Abstract:This essay advances a new account of Vergil's philosophical interests in the fourth book of the Georgics, qualifying the didactic speaker's ostensible diffidence in this area. Alongside technical bee-materials overtly sourced from Aristotle's zoological work, he offers a political characterisation of the hive as "city"(polis) that is directly indebted to Plato's Politeia (i.e. the Republic). Within the same passage (4.149–227), Vergil's account of recurrent bee-behaviours reveals additional Aristotelian influence, in particular as to the figure of the "king": applied to the paradigmatic genus of bees, it will be argued, physiological and theological theories to be found in the libri esoterici supply a deeper rationale for the interconnection of animals and plants, as also for the relationship between animals and man, than has been allowed for in existing treatments of Georgics 4. An exploratory analysis of Vergil's father-god (Jupiter) in relation to Aristotle's Prime Mover as ultimate motive cause within the natural world provisionally concludes that the conception of the supreme divinity introduced in Georgics 1 reflects awareness of the text known to us as Metaphysics Lambda (i.e. Book 12). Despite the well-known issues of contemporary accessibility and intrinsic obscurity that beset the relevant works, the enquiry addresses a gap in modern scholarship and offers a basis for further investigation of Vergil's debt to the corpus Aristotelicum in the Georgics.
{"title":"Vergilius Philosophus: Bees, the Divine, and the Roman Reception of Aristotle (Georgics 4.149–227)","authors":"A. Hardie","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay advances a new account of Vergil's philosophical interests in the fourth book of the Georgics, qualifying the didactic speaker's ostensible diffidence in this area. Alongside technical bee-materials overtly sourced from Aristotle's zoological work, he offers a political characterisation of the hive as \"city\"(polis) that is directly indebted to Plato's Politeia (i.e. the Republic). Within the same passage (4.149–227), Vergil's account of recurrent bee-behaviours reveals additional Aristotelian influence, in particular as to the figure of the \"king\": applied to the paradigmatic genus of bees, it will be argued, physiological and theological theories to be found in the libri esoterici supply a deeper rationale for the interconnection of animals and plants, as also for the relationship between animals and man, than has been allowed for in existing treatments of Georgics 4. An exploratory analysis of Vergil's father-god (Jupiter) in relation to Aristotle's Prime Mover as ultimate motive cause within the natural world provisionally concludes that the conception of the supreme divinity introduced in Georgics 1 reflects awareness of the text known to us as Metaphysics Lambda (i.e. Book 12). Despite the well-known issues of contemporary accessibility and intrinsic obscurity that beset the relevant works, the enquiry addresses a gap in modern scholarship and offers a basis for further investigation of Vergil's debt to the corpus Aristotelicum in the Georgics.","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"381 - 419"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44696589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Nothos, bastard, is a word used with unusual frequency in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. In this paper, I investigate the word's importance for Nonnus as a descriptor for both himself and his hero. Through a careful survey of the word's appearances in connection with the poem's major themes of transformation, cosmic upheaval, and sexual violence, as well as an analysis of the poet's direct references to Homer, I propose that Nonnus makes nothos synonymous with artistic excellence. All art is the work of bastards, he suggests, and by this logic he is able to proudly claim his place as the bastard heir to Homer's legacy.
{"title":"Epic's Bastard Son: The Importance of Being Nothos in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus","authors":"M. Henry","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Nothos, bastard, is a word used with unusual frequency in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. In this paper, I investigate the word's importance for Nonnus as a descriptor for both himself and his hero. Through a careful survey of the word's appearances in connection with the poem's major themes of transformation, cosmic upheaval, and sexual violence, as well as an analysis of the poet's direct references to Homer, I propose that Nonnus makes nothos synonymous with artistic excellence. All art is the work of bastards, he suggests, and by this logic he is able to proudly claim his place as the bastard heir to Homer's legacy.","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"421 - 455"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46764293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Book 14 of the Palatine Anthology comprises, alongside proper riddles and oracles, forty-five arithmetical epigrams. Long underrated as poetry, these deserve to be reappraised in light of a recent trend of unmasking a complex cultural agenda of ancient scientific literature. By focusing on two particularly elaborate epigrams (AP 14.1 and 4), this discussion sets out to explore these poems' self-aware engagement with various literary and cultural traditions. I argue that as poetry as much as pieces of an arithmological jigsaw puzzle, these are vehicles for an intricate, if not entirely serious, Platonizing and neo-Pythagorean program of uniting poetry and mathematics.
{"title":"Socrates' Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything: Explaining the Arithmetical Riddles of AP 14","authors":"J. Kwapisz","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Book 14 of the Palatine Anthology comprises, alongside proper riddles and oracles, forty-five arithmetical epigrams. Long underrated as poetry, these deserve to be reappraised in light of a recent trend of unmasking a complex cultural agenda of ancient scientific literature. By focusing on two particularly elaborate epigrams (AP 14.1 and 4), this discussion sets out to explore these poems' self-aware engagement with various literary and cultural traditions. I argue that as poetry as much as pieces of an arithmological jigsaw puzzle, these are vehicles for an intricate, if not entirely serious, Platonizing and neo-Pythagorean program of uniting poetry and mathematics.","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"457 - 486"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47267186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Complex Inferiorities: The Poetics of the Weaker Voice in Latin Literature ed. by Sebastian Matzner and Stephen Harrison (review)","authors":"James Uden","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"490 - 493"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44468773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exemplary Ethics in Ancient Rome by Rebecca Langlands (review)","authors":"J. Seo","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"311 - 313"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43547884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Trimalchio's pastry peahens' egg dish in Petronius' Satyrica (33.3–8) alludes to Ennius' dream of Homer in the proem of the Annales (especially fragments 8–11 Sk). This intertextual play extends into several of Trimalchio's other dishes as well. These allusions to Pythagorean metempsychosis as explained by Ennius' Homer reinforce the depiction of Trimalchio's home as an underworldlike space and lend nuance to the various Pythagorean references in the Satyrica. The pastry peahens' eggs also fit into a larger network of metaliterary avian motifs in the novel that may have played a role in Petronius' construction of his own authorial identity.
{"title":"The Peacock, the Chicken, and the Egg: Ennius' Avian Metempsychosis and Petronius' Satyrica","authors":"Barbara Blythe","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Trimalchio's pastry peahens' egg dish in Petronius' Satyrica (33.3–8) alludes to Ennius' dream of Homer in the proem of the Annales (especially fragments 8–11 Sk). This intertextual play extends into several of Trimalchio's other dishes as well. These allusions to Pythagorean metempsychosis as explained by Ennius' Homer reinforce the depiction of Trimalchio's home as an underworldlike space and lend nuance to the various Pythagorean references in the Satyrica. The pastry peahens' eggs also fit into a larger network of metaliterary avian motifs in the novel that may have played a role in Petronius' construction of his own authorial identity.","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"179 - 209"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44617636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The present paper discusses the account of Circe that was put forward by an unknown author in the treatise De Homero. When analyzing how the enchantress transmogrifies from an allegory of pleasure into an allegory of metempsychosis, this article shows that Pseudo-Plutarch utilizes various Pythagorean, Platonic and Stoic views, as he moves from a Platonizing account of the story (Odysseus personifies renunciation of the flesh, Circe symbolizes reincarnation) to a Stoicizing one (the hero represents the self-sufficiency of virtue, the sorceress stands for pleasure). The study argues that Pseudo-Plutarch's goal is more rhetorical than philosophical and that his approach is better characterized as "encomiastic" rather than "syncretic" or "eclectic."
{"title":"Marrying Stoicism with Platonism? Pseudo-Plutarch's Use of the Circe Episode","authors":"M. Domaradzki","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The present paper discusses the account of Circe that was put forward by an unknown author in the treatise De Homero. When analyzing how the enchantress transmogrifies from an allegory of pleasure into an allegory of metempsychosis, this article shows that Pseudo-Plutarch utilizes various Pythagorean, Platonic and Stoic views, as he moves from a Platonizing account of the story (Odysseus personifies renunciation of the flesh, Circe symbolizes reincarnation) to a Stoicizing one (the hero represents the self-sufficiency of virtue, the sorceress stands for pleasure). The study argues that Pseudo-Plutarch's goal is more rhetorical than philosophical and that his approach is better characterized as \"encomiastic\" rather than \"syncretic\" or \"eclectic.\"","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"211 - 239"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49488518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fortuna: Deity and Concept in Archaic and Republican Italy by Daniele Miano (review)","authors":"Meghan J. Diluzio","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"307 - 310"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45046236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Not For All: Nostalgic Distortions as a Weapon of Segregation in Secondary Classics","authors":"Dani Bostick","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"283 - 306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44410736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Explanations for the absence of slavery in the Golden Age followed two distinct tracks in classical literature. The argument that rule by a virtuous monarch precluded the existence of slavery can be traced from Pompeius Trogus to the middle Stoa. A second argument credits the spontaneous abundance of the earth with the redundancy of slave labor. Athenaeus ascribes this idea to Old Comedy but, upon closer inspection, signals its actual origins in the Cynic tradition. While both arguments had ethical content, neither made a case for abolition, and most accounts of the Golden Age pass over the topic of slavery in silence.
{"title":"The Absence of Slavery in the Golden Age: Cynic and Stoic Perspectives","authors":"Rose Maclean","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2020.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Explanations for the absence of slavery in the Golden Age followed two distinct tracks in classical literature. The argument that rule by a virtuous monarch precluded the existence of slavery can be traced from Pompeius Trogus to the middle Stoa. A second argument credits the spontaneous abundance of the earth with the redundancy of slave labor. Athenaeus ascribes this idea to Old Comedy but, upon closer inspection, signals its actual origins in the Cynic tradition. While both arguments had ethical content, neither made a case for abolition, and most accounts of the Golden Age pass over the topic of slavery in silence.","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":"141 1","pages":"147 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ajp.2020.0017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49377737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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