Shifting social imaginaries in the Hellenistic period : narrations, practices, and images /
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There is a long tradition in classical scholarship of reducing the Hellenistic period to the spreading of Greek language and culture far beyond the borders of the Mediterranean. More than anything else this perception has hindered an appreciation of the manifold consequences triggered by the creation of new spaces of connectivity linking different cultures and societies in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. In adopting a new approach this volume explores the effects of the continuous adaptations of ideas and practices to new contexts of meaning on the social imaginaries of the parties participating in these intercultural encounters. The essays show that the seemingly static end-products of the interaction between Greek and non-Greek groups, such as texts, images, and objects, were embedded in long-term discourses, and thus subject to continuously shifting processes.
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1 online resource (458 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004257993 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Valuing others in classical antiquity /
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How does a discourse of 'valuing others' help to make a group a group? The fifth in a series exploring 'ancient values', this book investigates what value terms and evaluative concepts were used in Greece and Rome to articulate the idea that people 'belong together', as a family, a group, a polis, a community, or just as fellow human beings. Human communities thrive on prosocial behavior. In eighteen chapters, ranging from Greek tragedy to the Roman gladiators and from house architecture to the concept of friendship, this book demonstrates how such behavior is anchored and promoted by culturally specific expressions of evaluative discourse. Valuing others in classical antiquity should be of interest to linguists, literary scholars, historians, and philosophers alike.
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Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004192331 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Attis, between myth and history : king, priest, and God /
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This volume deals with the figure of Attis. The work aims to reconsider the mythical and cultic information about this character, trying to provide proof of the processes of \'construction\' and \'reconstruction\' that have contributed to the moulding of the different forms of Attis that developed as a result of various demands within different religious traditions. After an introduction about the history of the studies, the first part examines the oldest evidence on Attis, resorting to comparison with religious traditions earlier than or contemporary with Phrygian culture. The second part tackles the classical world and collects the elements of continuity and of innovation in respect of Asianic religious traditions. The third part analyses the problem of the processes of reinterpretation of the traditional cults that both the \'pagan\' philosophers and the fathers of the Church effected. The link between Attis and Death is discussed in the fourth part.
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1 online resource (xii, 207 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-198) and indexes. :
9789004295971 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to the reception of Galen /
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Brill's Companion to the Reception of Galen presents a comprehensive account of the afterlife of the corpus of the second-century AD Greek physician Galen of Pergamum. In 31 chapters, written by a range of experts in the field, it shows how Galen was adopted, adapted, admired, contested, and criticised across diverse intellectual environments and geographical regions, from Late Antiquity to the present day, and from Europe to North Africa, the Middle and the Far East. The volume offers both introductory material and new analysis on the transmission and dissemination of Galen's works and ideas through translations into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and other languages, the impact of Galenic thought on medical practice, as well as his influence in non-medical contexts, including philosophy and alchemy.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004394353
The economics of friendship : conceptions of reciprocity in classical Greece /
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In The Economics of Friendship, Tazuko Angela van Berkel offers an account of the notion of reciprocity in 5th- and 4th-century Greek incepting social theory. The preoccupation with the norms of philia and charis, conspicuous in sources from the Classical Period, is a symptom of changes in the shape of ancient economic activities: the ubiquitous norm that one should reciprocate benefit with benefit becomes a source of conceptual confusion in the Classical Period, where other forms of exchange become conceptually available. This confusion and tension between different models of mutuality, is productive: it is the impetus for folk theory in comedy, tragedy and oratory, as well as philosophical reflection (Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle) on what it is that binds people together.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004416147
Akrasia in Greek philosophy : from Socrates to Plotinus /
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Discussions on akrasia (lack of control, or weakness of will) in Greek philosophy have been particularily vivid and intense for the past two decades. Standard stories that presented Socrates as the philosopher who simply denied the phenomenon, and Plato and Aristotle as rehabilitating it straightforwardly against Socrates, have been challenged in many different ways. Building on those challenges, this collective provides new, and in some cases opposed ways of reading well-known as well as more neglected texts. Its 13 contributions, written by experts in the field, cover the whole history of Greek ethics, from Socrates to Plotinus, through Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics (Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Epictetus).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-290) and index. :
9789047420125 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Justice as an aspect of the polis idea in solon's political poems : a reading of the fragments in light of the of the researches of new classical archaeology.
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This book examines the meaning of justice or dike in the political poems of Solon from a new interpretative perspective. The first two chapters argue that neither standard historical nor literary treatments have provided an adequate foundation for understanding Solon's dike . The main defect lies in an inability to connect Solon's concrete political work with his poetic perceptions. The book's central proposal is that the polis idea, from new classical archaeology, provides an objective standard for an interpretation of Solon's dike , which remedies this defect. The third chapter sets forth the polis idea, which becomes the measure for an examination, in the final two chapters, of Solon's view of dike . The book thus exhibits an interdisciplinary approach to Archaic poetry.
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1 online resource (xviii, 284 pages) :
9789047402138 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Kykeon : studies in honour of H.S. Versnel /
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A collection of papers with new insights on ancient religion, read at a colloquium in honour of Professor H.S. Versnel (\'Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion\'). The contributions, presented by nine leading scholars in the field, cover many areas of the religious experience of the Greeks and Romans: myth and ritual (W. Burkert), the gods (F. Zeitlin), cult, festivals, sacrifice. Several papers consider methodological problems and the progress of scholarship; they highlight the contribution of H.S. Versnel to the field. The papers are based on a wide range of sources: pagan and Christian, literary and epigraphical and iconographical. The collection will fascinate all scholars interested in ancient religion, whether they study malign magic, the Imperial cult or general theory.
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1 online resource (viii, 228 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295940 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
On the agora : the evolution of a public space in Hellenistic and Roman Greece (c. 323 BC - 267 AD) /
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On the Agora traces the evolution of the main public square of the Greek polis for the six centuries from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the height of the Roman Empire and the Herulian invasion of Greece in 267 AD. Drawing on literary, epigraphic and, especially, archaeological evidence, the book takes a comparative approach to consider how the layout and function of agoras in cities throughout Greece changed during centuries that witnessed far reaching transformations in culture, society and political life. The book challenges the popular view of the post-Classical agora as characterised by decline, makes important arguments about how we use evidence to understand ancient public spaces and proposes many new interpretations of individual sites.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004334755 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A Local history of Greek polytheism : gods, people, and the land of Aigina, 800-400 bce /
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This book provides the first comprehensive and detailed study of the deities and cults of the important Greek island-state of Aigina from the Geometric to Classical periods (800-400 BCE). It rests on a thorough first-hand reconsideration of the archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence. The development of the local cults is reconstructed, along with their interrelationships and how they responded to the social needs of the Aiginetans. Revising other recent models of interpretation, the author proposes a distinctive approach, informed by anthropology and social theory, to the study of the religious life of the ancient Greeks. On this basis, she uses the case of Aigina to explore fundamental issues such as the nature and variety of local religious worlds and their relationship to the panhellenic concepts and practices of Greek religion.
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1 online resource (xxviii, 690 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 551-577) and index. :
9789004262089 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Der Platoniker Tauros in der Darstellung des Aulus Gellius /
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Aulus Gellius' accounts of his studies in Athens are a major source for the personality of Taurus the Platonic philosopher of the 2nd century A.D. and besides, give important insights into the history of Platonic school of that time. The present work puts together Gellius' reports on the Middle Platonist for the first time and - by its detailed commentary - offers a new understanding of contents, form and methods of his philosophical instructions, of the relationship between teacher and students, and of student life in the 2nd century A.D. in general. By this means numerous topics in ancient philosophy, philology, science, and pedagogics are dealt with. Finally the results thus gained are combined with all remaining literary and epigraphic evidence, so that a lively portrait of Taurus as a philosophical teacher emerges. A collection of testimonies and fragments concerning Taurus' life and work, a comprehensive bibliography, and indices complete the work.
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Revision of the author's thesis, Münster, 1992-1993. :
1 online resource (xi, 294 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-279) and indexes. :
9789004320857 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Politics of orality /
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This volume represents the sixth in the series on Orality and Literacy in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds. The present work comprises a collection of essays that explore the tensions and controversies that arise as a society moves from an oral to literate culture. Part 1 deals with both Homeric and other forms of epic; part 2 explores different ways in which texts and writing were manipulated for political ends. Part 3 and 4 deals with the controversies surrounding the adoption of writing as the accepted mode of communication; whereas some segments of society began to privilege writing over oral communication, others continued to maintain that the latter was superior. Part 4 looks at the oral elements of Athenian Law.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047408086 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The emergence of reflexivity in Greek language and thought : from Homer to Plato and beyond /
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Contemporary preoccupation with the self and the rise of comparative anthropology have renewed scholarly interest in the forms of personhood current in Ancient Greece. However the word which translates "self" most literally, the intensive adjective and reflexive morpheme αὐτός, and its critical role in the construction of human being have for the most part been neglected. This monograph rights the imbalance by redirecting attention to the diachronic development of the heavily marked reflexive system and its exploitation by thinkers to articulate an increasingly reflexive and non-dialogical understanding of the human subject and its world. It argues that these two developmental trajectories are connected and provides new insight into the intellectual history of subjectivity in the West.
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1 online resource (316 pages) :
9789004225152 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The classical commentary : histories, practices, theory /
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This collection explores the issues raised by the writing and reading of commentaries on classical Greek and Latin texts. Written primarily by practising commentators, the papers examine philosophical, narratological, and historiographical commentaries; ancient, Byzantine, and Renaissance commentary practice and theory, with special emphasis on Galen, Tzetzes, and La Cerda; the relationship between the author of the primary text, the commentary writer, and the reader; special problems posed by fragmentary and spurious texts; the role and scope of citation, selectivity, lemmatization, and revision; the practical future of commentary-writing and publication; and the way computers are changing the shape of the classical commentary. With a genesis in discussion panels mounted in the UK in 1996 and the US in 1997, the volume continues recent international dialogue on the genre and future of commentaries.
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1 online resource (xxi, 427 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047400943 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to Alexander the Great /
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Many important issues surrounding Alexander the Great's conquest have captured the interest of scholars and general readers since antiquity. This book acquaints us with these issues and their current interpretations, and opens up new directions of investigation as it confronts them. It covers a broad range of topics: the ancients' representations of the king in literature and art; Alexander's relations with Greeks, Macedonians, and the peoples of Asia; the military, political, sociological, and cultural aspects of his campaigns; the exploitation of his story by ancient philosophers to argue a moral point and by modern communities to affirm or contest ethnic and national identities. This volume will be of interest to scholars and nonspecialists alike and serve as a standard reference work for years to come.
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1 online resource (xv, 400 pages, [16] pages of plates) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [365]-388) and index. :
9789004217553 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Hellenica Oxyrhynchia and historiography : new research perspectives /
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This book involves a new historiographical study of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia that defines its relationship with fifth- and fourth-century historical works as well as its role as a source of Diodorus' Bibliotheke . The traditional and common approach taken by those who studied the HO is primarily historical: scholars have focused on particular, often isolated, topics such as the question of the authorship, the historical perspective of the HO against other Hellenica from the 4th century BC. This book is unconventional in that it offers a study of the HO and fifth- and fourth-century historical works supported by papyrological enquiries and literary strategies, such as intertextuality and narratology, which will undoubtedly contribute to the progress of research in ancient historiography.
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1 online resource (xi, 303 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004325784 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The treatment of war wounds in Graeco-Roman antiquity /
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In this investigation of the treatment of battle trauma in antiquity, 'treatment' is used in a double sense, both as actual medical treatment and literary 'treatment' in non-medical sources. Part I deals with the practical, medical aspects of the topic: the types of wounds likely to result from a battle, their surgical and pharmacological treatment, the question of medical services in ancient armies, medical terminology and the availability of medical knowledge. Part II discusses the use of scenes of wounding and wound treatment in literature, and Part III is a survey of the archaeological evidence. This is the first monograph to examine the topic in all its different aspects; it should be of interest to classicists, medical historians and military historians.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 299 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004377486 :
0925-1421 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Kenchreai, eastern port of Corinth : results of investigations by the University of Chicago and Indiana University for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
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Hundreds of richly decorated ivory and bone fragments from furniture and parts from at least three crossed-leg chairs, survived under seawater in an apsidal room at Kenchreai, the Eastern port of ancient Corinth. These excavated remains include fragments of an incised bone panel with a scene of an emperor and attendants, a thiasos, bucolic and hunt scenes, seated philosophers, erotes, and a miniature ivory Corinthian order supporting a bone arcade decorated with erotes. Decorative moldings and large bone rings suggest that most of these belonged to a luxuriously decorated chest. Dating to the fourth century, these objects provide an important addition to our knowledge of the artistic production of late Roman Egypt and the working of ivory, bone, and wood.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047421160 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.