Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.46
Nora Goldschmidt
This chapter explores biographical receptions of Greek and Roman poets in the twentieth century. Classical scholarship has now begun to recognize ancient biography as a creative mode of reception in Antiquity. In the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, reading the texts of Greek and Roman poetry for the lives of their authors has been an especially rich and multifaceted mode of reception, providing for many readers a means of grappling with the ancient texts within the changing cultural landscape of modernity. Yet, unlike the medieval and early modern traditions of literary biography, in the twentieth century, academic and creative Lives have tended to part company. When it comes to Greek and Roman poets, though a few full-length literary biographies that still attempt to claim factual status have been produced, conventional narrative biographies that aim to set out the ‘facts’ are generally only found in isagogic contexts such as introductions to texts and translations, or textbooks of literary history. Moreover, partly because modern authors are acutely aware that there are few ‘facts’ beyond the poets’ works themselves on which to base their material, and partly as a broader consequence of modern preoccupations with fragmentation and the limits of knowledge, creative life-writing about the ancient poets in this period is found more frequently in ludic snapshots rather than full-blown narrative biographies.
{"title":"After-Lives","authors":"Nora Goldschmidt","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.46","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores biographical receptions of Greek and Roman poets in the twentieth century. Classical scholarship has now begun to recognize ancient biography as a creative mode of reception in Antiquity. In the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, reading the texts of Greek and Roman poetry for the lives of their authors has been an especially rich and multifaceted mode of reception, providing for many readers a means of grappling with the ancient texts within the changing cultural landscape of modernity. Yet, unlike the medieval and early modern traditions of literary biography, in the twentieth century, academic and creative Lives have tended to part company. When it comes to Greek and Roman poets, though a few full-length literary biographies that still attempt to claim factual status have been produced, conventional narrative biographies that aim to set out the ‘facts’ are generally only found in isagogic contexts such as introductions to texts and translations, or textbooks of literary history. Moreover, partly because modern authors are acutely aware that there are few ‘facts’ beyond the poets’ works themselves on which to base their material, and partly as a broader consequence of modern preoccupations with fragmentation and the limits of knowledge, creative life-writing about the ancient poets in this period is found more frequently in ludic snapshots rather than full-blown narrative biographies.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129510932","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e113830
Corinne Jouanno
The present paper focusses on the oldest version of the Alexander Romance (the so-called alpha recension). It is a composite work, made of heterogeneous elements whose combination generates tensions in the portrayal of the protagonist, Alexander. His presentation is multifocal: making use of letters, speeches, and dialogues, and multiplying the points of view, the narrator constructs a kaleidoscopic image of Alexander which is that of an actant rather than a character. Nevertheless, the emphasis put on Alexander’s singularity and exceptional destiny gives the Romance its consistency. The prevalence of an entertaining prospect implies a redirection of biographical tools for the benefit of fictitiousness.
{"title":"The Alexander Romance","authors":"Corinne Jouanno","doi":"10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e113830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e113830","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper focusses on the oldest version of the Alexander Romance (the so-called alpha recension). It is a composite work, made of heterogeneous elements whose combination generates tensions in the portrayal of the protagonist, Alexander. His presentation is multifocal: making use of letters, speeches, and dialogues, and multiplying the points of view, the narrator constructs a kaleidoscopic image of Alexander which is that of an actant rather than a character. Nevertheless, the emphasis put on Alexander’s singularity and exceptional destiny gives the Romance its consistency. The prevalence of an entertaining prospect implies a redirection of biographical tools for the benefit of fictitiousness.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128322318","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.4
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Ancient popular biographies are distinguished by a set of common characteristics: primacy of content over form, simple one-dimensional characterization, a non-organic accumulative structure, circulation in variant versions, wide appeal across space and time, and heavy dependence on oral storytelling materials. The various traditions regarding the Seven Sages current in classical Greece were a form of collective popular oral biography of this group and influenced later biographical compositions significantly. The protagonists of these stories are often shown in roles typically found in the folktale repertoire. The Life of Aesop is an exemplary representative of popular biography. It combines old legends about Aesop, anecdotes borrowed from other cultural traditions, pieces of wisdom literature, and widespread folktales. It incorporates many specimens of folk genres (fables, scabrous novellas, proverbs, riddles) and reproduces the structure of Aesopic fables on a magnified scale. Other biographical compositions containing such popular elements (Life of Secundus, Alexander Romance, Lives of Homer) are also briefly discussed.
{"title":"Popular Biography","authors":"Ioannis M. Konstantakos","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.4","url":null,"abstract":"Ancient popular biographies are distinguished by a set of common characteristics: primacy of content over form, simple one-dimensional characterization, a non-organic accumulative structure, circulation in variant versions, wide appeal across space and time, and heavy dependence on oral storytelling materials. The various traditions regarding the Seven Sages current in classical Greece were a form of collective popular oral biography of this group and influenced later biographical compositions significantly. The protagonists of these stories are often shown in roles typically found in the folktale repertoire. The Life of Aesop is an exemplary representative of popular biography. It combines old legends about Aesop, anecdotes borrowed from other cultural traditions, pieces of wisdom literature, and widespread folktales. It incorporates many specimens of folk genres (fables, scabrous novellas, proverbs, riddles) and reproduces the structure of Aesopic fables on a magnified scale. Other biographical compositions containing such popular elements (Life of Secundus, Alexander Romance, Lives of Homer) are also briefly discussed.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126543580","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.41
Eric R. Varner
This chapter explores the portraits, statues, and triumphal arches in Imperial Rome. Rome’s growing military and political ascendance throughout the Mediterranean during the third and second centuries bc coincided with significant artistic developments in the realm of portraiture and historical documentation in the visual arts. The visual landscape of the city was densely packed with statues in gold, silver, bronze, and marble, vast numbers of which were portraits honouring the men and women of Rome for their lifetime achievements. In addition, the statuary population included images which surmounted the numerous triumphal arches positioned throughout the city. Portraits formed the artistic analogue of written biographies, encomia, and panegyrics, as did the historical and allegorical narrative reliefs that often adorned triumphal arches.
{"title":"Triumphant Lives","authors":"Eric R. Varner","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.41","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.41","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the portraits, statues, and triumphal arches in Imperial Rome. Rome’s growing military and political ascendance throughout the Mediterranean during the third and second centuries bc coincided with significant artistic developments in the realm of portraiture and historical documentation in the visual arts. The visual landscape of the city was densely packed with statues in gold, silver, bronze, and marble, vast numbers of which were portraits honouring the men and women of Rome for their lifetime achievements. In addition, the statuary population included images which surmounted the numerous triumphal arches positioned throughout the city. Portraits formed the artistic analogue of written biographies, encomia, and panegyrics, as did the historical and allegorical narrative reliefs that often adorned triumphal arches.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127699507","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.30
Danny Praet
This chapter assesses the special relationship between the ancient genre of biography and the religious phenomenon of holy men. Spiritual biographies are performative texts: there are many examples of characters who were established as holy men by the texts written about them. Some of these were totally invented by the authors, others lived in such a distant past or the information was so scarce or the intention of the authors were of such a nature that nothing can be accepted as historically reliable. These texts were written to serve a purpose: examples for moral mimesis, establishment of spiritual or philosophical authority, or the promotion of a cult with all its implications of power and wealth. There is no formal unity: spiritual biographies exist in prose and in verse, in narrative and in dialogue-form, as letters and speeches, they can be very short and very long, and contain many or few miracles.
{"title":"Holy Men","authors":"Danny Praet","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.30","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses the special relationship between the ancient genre of biography and the religious phenomenon of holy men. Spiritual biographies are performative texts: there are many examples of characters who were established as holy men by the texts written about them. Some of these were totally invented by the authors, others lived in such a distant past or the information was so scarce or the intention of the authors were of such a nature that nothing can be accepted as historically reliable. These texts were written to serve a purpose: examples for moral mimesis, establishment of spiritual or philosophical authority, or the promotion of a cult with all its implications of power and wealth. There is no formal unity: spiritual biographies exist in prose and in verse, in narrative and in dialogue-form, as letters and speeches, they can be very short and very long, and contain many or few miracles.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129018177","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.5
J. Geiger
This chapter assesses Jewish biography. Jews have produced a rich literature in Hebrew, included in the Hebrew Bible, as well as works now lost. After the conquests of Alexander and their coming into the orbit of classical civilization, Jews also contributed to Greek literature, mainly in two forms. First, the Pentateuch and then the other books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek (the Septuagint). Second, they produced a copious literature in Greek, intent on conforming to the language, styles, and genres of Greek literature, but true to their own traditions, concerns, and beliefs (Jewish-Hellenistic literature). This chapter analyses the biographical elements in the Hebrew Bible and addresses the few biographical and autobiographical works of Jewish-Hellenistic literature. It is only the two Hellenized Jews, Philo of Alexandria and the historian Josephus, who produced Jewish biographies and an autobiography, while Herod’s memoirs belong here only insofar as the king was a Jew.
{"title":"Jewish Biography","authors":"J. Geiger","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.5","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses Jewish biography. Jews have produced a rich literature in Hebrew, included in the Hebrew Bible, as well as works now lost. After the conquests of Alexander and their coming into the orbit of classical civilization, Jews also contributed to Greek literature, mainly in two forms. First, the Pentateuch and then the other books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek (the Septuagint). Second, they produced a copious literature in Greek, intent on conforming to the language, styles, and genres of Greek literature, but true to their own traditions, concerns, and beliefs (Jewish-Hellenistic literature). This chapter analyses the biographical elements in the Hebrew Bible and addresses the few biographical and autobiographical works of Jewish-Hellenistic literature. It is only the two Hellenized Jews, Philo of Alexandria and the historian Josephus, who produced Jewish biographies and an autobiography, while Herod’s memoirs belong here only insofar as the king was a Jew.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125885059","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.38
Elizabeth Frood
This chapter surveys the genre normally referred to by Egyptologists as ‘biography’ or ‘autobiography’, comprising texts, often inscribed on stone monuments, which recount, in various forms, events in a non-royal person’s life and/or aspects of their moral character. Such biographies are attested from the third millennium bc to Roman times, making them one of the longest-lived and most characteristic textual genres known from ancient Egypt. The chapter begins by briefly summarizing issues surrounding the genre’s definition, as well as the range of approaches taken by Egyptologists to its analysis. An overview of the display contexts for biography is then given, ranging across the walls of tomb-chapels to the bodies of stone statues set up in temples. The discussion deploys a broadly chronological structure in order to give a sense of development and scope. Some potential analytical implications of these contexts are highlighted, for example around performance and audience. The final discussion centres on features of content; these texts were products of a predominantly elite male world so, unsurprisingly, are usually highly idealizing presentations of character and action. The genre’s richness and diversity in terms of themes and expression within this framework is highlighted.
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Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.39
Christof Schuler, Florian R. Forster
Inscriptions—permanently incised texts on stone or bronze—are a characteristic feature of Greek and Roman Antiquity. It applies to all periods of ancient epigraphy that by far the most common genres of inscriptions are those directly related to individual persons: funerary inscriptions provide the most substantial single corpus, followed by religious dedications and honorific inscriptions. In their simplest forms, these kinds of texts are almost entirely reduced to a name, the crucial element used to identify a person. To be called biographical, an inscription should contain more substantial information on the various stages of a person’s life that serves to characterize them in greater detail and proposes a moral judgement of their lives. Unlike literary texts, inscriptions as artefacts were generally conceived to communicate condensed information on a restricted space. For this purpose, a special language with a fixed repertoire of standardized formulae was developed, and especially Latin epigraphy also makes heavy use of abbreviations. Only very long texts—that on the grounds of their exceptional importance were inscribed irrespective of their length and the effort required—can come close to biographies but account for only an infinitely small percentage of the extant epigraphic material.
{"title":"Engraved Lives","authors":"Christof Schuler, Florian R. Forster","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.39","url":null,"abstract":"Inscriptions—permanently incised texts on stone or bronze—are a characteristic feature of Greek and Roman Antiquity. It applies to all periods of ancient epigraphy that by far the most common genres of inscriptions are those directly related to individual persons: funerary inscriptions provide the most substantial single corpus, followed by religious dedications and honorific inscriptions. In their simplest forms, these kinds of texts are almost entirely reduced to a name, the crucial element used to identify a person. To be called biographical, an inscription should contain more substantial information on the various stages of a person’s life that serves to characterize them in greater detail and proposes a moral judgement of their lives. Unlike literary texts, inscriptions as artefacts were generally conceived to communicate condensed information on a restricted space. For this purpose, a special language with a fixed repertoire of standardized formulae was developed, and especially Latin epigraphy also makes heavy use of abbreviations. Only very long texts—that on the grounds of their exceptional importance were inscribed irrespective of their length and the effort required—can come close to biographies but account for only an infinitely small percentage of the extant epigraphic material.","PeriodicalId":103728,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114902854","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}
Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.42
Martin Hinterberger
This chapter studies direct and indirect influences of classical and late antique biographical forms and contents on Byzantine biographical writing. Both the main characteristics of Byzantine biographical writing and the richness of forms and contents become clear. The influence of the vita/bios on other (even non-biographical) genres and the concomitant biographization are noted. Biography has to be interesting, edifying, and entertaining. ‘Adventures’ are an important element as is the constant movement of the heroes. Indeed, a recurrent topic is the hero’s flight and other people’s pursuit of him. It is remarkable that there are so many biographies of people from the provinces who came to Constantinople for various reasons. Constantinople itself is an important point of reference in many biographies, as is the emperor or the patriarch. Education and learning, too, play a significant role. The specific characteristics of Byzantine biography, however, still remain vague. A lot of further scholarly work needs to be done before the art of biography can be properly understood.
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Pub Date : 2020-12-10DOI: 10.1163/2214-8647_bnps2_com_0236
Noreen Humble
This chapter focuses on Xenophon of Athens. Assessments of Xenophon’s literary skills have always been positive in discussions about ancient Greek biography and its development. Scholars have recognized how remarkably diverse the literary forms are which he uses in order to explore character and assess individual lives, even if they do not agree precisely on which of his works ought to fall within the ambit of the study of ancient biography. The chapter examines the pivotal role the figure of Socrates plays in Xenophon’s biographical experiments. The desire to capture Socrates’ essence, to understand how and why he lived as he did, inspired a whole genre of writing—Sokratikoi logoi—which undoubtedly drew on earlier anecdotal collections such as that of Ion of Chios, but which became something more comprehensive and more biographical. A certain flexibility with truth was allowed, for if a fictionalized scenario could better represent a deeper truth about Socrates’ character and life than strict historicity, then that in the end was what was important. This flexibility with the truth characterizes all of Xenophon’s biographical experiments, though in different ways, depending upon the other aims of these works.
本章主要讨论雅典的色诺芬。在讨论古希腊传记及其发展时，对色诺芬文学技巧的评价一直是积极的。学者们已经认识到，为了探索人物和评价个人生活，他使用了多种多样的文学形式，尽管他们在他的哪部作品应该属于古代传记研究的范围上意见不一。本章探讨苏格拉底在色诺芬的传记实验中所扮演的关键角色。人们渴望捕捉苏格拉底的精髓，理解他是如何以及为什么这样生活的，这激发了一种完整的写作体裁——sokratikoi logoi——毫无疑问，这种体裁借鉴了早期的轶事集，比如《希俄斯的伊翁》(Ion of Chios)，但后来变得更全面、更传记化。对事实有一定的灵活性是允许的，因为如果一个虚构的场景比严格的史实更能代表苏格拉底性格和生活的更深层次的真相，那么最终这才是重要的。这种对事实的灵活性是色诺芬所有传记实验的特点，尽管方式不同，取决于这些作品的其他目的。
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