How Philosophers Saved Myths

How Philosophers Saved Myths PDF Author: Luc Brisson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226075389
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
This study explains how the myths of Greece and Rome were transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance. Luc Brisson argues that philosophy was ironically responsible for saving myth from historical annihilation. Although philosophy was initially critical of myth because it could not be declared true or false and because it was inferior to argumentation, mythology was progressively reincorporated into philosophy through allegorical exegesis. Brisson shows to what degree allegory was employed among philosophers and how it enabled myth to take on a number of different interpretive systems throughout the centuries: moral, physical, psychological, political, and even metaphysical. How Philosophers Saved Myths also describes how, during the first years of the modern era, allegory followed a more religious path, which was to assume a larger role in Neoplatonism. Ultimately, Brisson explains how this embrace of myth was carried forward by Byzantine thinkers and artists throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance; after the triumph of Chistianity, Brisson argues, myths no longer had to agree with just history and philosophy but the dogmas of the Church as well.

Plutarch's Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature

Plutarch's Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature PDF Author: Hans Dieter Betz
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900467232X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description


Decoding the Osirian Myth

Decoding the Osirian Myth PDF Author: Panagiota Sarischouli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111435210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 693

Book Description
The earliest written references to the Osirian myth-complex appeared already in the Pyramid Text spells (c. 2400–2300 BCE). The most complete exposition of this ancient Egyptian myth is, however, found in the Greek treatise On Isis and Osiris, in which the 2nd-century CE Platonist Plutarch utilises Egyptian mythology to advocate his philosophical ideas concerning the divine and the nature of the cosmos. This book aims at “decoding” Plutarch’s narrative of the Osirian myth, linking his claims to the existing Egyptian and Greek parallels. It thus analyses a multitude of mythic and religious traditions from a transcultural perspective, exploring the relation of the Pharaonic features of the Osirian divinities to the features they had acquired in Ptolemaic and Roman times, interpreting the Egyptian myth within the overall framework of parallel mythologies from other cultures, and examining whether the brief mythic stories (historiolae) recited in Late Egyptian ritual texts can be deployed to enrich the context of certain obscure episodes in Plutarch’s account of the myth. The book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Plutarch and later Middle Platonism, but also to Egyptologists. Due to its thematic variety and scope, this publication will also appeal to a wider array of readers (specialists and non-specialists alike) interested in religious syncretism, interreligious connections, and the challenge of multiculturalism from Hellenistic times until Late Antiquity.

Moralia

Moralia PDF Author: Plutarch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English prose literature
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. AD 45-120, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man of kindly character and independent thought, studious and learned. Plutarch wrote on many subjects. Most poular have always been the 46 Parallel Lives, biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs (in each pair, one Greek figure and one similar Roman), though the last four lives are single. All are invaluable sources of our knowledge of the lives and characters of Greek and Roman statesmen, soldiers and orators. Plutarch's many other varied extant works, about 60 in number, are known as Moralia or Moral Essays. They are of high literary value, besides being of great use to people interesed in philosophy, ethics and religion.

Plutarch's Moralia

Plutarch's Moralia PDF Author: Plutarch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 524

Book Description


The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology

The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology PDF Author: Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004306218
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 599

Book Description
In The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum investigates for the first time the concept of the daimon (daemon, demon), normally confined to religion and philosophy, within the theory and practice of ancient western astrology (2nd century BCE – 7th century CE). This multi-disciplinary study covers the daimon within astrology proper as well as the daimon and astrology in wider cultural practices including divination, Gnosticism, Mithraism and Neo-Platonism. It explores relationships between the daimon and fate and Daimon and Tyche (fortune or chance), and the doctrine of lots as exemplified in Plato’s Myth of Er. In finding the impact of Egyptian and Mesopotamian ideas of fate on Hellenistic astrology, it critically examines astrology’s perception as propounding an unalterable destiny.

Moralia, vol. 2

Moralia, vol. 2 PDF Author: Plutarch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 540

Book Description
Eclectic essays on ethics, education, and much else besides. Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. AD 45-120, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man of kindly character and independent thought, studious and learned. Plutarch wrote on many subjects. Most popular have always been the forty-six Parallel Lives, biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs (in each pair, one Greek figure and one similar Roman), though the last four lives are single. All are invaluable sources of our knowledge of the lives and characters of Greek and Roman statesmen, soldiers and orators. Plutarch's many other varied extant works, about sixty in number, are known as Moralia or Moral Essays. They are of high literary value, besides being of great use to people interested in philosophy, ethics, and religion. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Moralia is in fifteen volumes, volume XIII having two parts. Volume XVI is a comprehensive Index.

Religion, Ritual and Ritualistic Objects

Religion, Ritual and Ritualistic Objects PDF Author: Albertina (Tineke) Nugteren
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038977527
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
This is a volume about the life and power of ritual objects in their religious ritual settings. In this Special Issue, we see a wide range of contributions on material culture and ritual practices across religions. By focusing on the dynamic interrelations between objects, ritual, and belief, it explores how religion happens through symbolic materiality. The ritual objects presented in this volume include: masks worn in the Dogon dance; antique ecclesiastical silver objects carried around in festive processions and shown in shrines in the southern Andes; funerary photographs and films functioning as mnemonic objects for grieving children; a dented rock surface perceived to be the god’s footprint in the archaic place of pilgrimage, Gaya (India); a recovered manual of rituals (from Xiapu county) for Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, juxtaposed to a Manichaean painting from southern China; sacred stories and related sacred stones in the Alor–Pantar archipelago, Indonesia; lotus symbolism, indicating immortalizing plants in the mythic traditions of Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia; lavishly illustrated variations of portrayals of Ravana, a Sinhalese god-king-demon; figurines made of cow dung sculptured by rural women in Rajasthan (India); and mythical artifacts called ‘Apples of Eden’ in a well-known interactive game series.

Thesaurus Linguae Graecae

Thesaurus Linguae Graecae PDF Author: Maria C. Pantelia
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520388208
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 904

Book Description
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: A Bibliographic Guide to the Canon of Greek Authors and Works (TLG®) is a comprehensive catalog of the authors and works that have survived in Greek from antiquity (eighth century BCE) to the present era and have been collected and digitized by the TLG® in its fifty-year history. It provides biographical information about each author, such as dates, place of birth, and literary activity, as well as a list of their extant works and print publications. This volume encompasses more than 4,400 authors and 17,000 individual works. It offers a concise and authoritative literary history of Greek literature and is an indispensable reference source for its study.

Dining with John

Dining with John PDF Author: Esther Kobel
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004217789
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Book Description
This book provides an analysis of the role of food, drink and meals in the Fourth Gospel, in the formation of early Christian identity, and of the historical circumstances in which Johannine meal practices may have developed.