Classical Reception Studies

The bimillennium of Augustus' death on 19 August 2014 commemorated not only the end of his life but also the beginning of a two-thousand-year reception history. This volume addresses the range and breadth of that history. Beginning with the Emperor's death and continuing through Late Antiquity, Early Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and early modernity to the present day, chapters address political positioning, religious mythologisation, philosophy, rhetoric, narratives, memory, and material embodiment. As they collectively reveal, Augustus has meant radically different things from one time and place to another, and even to some individual commentators as the circumstances around them changed. The weight of established narratives has often also shaped those of subsequent generations, with or without their conscious awareness. The book outlines and analyses the major themes in Augustus' reception history, clarifying the cultural and historiographical issues at stake and providing a platform for further scholarship.

Until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the Catholic Church had an almost unchallenged monopoly on public education in French Canada. Generations of French Canadian children were taught at the primary and secondary levels by various male and female religious orders according to a curriculum that infused almost every element of education with the fundaments of the Catholic Faith. But there is something of an apparent paradox at work when we consider this curriculum: how can an educational system that is so fundamentally Catholic give such prominence to pre-Christian Greek and Latin authors, and why did ‘pagan’ mythology and religious traditions figure so prominently in studies of all levels? Why did a Catholic system spend so much time teaching non-Catholic literature and religious material? This chapter addresses this question by examining in detail the place of mythology in a variety of primary pedagogical materials used in French Canadian schools from the foundation of the colony until the publication of the Commission Parent’s report in 1964. The evolving place of classical mythology in French Canadian education is tracked from the establishment of the colony in the 17th century through to the vociferous debates among the clergy over the place of pre-Christian authors in Catholic education which erupted in France in the mid-19th century and then spilled into French Canadian in the 1860s. The perceived benefits and threats posed by such a mythological education are analysed through the assertions of a variety of contemporary commentators. By means of conclusion, the prominence of Classical mythology and ancient authors in the curriculum is viewed in relation to the evolving national mythology of French Canada itself, according to which the French Canadian Catholic establishment becomes the direct successor to the Classical past.

Full volume is available open-access at this link:
https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-14887-Our-Mythical-Education-The-Reception-of-Classical-Myth-Worldwide-in-Formal-Education-1900-2020-PDF.html

""Ancient Greece is famous as the civilization which "gave" the world democracy. Democracy has in modern times become the rallying cry of liberation from supposed totalitarianism and dictatorship. It is embedded in the assumptions of Western powers who proclaim their faith in the global spread of democratic governance and at the same time wielded by protesters in the developing world who challenge what they view as the West's cultural imperialism. Thus, a lively and well informed treatment of the nexus between politics in antiquity and political discourse in the modern era is both timely and apposite.

As Kostas Vlassopoulos shows, much can be learned about the practice of politics from a comparative discussion of the classical and the contemporary. His starting point is that the value of looking back to a political system with different assumptions and elements can help us think, and even shape, what the future of modern politics might be. He discusses the contrasting political systems of Athens, Sparta and Rome; the political theories of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero; how great events like the Peloponnesian War or the Roman civil wars shaped the course of political theory; and the discovery of freedom, participation and equality as political values in antiquity. Above all, the book shows how important and surprising an analysis of the ancient world can be in reassessing and revaluating modern political debates.""""

Το νέο βιβλίο του Δημήτρη Πλάντζου εντάσσεται στον χώρο της πολιτισμικής κριτικής και στόχος του είναι να διερευνήσει τους τρό-πους με τους οποίους η κλασική αρχαιότητα επιβάλλεται ως βιο-πολιτικό εργαλείο στη σημερινή Ελλάδα· δηλαδή ως μηχανισμός οργάνωσης ομάδων και συλλογικοτήτων γύρω από συγκεκριμένες πολιτικές ή ιδεολογικές ατζέντες, με πρόσχημα ένα καταστατικό αρχαιολατρικό ήθος. Το βιβλίο καλύπτει την τελευταία περίπου δεκαετία – από την τελετή έναρξης του 2004 έως την Αμφίπολη. Ενδιαμέσως αναλύονται άλλες στιγμές του πρόσφατου εθνικού βίου: τελετές και επιτελέσεις μικρότερης εμβέλειας, αλλά και οι αρ-χαιολατρικές χρήσεις του παρελθόντος στα επεισόδια της Κερα-τέας, στις πιο πρόσφατες οργανωμένες αντιδράσεις στη λεγόμενη «μνημονιακή» πολιτική, ή στην πολιτική και κοινωνική δράση του ομοφυλόφιλου κινήματος. Το ιστορικό υπόβαθρο αυτών των εξε-λίξεων καλύπτεται με αναδρομές στην πνευματική παραγωγή 100 και πλέον χρόνων – από τους ποιητές της γενιάς του '30 έως τους σημερινούς επιγόνους τους, με ενδιάμεσους σταθμούς τον λαϊ-κό ελληνικό κινηματογράφο, τη μοντερνιστική αρχιτεκτονική και ζωγραφική, τον Χατζιδάκι, τον Θεοδωράκη, τον Σαββόπουλο, τη Γιουροβίζιον. Αν και δεν πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο για την κρίση, Το πρόσφατο μέλ-λον επιχειρεί να σκιαγραφήσει την πολιτισμική ιστορία της κρίσης: τους λόγους περί βίας, κοινωνίας των πολιτών, και ευρωπαϊκού κεκτημένου, καθώς και τη διαπλοκή τους στον λόγο περί παρελ-θόντος ως μηχανισμού για τον καθορισμό (όσο και τον έλεγχο) του παρόντος. Τολμά επίσης την κριτική προσέγγιση σε ένα ακαν-θώδες ζήτημα της νεοελληνικής κουλτούρας: τον τρόπο που η κλασική κληρονομιά προσφέρεται για χρήση από τον ακροδε-ξιό χώρο (είτε πρόκειται για τη Χρυσή Αυγή είτε για ομάδες και συλλογικότητες που αφιερώνουν χρόνο και προσπάθεια στη διά-δοση και εμπέδωση υπερσυντηρητικών, ξενοφοβικών, σεξιστικών και ακραία εθνικιστικών ιδεών, με πρόσχημα την καλλιέργεια της κλασικής κληρονομιάς).

This paper explores Martha Graham’s Cave of the Heart and Graham's approach to the Medea myth. It focuses especially on Graham’s decisions to situate Medea in a gynocentric world, not to include the children, and to make Medea’s sexual jealousy the central theme. I examine the similarities and differences between Martha Graham’s approach and that of Euripides and show that the two works have a different focus but bring about a similar effect: they both show Medea triumphant at the end, a woman who asserts her power by taking on both subhuman and superhuman features. The similarity of the endings serves in turn to underline basic differences in the two artists’ interests and approaches to the myth: Euripides focuses on the characters’ intellect and mental experience and questions sexual jealousy as being trivial and insignificant, while Martha Graham examines emotion through complex and unfamiliar movements of the body, showcases the overwhelming power of jealousy, and celebrates its intensity and importance.

The seeds of a culture of elite drug use that were sown in the first season of Rome blossom to full prominence in the show’s second series as male and female characters within the city and without are shown conspicuously consuming narcotics. What emerges from the haze of opium and hemp smoke is a swirl of inference as a decidedly modern habit is thrust into ancient hands, along with all of its connotations. Perhaps inspired as much by Shakespeare as by orientalist stereotypes, the prevalence of the vice is striking: the reimagined Cleopatra is often addled with opium and her paramour Antony succumbs to the vice all too quickly, while in Rome itself the parvenue Jocasta corrupts the well-to-do Octavia with her imported hemp whose potency is enough to attract the dabbling of Atia, whose later casual dismissal of the habit implies that it was neither scandalous nor out of the ordinary. Commonplace, seductive, and always aphrodisiac, drug use in the show nevertheless brings with it the dangers and associations of the modern habit. Notions of degeneracy, addiction, sexual impropriety and juvenile delinquency come with the vice and speak to the character of the users, while the foreign origins of the substances themselves bear political associations that play into dichotomy of Roman versus non-Roman in the series. And all of this emerges from what is essentially an historical embellishment of a drug culture that never was present. This chapter seeks to delve into what lies behind this retrojection of a modern vice onto the ancient elite by considering the ramifications of drug use within the world of the series, and the implied judgement of the characters involved. All the while drug use in Rome will be situated in relation to both historical context, and the increasing frequency with which this modern decadence is grafted onto the ancients in contemporary depictions of the Classical world.

This paper offers a close reading of ‘Orestes’, the earliest (1962–1966) of the monologues eventually included (after being published as separate volumes) in Yiannis Ritsos’ Fourth Dimension. Its principal aim is to explore Ritsos’ extensive reworking of the myth of the Atreids, especially as retold by the three great tragedians, in the light of existentialist philosophy and drama.

Collection of contributions on the reception of ancient historiography in Early Modern Culture and Intellectual History. 

INDICE
INTRODUZIONE
I. G. Mastrorosa (Università di Firenze)
Oltre ‘riscoperte’, Nachleben e ‘fortuna’: considerazioni introduttive
ARCHETIPI
L. Porciani (Università di Pavia)
La parola orale. Erodoto e la costruzione del discorso politico
M. Lentano (Università di Siena)
L’eredità di Serse. Suasoria retorica e discorso storiografico a Roma
INTERPRETI E MODELLI
S. Gambino Longo (Université de Lyon III)
Erodoto nel Rinascimento: dalla riabilitazione a un nuovo modello storiografico
J.C. Iglesias-Zoido (Universidad de Extremadura-Cáceres)
La ‘actualización’ de los discursos de Tucídides en las antologías renacentistas de contiones: los argumenta del epitafio (2.35-46)
A. Raffarin (Université Paris-Est-Créteil)
D’un antiquaire à l’autre : Varron source et modèle de Flavio Biondo
P. Ponzù Donato (Università di Firenze)
Interpretazione, divulgazione, attualità: Pier Candido Decembrio volgarizzatore di Cesare
I. G. Mastrorosa (Università di Firenze)
Livio e Machiavelli fra passato e presente: tendenze demagogiche, aspirazioni tiranniche e strumenti di tutela della ‘riputazione’
A. Severi (Università di Bologna)
Dalla Roma imperiale alla Bologna principesca: la vocazione attualizzante del commento beroaldiano a Svetonio
L. Claire (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
Sur quelques évolutions des commentaires aux Annales de Tacite dans les années 1580: Lipse, Muret, Pasquali, Scotti
LABORATORI FIORENTINI
L. Bernard-Pradelle (Université de Limoges)
L’historien en son laboratoire: Leonardo Bruni Aretino (ca. 1370-1444) et le travail sur les sources antiques
V. Pineda (Universidad de Extremadura-Cáceres)
The Memory of the Ancients in the Florentine Genre of epistole e dicerie
CONCLUSIONI
U. Roberto (Università Europea di Roma)
‘Attualizzare il passato’: alcune riflessioni sulla rilettura dei testi antichi tra l’età tardoantica e l’Europa del Rinascimento
ABSTRACTS

A unique group of sculpture from Early Christian Cyprus comes from the so-called Villa of Theseus, at Nea Paphos. The group comprises (at least) twenty sculptures of divinities and mythological figures, which range in date from the Hellenistic to the Late Roman periods. Their discovery with connection to late antique layers demonstrates the long-lasting importance of sculpture to the villa culture and confirms the empire-wide appreciation of local elites to the medium in late antique times. In this paper, the decoration of the Villa of Theseus will be re-assessed in order to efficiently envisage its sculptural environment, between the late fourth and late sixth centuries. Possibilities for the display and usage of the sculptures within the villa will be offered, while possible reasons for the selection of particular iconographical types will also be suggested, within the broader context of Nea Paphos.

Oratory and Roman Historiography in Nicolas Caussin’s Eloquentiae Sacrae et Humanae Parallela (1619) - This paper focusses on the Jesuit Nicholas Caussin’s ‘Eloquentiae Sacrae et Humanae Parallela’ (1619), with a particular analysis of some chapters of ‘De veteri eloquentia’ Book I. In this context we find a gallery of the most illustrious Greek and Roman orators which offers the opportunity to evaluate the author’s method of selecting, classifying and understanding the ancient texts with a marked attention to historiography. In addition to the use of a chronological order, an acknowledgment of Cicero’s authority and stylistic supremacy along with citations from his ‘Brutus’, Caussin’s section regarding Roman orators shows his ability to understand the role of eloquence in the overall political context of ancient Rome, as well as his interest in the figure and works of the historian Sallust. Focalizing on this latter aspect, the second part of the paper underlines how by including the text of the contio attributed by Sallust to the general Gaius Marius, in Book XIII of his ‘Eloquentiae Sacrae et Humanae Parallela’ Caussin added glosses not limited to the rhetorical aspects of the speech. In particular we see how his point of view as a Jesuit contributes to his vision of the general Marius, as a virtuous citizen also embodying values relating to a wisdom of Senecan ascendancy and to a Christian perspective. In this sense, Caussin’s glosses on the ‘contio’ attributed by Sallust to Gaius Marius appear quite different from those composed a half century earlier by Remigio Nannini, who included the same text in his ‘Orationi militari’ highlighting its social-political significance.

La mia tesi di laurea triennale in Grammatica Latina raccoglieva ed analizzava gli incantesimi in lingua latina presenti nella serie web audiovisiva Netflix "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" (2018-2020).
Preliminarmente, si è cercato di far luce sul particolare sistema di comunicazione in cui si inserisce la serie televisiva, adattamento della serie comics omonima; si è poi spaziato sul versante della magia antica, segnatamente nei punti di contatto con la webserie tv Netflix.
In seguito, la trattazione degli incantesimi latini si è divisa in un’analisi quantitativa, che consente di comprendere la frequenza e la distribuzione delle formule latine e il loro rapporto con quelle in inglese, e una qualitativa, che entra nel dettaglio di singole occorrenze significative.
Dalla prima si è evinto come gli incantesimi latini siano preferiti a quelli inglesi per due principali criteri: la genericità dell’incantesimo e la ‘potenza magica’ intrinseca al latino.
Una seconda valutazione più dettagliata delle frasi latine ha messo in luce come la forma di questi incantesimi sia spesso un pastiche di anglismi e usi del latino volgare, non disgiunti da prestiti di memoria poetica, come anche espressioni bibliche. A questi modelli tradizionali si accosta l'uso di strumenti odierni, di uso facile e immediato, fruibili sul web, come ebook di divulgazione d’incantesimi in latino o la stessa piattaforma Google Translate, che consente di tradurre approssimativamente da e in latino.
È possibile altresì ricondurre le deviazioni dal latino standard sia al genere della scrittura magica delle defixiones, caratterizzato da un’applicazione già in partenza distorta della morfologia e sintassi latina, sia a errori da lingua d’arrivo dell’inglese.
La ricerca è originale: non risultano altri studi sul latino di "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" (né sulle sue caratteristiche formali, né sui suoi precedenti nella cultura magica antica).

This article examines the performance context of Synesius of Cyrene’s
(ca. 370–415 CE) On Kingship. Synesius draws heavily on the classical tradition, and also incorporates many elements of Themistius’ philosophical style into his speech. But the work was not delivered before the emperor, as it purports, and hints at the fictionality of its own dramatic situation. These hints are not mere play but fit very closely the rhetorical needs of the circumstances. The performance appears to have been a success.

This particular consideration of Piranesi’s influence is not an exhaustive geography of the haunted wanderings of the artist’s aesthetic ghost. Rather, what follows highlights three aspects of eclecticism in his work—presented in loose chronological order—that seem to have had the most bearing on the conceptualization of stylistic heterogeneity in the architecture of the nineteenth century. These three aspects are those which generate that ‘special essence’ of a Piranesi print, that certain impression of amalgamation derived from a sum total presented as the assembly of diverse fragments. The first of these aspects is Piranesi’s innovative coalescence of various influences, particularly in his early architectural fantasies, which were inspired simultaneously by new developments in scenographic perspective, the contemporaneous capriccio genre, and the older tradition of pictorially reconstructing ancient monuments. The second aspect is his combination of physical fragments, considered through the lens of his Vedute and Diverse Maniere. More specifically, it deals with architectural and sculptural ruins as a concept and as the actual product of assemblage: constructing for the former, collecting and making for the latter. The third is his portrayal of space, namely, the ambivalence between the spatial order of his maps and its dissolution in his Carceri, ending with a consideration of his progression toward abstraction, both geometric and perspectival.

The excavations of the University of Warsaw in the so-called Villa of Theseus in Kato Paphos uncovered a unique group of at least twenty sculptures, predominantly depicting mythological figures and divinities. The building took its definite architectural form in the late fourth century, although its construction had started early in the second half of the second century. In terms of decoration, the villa reached its heyday between the late fourth and sixth centuries. Most of the sculptures, which vary in scale and style, have, nevertheless, been described as reduced copies of the late second or early third century at the latest. Yet, their discovery in late antique layers establishes their availability at the time and confirms the importance of sculpture to the villa culture that boomed in Late Antiquity (fourth to seventh century).

It is the aim of this paper to study the statuary from the Villa of Theseus against the background of the architectural development of the building. Immovable decorative elements and architectural features will be considered, in order to assess where sculpture might have been displayed and reconstruct—to the extent possible—the ancient viewers’ experience. The selection of certain sculptural subjects and their significance (decorative, allegorical, religious) will also be discussed.

The paper focuses on Tacitus’ account of the speech made by Claudius in 48 CE in favour of the admission of the primores of ‘long-haired’ Gaul to the senate, examining arguments used by the historian to clarify the reactions to their request and the reasoning adopted by the emperor to convince the senators to accept it. Besides expressing awareness of the efficacy of the criteria used by Romans to create a supranational imperial order, the passage shows Tacitus’ ability to highlight the political meaningfulness of Claudius’ intervention, making it a model worthy of surviving and being mentioned many centuries later in modern culture. In this vein, the second part of the paper analyzes some 16th and early 17th century references to the emperor’s speech in authors such as Justus Lipsius, Scipione Ammirato, Jean Bodin, Traiano Boccalini, Hugo Grotius. Within their works, also dedicated to examining the birth, development and decline of States, we see that besides recalling an episode occurring many centuries before, some key-intellectuals made utilized the story into a valid exemplum to promote a model of efficacious government favouring integration as a means of consolidating modern states.

Analysis of some sections of Remigio Nannini's anthologies of historiographical speeches (Venice, Giolito 1557; 1560; 1561), with special reference to the orations taken from Cassius Dio’s ‘Roman History’, in order to show the tendency of the Dominican Compiler to revitalize their meaning and to interpret their content in the light of the political context of late Cinquecento Florence.

Abstract - Roma Triumphans by Biondo Flavio represents the first treatise offering a systematic investigation of the religious, civic and political institutions of ancient Rome, evaluating data from a historical-comparative viewpoint. Observations on the religious structures of ancient Rome show Biondo’s original aptitude for noticing some specific aspects of Roman Paganism, civic meaning of some of its rituals and values, their evolution and influence on Christian ceremonies. reflecting nonetheless a critical position on Paganism and his profoundly Christian perspective influenced by Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustin. Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea
Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea - Augustin. ---

Sintesi - La Roma Triumphans di Biondo Flavio costituisce il primo trattato che offre una ricognizione sistematica delle istituzioni religiose, civili e politiche dell’antica Roma, valutando i dati dal punto di vista storico-comparativo. Le osservazioni sulle strutture religiose dell’antica Roma mostrano l’inclinazione originale di Biondo nel rilevare alcuni aspetti specifici del Paganesimo romano pur riflettendo una posizione critica nei riguardi del Paganesimo e la sua prospettiva strettamente cristiana, influenzata da Eusebio di Cesarea e Agostino.
Biondo Flavio, Roma pagana, istituzioni religiose, posizione critica nei riguardi del paganesimo, Eusebio di Cesarea - Agostino

The paper focuses on the interpretation of Roman Italy and its geographical borders in the Early Modern period, with particular attention to its rebirth in Biondo Flavio’s work - Key words: Italia romana, historical borders, regiones, Augustus, Pliny the Younger, Decretum Rubiconis, Alpine districts, Augusta Praetoria,  tropaeum Alpium, La Turbie, Aquileia, Histria, river Formio,  Tridentum.

the paper discussed the tradition of Estonian Bucolic poetry, from Neo-Latin and Greek pastorals belonging to Occasional poetry to the pastorals in Estonian from the 20th century. As appendix to the article, the edition of Greek Bucolic Cento by Reinerus Brockmann (together with its sources, mainly from Theocritus) from 1637 is published.

In their pleadings Against Timarchos and On the false embassy, Aeschines and Demosthenes both evoke a statue of Solon erected on the agora of Salamis which would show the legislator with his hand inside his cloak, a gesture indicating his moderation when he spoke in public. The controversy about this representation has already been analysed in order to deepen various questions such as the conflict between the two speakers, our knowledge regarding Solon, the history of the Greek statuary or the reception of the past in Antiquity. The quarrel can be reinterrogated thanks to the heuristic tool of the truth-telling mechanism, used here in the sense of all the procedures, arguments and rhetorical figures that allow litigants to claim the truth. Then, the statue is a privileged means for both Aeschines and Demosthenes to put forward the direct knowledge that the jurors have of the facts. It is a point of tension from which one can examine the articulation between sight and knowledge in Classical Athens.

The architectural language of Antiquity was an example and a source of inspiration for innovation in seventeenth century architecture. A comparison of the Banqueting House in London, the Town Hall in Amsterdam, and the east façade of the Louvre in Paris.