Download or read book The Limits of Ancient Biography written by Brian McGing and published by Classical Press of Wales. This book was released on 2007-12-31 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The genre of biography in the ancient world is interestingly diverse and permeable and deserves intensive study, bearing as it does on ideas of characterization and the individual. This volume considers both the form and the content of biography across the ancient world, and is particularly interested in the frontiers with other related genres, such as history. The papers range from the Old Testament to the Arab world, from the New Testament to the Lives of Saints, from the classic Greek and Roman biographers to less well known practitioners of the art.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography written by Koen De Temmerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman. Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.
Download or read book Writing Biography in Greece and Rome written by Koen De Temmerman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient biography is now a well-established and popular field of study among classicists as well as many scholars of literature and history more generally. In particular biographies offer important insights into the dynamics underlying ancient performance of the self and social behaviour, issues currently of crucial importance in classical studies. They also raise complex issues of narrativity and fictionalization. This volume examines a range of ancient texts which are or purport to be biographical and explores how formal narrative categories such as time, space and character are constructed and how they address (highlight, question, thematize, underscore or problematize) the borderline between historicity and fictionality. In doing so, it makes a major contribution not only to the study of ancient biographical writing but also to broader narratological approaches to ancient texts.
Download or read book Lucian True History written by Diskin Clay and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucian of Samosata's True History is a fantastical tale of voyage and imagination. No editor, translator, or reader knows quite how to describe it or fit it comfortably into a familiar genre of Greek literature: 'satires' and 'dialogues' only partially describe the genre or genres he wrote in. Of all the ancient Greco-Roman writers, Lucian is without doubt one of the most inventive and witty. The Greek text in this edition of the True History is accompanied by a facing page English translation, making it an accessible and informative resource aimed at students and teachers of Greek. Whether used in the classroom or in research, readers will benefit from an introduction to Lucian and his place in imperial Greek literature, as well as a translation and commentary that bring out the wonders of his True History.
Download or read book Engaging Early Christian History written by Ruben R. Dupertuis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-03 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book extends scholarly debate beyond the analysis of pure historical debates and concerns to focus on the associations between Acts and the diverse contemporaneous texts, writers, and broader cultural phenomena in the second-century world of Christians, Romans, Greeks, and Jews.
Download or read book After Ancient Biography written by Robert Fraser and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marrying life-writing with classical reception, this book examines ancient biography and its impact on subsequent ages. Close readings of ancient texts are framed by an assessment of their influence on the age of the French Revolution and Napoleon, and on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, of responses to ancient biography of modern critics, and of its visible legacy in art and film. Crucially it asks what modern biographers can learn from their ancient predecessors. Are the challenges involved in life-writing still the same? Have working methods changed, and in what ways? What in the context of biographical writing is truth, and how are its interests best served? How is it possible, now as then, honestly to convey a life?
Download or read book The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi written by George H. van Kooten and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the fruit of the first ever interdisciplinary international scientific conference on Matthew's story of the Star of Bethlehem and the Magi, held in 2014 at the University of Groningen, and attended by world-leading specialists in all relevant fields: modern astronomy, the ancient near-eastern and Greco-Roman worlds, the history of science, and religion. The scholarly discussions and the exchange of the interdisciplinary views proved to be immensely fruitful and resulted in the present book. Its twenty chapters describe the various aspects of The Star: the history of its interpretation, ancient near-eastern astronomy and astrology and the Magi, astrology in the Greco-Roman and the Jewish worlds, and the early Christian world – at a generally accessible level. An epilogue summarizes the fact-fiction balance of the most famous star which has ever shone.
Download or read book Springs of Western Civilization written by James A. Arieti and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Springs of Western Civilization is a comparative exploration of the Hebraic and classical traditions that form our heritage. In examining these traditions before they united, James Arieti locates the catalyst for their bonding in two related circumstances: adoption by the biblical world of an eclectic mélange of Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism that, in the centuries on each side of the Common Era, produced consensus models both of God and of a warmhearted individual; and belief that the writings of Plato were literally true—a belief that arose from failing to understand his playful, metaphorical techniques of composition. Among the many effects of the mingling of biblical and philosophical values was a re-focusing of literature from the heroes of epic to the compassionate characters we recognize as Menschen.
Download or read book Martyriumsvorstellungen in Antike und Mittelalter written by Sebastian Fuhrmann and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concepts of voluntary death and martyrdom versus the ideal of preserving human life are an essential component of the Ethics of the Abrahamite religions throughout their history. The studies collected in this volume focus on concepts of voluntary death and martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Period Judaism, Early Christianity and its pagan environment, Rabbinic Judaism as well as in Islam. The contributions of scholars of different background present a broad panorama of the varied perspectives of the Abrahamite religions on this phenomenon. The established concepts of martyrdom are challenged as too schematic. Betrachtungen über das Ideal eines freiwilligen Todes für den eigenen Glauben oder eines Martyriums, das in scharfem Gegensatz zum Gebot der Lebensbewahrung steht, ziehen sich durch die Geschichte der abrahamitischen Religionen. Der vorliegende interdisziplinäre Band versammelt Forschungen zu den Vorstellungen eines religiös begründeten freiwilligen Todes oder Martyriums in der Hebräischen Bibel, im Judentum des Zweiten Tempels, im Frühchristentum und seiner paganen Umwelt, im rabbinischen Judentum und im Islam. Die Beiträge verdeutlichen die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven der abrahamitischen Religionen auf dieses Phänomen. Es zeigt sich, dass die übergreifende, verallgemeinernde Charakterisierung jedes religiös bedingten freiwilligen Sterbens als 'Martyrium' der Komplexität des Phänomens nicht gerecht wird.
Download or read book The Gospel of Luke as Masterpiece written by Nico Riemersma and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers fifteen studies on the Gospel of Luke by Nico Riemersma, who specialized in this gospel. It contains both articles in which special pericopes from the Gospel of Luke are central (Mary’s visit to Elizabeth in Luke 1,39-56; the twelve-year-old Jesus in de temple, in Luke 2,40-52; the baptism of Jesus in 3,21-23 and his testing in 4,1-13; the Fernheilung of a centurion’s slave in 7,1-10 and the raising of a young man at Naïn in 7,11-17) and studies on details (καθεξῆς in Luke 1,3; ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου in Luke 2,49; ἐγέρθητι in 7,14 and ὁ ἐρχόμενος in 7,19.20). In addition, there are thematic studies (the parallelism between John and Jesus, Elijah in relationship with John and Jesus; the travelling motif in Luke-Acts) and articles with an eye for the structure (of the overture, 1,5-2,52 and of the whole book, 1,1-24,53). Through ‘close reading’, the book reveals Luke’s high-quality literary form and rich theological content. This meticulous way of reading allows for a deeper understanding of the text, giving this gospel extra shine. This method is extremely helpful in solving text problems that the reader(s) will face.
Download or read book A Companion to Greek Literature written by Martin Hose and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-10-12 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Greek Literature presents a comprehensive introduction to the wide range of texts and literary forms produced in the Greek language over the course of a millennium beginning from the 6th century BCE up to the early years of the Byzantine Empire. Features contributions from a wide range of established experts and emerging scholars of Greek literature Offers comprehensive coverage of the many genres and literary forms produced by the ancient Greeks—including epic and lyric poetry, oratory, historiography, biography, philosophy, the novel, and technical literature Includes readings that address the production and transmission of ancient Greek texts, historic reception, individual authors, and much more Explores the subject of ancient Greek literature in innovative ways
Download or read book Visions and Faces of the Tragic written by Paul M. Blowers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the pervasive early Christian repudiation of pagan theatrical art, especially prior to Constantine, this monograph demonstrates the increasing attention of late-ancient Christian authors to the genre of tragedy as a basis to explore the complexities of human finitude, suffering, and mortality in relation to the wisdom, justice, and providence of God. The book argues that various Christian writers, particularly in the post-Constantinian era, were keenly devoted to the mimesis, or imaginative re-presentation, of the tragic dimension of creaturely existence more than with simply mimicking the poetics of the classical Greek and Roman tragedians. It analyses a whole array of hermeneutical, literary, and rhetorical manifestations of “tragical mimesis” in early Christian writing, which, capitalizing on the elements of tragedy already perceptible in biblical revelation, aspired to deepen and edify Christian engagement with multiform evil and with the extreme vicissitudes of historical existence. Early Christian tragical mimetics included not only interpreting (and often amplifying) the Bible's own tragedies for contemporary audiences, but also developing models of the Christian self as a tragic self, revamping the Christian moral conscience as a tragical conscience, and cultivating a distinctively Christian tragical pathos. The study culminates in an extended consideration of the theological intelligence and accountability of “tragical vision” and tragical mimesis in early Christian literary culture, and the unique role of the theological virtue of hope in its repertoire of tragical emotions.
Download or read book Imperialism Cultural Politics and Polybius written by Christopher Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume address central problems in the development of Roman imperialism in the third and second century BC. Published in honour of the distinguished Oxford academic Peter Derow, they follow some of his main interests: the author Polybius, the characteristics of Roman power and imperial ambition, and the mechanisms used by Rome in creating and sustaining an empire in the east. Written by a distinguished group of international historians, all of whom were taught by Derow, the volume constitutes a new and distinctive contribution to the history of this centrally important period, as well as a major advance in the study of Polybius as a writer. In addition, the volume looks at the way Rome absorbed religions from the east, and at Hellenistic artistic culture. It also sheds new light on the important region of Illyria on the Adriatic Coast, which played a key part in Rome's rise to power. Archaeological, epigraphic, and textual evidence are brought together to create a sustained argument for Rome's determined and systematic pursuit of power.
Download or read book Collecting Recipes written by Lennart Lehmhaus and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a clear comparative approach, this volume brings together for the first time contributions that cover different periods of the history of ancient pharmacology, from Greek, Byzantine, and Syriac medicine to the Rabbinic-Talmudic medical discourses. This collection opens up new synchronic and diachronic perspectives in the study of the ancient traditions of recipe-books and medical collections. Besides the highly influential Galenic tradition, the contributions will focus on less studied Byzantine and Syriac sources as well as on the Talmudic tradition, which has never been systematically investigated in relation to medicine. This inquiry will highlight the overwhelming mass of information about drugs and remedies, which accumulated over the centuries and was disseminated in a variety of texts belonging to distinct cultural milieus. Through a close analysis of some relevant case studies, this volume will trace some paths of this transmission and transformation of pharmacological knowledge across cultural and linguistic boundaries, by pointing to the variety of disciplines and areas of expertise involved in the process.
Download or read book Ancient Biography written by Francis Cairns and published by ARCA, Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Biography contains revised versions of most of the papers given at the Colloquium Narrating Lives: Biography and Identity in Antiquity (held in 2015 at Florida State University), along with contributions from other scholars in the fields of biographical writing and identity. A combined bibliography and indexes are included.
Download or read book Visualizing the invisible with the human body written by J. Cale Johnson and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Physiognomy and ekphrasis are two of the most important modes of description in antiquity and represent the necessary precursors of scientific description. The primary way of divining the characteristics and fate of an individual, whether inborn or acquired, was to observe the patient’s external characteristics and behaviour. This volume focuses initially on two types of descriptive literature in Mesopotamia: physiognomic omens and what we might call ekphrastic description. These modalities are traced through ancient India, Ugaritic and the Hebrew Bible, before arriving at the physiognomic features of famous historical figures such as Themistocles, Socrates or Augustus in the Graeco-Roman world, where physiognomic discussions become intertwined with typological analyses of human characters. The Arabic compendial culture absorbed and remade these different physiognomic and ekphrastic traditions, incorporating both Mesopotamian links between physiognomy and medicine and the interest in characterological ‘types’ that had emerged in the Hellenistic period. This volume offer the first wide-ranging picture of these modalities of description in antiquity.
Download or read book Man of High Empire written by Roy K. Gibson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pliny the Younger (c. 60-112 C.E.)--senator and consul in the Rome of emperors Domitian and Trajan, eyewitness to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, and early 'persecutor' of Christians on the Black Sea--remains Rome's best documented private individual between Cicero and Augustine. No Roman writer, not even Vergil, ties his identity to the regions of Italy more successfully than Pliny. His individuality can be captured by focusing on the range of locales in which he lived: from his hometown of Comum (Como) at the foot of the Italian Alps, down through the villa and farms he owned in Umbria, to the senate and courtrooms of Rome and the magnificent residence he owned on the coast near the capital. Organized geographically, Man of High Empire is the first full-scale biography devoted solely to the Younger Pliny. Reserved, punctilious, occasionally patronizing, and perhaps inclined to overvalue his achievements, Pliny has seemed to some the ancient equivalent of Mr. Collins, the unctuous vicar of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Roy K. Gibson reveals a man more complex than this unfair comparison suggests. An innovating landowner in Umbria and a deeply generous benefactor in Comum, Pliny is also a consul who plays with words in Rome and dispenses summary justice in the provinces. A solicitous, if rather traditional, husband in northern Italy, Pliny is also a literary modernist in Rome, and--more surprisingly--a secret pessimist about Trajan, the 'best' of emperors. Pliny's life is a window on to the Empire at its zenith. The book concludes with an archaeological tour guide of the sites associated with Pliny.
