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This paper compares two anti-modern readings of Plato and the Platonic tradition, both complementary and opposite, that of Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) and that of Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907). These appropriations, which respectively open and closes the nineteenth century, express the rise and decline of the "romantic Platonism." De Maistre quotes, comments on, translates and rewrites Plato's dialogues, as well as various texts from the ancient Neoplatonism and the modern Platonic tradition. On the other hand, Huysmans's texts, particularly À rebours (1884), the most representative novel of decadent aesthetics, express the crisis of romantic Platonism, as shown by its nihilism, the figure of the simulacrum and the modification of the androgynous topic. Thus, Platonism and its crisis explore historical temporality, from revolutionary acceleration to fin-de-siècle decadence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers, to the best of our knowledge, the only translation into spanish of the chapter "On Chess" of the encyclopedic work De naturis rerum written around 1190 by the english philosopher Alexander Neckam (1157-1217). The mentioned chapter, which follows another one on dice players, is relevant not only to understand the continuity of an anti-ludic attitude that has its roots in the thought of the first Christians, but also to notice the reception of muslim chess in christian medieval England both in its symbolic representations and in the rules of the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the affective, emotional, and ideological questions raised by the practice of evidentiary torture (basanos) as necessity (anangkê). It proposes that competing ideas about its truth-value in Athenian forensic oratory reflect a degree of ambivalence sufficient to indicate that the Athenians (can) recognize the inherent unreliability of the slave's tormented body and mind to reveal the truth. In Prometheus Bound, the torture of Prometheus is dramatized as brutal coercion by Zeus' authoritarian state and set against the 'coercion' exercised by the bonds of kinship and emotional attachment. As such it engenders unbending anger on both sides and fails to coerce Prometheus to speak. The juxtaposition of the two genres establishes the unreliability of torture for extracting information along with a recognition that the criteria of exclusion for rendering bodies torturable are arbitrary, as are the rights they help maintain in the interest of Athenian exceptionalism. Fully embracing these recognitions would necessitate a new politics of care and fundamental reorganization of the civic community to expand 'kinship' and the bonds that compel mutual recognition and political inclusion. The paper closes by turning to the use of torture by the CIA in the context of the American war on terror to elucidate the persistence of discourses of necessity in contemporary politics of righteous anger and brings forth similar misrecognitions in the interest of American exceptionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of paralinguistics, i.e. the ways of communicating without the use of language, whether conscious, intentional and voluntary or otherwise, is an essential component of any attempt to reconstruct, understand and interpret the systems of cultural, societal, institutional, moral and inter-personal communication in modern and ancient societies. Three specific aspects of paralinguistics, as they are described in Attic oratory, are examined in this paper: face and facial organs (such as mouth and nose), hands, and gait. It is argued that the references to paralinguistics aim to win over the audience in the lawcourt or in political conventions by arousing emotions and by sustaining a war between the speaker's opponents and the Athenian community, whose cultural values and beliefs the opponents are presented as violating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the 'affective turn' in classical studies is well acknowledged, as it can be perceived through the many interdisciplinary works that have been published in the area during these last decades. Taking into account the challenges and difficulties involving the historical analysis of feelings, this paper intends to account for the contributions that have been made in the last years on the study of emotions in Antiquity. By specially focusing on classical Greece, we seek to offer a wide theoretical framework that could be useful for those willing to embark in this promising field of academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores aspects of what I shall call pity or compassion in Homer (especially Iliad 24) and Aristotle (especially the Rhetoric), but nothing very much hangs on the precise terminology. The phenomena covered by terms such as "compassion", "sympathy", "empathy", and "pity" (and their analogues, where they exist, in other languages) constitute a family in which resemblances are often really rather close in practice (even if particular members of the group pass in and out of fashion and take on a range of different connotations at different periods and in different contexts). In concentrating on the theory and practice of literature, I am not offering a synthetic account of ancient Greek pity; instead I focus, in the main, on just two authors, Homer and Aristotle, and proceed primarily by means of a confrontation between the representation of pity in the final book of the Iliad and the theorization of that emotion in Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics. I begin with Homer, but immediately bring the Homeric narrative into relation with Aristotle's account of pity in the Rhetoric. This will lead to some thoughts on the nature of pity and compassion in Homer in general, before we return to the contrast between Homer and Aristotle (with emphasis on the Poetics), a contrast that is in some ways underscored by certain differences between Aristotle and Plato on the emotional effects of epic and tragic poetry. A particular focus will be Aristotle's linkage of pity with the kind of thing that one would fear were it likely to happen to oneself, by contrast with the connection in Homer and Plato between pity for others and the experience of grief, both one's own and that of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the fraught chapter (V.7) of the Nicomachean Ethics concerning natural justice. It argues that the main tradition of commentary on the chapter has strayed onto a wrong path by misconstruing two quite precise junctures in the argument. When those two errors are corrected, there emerges an Aristotle who, far from being a champion of natural law theory in ethics, holds that the moral principles with which humans are naturally endowed are variable, and that in two senses. Not only do these moral principles vary across space and time, but also they can be deliberately modified by habituation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of transitional justice in Greek antiquity show to what extent emotions can play a specific role in the social reestablishment of memory, justice and truth. Based on a study of classical sources from Athens, Dikaia and Nakone, the purpose of this paper is to describe the affective fiction supporting this institutional framework: by expanding the emotional dimension from the realm of individuals to the society, a political installation of pathos is achieved with the aim of overcoming the traumatic effects of the civil war through the planning and design of an emotional community based on the virtues of reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens is one of the most important Christian poets in Late Antiquity, whose work had a wide impact on the literary creations of the Middle Ages. In particular, the Psychomachia, an allegorical combat between Virtues and Vices, which combines the preceding epic tradition with Christian theology, constitutes the most representative poem of our poet. In this paper we will study the poetic strategies used by Prudentius in the proem of Psychomachia (v. 1-20), with the purpose that the tension between discursive materiality (form) and religious spirituality (content) will be analysed as an aesthetic feature that is accentuated, with greater intensity towards the end of the 5th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we offer the translation from Latin into Spanish of Peter of Cornwall's Prologue to Liber disputationum contra Symonem iudeum (c. 1208), the only section of the text that is currently edited thanks to the labor of Richard W. Hunt. The brief final exchange between the characters of Peter and Simon that Hunt transcribed in the introduction to the edition was added as an annex. These translations are preceded by the presentation of the author and the work as a whole, and by a brief critical study of the text both in itself and in relation to its context of production: the literary dialogues of interreligious disputes that flourished between the end of the 11th and the early 13th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with Menippus or Necromancy of Lucian of Samosata, a satiric dialogue on Menippus' katabasis (descending to the underworld) to discover the best form of the human life. The issue articulates two generic traditions taking into account, on the one hand, the katabasis has taken shape in different mythological stories, and on the other hand, the quest for the best kind of the human life is a philosophic topic par excellence. Since both traditions were historically understood in tension: the myth on the side of pleasant writing; and the philosophy of writing aimed at utility, in Necromancy two paths are presented to solve such aporia. The problem arises from disavowal that the myth has obtained to deal with problems attributed philosophy as the existential question. To tackle this paradox the references and treatment given to the two traditions are analysed. Its purpose is to revise the tension based on the recognition in lucianic writing of a resignification of the myth by its conceptual skill in the formation of satire. The study delves into the impossibility of a monological vision because the aporia needs of both traditions. In this way, Lucian erases the limits of generic traditions and produces an answer to the serious intellectual problem with a mythical formulation that inscribes it in a system of creative writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially, we usually associate values or abilities with different animals, and this representation takes its roots in several literary genres in classical antiquity. In this paper, we analyze comparatively the configuration of donkey as characters in a corpus of Phaedrus' fables (1. 15, 1. 29, 2. 7 y 3. 6) and passages from the novel The Golden Ass of Apuleius (4. 5-4. 6, 7. 16-7. 23, 8. 23-8. 30) in order to address what fable and satire procedures present in Phaedrus' fables are resignified in Lucio's hybrid configuration (character and storyteller) as donkey and human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to establish the meaning of the notions of verisimilitude (τὸ εἰκός) and necessity (tò τὸ ἀναγκαῖον) in the formula “according to verisimilitude or according to necessity”, which plays an important role in the rules presented by Aristotle in his Poetics. The former notion is much less problematic than the latter, whose examination and clarification demand that attention be paid to passages in Aristotle’s work that have not been (or almost have not been) taken into account in this regard. An attempt is made to show the affinity or ultimate identity in the Aristotelian vision of action in the domains of poetics and ethics, and to establish the conceptual relationship that is suggested to exist between both notions in the Poetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to consider the epilogue (vv. 151-162) of the Virgilian cento Hippodamia -which narrates in 162 lines the myth of the princess - based on the narrative consequences of using different tenses, since this section is the only case in the whole cento where perfect tense exceeds present tense. The hypothesis is that the centonarius has 'narrative' motives for the use of each of those tenses, thus he can give more or less dramatic tension according to his needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although being an amator is a feature that defines the adulescens from the point of view of palliata's code, the present paper argues that part of the humorousness of this character comes from the fact that this is a routine that Pamphilus develops only at a discursive level, which does not correspond to his actions on the stage. A second aspect of his humorousness is based on not being the palliata's typical indecisive adulescens, since, paradoxically, with his decision to avoid acting, he ends up playing the lead role in the plot development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to make a comparative study of the vocabulary related to the semantic field of the sense of vision in Euripides' Medea and in Seneca's Medea. We consider that this issue is of a prominent relevance in both tragedies, due to the high frequency of the explicit mention of these words. The aim is to analyze comparatively which implications these terms have in both plays, in order to examine to what extent they can provide a key for reading each of them. The hypothesis is that the vocabulary related to the sense of vision has a different dramatic function in these tragedies. Specifically, this implies a distinct configuration of the main character as a tragic character, and this may as well shed light on the global understanding of these plays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a study on the category of hybridity, this paper examines the extant fragments of Cratinus' Chirons, whose isolated testimonies include several didactic verses in which the distinction between nature and civilization becomes disrupted with a clear humorous intention. Within an environment of mixture and heterogeneity, the play manages to create a distorted reflection of reality in which men, animals and gods coexist without rules in a world saturated by political, legal, sexual and lexical corruption. Through an overlapping of the figure of Cratinus and the chorus of Centaurs, these political subversions prove not to be alien to the procedures frequently installed by the comic genre when crossing borders and playing with intertexts. The play then produces interesting effects by mixing and intersecting opposites and exploiting the hybrid nature of its wide variety of allusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper dealt with the reading of postmodern thinkers in issues raised by Augustine. Analysed as Augustine in the Confessiones values to the word Tehom-abyssus of Genesis, since it considers it positive when used to imagine the world as a spongy body surrounded of God, but negative when using it to refer to the original fall of the angels and of human beings, with the subsequent rescue of the spirit through the waters of baptism. This term has allowed Augustine expressed his own interiority and aspects of the cosmos where is reflected both in its own condition as redeemed sinner. We also refer to their intense pursuit of wisdom, whose femininity reflects the femininity of Monica, which is presented by Augustine as a model of wise woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present a state of the art of the implications that the comparison between the writings of Philo of Alexandria and those produced by the rabbis of the first centuries CE have for the study of ancient and late ancient Judaism in general and the rabbinic movement in particular. This not only leads to a problematization of the parallelisms between the Philonic texts and the rabbinical ones, but also the morphology of Judaism in both periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how argentinian nationalism designs its own idea of classical tradition in the general context of cultural transfers, with special emphasis on the phenomena of importation and translation. Our hypothesis is that the so-called 'Western tradition' --the Greco-Roman heritage and Christianity-- is not perceived by the nationalists as an 'alterity' but, on the contrary --in essentialist terms-- as an origin. Thus we intend to describe the this encounter between classic past and nationalism, and to propose a methodological frame for this nationalist invention of classical tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers expects to present a Spanish translation (apparently nonexistent) of the Amicitia exulans, a 12th century dramatic piece; and to offer same textual variants, notes and a study that hopes to characterize it, inside the dramatic genre, as a "Byzantine allegoric tragedy", with typical features and as suitable for a real performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ciceronian invective against P. Clodius in De haruspicum responso, taking into consideration the concept of sturpum meaning the loss of honour as a result of a sexual practice which demeans the integrity of the individual. We will analyse the lexicon associated to the concept of extralimitation as a constitutive element to Cicero's argumentative strategy. We will argue that a reading of this speech in relation to extant descriptions of the celebration of the Bona Dea Festival reveals that Cicero attempted to represent Clodius as an outsider, someone who does not behave like a vir and true member of the political elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account that the inconsistencies between what we know about Seneca’s life and his philosophical tenets has been regarded as a central issue for the exegesis of the text, the present paper will try to show that the self-portrait that the epistolary ego presents in the first three books of the collection, and, additionally, the issues that these books thematize, aim at a redefinition, rectification or consolidation of certain aspects of Seneca’s previous ethos, as far as it is possible to reconstruct it from Tacitus’ account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on some aspects concerning on the combat between translators and interpreters of Holy Scripture when they must translate and decode its right sense. The first part, in a descriptive way, consists of the necessary presentation of the Septuagint production context and the values it had for both Jews and Christian authors. The second one focuses on Ambrose of Milan's position about the disposition and fervour that the holy text apprehension requires in a Christian view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the role of women in Ancient Greek intellectual landscape means facing the absence of textual evidence of their work, which forces to employ the testimonies of their lives embedded, almost always, in others thinkers' doxography. This is the case of Aspasia of Miletus, who was part of Pericles' circle. In this paper I will present a doxographical reconstruction of Aspasia's activity in the fifth century, bearing in mind the historical situation when she lived and the challenges she faced for being a woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the topic of imitative poetry in Plato. Its aim is to determine whether, for Plato, may be a mimesis of value and consequently an acceptable mimetic poetry. For this, two sections concerning a valid Republic imitation will be analyzed. This would be based on the dialectical understanding of intelligible realities; condition that the poet can not be covered. My hypothesis is that the solution to this problem is the Platonic idea of 'design', which -derived the ideal paradigm- would be the tool for the imitator. Philo has conceptualized this tool in his idea of archetype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a discursive analysis of the dialogue between Xerxes and Demaratus, prior to the Persian attack on the Greeks, as dramatized in Herodotus 7. 101-104. The interaction between the interlocutors is closely explored in order to: a) outline the discursive roles and argumentative strategies deployed by either participant, b) address the social identities constructed throughout the interaction and the prospective, albeit hazy, delineation of a Greek and barbarian éthos, c) speculate on the significance of the episode in the context of the Histories and the ideological implications of the alleged relationship between the Persian autocracy and Spartan kingship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we offer the translation from Latin to Spanish of Ramón Llull's Liber de convenientia fidei et intellectus in obiecto (1314) with introduction and notes. This is a work where the mallorcan philosopher makes a synthetic framework of his thinking on the relationship between faith and reason, as well as of his position towards the defense of catholic faith and conversion of non-christian people. The text, which is shown as a definitive work in the setting of this relationship, uses the most characteristic principles of his system, Ars magna, but still is a rara avis inside the opus lulliana: is full of biblical quotations and allusions to the most renowned ecclesiastical auctoritates, all these absents in most lullian woks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the character of Aseneth, main character of the Hellenistic Jewish novel Joseph and Aseneth according to his decision of leaving his former life to adopt the monotheistic belief. From this point we will meditate on identity and the phenomenon of the proselyte, its 'acceptance' inside the Jewish community and outside it, so we will use some of the historical and literary sources that testify the existence of proselyte and its insertion into a society in a time of transition between the pagan and the Christian world [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate that the character of Demosthenes plays a central role in the persuasive strategy of the piece, which attempts to degrade the public image of Cleon. In the early works, the comic hero is usually the main spokesperson who defends the position maintained in the work; however, the image of the hero in Knights, the Sausage- Seller, is so devaluated at first that the argumentative force of the attack becomes weak; in this sense, Demosthenes acts as a provisional hero and authorized spokesman for the enunciator-author until the Sausage-Seller reaches more legitimacy and true heroic stature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we offer the translation from latin to spanish of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's letter to his friend Andrea Corneo from Urbino with introduction and notes. In this text, Pico presents his points of view about one of the most important problems along the fifteenth century: the choice between active and contemplative life. In addition, the letter enter upon the so-called "incident of Arezzo", a confusing episode in which the young count kidnapped Giuliano Mariotto de' Medici's wife. Along the text, Pico reveals himself as classical latin authors's imitator, among others, Seneca, Horace, Gellius, Plautus, Terence and specially Cicero [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the scope and limits of the critique against the judicial power in Wasps from the comparative analysis of the figure of Philocleon and the chorus of judges. Some authors have argued the hypothesis that Wasps is targeted against the democratic and judicial system as a whole. However, in our view, the complex game of identification and difference between Philocleon and the chorus ends up restricting the general scope of the satire and circumscribing it to particular abuses of bad Athenian judges, represented by the character of Philocleon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with different interpretations proposed by modern researchers about the geographic information in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. The first part is about the contributions made up to the beginning of the 1980s from an anachronistic conception of geography. In the second part, we consider the contributions made since the mid-1980s on and, finally, we propose a possibility for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes certain symbolical projections on Paradise and Cain and Abel by Ambrose of Milan that set the reflections on a significance level that surpasses the philosophical or theological approach. So, the article studies the body metaphor in Par. I, 7-9 and the shepherd metaphor in Cain et Ab. VI, 24, where metaphorical enunciation allows the location of images on the semantic field of politic and social concerns, within common benefit idea is the most relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an interpretation of the use of expressions as 'inspiration' and 'enthusiasm' in the context of the platonic poetology is suggested. This interpretation tries to clarify the apparent contradiction between the platonic statement that (1) the poet had no knowledge and (2) poetry possibly can offer true contents. So the chance of decoding the figurative use of these expressions through the epistemological notion coined by Plato of 'true belief' is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary to the paper about the life and works of Joseph Haydn, we present this time an analysis of his vocal music in relation with classic antiquity: Acide (1762) (opera), Philemon und Baucis (1773) (Singspiel) and Orfeo ossia l'anima del filosofo (opera) composed in 1791 for being premiered in London. A depiction of his cantata Arianna in Naxos is also provided, as it can be treated as an advance of the type of vocal expression called Lied, considered the utmost creation of romanticism. The elaboration of Haydn's opera works with mithological contents is situated in the context of his total production within the opera genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the episode of Aeneid 8 in which Venus asks Vulcan to make an armour for Aeneas. In particular, we are interested in investigating the intertextual relationships which it bears to four passages of the epic tradition: Iliad 18, Iliad 14, Odyssey 8 and Lucretius' proem to De rerum natura. The analysis of Virgilian imitatio contributes to the study of the complexity of Venus' character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Greek version of Gn 3, 1-24 in connection with other interpretations of the Biblical verses, such as Philo of Alexandria's works, the Epistle to the Romans and Ambrose's On Paradise. In the Genesis man is presented as a being who is naturally bent to bad inclinations that move him to err and be ashamed in front of God, a similar view also Philo shares. By taking concepts from Pauline and apocalyptic literature, Ambrosius shows an imperfect man who is weak and easily deceived by the devil. In all cases, salvation is possible: in the Genesis and Legum Allegoriae, through the kindness of God who trusts in mans natural goodness; in Christian texts, though man is born sinful, Christ allows for his redemption and sanctification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main difficulties raised by Petronius' Satyricon for literary criticism is its genre categorization. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of the new papyrus discoveries for this subject, especially, to consider if the relationship between the Petronian text and the Menippean Satire is a valid one, and to support the appropriateness of the label novel as a genre which describes how the Salyricon works; it will be necessary to review briefly some of the hypotheses of generic attribution of the Satyricon and some of its outstanding formal characteristics, i.e. the prosimetrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeneid's Book 8 offers a large version of Roman History from the beginnings of Janus and Saturnus to Accius' battle. Historic account is developed in two episodes: Evander and Aeneas' tour through Palanteum and the description of Vulcanus' shield. Both episodes can be taken as ekphrasis and the hypothesis of this paper considers that both must be read in a complementary way in order to assume that Virgilian proposal about history, unlike Livius, consists of a series of foundations written on the memory of Roman natural and urban geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brief text of the Didaché was 'rediscovered' a hundred and thirty-six years ago (1873) and it was edited for scholarly reading and analysis in 1883. Since then, several theories and interpretations have been proposed so as to its authors' identity, the audience it was written for, the sources and theological perspectives as well as the ecclesiology underlying the intricate tapestry of the topics which are considered to be foundations of the Western Christianity. Our aim in this paper is to look into the net of later rewritings for the Jew features, which can be clearly perceived as an early stratum in chapters 1-6 -referring to the moral teaching of the two ways-, in chapter 7 -related to the baptism- and in chapters 9-10 and 14 related to the Eucharistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we offer the translation from Greek to Spanish of P. Oxy. 1089, with introduction and notes. It is a papyrus that refers to a secret interview that took place in the Serapeum of Alexandria between the Roman prefect Flaccus, who ruled Egypt from 32 to 38 AD, and two politicians belonging to the nationalanti- Semitic sector of the port-city, Isidoros and Dionysios. The importance of the papyrus, which is shown as a historical narrative, resides in its connection with real events; it has been considered as an antecedent of the first pogrom against the Jews of Alexandria occurred in the year 38 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]