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Books by Sara Chiarini

Antike Fluchrituale zielten darauf ab, die jeweilige Gerechtigkeitsvorstellung der Verfluchenden ... more Antike Fluchrituale zielten darauf ab, die jeweilige Gerechtigkeitsvorstellung der Verfluchenden durchzusetzen – insbesondere wenn weder das öffentliche Justizsystem noch gesellschaftlich anerkannte Verhaltenskodize dem Anspruch gerecht werden konnten. In den Ritualen kamen sogenannte defixionis tabellae (Fluchtafeln) zur Anwendung, die hier devotiones maleficae genannt werden. Sie bestehen meistens aus eingeschriebenen Bleilamellen und wurden für die Beschädigung eines oder mehrerer Opfer angefertigt.

Sara Chiarini untersucht die dabei verwendete Fluchsprache, die durch ihre formelhaften Strukturen und Bestandteile auf eine Tradition des Fluchrituals hindeuten. Individuelle Ergänzungen bieten hingegen Hinweise auf die Bedingungen um die Entstehung des Rituals, die Gefühlslage der Verfluchenden und die Arten von Bestrafungen, die der rechtlichen Dimension des Rituals entsprechen. Chiarini ergänzt den bisherigen Forschungstand anhand der neu entdeckten und veröffentlichten Fluchtafeln und setzt sich umfassend mit diesem epigraphischen Material auseinander.

As the first extensive survey of the ancient Greek painters’ practice of writing nonsense on vase... more As the first extensive survey of the ancient Greek painters’ practice of writing nonsense on vases, Between Paideia and Paidiá by Sara Chiarini provides a systematic overview of the linguistic features of the phenomenon and discusses its forms and contexts of reception.
While the origins of the practice lie in the impaired literacy of the painters involved in it, the extent of the phenomenon suggests that, at some point, it became a true fashion within Attic vase painting. This raises the question of the forms of interaction with this epigraphic material. An open approach is adopted: “reading” attempts, riddles and puns inspired by nonsense inscriptions could happen in a variety of circumstances, including the symposium but not limited to it.

Il volume costituisce la rielaborazione di una porzione della tesi di dottorato dell'autrice. Ess... more Il volume costituisce la rielaborazione di una porzione della tesi di dottorato dell'autrice. Esso ambisce a fornire una rilettura antiquario-iconografica dell'ekphrasis dello Scutum Herculis, che, nell'ambito degli studi classici, è sempre rimasta all'ombra della ben più nota ekphrasis iliadica dello scudo di Achilleus. Sulla scia dei recenti analoghi studi dedicati ad altre testimonianze dell'arcaismo greco, l'attenzione è focalizzata sia sui singoli dettagli materiali e figurativi, sia su un'interpretazione globale dell'impianto decorativo dello scudo.

Papers by Sara Chiarini

The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense

The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases, 2018

Journal of Hellenic Religion, 2012

ABSTRACT: The sanctuary of Apollon at Pagasai in Thessaly is mentioned for the first time in the ... more ABSTRACT: The sanctuary of Apollon at Pagasai in Thessaly is mentioned for the first time in the late archaic poem Scutum Herculis as the setting of two mythical fights of Herakles, first against Kyknos and then against Ares, of whom Kyknos was son. Through the ...

TYCHE – Contributions to Ancient History, Papyrology and Epigraphy, 2017

The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense, 2021

The dissertation contains a continuous commentary on the late archaic poem known as Scutum Hercul... more The dissertation contains a continuous commentary on the late archaic poem known as Scutum Herculis and wrongly attributed to Hesiod. It discusses especially mythographical, geographic, antiquarian and iconographic issues, but also some linguistic and literary aspects, which can contribute to the outline of the historical and cultural milieu, within which the poem was composed. In the introduction it is showed how the artistic taste of the author of the ekphrasis could date back to the period between the 7th and the 6th century B.C.

... | Ayuda. Contributi alla 'quaestio' leonina. Autores: Sara Chiarini; Locali... more ... | Ayuda. Contributi alla 'quaestio' leonina. Autores: Sara Chiarini; Localización: Aevum antiquum, ISSN 1121-8932, Nº. 4, 2004 , pags. 377-413. © 2001-2010 Universidad de La Rioja · Todos los derechos reservados. XHTML 1.0; UTF‑8.

The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases

The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense

The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases, 2018

Journal of Hellenic Religion, 2012

TYCHE – Contributions to Ancient History, Papyrology and Epigraphy, 2017

The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense, 2021

The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases

Mnemosyne

The ancient theoretical debate on language and its purposes has long concerned scholarship, but o... more The ancient theoretical debate on language and its purposes has long concerned scholarship, but only in recent years a growing attention has been directed to ancient concepts and instances of nonsense in both communication and artistic-literary expression, as the recent monograph by Stephen Kidd attests. This paper engages in an analysis of the phrase οὐδὲν λέγειν/nihil dicere, used to express the nonsense of a statement. An overview of the occurrences of οὐδὲν λέγειν is followed by a survey of what can be considered the ‘reception’ or calque of the Greek idiom in Latin, namely nihil dicere. The concentration of the occurrences, both in Greek and Latin, in the same two genres, i.e. comedy and philosophical dialogue, suggests that the phrase was borrowed from the colloquial vocabulary of the spoken language. The authority of Aristophanes and Plato seems to have eased the assimilation of the locution by authors such as Plautus, Terence and Cicero. The rarity of the phrase outside thes...

Glotta Zeitschrift Fur Griechische Und Lateinische Sprache, 2013

The TheDeMa (Thesaurus Defixionum Magdeburgensis) is the first online digital database of curse t... more The TheDeMa (Thesaurus Defixionum Magdeburgensis) is the first online digital database of curse texts from antiquity.
Please contact me if you want the access codes to try the database before it will be released as an open access resource.

"This presentation is devoted to the visual force of writing. This feature is shared by all liter... more "This presentation is devoted to the visual force of writing. This feature is shared by all literate cultures of all ages and therefore it applies to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations as well. This issue is introduced by examples of the aesthetic use of writing in the Chinese and the Arabic cultures. The fascination for the shapes of letters is attested in the modern Western world as well, like Goethe's copying of Arabic words and the paintings of Cy Twombly illustrate.
Already on the very first documents of the ancient Greek alphabet, writing and pictorial decoration are deeply intertwined: both on the Nestor's cup and on the Dipylon vase, the inscription is adjusted to the geometric patterns, in order to generate an harmonious decorative whole.
From the 8th to the 5th century BC, the practice of enriching a pictorial decoration with writing became popular. The famous François vase is full of captions all over the depicted bands: most of them are the proper names of the painted figures, but some are just common names of objects, which are fully redundant to the understanding of the depicted subject. They do not add any further information or detail, which is not already conveyed by the pictorial representation. So it is to assume that their function is mainly visual.
An extreme development of this artistic use of writing in the Greek culture are the many hundreds of vases carrying inscriptions, which have no meaning in the Greek language, the so called nonsense inscriptions. It is a very curious phenomenon with a quite limited chronological span, allowing therefore to investigate it as a true artistic trend."

The decoration of the shield of Herakles, as it is described in the homonymous late archaic poem,... more The decoration of the shield of Herakles, as it is described in the homonymous late archaic poem, collects a series of images, which all together convey a terrifying and spectacular image of war: fighting warriors, lying corpses, horrible monsters and raging gods generate a gloomy and macabre atmosphere.
This iconography interacts with the main plot of the poem, which narrates the duel between Herakles and Kyknos - the son of Ares -, both being fully equipped in their armours. None would therefore deny that the Scutum Herculis aims at celebrating the spectacle of war in its multifarious dimensions, heroic as well as tragic. This paper focuses on the relationships between the various warlike subjects, which decorate the shield, and their concrete parallels in the contemporary archaic visual art.
The aim of this approach is to show that it is possible to isolate a whole collection of bloody and fearful themes in the art of the archaic ages in Greece, and that it is not just a question of a personal taste for macabre scenes on part of the author of the poem - as it has been suggested for long time - but rather of a whole artistic trend. In detail, new iconographic comparisons with some decorative subjects of the shield will be proposed, like the motif of Ker seizing warriors and that of goddesses/vultures tearing corpses in pieces. These new comparisons are even more interesting in so far as they can offer concrete archaeological records for subjects, which until now were just considered products of the fantasy of the poet of the Scutum. A further step of this inquiry is to outline a growing taste for portraying the darkest and destructive sides of war during the archaic ages: this thread rises from the few hints contained in the Iliad to its full consecration in the Scutum, passing through a series of coeval pieces of figurative art. The whole tendency is here called ‘war as theatre of death’, in opposition to ‘war as theatre of andreia and kleos’, the alternative - and better known - image of war in the Greek epic tradition.

Bei der Betrachtung der altgriechischen fgurativen Kunst sind die Pfanzenmotive, die so oft und i... more Bei der Betrachtung der altgriechischen fgurativen Kunst sind die Pfanzenmotive, die so oft und in allen Zeiten vorkommen, meist unbeachtet geblieben. Andere Funktionen als die, den Bildraum aufzufüllen oder zu schmücken wurden ihnen nicht zugeschrieben. Die Hauptursache dieser Vernachlässigung liegt wahrscheinlich im Mangel wirklichkeitsgetreuer Darstellungen von Pfanzen in der altgriechischen Bildkunst.

Daher fndet man kaum wissenschaftliche Literatur, die diesem Thema gewidmet ist. Der einzige Text, der sich ausführlich mit der griechischen Pfanzendarstellung beschäftigt, ist die Sammlung der Ringvorlesungen der Nordrhein- Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften im Jahr 2004 von Nikolaus Himmelmann. Dies bedeutet, dass dieses Buch den Ausgangspunkt dieser kurzen Präsentation bildet, und dass man seine These diskutieren muss. Nikolaus Himmelmann lässt die Pfanzen- und Blumendarstellung der verschiedenen Zeiten
der altgriechischen Geschichte vorüberziehen, um darauf fußend die Behauptung aufzustellen, dass man trotz der unterschiedlichen Stile eine Konstante ausmachen kann.
Auch die stilisiertesten Formen, wie die des geometrischen Stils, spielen seiner Meinung nach auf Pfanzenmotive und den Naturhintergrund an. Himmelmann sieht eine beständige
Verwendung in der Kunst ab der mykenischen Zeit, bis zum Hellenismus, die von zwei Hauptmerkmale geprägt wird: der konstanten Mischung deskriptiver und symbolischer
Dimension der Darstellung.

Ein zweiter Aspekt, den man berücksichtigen muss, ist die Beziehung zwischen den Pfanzenmotiven und den fgürlichen Szenen auf der Bildoberfäche, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die Räumlichkeitsfunktion der Pfanzenelemente. In diesem Sinn ist der Beitrag der jüngsten Studie von Nikolaus Dietrich besonders bemerkenswert.

Hauptliteratur

Baumann, Helmut (1999). Die griechische Pfanzenwelt in Mythos, Kunst und Literatur. München:
Hirmer.

Baumann, Helmut (2007). Flora Mythologica. Griechische Pfanzenwelt in der Antike. Zürich:
Akanthus.

Dietrich, Nikolaus (2010). Figur ohne Raum? Bäume und Felsen in der attischen Vasenmalerei des 6. und
5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Himmelmann, Nikolaus (2005). Grundlagen der griechischen Pfanzendarstellung. Nordrhein-
Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften – Vorträge G 393. Paderborn: Ferdinand
Schöningh.

At line 25 of the pseudo-Hesiodic poem Shield of Heracles, the people of Locris are listed among ... more At line 25 of the pseudo-Hesiodic poem Shield of Heracles, the people of Locris are listed among the participants in a mythical war against the Taphians and the Teleboans. Beyond the historical problem of the mention of the Locrians in this context - that I will explore in a different study - an important question arises with regard to the epithet they are given in line 25. They are characterised in the Iliad as skilful archers and sling fighters who usually maintain a rearwards position on the battlefield. Here, however, we read that the Locrians are “close fighters” (ἀγχέμαχοι < ἀγχί + μάχομαι). Ancient commentators as well express their surprise before such an attribute, but both ancient and modern scholars have not done much more than simply acknowledge the aporia - except for Oldfather, who interpreted this expression as evidence of changing war practices among the Locrians. According to him, the Shield bears witness to a later historical situation, when the Locrians abandoned their bows and adopted the hoplite technique. My paper shows how this argument is actually unable to explain the presence of the epithet in the poem and suggests a new interpretation based on a passage in Eusthatiusʼ commentary on the Iliad,. Instead of pointing to the distance of the fighters from their enemy, the prefix ἀγχί is much more likely to refer to their closed ranks, so that we could interpret the Hesiodic epithet ἀγχέμαχοι as meaning “the Locrians who fight serried”, scil. with their bows.

How would it be if we applied the so called platonic doctrine about art to an artistic mimesis of... more How would it be if we applied the so called platonic doctrine about art to an artistic mimesis of
second degree, as ekphrasis is? For art itself is an imitation of nature, how can the existence of a
reproduction of such imitation be accepted? This is the challenge faced by the present paper.
Unfortunately we have no hints at this question in Plato's works, but it would be easy to infer his
double condemnation of the literary device of description, following his definition of artist as
mimetikos, whose activity is already far three degrees from truth, because it consists only in
copying appearances (Rep. X 597a-603c).
On the opposite side stands the ancient rhetorical criticism on ekphrasis, which emphasizes the
necessity of insisting on vividness (enargeia) during the description, as if the portrayed characters
took life and almost leapt out of the picture or the relief. By this view the artist (but also the
describer) seems compared to a demiurge, not to a mere imitator.
The innovative translation of the platonic mimesis as “enactment, recreation, reproduction” instead
of “imitation”, given by Eva Keuls, would surely help us in finding a link between these two so
contrasting views. Yet there are not enough elements that allow a similar conclusion.
Thus remains an irreconcilable hiatus, which divides the philosopher from ancient “art critics”, also
attested by the well known episode of Apelle and the shoemaker (Pl. NH XXXV 84 and Val. Max.
VIII 12). According to it, a painter must be versed in all technai to be able to practise his own techne
and this conception is thoroughly against that of the “platonic” artist, who has not any knowledge of
what he represents.