Myths and Narratives Claude Calame (ed.): Métamorphoses du mythe en Grèce antique. (Religions en Perspective, 4.) Pp. 247. Geneva: Éditions Labor et Fides, 1988. Paper (original) (raw)

1990, The Classical Review

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The collection "Métamorphoses du mythe en Grèce antique" edited by Claude Calame explores the evolution and transformation of myths in ancient Greece through various scholarly articles. Contributors analyze specific myths, such as that of Meleager and Iphis, examining their adaptability and reinterpretation across different contexts, particularly from Greek to Roman narratives. The essays highlight shifts in religious significance, narrative techniques, and the embedding of myths within subsequent mythologies, ultimately showcasing the nuanced interplay between myth and its many retellings.

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Socrates and his Companions in Art

Jesus. This last, probably most often repeated pairing 1 immediately brings to mind an important dichotomy. The Life and Death of Socrates are indeed two separate issues and diverse historical or mythical figures are compared with Socrates either because of their connection in life, or on account of their death. One sees immediately which is the more powerful paradigm. In all probability many people found the manner and significance of the death of Socrates by far the most impressive fact known about him, certainly more imposing than his relations with Alcibiades or Diotima, and without doubt easier to grasp than to study his philosophical method, let alone to try to disentangle 'Socratic' from 'Platonic' teachings. Perhaps on account of the unequalled moving beauty of the last pages of the Phaedo it seems that it is the picture of Socrates emptying the cup of hemlock that is embedded in our collective consciousness, as the Crucifixion surpasses all the other numerous images of the events of the Life of Jesus. * I have kept as far as possible the style of the lecture. I should like to thank the Editor for helpful comments and suggestions; anybody consulting the web-site of his course on Socrates will appreciate some of the debt I owe him. The remaining faults, inaccuracies and infelicities are to be ascribed to my obstinacy.

The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity

2013

From the CUA catalog: Ancient biographies were more than accounts of the deeds of past heroes and guides for moral living. They were also arenas for debating pressing philosophical questions and establishing intellectual credentials, as Arthur P. Urbano argues in this study of biographies composed in Late Antiquity. With its origins in the competing philosophical schools of Hellenistic Greece, the genre of the "philosophical life" provided verbal portraits of paradigmatic figures - usually rulers and philosophers - that epitomized diverse approaches to knowledge, piety, and the virtuous life. An eruption of biographical literature in Late Antiquity attests to a similar, but more intense, struggle to influence the future directions of religion, education, politics, and morality in the Roman Empire as leaders of Neoplatonism and Christianity engaged one another through historical figures. In a close analysis of the texts and the circumstances surrounding their composition, he argues that the production of biographies was a standard competitive practice among Greek educated intellectuals. Christian thinkers who wrote biographies, for the most part bishops, simultaneously drew upon the literary and philosophical education they shared with their rivals and challenged it. Proposing alternate histories and new paradigms of philosophy, including ascetics and women, they came to terms with the past and aimed to shape a new Christian future. Urbano traces the transformation of the late Roman empire through the lens of biographies which debated such issues as proper worship, access to God, politics, ethnicity, gender, and philosophic pedigree. He covers the writings of several Christian and Neoplatonist authors between the 3rd and 5th centuries to demonstrate how biographical literature played a significant role in the transformation of Rome into a Christian empire. "A significant contribution to the history of Late Antiquity, specifically, the history of philosophy and the history of religion... unique for using biography as the lens through which to view an age of religious and cultural transformation."—Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara"

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