Journal Phasis - Greek and Roman Studies
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Adaptations of Aesopian “Fancy” and Didactics of the “Wisdom” of His Moral in the Works of Prominent Fabulists
Get PDFThe article reviews how Aesopian literature’s legacy – "Fancy" and didactics of "Wisdom" were assimilated by world-famous fabulists. The main motive for Aesop is the dominance of a "sophisticated mind" over physical beauty. Aesop, who was of lowly origin homo de plebe and was strikingly ugly, had an outstanding mental potential. Herodotus’ Histories contain biographical facts about the fabulist; Aristophanes considers unknowing of his fables unacceptable; Wise Socrates was said to rhyme Aesop’s fables to entertain himself while imprisoned. Aesop’s social status led to him using allegory and creating fables where the animal world spoke like humans. The article reviews Aesop’s aspirations, that a human must have spiritual values, wit (fables Aesop on the Deck, The Fox and the Leopard). The theme of spiritual poverty had an influence on La Fontaine (The Fox and the Mask). Human foolishness is displayed in the fable A Swimming Boy, wherein a passer-by sees a boy caught in the current and about to drown, instead of helping he scolds the youngster for his carelessness. We find a similar motive in Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s fable Imprudent Swimmer, who beseeches God for help, his friend advices him to use his own hands to survive. Aesop rejects origin, nobility in fables: The Fox and the Monkey, The Fox and the Crocodile. The main role is given to the interrelation problem between the strong and the weak, which had a great resonance in the writings of many countries. A significant place is given to the following fables: The Lion and the Mouse, The Wolf and the Lamb, The Cat and the Cock, The Eagle and the Bug. In the first fable the king of the predators is freed by the mouse. The following two fables present a similar "verdict" by the wolf and the cat, both of them find the blame for the innocent because they are hungry. The fable The Wolf and the Lamb was assimilated so well first by La Fontaine and then by Krilov that they leave the impression of an original text. As for The Eagle and the Bug, Aristophanes mentions it in The Wasps. The eagle ignored the bug’s pleas and ate the rabbit, which cost it the future children’s lives. The defeat of the mighty lion by the weak, small rabbit and the rescue of other animals is also present in Panchatantra, Book I, Tale VIII. Aesop relentlessly battles against lies and duplicity (The Fox and the Woodchopper) with hidden meanings, allegory, irony and use of other means to teach the generations how to live a proper life.
Ancient Metal Production Sites from Southwest Georgia in Light of New Archaeological Evidence
Get PDFThe work describes archaeological finds unearthed and studied during a 4 year joint Georgian and British expedition (2010-2012) on the territory of southwestern Georgia. The study of early ironware is admitted to be among the most challenging areas of historical sciences. Broad scholarly interest in it is associated with the significant role of iron in early communities. The early use of iron has been confirmed in many advanced states of the Ancient East, but iron mining and processing (early groups of iron smelting workshops) has not so far been attested in these areas – at least to the extent to meet the local demand. The situation is different on the territory of western Georgia (historical Colchis), where Georgian specialists have discovered and studied a significant number of large-scale mining and metallurgical centers in the last 60 years. Recent findings add more evidence to the opinion that the eastern and south-eastern Black Sea area (historical Colchis) was the important region that produced ancient ironware. However, part of researchers question the early date of iron smelting workshops found in western Georgia (radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating). More specifically, they question the geophysical examination results of the 1970s-90s. The joint Georgian-British expedition aimed to specify the date of early iron production in Colchis, which required the application of up-to-date technological methods. In this, we were closely aided by our foreign partners. Besides, earlier findings were described with the help of modern equipment and were mapped. The works also allowed us to observe the transition from iron production to bronze production to make relevant conclusions in the future.
Parodic Epiphany of Dionysus in T. S. Eliot’s Sweeney among the Nightingales
Get PDFUniversalization of the specifically banal background in Sweeney among the Nightingales is provided by means of associative recollection of a variety of mythological plots. The associative structure of the poem is arranged in such a way that the process of eating at the restaurant (the ritual "nibbling" at the flesh of the killed God) occurs as a parodied act of Communion, associated with the murder and lechery taking place at the brothel: the victim should be killed in order to be eaten afterwards. Of course, no act of murder is being committed on the realistic or \u27narrative\u27 level of the poem – Rachel simply reaches for the grapes, yet on the level of symbolic associations, the Maenads \u27with murderous paws\u27 tear apart and devour the zoomorphic Dionysus. The moment of parodic Communion is emphasized here because, in fact, Rachel is consuming consecrated flesh and blood of the deity (according to Fraser, the participants of Dionysian revels believed that by eating the sacrificial flesh of the victim, they, like Dionysus, would also become gods). Following this pattern, the lady in the Spanish cape really sits on Sweeney’s lap and later on – sitting in a pool of coffee split on the floor, she "draws a stocking up." Yet, considering the whole set of symbolic associations, this extremely laconic obscenity is nothing more than a parodied "ritual adultery," committed while drinking wine (or drinking coffee in Eliot’s poem)
Γλωσσική υποχώρηση και γλωσσική επιβίωση. Το παράδειγμα των ιδιωμάτων της Βιθυνίας
Get PDFThe present paper discusses the dialects of a part of Bithynia, Asia Minor, in an effort to report on the way in which the evolutionary process of the area’s dialects was affected by the peculiar multinational environment first of Asia Minor and later of Greece. In this context we present the sociolinguistic parameters that have affected the aforementioned dialects so as to show how and for what reasons language resists in unfavourable linguistic environments and under adverse sociohistorical circumstances (Asia Minor – Ottoman environment). Next, we examine to what extent and how the creation of the Greek state and the "unified national language" in the 19th century affected the course of the evolution of these dialects in Asia Minor, and lastly, we explore how language resistance mechanisms are inactivated in a theoretically "friendlier" linguistic environment, such as that of the Greek territory in this case. It should be noted that the age-old evolution of these dialects in Asia Minor was interrupted due to their users’ emigration and dispersal in Greece in 1922. The dialects of Bithynia followed the downward course of all language varieties that strive to coexist with the current "official national language." The conditions of their attenuation acted somewhat deterministically in the context of the frequently problematic rationale of an assimilative national policy. Today, once again, in the new globalized society, similar pressures are exerted to form a unified language as a tool of communication and not of expression, and subsequently to impose a kind of "monolingualism." However, outside and beyond any form of ethno-romantic nostalgia, it is necessary and imperative to encourage the maintenance of linguistic diversity, as it is connected with two basic needs: (a) on the one hand the ability of the speaker, in language practice, to draw elements from more than one languages or varieties without being stigmatized by negative attitudes and feelings of inferiority and disparagement concerning his/her mother tongue, and (b) on the other hand the need to be tuned in to a more general demand of advanced societies, which is now a political one, namely the self-evident protection of their citizens’ right to identity determination choices
Peculiarities of the Phenomenon of Overcoming Death by Hero and Saint
Get PDFLate antiquity is marked by substitution of the heroic ideal by the ideal of sainthood. Preliminary studies has shown that victory of Christianity was not the victory of the one God over the many, it was a victory of man over the institutions of their past. The article discusses changing the perception of the Death from antique heroes to Christian saints. Antique ideology introduced heroes who achieve everlasting glory and fame by performing physical power, courage and heroism. They die in the battlefield a ‚καλὸς θάνατος‛ and defeat the death by their everlasting glory. This conception is destroyed in ‘Meditations’ of Marcus Aurelius: everlasting remembrance is ephemeral, after-fame is vanity. Christianity introduced a completely different path. Saints deny ephemeral material life and glory and seek martyrdom in order to attain eternal life. That common paradigm can be discerned in hagiography about warrior saints – soldiers of the Roman Empire renouncing their military service to become soldiers of Christ. Lately, in the High Middle Ages, warrior saints images contributed to the notion of the Holy War. Participants in the Holy War were promised a spiritual reward, such as remission of their sins and assurance of a place in paradise. Thus two main ways could be identified to overcome the death: everlasting glory, which defeats the death and eternal life, which denies the death. These peculiarities of Antique and Christian attitudes enable us to clarify the significance of the symbolic meaning of military service and weapon that goes back to Plato and was adopted by Christianity
Prometheus bei Grigol Robakidse
Get PDFGrigol Robakidze’s predilection for myth is well-known. For him, a myth was not just a matter of the past but a living presence and relevant in the politics of his time. He was fascinated by Prometheus, known in Georgia as Amirani and almost identical with his Greek counterpart – Amirani has, however, no deliverer like Heracles, his torture on a rock of the Caucasus does not end (if it did, the Golden Age would begin). In his novel Die Hüter des Grals (1937) the first chapter, entitled Promethean Ecstasy, implies that Prometheus’s punishment is justified because he was too self-empowered if not self-righteous, and in their ecstatic struggle for absolute freedom this is a weakness that endangers Caucasian men. Thus the guardians of a second grail, a miraculous gift from Saint Nino, are also doomed to failure in their struggle against the Soviets’ attempts to profane what they adore. The Soviet power cannot, however, ultimately destroy the grail and the Georgian heart that it represents. This same idea is developed in a loosely structured essay Das Geschlecht des Prometheus, which my colleague and I recently discovered. Robakidze wrote it for the Brüsseler Zeitung (no. 236, 26 August 1942), and in it he describes distinguished Georgian freedom fighters whose uncompromising attitude of self-ratification places them in the Promethean ‚danger zone‛. The traditional role of a thavad is the paradigm of a Promethean hero in Robakidze’s view. He discusses outstanding leaders in Georgian history and notes the ambivalence between their utter devotion to the worthy cause of obtaining freedom and their egotistic transgression of a taboo. Even though such heroes may fail, Georgians admire them intensely for their courage and dedication. Of consequence, in this case, is that the essay, supposedly only on a Georgian myth, and far removed from the immediate concerns of its readers, was published in occupied Brussels, in a Nazi-controlled German newspaper
Intellectual Characters in Homer’s Epic
Get PDFIn modern scientific literature the theory of intellect by Howard Gardner – a Harvard University professor, is widely acknowledged. Howard Gardner admits that the intellect of the person may be defined according to the skills he owns. However, a skill is a person’s inherent (physical and mental) ability. The ability is given to a human being as a potential and further development of this ability depends on how the person will be given a chance to develop this skill (for instance, appropriate education, living conditions, requirements and so on). If a person acts properly or gets proper training, the inherent ability turns into a skill and if he does not learn or work in this field, this skill will not develop. The paper aims to define the intellectual level of the characters in the Homeric epic. They seem to have almost all the characteristics that are given in the theory of intellect by Howard Gardner: they are self-critical; they can admit their fault; they can give wise advice; they can take sensible advice into consideration; they never refuse to apologise; they make compromises; they have rich vocabulary; they can predict the results (that is why they make compromises); they are physically active; they are good leaders; they love team-work (fight), etc. Accordingly, they have all kinds of intellect: linguistic-humanitarian, logical-mathematical, visual-graphic, physical-kinesthetic, audio-musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal intellect. Their intellectual level is not lower than of what a modern educated person has. That means ancient education gave the same skills to people as the modern education provides
