Metamorphic Readings

Ovid’s remarkable and endlessly fascinating Metamorphoses is one of the best known and most popular works of classical literature, and perhaps the most influential of all on later European literature and culture. Loved for its vast repository of mythic material as well as its sophisticated manipulation of story-telling, the poem can be appreciated on many different levels and by audiences of very different backgrounds and educational experiences, whether it is for the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe or the endless but endlessly fascinating debate over the generic status of this epic which breaks all the rules and yet somehow must be included in any canon of Roman epics. The key to metamorphosis can be said to be not just transformation but also transgression, an especially significant issue in today’s culture and society. The actuality of Ovid’s Metamorphoses thus is remarkably strong, and that shows in the new scholarly approaches to the work. This anthology presents a number of recent developments, which, while representing different kinds of approach, explore the effects of transformation and transgression of borders in new ways. The main three aspects are transformations into the Metamorphoses (from what did the mythic narratives evolve), transformations in the Metamorphoses –(what new understandings of the dynamic of metamorphosis can be achieved), and how were the Metamorphoses transformed in later times, acquiring new meanings. So, transformation is explored as a form of transgression of states, or even the transcendence of mythic narrative.

The Epistemology of the “Great Invisibles”

The central collective myth of surrealism, Les grands transparents, was designed by André Breton in 1947 as a means for imagining a desirable society through effecting a vitalizing sense of the unknown and a “decentering of man”. As a contribution to the recent re-examination of surrealism in view of theoretical developments in the field of Western esotericism, this article argues that Breton utilizes his mythic narrative to articulate a transformative knowledge, a surreality, that in certain ways correspond to the concepts of gnosis and clairvoyance in esoteric discourse. To substantiate this, similar mythic narratives about great imperceptible entities in texts of Anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner) and Rosicrucianism (Lectorium Rosicrucianum) are examined. A comparativist model for describing popular approaches (or mythemes) to ineffable experience is applied. An underlying “gnostic” approach of considering such experiences as incomplete and as being co-created is discerned, highlighting each actor’s endeavours to validate imaginative perception.

Ritual Law

The juncture of time, place, and performance was the gestation arena of the development of Israelite ritual and theology. The discussion in this chapter will therefore begin with an elucidation of distinct times and then proceed to examine the sacrificial system. The holy days include the Sabbath, pentateuchal festivals, New Moon, Purim, and miscellaneous festivals mentioned in passing. Each is explored with reference to its name, origins, and rituals. Passover is highlighted as the origin of national festivals and institutional sacrifice. Its mythic narrative as the formation point for the nation of Israel thus preserves an obscure historical truth. The sacrificial system is then presented through its pre-institutional origins, its development in the Covenant Code and Deuteronomy, and its standardization in the priestly writings. Major issues discussed include the centralization of the cult and the issue of profane slaughter, the principal types of sacrifice, and the manifold function of the cultic system in Israelite worship. Both the holy days and the sacrifices are analyzed, with broad reference to scholarly debate, for their theological, social, and legal aspects, concluding with their joint significance for Israelite religion. They bestowed relevance for every major event in the individual Israelite’s life, on joyous and distressful occasions alike, in a unified experience of mediation between the individual and the deity, as well as solidification of relationships between individual and community.

Stages of Communal Formation in the Middle and Late Meccan Periods

This chapter focuses on the process of communal formation in the middle and late Meccan time and the way the Qur’an reflects this process. This involves the construction of a “text world” whereby the stories of “God’s people” are told in relation to their predecessors among the earlier religious communities of the Jews and the Christians, as well as the emergence of anti-pagan polemic as a major theme in the proclamation. It also involves the alteration of existing mythic narrative paradigms and the emergence of new homiletic instruments, namely, the usage of parables and the distinctive Qur’anic simile or “likeness,” the mathal.

The Polish School of Composition in 20th-Century Music – A Recapitulation

The present paper concerns the concept of ‘the Polish School of Composition’, well established in writings on music composed in the 2nd half of the 20th century, but still resisting attempts to define it clearly. I sum up the ways authors have talked about the Polish School of Composition to date, both from the internal (Polish) and external (foreign) points of view. I also examine the musical differentia specifica (such as aspects of style, composition technique and expression in works associated with this phenomenon) and the extramusical (mostly social and political) contexts which have determined the evolving approaches to the phenomenon in question. I begin with the origin of the term itself and discuss its subsequent interpretations until the present. From this perspective, the Polish School of Composition appears to be a kind of mythic narrative, a proposed way of ordering and understanding the past realities, transcending the categories of truth and falsehood, and working primarily in the sphere of emotions.

The Maternal Archetype in Transience Symbolic and Mythical

O ARQUÉTIPO MATERNO EM TRANSITORIEDADE SIMBÓLICA E MÍTICA Resumo: reconhecemos nas tradições antigas a origem das narrativas míticas. Neste período a relação com o sagrado estava intrinsecamente presente no cotidiano, não havia distinção entre o sagrado e o profano, pois suas atividades se condicionavam ao divino de tal modo que nos primórdios a relação da criação das plantas, tudo o que surgia da terra para a sobrevivência era representada pela Mãe quando a associavam ao poder fecundante. Deste modo encontramos a Mãe como representação divina, assim como também há uma identificação dos animais quando são reverenciados pela sua força e também quando são o alimento. O seu sacrifício indicava uma sacralidade e este episódio se dava ritualmente. Este ensaio pretende observar a partir das tradições antigas, na experiência com o sagrado, as relações simbólicas originárias com o feminino, buscando de forma introdutória a compreensão da trajetória do feminino no espaço religioso. Metodologicamente utilizamos da hermenêutica simbólica e comparada de Mircea Eliade principalmente em suas obras: O sagrado e o profano e O mito do eterno retorno. Palavras-chave: Sagrado. Mãe. Serpente. Deusa-Mãe. Vida. Abstract: the origin of mythic narrative is recognized in all ancient traditions. During this period its relationship with the sacred was intrinsically present in everyday acts, without any distinction between the sacred and the profane because their activities were conditioned with divine in such a way that in the early stages the relation of the cultivation of plants and everything that came from the groud, the earth for the survival, was a depiction, a portrayal of Mother when she was related to fertilizing streghth. This way we find the Mother as a divine portrayal, the same way as there is also an identification of animals in such a way when they are food, nourishment. Their sacrifice indicated a sacral idea and that episode ocurred in a ritual, ceremony. Our main objective was to analise the ancient traditions, the experience with the sacred, symbolic relationships originating with women seeking an introductory way the understanding of women's history in the religious space. Methodologically, it was used the comparative and symbolic hermeneutics of Mircea Eliade, mainly in its titles “The sacred and the profane” and “The myth of the eternal return”, as well as an effort to interlace the vision that leads, indicates according to Carlo Ginsburg in the interpretative understanding of critique hermeneutics, in other words, throughout the clues found in the texts. Keywords: Sacred. Mother. Goddess-mother. Life.