a diverse audience of viewers both at the heart of the empire and in the provinces. (shrink)

This article reconsiders the similarities between Aphrodite's ascent to Olympus and Ishtar's ascent to heaven inIliadBook 5 and the Standard BabylonianGilgameshTablet VI respectively. The widely accepted hypothesis of an Iliadic reception of the Mesopotamian poem is questioned, and the consonance explained as part of a vast stream of tradition encompassing ancient Near Eastern and early Greek narrative poetry. Compositional and conceptual patterns common to the two scenes are first analyzed in a broader early Greek context, and then across further (...) Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic and Hurro-Hittite sources. The shared compositional techniques at work in Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean can be seen as a function of the largely performative nature of narrative poetry. This contributes to explaining literary transmission within the Near East and onto Greece. (shrink)

This article examines a number of philosophical concepts that are at stake in the visual culture of the nude. It particularly focuses on Aphrodite’s appearance, or rather, what I call her exposed concealment, in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 Le Mépris. A film, I argue, which is not only concerned with Aphrodite and the figure of the female nude via Brigitte Bardot, but which also explores the very idea of the sex goddess in cinema. In the first section I introduce (...) arguments from T.J. Clark about the changing status of the nude in nineteenth-century France. In the second section, having introduced Kenneth Clark’s work on Aphrodite, I outline Michael Williams’ work on the archaeology of divine stardom and discuss my disagreement with the way Ginette Vincendeau and Colin Gardner interpret Bardot in the film. In the longest section, the third, I examine several shots in Le Mépris in conversation with Stanley Cavell and argue that the nude scenes both invoke and rework the pictorial language of nudity found in the history of painting and sculpture, as well as Bardot’s film back catalogue, and I conclude by suggesting the film provides an indirect critique of what Hegel says about female nudity. (shrink)

Les six figurines désormais connues du type de l’« Aphrodite au livre », recueillies dans des tombes et des sanctuaires, se classent en une série coroplathique de trois générations, géographiquement largement diffusée par surmoulages locaux ; il faut en écarter quelques objets anciennement rapprochés de façon erronée. Il s’agit bien d’une création attique, mais sa datation, que l’on avait fini par situer dans le deuxième quart du ive siècle, doit être remontée, sur critères archéologiques et stylistiques, au premier classicisme, (...) dans le dernier quart du ve siècle. L’un ou l’autre des composants de son iconographie unique et complexe s’oppose à son identification avec chacune des Aphrodites proposées jusqu’à maintenant ou même avec la poétesse Sappho. En revanche, correctement déchiffrés, tous les symboles de cette image de jeune femme – son geste du dévoilement, l’Éros qui l’accompagne, l’arbre à côté d’elle, le rocher qui lui sert de siège, le diptyque enfin qu’elle tient, métaphore du sexe féminin – font sens ensemble pour composer une représentation générique de nymphè, de jeune épouse et mère en puissance. Cette lecture s’accommode d’un usage votif aussi bien que funéraire. Bien de son époque mais trop savante, cette iconographie n’a manifestement guère connu de succès. (shrink)

Aphrodite, tout en présidant à la sexualité et à l’éros, est une puissance divine aux multiples facettes exerçant aussi son action dans d’autres domaines. Depuis l’époque archaïque, Aphrodite et Arès constituent un couple bien établi au sein du panthéon de la Grèce ancienne. Cette association avec le dieu guerrier, attestée à la fois dans les récits mythiques et dans les cultes, se révèle solidaire d’autres données concernant les prérogatives politiques et militaires d’Aphrodite. L’examen de ce dossier nous (...) invite à remettre en question le portrait canonique d’Aphrodite en tant que « déesse de l’amour » et à repenser son rapport avec le dieu de la guerre autrement qu’en termes d’opposition complémentaire. Aphrodite, loin d’être exclue de l’univers de la guerre, y contribue efficacement et peut susciter elle-même « le désir de la bataille ». Aussi, à l’intersection du domaine d’Aphrodite avec celui d’Arès, des liens se nouent entre l’éros et la fureur guerrière.Aphrodite in the world of Ares. Elements for a dialogue between myth and cult. Aphrodite, the goddess governing sexuality and eros, is a deity with a large and multi-facetted sphere of action. Since archaic times, Aphrodite and Ares have constituted a well-established couple within the pantheon of ancient Greece. The association with the warrior god, attested both in myth and cult, is consistent with other evidence regarding Aphrodite’s political and military prerogatives. All of this prompts us to question Aphrodite’s canonical portrait as the “goddess of love” and to rethink her relationship with the “god of war” in terms other than those of complementary opposition. Aphrodite, far from being excluded from the world of war, contributes to it effectively in many different ways and is able to arouse “the desire for battle”. At the intersection of Aphrodite’s realm with that of Ares, links are woven between eros and fighting fervour. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is to show that the existence of empty names raise problems for the Millian that go beyond the traditional problems of accounting for their meanings. Specifically, they have implications for Millian strategies for dealing with puzzles about belief. The standard move of positing a referent for a fictional name to avoid the problem of meaning, because of its distinctly Millian motivation, implies that solving puzzles about belief, when they involve empty names, do in fact hang (...) on Millian assumptions after all. (shrink)

This paper analyses the successive waves of penetration of oriental goddesses, assimilated to Aphrodite, by Greeks coming from the Near East (Syria, Phoenicia) to the Greek colonies on the Black Sea. The first stage, that of the cuit of Syrian Aphrodite, is assigned to the 6th c. BC in the Greek towns of Olbia, Berezan and perhaps Istros. In the 4th c. a second wave arrived, chiefly in the Kingdom of the Bosphorus, which introduced the cuit of (...) class='Hi'>Aphrodite Ourania. The analysis is based on ancient texts, graffiti, inscriptions, reliefs and terracottas. (shrink)

In her book The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity, Stephanie Budin compiles and analyses an impressive array of literary sources which describe, or have been interpreted as describing, several practices that modern scholars have collectively and variously called sacred, ritual, cultic or temple prostitution. In general, as Budin explains, ‘[s]acred prostitution is the sale of a person's body for sexual purposes where some portion of the money or goods received for this transaction belongs to a deity … usually (...) class='Hi'>Aphrodite’. Three major subtypes include ‘once-in-a-lifetime prostitution and/or sale of virginity in honor of a goddess’, activity that ‘involves women who are professional prostitutes and who are owned by a deity or a deity's sanctuary’, and ‘a temporary type of sacred prostitution, where the women are either prostitutes for a limited period of time before being married, or only prostitute themselves during certain rituals’. (shrink)

Cet article présente une série d’épigrammes hellénistiques généralement peu étudiées et quelques témoignages littéraires et épigraphiques attestant le culte d’Aphrodite en tant que protectrice de la navigation. Les temples de la déesse occupaient souvent une position littorale, non parce qu’ils étaient des lieux où la « prostitution sacrée » était pratiquée, mais plutôt en raison de l’association d’Aphrodite avec la mer et de son rôle de patronne des marins. La protection qu’elle accordait était destinée à tous les navigateurs, (...) y compris la marine et les commerçants, et est attestée dans toute la Méditerranée, depuis la période archaïque jusqu’à la période hellénistique. De plus, les textes examinés révèlent un lien métaphorique entre les rôles d’Aphrodite comme protectrice de la navigation d’une part et comme déesse de la sexualité d’autre part. (shrink)

One of the more powerful recurring motifs in the Iliad is that of the grief-stricken woman lamenting the death of a hero. As with much else in the Homeric epics, these scenes have a formulaic character; when Briseis laments Patroclus, and Hecuba, Andromache and Helen lament Hector, each is depicted delivering a specialized form of speech, specific to the context of a woman's lament. The narrative depiction of grieving women, as well, is formalized, with specific gestures and recurring images that (...) typify these scenes. One element of this depiction that has largely escaped serious consideration is the comparison of a woman in her initial moment of recognition of the corpse to Aphrodite. In this article, I will argue that the allusion is not merely to her beauty but to the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, specifically the moment of the goddess’ discovery of the death of her mortal lover. As the earliest surviving explicit reference to Adonis in Greek literature appears c.600 b.c.e., this would require a raising of the terminus ante quem for the transmission of the Adonis myth from the Near East to the mid eighth century. (shrink)

When Immanuel Bekker, the editor to whom Aristotle owes his page numbers, travelled to Paris in search of manuscripts between 1810 and 1812, Theognis had been a mainstay of classical scholarship for many hundreds of years. Even so, the small tenth-century parchment volume Bekker discovered there came as a surprise. Not only did it contain a text of theTheognideawhich was four hundred years older than the earliest codex known so far; it also added an entirely new section of 176 lines. (...) Presented by the scribe as ‘book 2’ of theElegiac Poemsby Theognis, they revolved around the theme of pederastic love – until then a topic not usually associated with the moralist from Megara. In spite of their similarities to what had now turned into ‘book 1’, they were dismissed as a late forgery almost instantly after Bekker's 1815 edition. Although that view came to be challenged later and can now be considered obsolete, even van Groningen's first comprehensive commentary to theTheognidea, published in 1966 and not superseded since, breaks off where the second book would have begun. Until today, research on this part of the Theognidean corpus has not grown much beyond a trickle flowing at some distance from the classical mainstream. (shrink)

This ancient tale has naturally been recognized by modern scholars for what it is—a story of the Great Mother and her paramour; but several features appear to me to have been given less examination than they deserve, in view of their own peculiarity and the obvious antiquity of the myth. That it is pre-Greek is fairly clear from the names of the principal actors. Anchises yields no tolerable meaning in Greek, and we do not know to what speech it belongs—possibly (...) Phrygian. Aphrodite is, of course, no Greek goddess at all. The tale was known to Greek saga-men about the tenth century B.C., and is fully told for the first time, so far as our surviving records go, in a document possibly of the seventh century—the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. Connected as it is, though loosely, with the Troy-saga, it may quite possibly go back to Minoan-Mycenaean times, as that does. The features which I think worthy of further investigation are the fate of Anchises after his enjoyment of the goddess' favours, and in particular the effect upon him of the thunderbolt with which he was smitten. (shrink)

Odysseus benefits from his stay on the island of Scheria in two crucial ways. The Phaeacians’ willingness to escort him home secures his physical return to Ithaca. Furthermore, a song performed by the bard Demodocus featuring Odysseus’ quarrel with Achilles helps him regain his identity as one of the foremost Achaean heroes. The second song, the hilarious tale of Ares and Aphrodite, in which the gods erupt in the famous Homeric laughter, then reawakens his emotional capacity for joy and (...) cheerfulness. Since this key function of the song does not appear to have been recognized up to now, it is at the center of the present article. Finally, the third song, in which Odysseus expects Demodocus to highlight his role as mastermind of the capture of Troy, instead draws attention to the horrible suffering of the Trojans and elicits uncontrollable tears on his part, thereby reconnecting him with the fundamental human emotions of compassion and pity. Taken as a whole, the narrative of Odysseus’ development during his stay among the Phaeacians appears to reflect an elaborate therapeutic concept, which is outlined in this article. (shrink)