Hellenistic Information in China

Juping Yang | 3 October 2014

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

The Tyrant’s Network: Appearances of Characters in the Letters of Phalaris

Citation with persistent identifier: Marquis, Emeline. “The Tyrant’s Network:  Appearances of Characters in the Letters of Phalaris.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:MarquisE.The_Tyrants_Network_Appearances_of_Characters.2014 1§1 The letters of Phalaris are a fascinating object, both for their content and for their history. This epistolary fiction contains 148 letters attributed to Phalaris, the historical tyrant of sixth-century Sicily, who became a mythical figure and the archetype of a cruel ruler; the letters are all written… Read more

Language/Literature Philosophy/Science Research Symposium Papers

Plato and Xenophon on Friendship. A Comparative Study (Plato Lysis and Xenophon Conversations of Socrates 2.6)*

Citation with persistent identifier: Tamiolaki, Melina. “Plato and Xenophon on Friendship. A Comparative Study (Plato Lysis and Xenophon Conversations of Socrates 2.6)”. CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:TamiolakiM.Plato_and_Xenophon_on_Friendship_a_Comparative_Study.2014 …if Xenophon’s understanding of Socrates is correct, I believe that in sophisticated, inquisitive Athens people would rather have Socrates done away with because he bored them than because they feared him. S. Kierkegaard. 1841. The Concept of Irony with Continual… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Khronos, Cronos, and the Cronion Hill: The Spatialization of Time in Pindar’s Olympian 10

Citation with persistent identifier: Pavlou, Maria. “Khronos, Cronos, and the Cronion Hill: The Spatialization of Time in Pindar’s Olympian 10.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:PavlouM.Chronos_Kronos_and_the_Kronion_Hill.2014 The mountain sat upon the plain In his eternal chair, His observation omnifold, His inquest everywhere. The seasons prayed around his knees, Like children round a sire: Grandfather of the days is he, Of dawn the ancestor. E. Dickinson, ‘The Mountain’  … Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology History Research Symposium Papers

Prevention or Cure? Tax Exemptions in a Warfare Context: Miletus and the Low Valley of the Maeander (early second century BCE)

Citation with persistent identifier: Carrara, Aurélie.”Prevention or Cure? Tax Exemptions in a Warfare Context: Miletus and the Low Valley of the Maeander (early second century BCE).” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:CarraraA:Prevention_or_Cure_Tax_Exemptions.2014 1§1 Taxation in ancient Greece had various purposes. The easiest to identify is the acquisition of the revenue needed to pay for the public expenditures. Taxation was also used to meet other specific needs of the… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Οὐ τὸ νικᾶν ἀλλὰ τὸ εὖ ἀγωνίζεσθαι: Playing to win or to show off? Itinerant artists performing in unconventional ἀγῶνες in some decrees from…

Citation with persistent identifier: Cinalli, Angela. “Οὐ τὸ νικᾶν ἀλλὰ τὸ εὖ ἀγωνίζεσθαι: Playing to win or to show off? Itinerant artists performing in unconventional ἀγῶνες in some decrees from Delphi (third to first century BC).” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:CinalliA.Playing_to_Win_or_to_Show_Off.2014 §1 In the cultural panorama of the Hellenistic Period, a significant space is occupied by itinerant professionals of literature and music who travelled from city to… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Leisure Rules in Archaic Greece: Legislation on Inebriation and Foul Play in Literary and Epigraphic Sources

Citation with persistent identifier: Martín González, Elena. “Leisure Rules in Archaic Greece: Legislation on Inebriation and Foul Play in Literary and Epigraphic Sources.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:MartinGonzalezE.Leisure_Rules_in_Archaic_Greece.2014 1§1 Communal wine-drinking and athletic competition are the quintessential leisure activities in the Archaic Greek society. In the Homeric poems, the aristocratic elite is portrayed enjoying wine during feasts, an activity that enhances camaraderie and reinforces boundaries within the… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology History

The City at the Theater in Anatolia from the 260s to the 320s AD: Signs of a Major Transformation

Citation with persistent identifier: Pont, Anne-Valérie. “The City at the Theater in Anatolia from the 260s to the 320s AD: Signs of a Major Transformation.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:PontAV.The_City_at_the_Theater_in_Anatolia_from_the_260s.2014 Introduction 1§1 The “theater” is, by definition and etymology, the scene of the performance, the place for looking at something.  From the Greek classical world up to the civic societies of the Greek part of the Roman Empire,… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology History

Abstract–The City at the Theater in Anatolia from the 260s to the 320s AD: Signs of a Major Transformation

Life in the cities of Asia Minor between the 260s and the 320s is rarely studied: there is a bibliographical gap for the period between High Empire and Late Antiquity. Different sources, of an epigraphic, literary, juridical, hagiographic or patristic nature, nevertheless allow for the analysis of the modes of community life on a local scale and of its new dynamics. The uses of the theater and the collective emotions… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Early Reperformances of Drama in the Fifth Century

Citation with persistent identifier: Lamari, Anna. “Early Reperformances of Drama in the Fifth Century.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2014). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:LamariA.Early_reperformances_of_drama_in_the_fifth_century.2014 Introduction 1§1 When we think of the three classical tragedians we usually picture them as writing, directing, or even performing their own plays, not as supervising the re-performances of their own work. The beginning of reperformances of drama is traditionally placed in 387/6 BC for tragedies and in 340/39… Read more

History Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Hellenistic Information in China

The eastern conquest of Alexander the Great not only created a new Hellenistic world and civilization but also established the foundation of later Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean. It was through this net of routes covering almost all the former Hellenistic world that the Hellenistic legacy was spread into China by various mediums. The information mainly was embodied in the early Chinese documents and the historical relics extant… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Reclining with Callinus and Tyrtaeus: Martial Elegy in the Symposion

That martial elegy, like all shorter elegy, belonged to (some form of) the symposion has become a matter of scholarly orthodoxy since Ewen Bowie formulated his powerful arguments to this effect almost thirty years ago. More recently, Elizabeth Irwin has offered a thorough analysis of the social function of martial elegy in the symposion within a historicist framework. What remains to be explained fully is precisely how these poems ‘worked’ as… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–What Thumb’s Handbook Tells Us About the Development of Contemporary Greek”

Our project began as the first steps toward an updating of Albert Thumb’s classic work, Handbuch der neugriechischen Volkssprache, originally published in 1895 (second edition, 1910) in German and then translated into English by Samuel Angus and published in 1912 under the title Handbook of the modern Greek vernacular: grammar, texts, glossary.  In the project’s early stages, we discovered that the variety of Modern Greek which Thumb describes – late… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–“Οὐ τὸ νικᾶν ἀλλὰ τὸ εὖ ἀγωνίζεσθαι" Playing to Win or to Show Off? Itinerant Artists Performing in Unconventional ἀγῶνες in Some Decrees from…

The epigraphic documentation of Hellenistic Delphi testifies to an extremely active involvement of the poeti vaganti in a dynamic and prolific cultural life. Aside the ἀγῶνες, the inscriptions attest to various kinds of individual performances, helping us to reconstruct at different levels the activity of performers of music and literature in the city. A group of decrees, which has interested scholars because of their numerous distinctive features, suggests the activity… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Chronos, Cronos, and the Cronion Hill: The Spatialization of Time in Pindar's Olympian 10

Time holds a central and prominent place in Pindar’s Olympian 10. My paper focuses on a specific passage (49-55) which, as I argue, promotes an association between chronos and Cronos, thus advancing chronos as a primordial and dominant power. This suggestion has already been put forward by some scholars, but mainly as evidence to support a similar role assumed by chronos in other texts, such as the treatise by Pherecydes of… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology History Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Prevention or Cure? Tax Exemptions in a Warfare Context: Miletos and the Low Valley of the Meander (early 2nd C. BCE)

In the early second century BCE, Miletus attempted to increase its territorial control at the expense of its neighbors, Magnesia on the Maeander (Milet I 3.148) and Heraclea by Latmus (Milet I 3.150). It resulted in two wars at least, ended by two peace treaties that we have kept. A third community was also involved, Pidasa, which was integrated in the Milesian territory on the occasion of a sympoliteia treaty… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–The Tyrant’s Network: Appearances of Characters in the Letters of Phalaris

The Letters of Phalaris belong to fictive epistolography: the corpus comprises 148 letters attributed to Phalaris, the Sicilian tyrant from the 6th century BC ; it is transmitted partially or totally in no fewer than 132 manuscripts from the 10th to the 18th century. These letters are surrounded by mystery: when where they written, by whom and for what purpose? Their date, authorship and composition are disputed. Furthermore, since the order of… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Leisure Rules in Archaic Greece: Legislation on Inebriation and Foul Play in Literary and Epigraphic Sources

Archaic legislation reflects the effort of the Greek communities to regulate a wide spectrum of conflictive public issues. Rules for communal wine-drinking and athletic competition were also included in this legislative impulse, as revealed by two relatively recent epigraphic findings, an anti-inebriation law from Eleutherna (SEG XLI 739) and the earliest epigraphic testimony of Olympic rules (BullÉpigr 2000 349), which will be the focus of the present paper. They are… Read more

Language/Literature Philosophy/Science Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Plato and Xenophon on Friendship: A Comparative Study (Plato, Lysis and Xenophon’s Memorabilia 2.6)

The present paper offers a comparative interpretation of Plato’s Lysis and Xenophon’s Memorabilia 2.6 on the topic of friendship. I take as my starting point Dorion’s “Annexe 2” (Dorion 2011, 415-417) which lists the common themes between the Memorabilia and Plato’s Lysis. I insist on and try to interpret the divergences between the two authors in their treatment of these common themes: regarding terminology, theoretical premises and elaboration. These divergences… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Placing the Muses: Eumelus, fragments 34-35 (West)

After the work of Will (1955) on the Corinthiaca, the editions by Bernabé (1987), Davies (1988), and West (2003), and the studies by West (2002) and Debiasi (2004), it seems that there is a scholarly consensus with respect to the work of Eumelus. Three poems can be safely attributed to him, the Titanomachy, the Corinthiaca, and the Europia. This masterpoet of Corinth must have acquired considerable fame in the archaic period… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Early Reperformances of Drama in the Fifth Century: A Fallacy or an Underestimated Tradition?

This paper investigates the early reperformances of ancient Greek drama in the fifth century BC. By reconsidering epigraphical and literary evidence, I seek to challenge the orthodoxy concerning the fourth-century beginning of dramatic reperformances and draw an earlier borderline that goes back to the fifth century. In the first part of my paper I re-examine ‘traditional’ evidence on the reperformances of Aeschylus, while in the second, I discuss information on… Read more

Language/Literature Research Symposium Papers

Abstract–Trojan War by Homer: Retaliation, Narrative Order and Cretan Focus

The tale of the Trojan War passes through all Greek Classical Literature in an unusual transverse way. On the one hand, it could be a paradigm or a shadowy presence. On the other hand, it could acquire an intertextual degree or an ironical sense, but the Trojan War is constantly present as a mirror in which the Greeks looked for their own history. Homer was the paradigm for the later… Read more

Epigraphy/Papyrology Language/Literature Mythology/Religion

Using Homer for Divination: Homeromanteia in Context

Martín-Hernández, Raquel. “Using Homer for Divination: Homeromanteia in Context.” CHS Research Bulletin 2, no. 1 (2013). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:MartinHernandezR.Using_Homer_for_Divination_Homeromanteia_in_Context.2013 Aim   §1  Much has been said about the uses and abuses of the Homeric texts; about whom their users were, how they were used, why, when, how, and where they were performed, and who the audience of the Iliad and the Odyssey was in Classical and Roman times, among other questions. From the use of Homer’s works… Read more

Blog Research Symposium Papers

Live Webcast: CHS Research Symposium

Join us on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 for a live webcast of the Center for Hellenic Studies Research Symposium. The stream will be available at rtsp://stream.chs.harvard.edu/HouseA, viewable with VLC Media Player or Quicktime 7. To connect via VLC, go to File > Open Network and paste the link into the URL field. For Quicktime 7, go to File > Open URL and paste in the link. Have questions for the presenters? Send questions and… Read more