Showing papers in "Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies in 1989"

Athenian Grave Monuments and Social Class

Abstract: T HE LARGE CORPUS of Attic tombstones commemorating citizens is an extremely valuable source for the study of Athenian demography. The sepulchral inscriptions, which span the period ca 400 B.C. to ca A.D. 250, record the names of 4,519 Athenians: 2,905 men, 1,472 women, 142 of unknown sex.! For males we learn the name, the demotic, and often the patronymic of the individual commemorated on the stone; and a comparison of the recorded demotic with the provenance of the grave monument may give valuable information about population movements within Attica. In a study of population in town and country A. W. Gomme adduced as his principal evidence a count of Attic tombstones of the fourth and third centuries B.C.2 In a recent re-examination and updating of Gomme's material, A. Damsgaard-Madsen has corroborated his conclusion that the tombstones testify to a

The Proems of Empedocles and Lucretius

Abstract: Writing to his brother in 54 B.C., Cicero supplies two unique testimonies (Ad Q. Fr. 2.9.4). In the first sentence he echoes Quintus' admiration for Lucretius' poem, thus providing the sole allusion to the De rerum natura likely to be more or less contemporary with its publication. In the second, he attests the publication of an Empedoclea by a certain Sallustius, presumably a Latin translation or imitation of Empedoc1es.1 But even more striking than the two individual testimonies is their juxtaposition. Editors have traditionally printed a full stop after sed cum veneris, apparently understanding \"But when you come ... (sc. we will discuss it).\" This suppresses any overt link between the two literary judgements. On the more natural and fluent reading that can be obtained simply by substituting a comma for the full stop, as printed above,2 the letter becomes an explicit comparison between the DRN and the Empedoclea:

The Invulnerable Pleasures of Epicurean Friendship

Abstract: L'amitie epicurienne met-elle en question l'auto-suffisance? La critique ancienne : l'amitie epicurienne est ignoble| la critique moderne : elle est egoiste

Threatened wombs: aspects of ancient uterine magic.

Abstract: M PURPOSE is to present and discuss the ancient evidence for magical practices and religious beliefs pertaining to the womb and its reproductive capacities, and the ways in which human and supernatural interventions were thought capable of interfering with the natural process of reproduction. 1 Scattered information about these practices is found in the literary sources, supplemented by epigraphical, papyrological, and archaeological evidence. This material sheds light on various aspects of uterine magic but fails to provide a total picture; internal contradictions and inconsistencies are numerous. And as the evidence considered here comes from various parts of the Graeco-Roman world and ranges from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., one would expect to meet some difficulty in integrating it into a homogeneous description of this phenomenon. The views of classical antiquity on how women were affected by natural and magical influences at the time of conception, pregnancy, and delivery belong to a very common and widespread set of popular beliefs, clothed in a pseudo-scientific form; they originated in Near Eastern and Egyptian cultures and were based on the observation and interpretation of natural phenomena. Although scarcely

Unreal Conditions in Homeric Narrative

Abstract: Mabel Lang f\:. GIVEN to all kinds of conditional clauses in Homer has been limited, as far as I can discover, to concern about their origin, form, and constituent parts. 1 Concerning contrafactual conditions in particular I find only occasional passing references to Homer's use of them.2 Some consideration is therefore given here to why and where Homer uses unreaP conditions both with regard to their effect on the narrative and in the matter of their different uses in the Iliad and Odyssey. First, a distinction must be noted among unreal conditions depending on whether the protases are affirmative or negative. Take for example two everyday, ordinary, unreal conditions,

Colotes and the Epicurean Refutation of Skepticism

Abstract: M y OBJECTIVE here is to map out the successive stages of development in the Epicurean refutation of skepticism. It is widely assumed that Epicurus himself developed in full the orthodox battery of Epicurean anti-skeptical arguments,l but I will try to show that these arguments originated at different stages in the history of Epicureanism to meet the challenge posed by different varieties of skepticism. The common assumption that Epicurus himself undertook to refute the skepticism of Pyrrho or of the Academic Arcesilaus rests on questionable conjecture rather than solid evidence: this is nowhere attested, and Epicurus' only recorded anti-skeptical argument, in fact, is directed against his Democritean predecessors. In this case he simply modifies the atomist theory of perception so as to disarm its skeptical implications, employing neither of the strategies (the self-refutation and apraxia arguments) usually attributed to him by modern scholars. Epicurus' strategy against the atomists, however, is not effective against the more powerful version of skepticism practiced by the Academic skeptic, who advances no 06yJ.1(l'tCl (not even his skeptical practice of £1tOxit or of suspending assent in all matters) as true in his own name, but merely adopts his dogmatic opponent's prem-

Aristophanes’ Apprenticeship Again

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The Trojans, Statistics, and Milman Parry

Abstract: When we examine noun-epithet formulae in all the grammatical cases for the Trojans of the Iliad, we are struck by a remarkable fact: with two exceptions,1 no one formula is repeated exactly more than a few times. This is most evident in the nominative, where all the other characters who occur anything like as often as the Trojans display at least one, and usually several, noun-epithets repeated precisely: the same words, the same grammatical case, the same position in the hexameter. Twenty-six of the familiar Homeric characters repeat a formula at least 10 times; the Trojans, who are mentioned more often than 16 of these 26, have no formula at all in the nominative case repeated more than 4 times. Since noun-epithet formulae have come to be regarded as the very staples of Homeric composition, the Trojan deficit-or apparent deficit-requires an explanation. 2 This might appear to be merely a matter of pointing to the nounepithet formulae for the Trojans and the others, and counting. But pointing and counting are not enough. For one thing, the Trojans might be defective in the number and occurrences of all their formulae, and not simply in noun-epithets; therefore we must inquire whether the Trojans possess as many formulae as the others, and whether these formulae occur as often. For another, the Trojans might possess formulae of a different kind, which Homer employed instead of noun-epithets. Finally, a potential numerical