MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10242
Peter Barrios-Lech
{"title":"Tanks for Nothing: an Explanation of Plautus Casina 121-125","authors":"Peter Barrios-Lech","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10242","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The author uses the literary and material record to explicate the manual labour described in Plautus, <em>Casina</em> 121-125. The original Greek (it is argued) featured a simpler task, evocative of the myth of the Danaids.</p>","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141753979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10257
Roberto Granieri
{"title":"Aristotle’s On the Good and the “Categorial Reduction Argument”","authors":"Roberto Granieri","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10257","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Alexander of Aphrodisias reports a series of arguments from Aristotle’s <styled-content lang=\"el-Grek\" xmlns:dc=\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\" xmlns:ifp=\"http://www.ifactory.com/press\">Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ</styled-content> purportedly deployed by Plato to defend his doctrine of principles. One of these arguments, the so-called “categorial reduction argument”, underpins the postulation of the two first principles, the One and the Great and Small, through a bipartition of all beings into two categories, labeled ‘in themselves’ and ‘opposites’. I scrutinize this argument and compare it with other Early Academic bicategorial divisions and especially with the tripartite categorial distinction, itself apparently based on material of Early Academic provenance, included in Sextus Empiricus’ <em>Adversus Physicos</em> 2.262-275. I argue that the <styled-content lang=\"el-Grek\" xmlns:dc=\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\" xmlns:ifp=\"http://www.ifactory.com/press\">Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ</styled-content> account of the “categorial reduction argument” leaves open certain philosophical problems, and Sextus’ report is best interpreted, rather than as a more detailed version of that account (as a common view would have it), as an alternative formulation of it that incorporates a philosophical attempt to disentangle those problems.</p>","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141753978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-07-03DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10268
Claudia Zatta
{"title":"“Is the Embryo a Living Being?” (Aët. 5.15): Embryology, Plants, and the Origin of Life in Presocratic Thought","authors":"Claudia Zatta","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10268","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Building on previous studies, this essay discusses the use of embryological images and analogies in Anaximander, Empedocles, Democritus, and Lucretius. It pursues their intertextual connections arguing that in ancient philosophy embryology was not only relevant for conceiving the early formation of the cosmos as has been claimed so far, but that it also shaped the conception of the primeval rise of animal life and the living processes of plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141571364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-07-03DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10253
Thomas Emmrich
{"title":"Make Art, Not War: An Other (Hi)Story of thymos","authors":"Thomas Emmrich","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10253","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay critically examines Peter Sloterdijk’s <em>Zorn und Zeit. Politisch-psychologischer Versuch</em> (<em>Rage and Time. A Psychopolitical Investigation</em>) and his attempt to rehabilitate a culture of <em>thymos</em>, i.e. a culture of self-confidence and self-assertion, whose emotional agent Sloterdijk sees in rage. As an alternative to Achilles’ rage in Homer’s <em>Iliad</em>, Sloterdijk’s ancient reference, I will propose Ovid’s <em>Metamorphoses</em> as another literary origin of <em>thymos</em>. Against this background, I aim to defend the legitimacy of <em>thymos</em>, but to give it a different profile than Sloterdijk does, namely that of a creative and culturally productive energy that dismantles the tradition of warlike heroism and is pacifist at its core.</p>","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141547089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-24DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10220
Eirene Evdokia Noussia
{"title":"A Translation Note on Pseudo-Seneca, Her. O. 1907","authors":"Eirene Evdokia Noussia","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10220","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The passage from pseudo-Seneca, <em>Hercules Oetaeus</em> 1905-1908 describes how Hercules briefly replaced the Titan Atlas in his duties supporting the Sky. However, the poet refers to Olympus, characterizing it with an epithet that does not belong to a mountain but to the sky. In this way an equation is created between these two places, mountain and sky. What is noteworthy in the passage of pseudo-Seneca, however, is not the general use of Olympus as a synonym for the sky, but the use of a designation of the sky for Olympus that completes the image of the identification of Olympus with the sky. Such mixing of adjectives is and remains rare as evidenced by the intertextual analysis attempted in the article. Moreover, mythology also mentions that Atlas holds the heavens forever (Hesiod, Vergil). It therefore follows that verse 1907 should be translated as ‘of the starry sky’ and not ‘of starry Olympus’.</p>","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141173508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-15DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja1023
Basil L.P. Nelis
{"title":"On the Text and Interpretation of Accius 306-307 Dangel","authors":"Basil L.P. Nelis","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja1023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja1023","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the text of Accius 306-307 Dangel, as transmitted, cannot stand on grammatical grounds. It aims to clarify the use of the word <jats:italic>cuiatis</jats:italic>, propose an emendation of the text, and suggest a new explanation of the metre of the fragment.","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141147971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10241
Claire Rachel Jackson
{"title":"Letters, Mirrors, and Fiction in Iamblichus’ Babyloniaka","authors":"Claire Rachel Jackson","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10241","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the depiction of letters, epigraphs, and other texts in Iamblichus’ fragmentary <jats:italic>Babyloniaka</jats:italic>, primarily preserved by the ninth-century writer Photius in his <jats:italic>Bibliotheca</jats:italic>, and argues that they act as evidence for the novel’s own cultural and literary positioning. These texts, while superficially unconventional in their form and mode of transmission, in practice reiterate traditional anxieties about written texts found throughout Greek literary history. As such, this paper argues that these embedded texts act as mirrors to the novel’s own framing as a self-proclaimed Babylonian fiction constructed through imperial Greek linguistic and literary models. By considering the hitherto neglected depictions of letters and other texts within Photius’ summary of the <jats:italic>Babyloniaka</jats:italic>, this approach sheds new light on the literary allusivity and cultural framing of the now-lost novel and its later reception.","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140925455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10273
Giovanni Zago
{"title":"An Overlooked Quotation from Phaedrus’ Appendix Perottina","authors":"Giovanni Zago","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10273","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses an overlooked quotation from Phaedrus’ <jats:italic>Appendix Perottina</jats:italic> in a grammatical miscellany by Godescalc of Orbais and makes a contribution to the textual history of Phaedrus’ fables; it also demonstrates once and for all, through irrefutable evidence, that the <jats:italic>Appendix Perottina</jats:italic> cannot be a humanistic forgery.","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140925139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10243
Gabriel A.F. Silva
{"title":"An Acrostic in Quintus Serenus’ Liber medicinalis?","authors":"Gabriel A.F. Silva","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10243","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this note is to highlight an acrostic regarding leprosy (<jats:italic>lepra</jats:italic>) in Quintus Serenus’ <jats:italic>Liber medicinalis</jats:italic> (vv. 48-52), arguing that it is no accident but intentional. To this end, I show its relevance in context and take as examples the structure and contents of the poem, namely its reference to the case of Sulla’s disease.","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140925212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MNEMOSYNEPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1568525x-bja10280
Wiebke-Marie Stock
{"title":"Turn the Mirror of Your Soul","authors":"Wiebke-Marie Stock","doi":"10.1163/1568525x-bja10280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525x-bja10280","url":null,"abstract":"Plotinus treats memory not simply as a capacity of the soul, but as an essential part of the process of the soul’s ongoing self-formation. Plotinus argues that memory and forgetting affect the soul, now and in the future. Since memories define who one is and who one is going to be, the soul must learn how it can or should shape memories. I address the topic of memory-shaping in Plotinus not only as an epistemological and metaphysical topic or an ethical problem, but as a “psychological” or “psychotherapeutic” issue.","PeriodicalId":46134,"journal":{"name":"MNEMOSYNE","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140925380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}