Society for Classical Studies

About: Society for Classical Studies is a nonprofit organization based out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Literature & Philosophy.. The organization is also known as: American Philological Association.

Consolation

Abstract: Abstract Organized efforts to assuage a person’s grief and to counter lament were already commonplace in Greek literature predating the formalization of philosophy, and throughout the Greco-Roman tradition the “consolation” (Lat. consolatio; Gk. paramuthêtikos logos) is recognized above all as a rhetorical enterprise. Yet when deployed by philosophers the discourse included morally and psychologically specific analyses and arguments regarding grief as well as the nature of death. The fullest Roman examples of consolatory theory and practice arise in the writings of Cicero and Seneca the Younger, where we learn much of what we know about the distinct responses to grief recommended by the various ancient schools, especially the Academics, the Stoics, and the Epicureans—though even philosophical consolers were generally permitted to make use of whatever technique held the most promise of success. Philosophy’s role, however, is molded by the highly specific social and biographic situations of these writers. This is also the case in the wide array of Roman authors who experiment with consolation, writing in poetry and prose, in Latin and in Greek, in both real-life and fictional scenarios. Philosophical ideas provide both an organizing framework and a foil, especially in cases where consolation is diverted into parody or where it is allowed to fail conspicuously and thereby throw a more powerful light upon grief. Christian eschatology, however, put at the disposal of authors such as Jerome a new and more decisive argument against grieving at all.