{"title":"Hellenistic literature","authors":"A. Walter","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"In the Histories, the fourth-century historian Ephorus engages with one of the central aetia of the past: the story of how Apollo founded the oracle in Delphi (F 31b). Ephorus shifts the emphasis from the continuity of archaic time to the more dynamic time of the history of men on earth. In his discussion of the Spartan constitution and its origin (F 149), Ephorus uses aetia to give a nuanced picture of the interplay of continuity and change in human affairs. Callimachus, in the story of Acontius and Cydippe in his Aetia, juxtaposes the reference to the continuity of Acontius’ line with the eventful history of Acontius’ island of Chios, thus raising the question how stable the aetion can actually be. Rather than the aetiological formula, the beauty of the young couple, made immortal in Callimachus’ poetry, guarantees the story’s eternity. In Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo, aetia are prominent in creating an intense moment of the sacred presence of the god, in which the present moment of the performance is just as much involved as the historical past of the city of Cyrene and the mythical past of Apollo’s deeds on earth. The aetia employed in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica function as hinges between the earlier foundational deeds of the Olympian gods and the new earth-bound time-frame of the Argonauts, which is carefully measured out in terms of the days and nights the Argonauts spend at sea or on land. Overall, however, the aetia of the Argonautica emphasize continuity and eliminate further change, creating a present that is remarkably stable, while being anchored in several layers of the past","PeriodicalId":243342,"journal":{"name":"Time in Ancient Stories of Origin","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124195574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Early Christian Literature","authors":"A. Walter","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The aetiological formulae observed throughout Greek and Roman antiquity remain well and alive even beyond the transition from Classical to Christian antiquity. In Prudentius’ Peristephanon 2, the aetion around which the poem is centred provides the site for the conversion of the poem itself and its turn towards heaven, but it no longer establishes an exclusive connection between past and present. It shares this function with typological parallels, which privilege similarity over chronological order. The aetion embodies the position of Prudentius and his fellow Christians in time: still bound to this world with its sense of chronology and beginnings, but already looking forward to the realm of God, when time in its usual sequentiality will no longer count and the true light of God will fully be seen. Orosius, by contrast, uses aetia as textual loci that encapsulate with particular clarity his vision of time and of God’s role in human history. They also become touchstones of faith, since they can only be fully understood by those who can see the truth and the working of God in this world. Aetia become powerful textual occasions on which Orosius memorably instructs his audience about the power of God, his wrath and constant punishment of sin. For him, aetia become part and parcel of his agenda as a Christian author.","PeriodicalId":243342,"journal":{"name":"Time in Ancient Stories of Origin","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133082565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"A. Walter","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198843832.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"While generic differences between different types of aetia are not as clear-cut as one might think, a more promising explanation of the differences between individual aetia is the period of literary history to which they belong. Aetia, in the specific ways in which they are narrated, are very much products of their time. They are also often told at crucial points of a narrative, and they provide privileged places for authorial self-reflection, both in terms of the larger agenda of a work and in terms of its aesthetics. Aetia are able to negotiate between different temporal frameworks, and their capacity to bridge the gap between the text and the world gives them the power to implicate the present in a very complex set of assumptions, beliefs, and convictions or exhortations for the future.","PeriodicalId":243342,"journal":{"name":"Time in Ancient Stories of Origin","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117201815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}