scholarly journals Myth or history? Ancient Greek mythology in Paparrigopoulos’ History of the Hellenic nation: controversies, influences and implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Michael D. Konaris
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Greek History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Greek Myths ◽  
Or History

This article examines the treatment of Greek mythology in Paparrigopoulos’ History of the Hellenic nation (1860–1874) in the light of contemporary Western European historiography. The interpretation of Greek myths was highly contested among nineteenth-century scholars: could myths be used as historical sources or were they to be dismissed as figments of imagination devoid of historical value? did they express in allegorical form sublime religious doctrines that anticipated Christianity, or did they attest to the Greeks’ puerile notions about the gods? The article investigates how Paparrigopoulos positioned himself with respect to these questions, which had major consequences for one’s view of early Greek history and the relation between ancient Greek culture and christianity, and his stance towards traditional and novel methods of myth interpretation such as euhemerism, symbolism, indo-european comparative mythology and others. it explores how Paparrigopoulos’ approach differs from those encountered in earlier modern Greek historiography, laying stress on his attempt to study Greek myths “scientifically” on the model of Grote and the implications this had. in addition, the article considers Paparrigopoulos’ wider account of ancient Greek religion’s relation to Christianity and how this affected the thesis of the continuity of Greek history.

scholarly journals Ancient Greek mythology mediated by Latin culture: On Vlastimir Trajkovic’s arion and Zephyrus returns

Muzikologija ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Melita Milin
Keyword(s):  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Creative Identity ◽  
Renaissance Poetry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
Musical Heritage ◽  
Hybrid Forms

Vlastimir Trajkovic (b. 1947) is a prominent Serbian composer with a strong inclination towards subjects from ancient Greek mythology. Among his most important achievements may be counted Arion - le nuove musiche per chitarra ed archi (1979) and Zephyrus returns for flute, viola and piano (2003). Two important aspects of those works are discussed in the present article: 1. the line that connects them to ancient Greek culture via French Modernism (Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen) and Renaissance poetry and music (Petrarch, Caccini, Monteverdi); 2. modality, which has proved its vitality through long periods of the history of European music, beginning with ancient Greek modes, reaching its high point in the 16th century, and re-emerging at the beginning of the 20th century in different hybrid forms. Trajkovic is seen as a composer who has shaped his creative identity by exploring the rich musical heritage of the Latin European nations, especially the contributions of Debussy and Ravel.

To Make a New Thermopylae: Hellenism, Greek Liberation, and the Battle of Thermopylae

2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Macgregor Morris
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Greek History ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of

In the eighteenth century, attitudes towards ancient Greece were changing from an antiquarian interest in literature and art, into a wider emotional affiliation that permeated many aspects of artistic and political life. With this new attitude came an interest in contemporary Greece and an awareness of and concern about her state under Turkish rule which, by the early nineteenth century, culminated in growing sympathy for the cause of Greek liberation. Of all the characters and incidents of ancient Greek history, none played such a central part in this tradition as those involved in the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 B.C., so that by the very eve of the Greek revolution in 1821 Byron could call on his contemporaries to ‘make a new Thermopylae’. The history of Thermopylae in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is, in many ways, the history of contemporary hellenism.

scholarly journals The boundary between the domains of the Kosaca and the Brankovic south of the Tara river

Balcanica ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 91-158
Author(s):  
Milos Lukovic
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Feudal Lord ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Village ◽  
Rule Out

With the partitioning in 1373 of the domain of Nikola Altomanovic, a Serbian feudal lord, the old political core of the Serbian heartland was shattered and the feudal Bosnian state considerably extended to the east. The region was crossed by the Tara river, mostly along the southeast-northwest "Dinaric course". Although the line along which Altomanovic?s domain was partitioned has been discussed on several occasions and over a comparatively long period, analyses show that the identification of its section south of the Tara is still burdened by a number of unanswered questions, which are the topic of this paper. An accurate identification of this historical boundary is of interest not only to historiography, but also to archaeology ethnology, philology (the history of language and dialectology in particular) and other related disciplines. The charters of Alphonse V and Friedrich III concerning the domain of herceg Stefan Vukcic Kosaca, and other historical sources relating to the estates of the Kosaca cannot reliably con?rm that the zupa of Moraca belonged to the Kosaca domain. The castrum Moratsky and the civitate Morachij from the two charters stand for the fortress near the village of Gornje Morakovo in the zupa of Niksic known as Mrakovac in the nineteenth century, and as Jerinin Grad/Jerina?s Castle in recent times. The zupa of Moraca, as well as the neighbouring Zupa of Brskovo in the Tara river valley, belonged to the domain of the Brankovic from the moment the territory of zupan Nikola Altomanovic was partitioned until 1455, when the Turks ?nally conquered the region thereby ending the 60-year period of dual, Serbian-Turkish, rule. Out of the domain of the Brankovic the Turks created two temporary territorial units: Krajiste of Issa-bey Ishakovic and the Vlk district (the latter subsequently became the san?ak of Vucitrn). The zupa of Moraca became part of Issa-bey Ishakovic?s domain, and was registered as such, although the fact is more di?cult to see from the surviving Turkish cadastral record. The zupa of Moraca did not belong to the vilayet of Hersek, originally established by the Turks within their temporary vilayet system after most of the Kosaca domain had been seized. It was only with the establishing of the San?ak of Herzegovina that three nahiyes which formerly constituted the Zupa of Moraca (Donja/Lower Moraca, Gornja/Upper Moraca and Rovci) were detached from Issa-bey?s territory and included into the San?ak of Hercegovina. It was then that they were registered as part of that San?ak and began to be regarded as being part of Herzegovina.

scholarly journals FROM PROMETHEUS TO AMRAN: ON THE CHAINED HERO IN THE OSSETIAN EPIC

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Р.Н. АБИСАЛОВА
Keyword(s):  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
National Myths ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Difference

В статье рассмотрен один из мотивов осетинского Даредзановского эпоса – мотив прикованного героя, еще в древности вошедший в мифологию, фольклор, литературу многих народов и получивший название «мотив Прометея». Образ Прометея относится к «вечным образам» мировой художественной культуры. История прикования и освобождения Прометея и в древнегреческой мифологии, и в трагедии Эсхила позиционируется как топонимически привязанная к Кавказу. Именно здесь сюжет о наказанном Богом и прикованном богатыре получил распространение в национальных мифах и эпических преданиях – грузинских, осетинских, кабардинских, абхазских, вайнахских, армянских и др. Эти лаконичные предания об Амиране-Амране, по мнению Вс.Ф. Миллера, – кульминационные во всех источниках, рассказывающих об этом герое. Рассмотрены как древнегреческий Прометей, так и кавказские, в первую очередь осетинские, прикованные герои, представленные в работах Вс.Ф. Миллера, Г.Н. Потанина, Дз. Гатуева, Д.А. Калоевой, З.Г. Тменовой, Ю.А. Дзиццоты, Х.Ф. Цгоева и др. Образ Амирана сравнивается с соответствующими ему героями кавказских эпосов. При всей схожести мотивов богоборчества и наказания героя прикованием к скале или столбу нельзя не отметить отличия осетинского Амирана от остальных. В Даредзановских сказаниях он героическая личность, истинный богатырь, совершающий множество подвигов, побеждающий великанов, помогающий всем нуждающимся. Сын племянницы Бога, герой близок к народу, он побеждает врагов не только ради демонстрации силы, ловкости, хитрости, но и для спасения родных и друзей. В отличие от большинства кавказских прикованных героев, освобождение Амирана не предвещает гибель мира, напротив, осетинский Амиран, в случае освобождения, даст людям свободу и счастье. Многие мотивы в преданиях об Амране соотносятся с мотивами Нартовского эпоса. Амиран-Амран приравнивается к любимым героям осетинской Нартиады – Сослану, Батразу, Урузмагу, Шатане. В работе его образ рассмотрен для подтверждения объективной закономерности подобной репрезентации осетинского героя. The article deals with one of the motives of the Ossetian Daredzanian epic − the motive of the chained hero, which in ancient times entered the mythology, folklore, literature of many peoples and was called the "Prometheus motive". The image of Prometheus belongs to the "eternal images" of world art culture. The history of the chaining and liberation of Prometheus, both in ancient Greek mythology and in the tragedy of Aeschylus, is positioned as toponymically tied to the Caucasus. It was here that the plot about the God-punished and chained hero became widespread in national myths and epic legends − Georgian, Ossetian, Kabardian, Abkhaz, Vainakh, Armenian, etc. These laconic legends about Amiran-Amran, according to Vs.F. Miller, are culminating in all the sources telling about this hero. Both the ancient Greek Prometheus and the Caucasian, primarily Ossetian, chained heroes presented in the works of Vs.F. Miller, G.N. Potanin, Dz. Gatuev, D.A. Kaloeva, Z.G. Tmenova, Yu.A. Dzizzoity, Kh.F. Tsgoev and others. The image of Amiran is compared with the corresponding heroes of the Caucasian epics. With all the similarity of the motives of fighting against God and the punishment of the hero by being chained to a rock or a pillar, one cannot fail to note the difference between the Ossetian Amiran and the others. In Daredzan's legends, he is a heroic person, a true hero who performs many feats, conquers giants, and helps all those in need. The son of the niece of God, the hero is close to the people, he defeats enemies not only for the sake of demonstrating strength, dexterity, cunning, but also to save family and friends. Unlike most of the Caucasian chained heroes, the release of Amiran does not portend the death of the world, on the contrary, the Ossetian Amiran, if liberated, will give people freedom and happiness. Many motives in the legends about Amran correlate with the motives of the Nartov epic. Amiran-Amran is equated with the favorite heroes of the Ossetian Nartiada - Soslan, Batraz, Uruzmag, Shatana. In the work, his image is considered to confirm the objective regularity of such a representation of the Ossetian hero.

Ireland: Realm of the Four Masters

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Rowley-Conwy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Irish History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Manuscripts ◽  
To Come ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Or History

On 9 January 1843, Richard Griffith addressed the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) about some antiquities found in the River Shannon. The river was being dredged to render it navigable, and the artefacts were discovered during the deepening of the old ford at Keelogue. Griffith was the chairman of the Commissioners carrying out the work, and his expertise was in engineering rather than ancient history. He stated that the finds came from a layer of gravel; in its upper part were many bronze swords and spears, while a foot lower were numerous stone axes. Due to the rapidity of the river’s flow there was very little aggradation, so despite the small gap the bronze objects were substantially later than the stone ones. The river formed the border between the ancient kingdoms of Connaught and Leinster. The objects had apparently been lost in two battles for the ford that had taken place at widely differing dates; stressing that he was no expert himself, Mr Griffith wondered whether ancient Irish history might contain records of battles at this spot (Griffith 1844). This was probably the earliest non-funerary stratigraphic support for the Three Age System ever published, but it did not signal the acceptance of the Three Age System. Just as telling as Griffith’s stratigraphic observation was his immediate recourse to ancient history for an explanation; for, as we shall see, ancient history provided the dominant framework for the ancient Irish past until the end of the nineteenth century. The Irish had far more early manuscript sources than the Scots or the English, although wars and invasions had reduced them; the Welsh scholar Edward Lhwyd wrote from Sligo on 12 March 1700 to his colleague Henry Rowlands that ‘the Irish have many more ancient manuscripts than we in Wales; but since the late revolutions they are much lessened. I now and then pick up some very old parchment manuscripts; but they are hard to come by, and they that do anything understand them, value them as their lives’ (in Rowlands 1766: 315). In the seventeenth century various Irish scholars brought together the historical accounts available to them. Geoffrey Keating (Seathrú n Céitinn, in Irish) wrote the influential Foras Feasa ar Éirinn or ‘History of Ireland’ in c.1634, and an English translation was printed in 1723 (Waddell 2005).

“To Give Greece Back to the Greeks”

2018 ◽  
pp. 107-138
Author(s):  
Samuel N. Dorf
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ritual Music ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Rite Of Spring ◽  
Le Sacre Du Printemps

Eva Palmer Sikelianos, along with her husband, the poet Angehlos Sikelianos, founded the first modern Delphic Festival in 1927 in an effort to revive the ancient Greek rites that had taken place on that spot more than twenty-five hundred years before. This chapter explores Palmer Sikelianos’s choreography, rituals, music, and dramaturgy for her reconstructed Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus in light of her research on ancient Greek culture, conducted in both Paris and modern Greece. Based on silent film records of Palmer Sikelianos’s 1930 festival, her autobiography, her collaborations with Natalie Clifford Barney on Greek-themed theatricals in the early 1900s, and comparisons to the movement vocabulary and other contemporary stagings of ancient Greek festivals and sport, the chapter demonstrates how Palmer Sikelianos navigated between the needs and methods of the archaeologist and those of the performer. She blended the oldest sources on ancient Greek ritual music and dance that she could find with what she saw as an authentic “spirit” of Greek culture that she observed in modern Greek society. Her performances drew from archival/archaeological courses (ancient treatises, dance iconography) and lived practices (folk song, modern dance, Byzantine chant traditions). Like the Ballets Russes’s re-enactment of ancient Greece in Daphnis et Cholé and L’Après-midi d’un Fauné and pagan Rus’s in Le Sacre du printemps [The Rite of Spring], Palmer Sikelianos’s project to re-enact “authentic” Greek theater and choreography illustrates that theories of theatrical historical reconstruction in the early twentieth century were heavily influence by contemporary theatrical, political, and social events.

scholarly journals Landscape and Hunting. The Economy of the Eschatia

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christy Constantakopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Greek Landscape ◽  
Archaic And Classical Greece

This paper explores the place of ancient Greek hunting within the Greek landscape and environment, with particular reference to the eschatia, the marginal, uncultivated (or marginally cultivated) land. It is part of a bigger project on the social history of hunting in archaic and classical Greece, where emphasis is placed on the economic and dietary contribution of hunting for Greek communities. Hunting has attracted scholarly attention, mostly as a result of the role that hunting narratives play in Greek mythology, and the importance of hunting scenes in Greek art. Rather than talking about the role of hunting in rites of passage, I would like to explore the relationships of different social classes to hunting (which is understood here to include all forms of capturing animals on land, including trapping and snaring). The ‘un-central’ landscape of the eschatia appears to be an important locus for hunting practices, and therefore, a productive landscape. Hunting in the eschatia was opportunistic, required minimum effort in terms of crossing distances, allowed access to game that could be profitable in the market, and made the transport of game easier to manage.

Demokratia and Arete in Ancient Greek Political Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Wallach
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
The Relationship

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: (1) from the Homeric to archaic eras; (2) fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and (3) the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument of practical power. The effect of the research contradicts traditional and recent readings of democracy and virtue as inherently antagonistic. The aim of the article is to identify ancient Greek contributions to understanding the potential, contingencies and dangers of the relationship between democracy (as a form of power) and virtue (as a form of ethics) — one which may benefit both democracy and virtue.

scholarly journals Features of Precedent Units Functioning in Russian Media Discourse (on the Example of «Argonauts», «Golden Fleece», «Jason»)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
Anna N. Mishchenko
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
The Media

The article is devoted to the study of precedent units with the source «ancient Greek mythology», which have the potential to broadcast the linguistic and cultural features of a particular community, the recognition of which influences the success of intercultural communication. The work provides a comprehensive analysis of the precedent units included in the cycle «The History of the Golden Fleece», namely «Argonauts», «Golden Fleece», «Jason» in the texts of Russian-language media. In the article the author argues that the change in the semantics of constructions occurs not only at the denotative, but also at the connotative, pragmatic level, where the studied precedent units acquire new semantic features. The analysis of the functioning features of the precedent units included in the «History of the Golden Fleece» cycle allows us to establish the linguistic mechanisms of their «deployment» in the media discourse and come to the conclusion about the specifics of the fragment of the worldview, fixed in mythologized precedent phenomena.

Greek Mythology: Some New Perspectives

1972 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
New Approach ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
History Of

A new approach to the ancient world is only too often a wrong approach, unless it is based on some concrete discovery. But I think it fair to talk of newperspectives, at least, in the study of Greek mythology. Certainly the old and familiar ones are no longer adequate. Indeed it is surprising, in the light of fresh intuitions about society, literacy, the pre-Homeric world, and relations with the ancient Near East, that myth—one of the most pervasive aspects of Greek culture—has been left in its old and rather cobwebby pigeon-hole. Rose's simple paraphrases are accepted as adequate for students; Nilsson's sparse pages in his history of religion are rightly respected, though some of them are too simple; the Murray-Cook-Harrison-Cornford reconstruction of religion, ritual and myth is regarded as a little excessive, but perhaps not too far out; Kerényi and Eliade are roughly tolerated, if not widely read by Classicists, and their books are ordered in profusion for the library; the psychological side is adequately taken care of, or so it is supposed, by what is left from Freud and Jung, with Cassirer as sufficient authority for the sources of mythical imagination.Many of these critics had their moments of brilliant insight, but most were misleading in their theories taken as a whole. We can now accept that many myths have ritual counterparts, and some have ritual origins, without having to adopt Cornford's belief, developed after Harrison, Frazer and Robertson Smith, that all myths are such.

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