The Classical Association of South Africa 2005
The Classical Tradition /Classical Receptions
Abstracts
John Atkinson (University of Cape Town), ‘Ethnic cleansing in Roman Alexandria, A D 38’.
What does it take to activate mass hate between communities which have lived together peaceably for a long period? In the literature on the Holocaust and more recent explosions of inter-community violence, the answer seems to range between precious little and centuries of history. In the case of Alexandria the precious little seems to have been the visit of Herod Agrippa I, as Philo makes clear by trying to exculpate him. Uncertainty surrounds the social and legal position of Jews in Alexandria. There was more to the riots than brawling by Greek bovver-boys and Jewish yobs, and Greek activists no doubt were influenced by their understanding of events in Rome. If history came into the equation, the root of the problem might be sought in Rome’s dealings with Alexandria in the final phase of Ptolemaic rule and in Augustus’ principate.
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Jan Bloemendal (Constantine Huygens Institute / University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), ‘Daniel Heinsius’ Herodes Infanticida’.
The publication of Daniel Heinsius’ play Herodes infanticida, treating the murder of the children of Bethlehem, aroused the criticism of the French author Jean Louis Guez de Balzac, who wrote in a letter to Constantijn Huygens that Heinsius had overfloaded the drama with mythology. The situation escalated. This case tells us something about one of the famous ‘battles of scholars’, but also about the humanists’ ‘commerce with the classics’. Heinsius defended himself against the attacks, that also were made on his Dutch poetry, by stating that the classical gods were meant metonymically. In Dutch poetry things were a bit different: the ‘Lof-sanck van Bacchus’ (Hymn for Bacchus) of course abounded with mythology, but in the parallel poem ‘Lof-sanc van onse Heere Jesus Christus’ (Hymn for our Lord Jesus Christ) classical references are absent.
What is the state of affairs in this biblical drama? Was the combination of classical and biblical heritage so problematic? But Hugo Grotius also had included classical references in his biblical tragedies Adamus exul (Adam in exile, 1601) Christus patiens (The Passion of Christ, 1608) en Sophompaneas (Joseph, 1635). Had there been a shift of ideas? About a century earlier, in 1536, the Amsterdam rector Cornelius Crocus in his comedy about the patriarch Joseph had also made comparisons between the wife of Potiphar and Dido, and included other material, but indirectly. The case of Heinsius reveals us something about the problematic of the humanists’ attitudes towards classical mythology, a combination of attraction and rejection.
(Dutch Version)
Het verschijnen van Daniel Heinsius’ drama Herodes infanticida dat als onderwerp de kindermoord in Egypte heeft, lokte kritiek uit van de Fransman Jean Louis Guez de Balzac, die in 1633 aan Constantijn Huygens schreef dat Heinsius in dit bijbels drama wel heel veel mythologie had gestopt. De zaak escaleerde. Ze zegt iets over de humanistische geleerdenruzies, maar ook iets over de verhouding van de humanisten met de klassieke mythologie. Heinsius verdedigde zich tegen de aanvallen—die er overigens ook waren op zijn Nederlandstalige poëzie—door te zeggen dat de klassieke godennamen metonymia waren. Daar lag het probleem anders: zijn ‘Lof-sanck van Bacchus’ was uit de aard der zaak geheel mythologie, maar in het parallelle gedicht ‘Lof-sanck van onse Heere Jesus Christus’ ontbreken klassieke toespelingen.
Hoe ligt de zaak nu in dit bijbels drama? Was de combinatie van klassieke en bijbels erfgoed dan zo problematisch? Maar Hugo Grotius had in zijn bijbelse tragedies Adamus exul (1601), Christus patiens (1608), en Sophompaneas (1635, over aartsvader Jozef) ook de klassieken niet buitengesloten. Had er een verschuiving van opvattingen plaatsgevonden? Een eeuw eerder, in 1536, had de Amsterdamse rector Cornelius Crocus in zijn komedie over het Jozef-thema ook vergelijkingen getrokken tussen de vrouw van Potifar en Dido, en anderklassiek materiaal ingebracht, maar zeer indirect. De kwestie maakt iets duidelijk van de problematische omgang van de humanisten met de klassieke mythologie, een combinatie van verleiding en bestrijding.
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Joan Booth (University of Leiden, The Netherlands), ‘Amazing Grace: Propertius and the Hellenistic Epigram’.
Every commentary on Propertius contains countless references to thematic or verbal parallels in the epigrams of the Greek Anthology. Yet in 1974 Margaret Hubbard was able to claim to have brought the reader ‘a long way since it made sense to . . . analyse a poem in terms of its relation to the elegancies of Meleager’. I propose in this ‘post-intertextual’ paper to return to doing exactly that: to analyse Propertius 1.13, especially lines 29ff., in relation to epigrams by Meleager and others in the Anthology. The result will shed new light on the text and meaning of the passage in question.
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P. R. Bosman (University of South Africa), ‘The Great King and the Dog’.
The paper explores the tradition linking the figures of Diogenes the Cynic and Alexander the Great. Various authors refer to the famous meeting between the philosopher and the king, and ancients and moderns alike have exploited its artistic potential. The two figures are also set up as parallels in other ways, such as that Diogenes reportedly died on the same day as Alexander. The historicity of an encounter between them is difficult to establish, indicating that the stories were in the first instance meant to portray a clash of values and philosophy. Scholars have attempted to establish the growth of the tradition, in which a pivotal role is attributed to Onesicritus, a pupil of Diogenes who accompanied Alexander on his Asian campaign. The encounter’s productive reception shows that the juxtaposition of the perspectives embodied by the Cynic and the king respectively, was considered too important to be left to historical contingency.
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Clive Chandler (University of Cape Town), ‘Horace’s mad poets and the doxographical tradition on Democritus on Homer’.
In this paper I re-examine the tradition, as preserved in Horace’s Ars Poetica 295-97 and elsewhere, that Democritus anticipated Plato and others in attaching importance to divine inspiration in the poet’s craft. Particular attention is given to fr. 21 DK which I interpret as providing an alternative to the ‘inspiration’ theory usually ascribed to Democritus.
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Louise Cilliers (University of the Free State), ‘Name-Dropping in the Collection of Medical Letters Prefacing Marcellus’s De Medicamentis’.
The corpus of eight letters serving as a preface to the huge pharmaceutical recipe collection which constitutes Marcellus’s De medicamentis is in many respects unique in Latin literature. Not only is it the only collection of its kind in ancient Latin medical literature (as opposed to medieval times, when collections of letters were a common phenomenon), but its compilation was the work of a single person, from whose pen it contains only a single autograph letter. Until now the letters have been discussed individually in terms of their transmission and content, but in this paper they will be reviewed as a group. The reason why the letter format was chosen for the preface to a collection of medical recipes will be considered, as will the classification of the various letters in the epistolographic genre. The identities of the writers and the addressees will also be investigated and in the case of five of the eight letters, where some of their names are fictitious, an attempt will be made to determine the reason. Finally, the question of why all these apparently unrelated letters form part of this collection will be discussed.
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Jo-Marie Claassen (University of Stellenbosch), ‘Rendering Caesar: Thoughts on the Translation into English of N. P. Van Wyk Louw’s Germanicus’
That Tacitus composed like a dramatist was first mooted by Mendell in 1935, in an analysis of, among others, the first eight books of Tacitus’ Annales. The paper focuses on a reworking of the Tacitean dramatic potential inherent in Annales 1-3 by the Afrikaans poet N. P. van Wyk Louw, his metrical drama Germanicus (1956). It is generally considered to be a highlight in Afrikaans literary development that deserves international attention. The paper deals with my attempt to translate this drama into English.
Germanicus represents the choice of a creative and imaginative poet to propound a timeless human problem, that of the corruptive influence of power, within a specific historical framework, basing it on the work of another creative genius. Louw portrays Piso’s loyalty to the republican ideal as initially shared by Germanicus. Louw’s picture of gradual disaffection between the two men helps to smooth out the discrepancies inherent in Tacitus’ problematic portrayal of a Piso both defender of libertas, and instrument of Tiberius. Louw’s portrait of an intellectual, doomed by his own historical awareness to inactivity, is not wholly Tacitean, but gains in credibility in the light of Germanicus’ known dedication to the arts.
In 1996 I published an article analysing the drama in the context of the then newly discovered Senatusconsultum de Pisone patre from Spain (ancient Baetica). My conclusion was that the exoneration of Piso’s wife Plancina as spelled out in the Senatusconsultum is wholly consistent with Louw’s rendering of her role. Louw’s historical sense emerges in his interpretative reading of the facts at Tacitus’ disposal. Had he had the Senatusconsultum de Pisone patre before him at the time of his composition of Germanicus, I do not believe that he would have changed one word. His genius lies in the poetic sensibility with which he arranged these words. It is these words that I have attempted to render into another language.
After a general discussion of translation theory, the paper highlights, with examples, problems encountered on the levels of prosody, of register and of equivalence of meaning. Louw’s poetic Afrikaans is so concise that the normal commonplace, that ‘it takes more words so say something in Afrikaans than in English’, simply does not apply. ‘Shakespearian English’, both lexis and word-order, is closer to the Germanic Afrikaans, but would be unacceptable in a modern translation. Louw’s idiosyncratic use of Afrikaans, deliberate archaisms and occasional neologisms call for interpretative reading before these can be translated into English. One has to understand exactly what Louw is making his characters say before one can render these thoughts into another language. The paper will end with a general overview of the place of Louw’s Germanicus in the international Classical tradition.
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Concetta Croce (L’Aquila University, Italy), ‘Africa in classical tradition: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s "Notes on an African Oresteia"‘.
Pasolini is one of the most important artists of the last century in Italy. He was a poet, a novelist, a movie director. . . He was persuaded that technology and capitalism were destroying the Western world and he found in classical patterns and in Africa a way of reacting. So in 1959 he directed a movie based on Aeschylus’ trilogy and moreover in 1970 another one on Euripides’s Medea. This paper will analyze the values and the roles of Africa in Pasolini’s readaptations in the light of his ideology.
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Sira Dambe, (University of South Africa), ‘Ovidian Keats and the poetics of reciprocity’.
This paper contends that patterns of obligation and reciprocity are detectable in both Ovidian and Keatsian texts and, further, that these patterns permit a claim of Ovidian influence upon Keatsian poetry. The purpose of the paper is twofold: to discuss how Keats’s poem ‘Lamia’ embodies Ovidian poetics and to define the importance of received patterns of reciprocity in the poem.
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Marianne Dircksen (North-West University, Potchefstroom), ‘The reception history of Tacitus’ Annals and Histories and its relevance for analysis of his work in the twenty-first century’.
The research of Jauss and Ricouer focused on the fact that a text has a specific meaning for a specific historical reader and that the reader plays an active role in the actualisation of the text. An overview of the external factors which influenced the reception history of Tacitus’ Annals and Histories through the ages, underlines this primary principle of the Reception Theory. Apart from religious, cultural, political and social circumstances, the literary ‘fashion’ of the day and contemporary methods of literary research, have influenced and determined the reader’s views of Tacitus’ historical works since the nineteenth century.
Considering the present popularity of the historical novel, the widespread use of literary theory and the threat under which the Classics are at universities worldwide, the recent trends in research on Tacitus are predictable.
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William J. Dominik, (University of Otago, New Zealand) ‘Writing Power and Politics in African Drama Derived from Classical Sources’.
This paper examines the writing of power and politics in African drama derived from classical myth and history. Some modern African dramas explore issues relating to the exercise of political power and in the process touch upon upon political issues relevant to colonial and postcolonial Africa and modern African society, such as freedom, justice and civil rights. Some plays promote political ideologies and nationalist causes in their plays. Other dramas derived from classical sources serve as a type of political and social protest against colonialism and neo‑colonialism. Yet others constitute a more explicit challenge to established political authority and serve as a form of protest and resistance in societies whose writers have composed their works in a climate of oppression and injustice. Various aesthetic concerns such as the ‘split’ subject and metatheatricality will be brought to bear upon a reading of the plays from a political perspective. Although the limited time will mean that the focus will be only on a few of the plays illustrating the aforementioned issues, reference will be to D. J. Opperman’s Periandros van Korinthe; N. P. van Wyk Louw’s Germanicus; Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona’s The Island; Fugard’s Orestes; Tug Yourgrau’s The Song of Jacob Zulu; Guy Butler’s Demea; Edward Brathwaite’s Odale’s Choice; Wole Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite; Bartho Smit’s Bacchus in die Boland; Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame; Femi Osofisan’s Tegonni: An African Antigone; Silvain Bemba’s Black Wedding Candles for Blessed Antigone; and Mark Fleishman’s productions of Medea and In the City of Paradise.
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Jaqueline Dutton (University of Johannesburg), ‘The Rape of the Sabine Women (Ovid’s Ars Amatoria 1:101-34): Patriarchy at work in Rome’s Foundation myth’.
In Ovid’s account of the Rape of the Sabine Women (Ars Amatoria, Book 1:101-134) the poet explains to the student-lover the effect and necessity, or lack thereof, for force in matters of the heart using this foundation myth. The myth tells that Romulus and his men had a shortage of women in their city as they were not considered suitable husbands by the men of the surrounding tribes. In response to the ridicule of their neighbours, Romulus holds a celebration of the Consualia to which he invites all their neighbours. It is at this festival that the Romans seize the Sabine maidens, who will later become their wives. However, Ovid elsewhere opposes the military. He sees himself as sophisticated and ‘a lover, not a fighter’. Ovid does not ever insinuate that the male would give up his position of superiority, but merely realise that there is more pleasure in relations with a woman who is willing, even if he must deceive her to create this interest in him. Through the comparison of the ancient and the contemporary, his use of words and figures of speech, Ovid attempts to convince his audience that persuasion is better than force: not very noble by our modern standards, yet nevertheless a generous step in the direction of gender equality. At times his argument seems not so subtle to the modern reader, but his intentions remain clear. He displays an amazing understanding of the female psyche, as well as the violent, angry nature of rape. He also understood the strength of myth.
I believe his treatment of the myth and patriarchy to be enormously relevant to our current issues in South Africa with regard to gender issues, such as rape. Our circumstances differ, but patriarchy remains the core of both. In addition, in both circumstances, a process of change is underway. The two must be seen as separate entities, but in order to move forward, we must be prepared to use those resources available to us, however ancient the source may be and both male and female members of society must be prepared to change. It is my belief that by studying a closed society, one that has a beginning and an end, we can use the past to guide us.
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Nikolai Endres (Western Kentucky University, USA), ‘Plato, Platotude, and Blatancy in E. M. Forster’s Maurice’.
In one of the most interesting readings of E. M. Forster’s Maurice, Robert Martin suggests a ‘double structure’: the first half traces John Addington Symonds’ version of a ‘superior’ or Platonic homosexuality, which neglects the body; the second half develops Maurice’s ‘salvation’ through Edward Carpenter’s beliefs, which include sex and make Maurice reject class. Furthermore, many critics classify the relationship between Maurice and Clive as ‘Platonic’ and simultaneously point to Plato’s departure with the introduction of Alec, the gamekeeper. I want to argue that all of Maurice shows an appropriated Platonic influence, but that the first half hardly deserves the label ‘Platonic’ because Maurice and Clive’s friendship does not really correspond to any of the erotic attachments described in Plato. I propose that Forster draws a line between the Symposium and the Phaedrus. In the former, Plato teasingly stresses Alcibiades and Socrates’ synergy, but their ‘love’ fails. The Phaedrus, on the other hand, as Martha Nussbaum succinctly shows, points in a more erotic direction: ‘to make us see human sexuality as something much more complicated and deep, more aspiring, than the middle dialogues had suggested; and, on the other hand, to see intellect as something more sexual than they had allowed, more bound up with receptivity and motion.’ Consequently, as my title indicates, I see two Platonic elements in Maurice: a distorted Platonic influence - Platotude - often reminiscent of Alcibiades’ frustration at Socrates’ impenetrability, and a physicalized Platonic heritage - blatancy - informed by the seductive and sparkling Phaedrus.
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Anne Gosling (University of KwaZulu-Natal), ‘Dolphin Song: Poetry, Power and Point in the Myth of Arion’.
The story of the renowned musician who escaped from a murderous ship’s crew with the aid of a dolphin first occurs in Herodotus (1.23-24). In later literature the story functions as an aetiological myth for the constellation of the Dolphin (e.g. Hyginus Fab. 194, Astr. 2.17, Ovid Fast. 2.79-118). The elder Pliny’s condensed narrative (HN 9.24 ff.) occurs in the context of descriptions of dolphin behaviour and their attraction both to humans and to music.
From the beginning, the tale of Arion has given scope for its tellers to engage with the concept of authority, both artistic and political. His role and status as a performer and composer of music is made clear in Herodotus’ detailed narrative, but its primary function is as an illustration of the wisdom of Periander. Ovid’s representation of Arion as a singer of Orpheus-like powers, a citharoedus under the protection of Apollo, reflects Augustan concern with poetic and political authority, notably in the context of celebration of the title of pater patriae.
My paper discusses ancient and modern slants on ‘Arion’ in Vikram Seth’s libretto for Arion and the Dolphin (London 1994).
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Mark Hermans (University of the Western Cape), ‘The Fountain of Dreams’.
In the town of Franschhoek there is a classical anomaly: In a main street lined with restaurants serving French styled food, Belgian chocolate makers, and small art galleries there is a fountain with a Latin inscription. And neither the fountain nor the inscription is old: they date back to 1996. This fountain and its inscription elicit many questions: Who is the man who donated this fountain to the town? Why did he choose a Latin inscription? What does the inscription in Latin say about the donor’s perception of Latin? What sort of image (of himself) is the donor trying to project with this fountain and its Latin inscription?
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J. L. Hilton (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban) ‘The Sacred Cities of the Mind: Roy Campbell and the Classics’.
In his first published poem (The Flaming Terrapin 1924) Campbell urged the ‘bookish Muses’ to keep their distance and ‘with pale fingers’ to ‘wind / The bays in garlands for their northern kind’. He abhorred the ‘too-frequented Hippocrene’ and sought inspiration in the ‘Muse of the Berg, muse of the sounding rocks’. Nevertheless, his gift for sharp-pointed satire stems largely from that most Classical eighteenth-century poet, Alexander Pope, and ultimately from Juvenal and Horace. (He notes in the The Wayzgoose [1928], for example, that ‘fair Bananaland’ [KwaZulu-Natal] was ‘a clime so prosperous both to men and kine / That which were which a sage could scarce define’). His lyric poetry frequently makes use of resonant themes and startling metaphors from Greek and Latin literature. He was a gifted translator of poetry (including Latin poetry), and frequently chose his poetic form, mythological allusions, and religious emblems from Classical sources. This paper investigates the tense and complex reception of Classical themes in the works of this internationally-acclaimed Durban-born poet.
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Anton van Hooff (Nijmegen University, The Netherlands) ‘Ancient Suicide and Christian Europe’.
For the Greeks and Romans there was no such a thing as suicide. Not only did the word not exist—the word suicida was coined only in 1177 CE—but also the idea that killing oneself constituted the crime of self-murder was completely foreign to the ancients. They wished to see the final act as mors voluntaria. It was St. Augustine who laid down the Christian doctrine of self-murder as the most abominable mortal sin: qui se ipse occidit, homicida est (Civ. Dei 1.17) The official Church’s view resulted in allowing a self-slaughterer only a ‘dog’s burial’. The Christian rejection found its way into secular law: a suicide attempt was punishable under English law till 1961, in the Republic of Ireland till 1993.
Christian Europe was acquainted with the ancient attitude. In general the Greco-Roman cases and views were used to demonstrate the superiority of the Christian morality, but from time to time there were thinkers like Montaigne and David Hume who saw the ancient approach as an appealing alternative. Antiquity always had the potential of acting as a counterpoint to current beliefs. Self-killing is a neat example of the ambiguous function of the Classics in Western Civilization.
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Manfred Horstmanshoff (University of Leiden, The Netherlands), ‘Explaining the symptoms: Thucydides’ Description of the Plague in its Context’.
Thucydides’ description of the Athenian ‘plague’ seems so accurate that modern doctors time and again are tempted to suggest a retrospective diagnosis. No agreement, however, has so far been reached. One may wonder why. At the same time, from antiquity to the 20th century this plague report has stimulated authors to imitate and even attempt to surpass Thucydides. What do these imitations reveal about the medical facts, about author, and about the time, place and literary tradition?
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Annemaré Kotzé (University of Stellenbosch) ‘Augustine’s Confessions: The Literary Antecedents (revisited)’.
I analyze a number of pagan and Christian works (e.g. Iamblichus’ Exhortation to Philosophy, Lucian’s Menippus, Athanasius’ Life of Antony, Cyprian of Antioch’s Confession) that may have influenced the generic composition of Augustine’s Confessions. Some of these texts were already identified by Courcelle as having influenced the autobiographical writing of the Confessions. I show, however, that these texts (of which the autobiographical sections form only a part, as is the case in the Confessions) provide an important new perspective on the Confessions in terms of the communicative purpose of the work as a whole, and in terms of the combination of material offered.
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Judy Koekemoer (University of Pretoria), ‘Schola Scripta Correspondence Course in Basic Latin’.
Only a handful of schools in South Africa still offer Latin as a school subject. The Academia Latina programme of the Department Ancient Languages of the University of Pretoria has noticed with alarm the decline in numbers of Latin learners. But we are also aware that there are many people across our country who thirst for a basic knowledge of Latin and the Classics, especially Mythology. For the past twelve years Academia Latina has been running Schola Scripta I, II , III and IV, correspondence courses in basic Latin. Mrs. Judy Koekemoer, Course Leader of Schola Scripta, has recently rewritten three of the four courses to bring it more in line with the school syllabus. Each course consists of the following Sections: Language, Classical Culture, Mythology and History. Many correspondents, ranging in age from 10 years old to 82, had the opportunity to get acquainted with the subject that lies very near to our hearts and completed one or more of the four courses. Learners can work at their own pace. Exams in June and November allow the more studious to complete two course per year. Learners receive a certificate from the University of Pretoria after successfully completing each course. We do not profess Schola Scripta to be a total replacement of school Latin, but we offer an excellent alternative to those interested in Latin and the Classics. After the completion of Schola Scripta IV a learner has reached the level of more or less Grade 10 in the Latin Language itself, but knows much more about Mythology, Classical Culture and Roman History than any Latin learner at school. Learners interested to pursue Latin as a Language, are then referred to the University of North-west for a correspondence course using The Oxford Latin Course.
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In paragraph 40 of the Cena Trimalchionis a sow is carried into the room on a tray and it is mentioned that she is wearing a pilleus, i.e. a cap that manumitted slaves normally wear. At the beginning of par. 41 the following explanation is offered for the ‘aper pilleatus’: ‘hic aper, cum heri summa cena eum vindicavisset, a convivis dimissus <est>; itaque hodie tamquam libertus in convivium revertitur.’ (When this sow was served for dinner yesterday, the guests let it go; therefore today she comes back to the table as a freed sow.)
Shortly afterwards a slave boy enters the scene, crowned with vine-tendrils and ivy, representing the god of wine, Dionysus in different roles as Bromius, Lyaeus and Euhius. When Trimalchio asks him to act the role of Liber, he interprets the command (‘Esto Liber’) as a manumission formula (Esto liber!) and illustrates his interpretation by taking the freedom cap from the sow’s head and putting it on his own. It is not clear however, if the slave boy indeed receives his freedom from Trimalchio.
In this paper I focus on the relationship between the ‘aper pilleatus’ and the ‘puer speciosus’ episodes. I argue that the ‘manumission’ of the boy can be better understood in the light of the preceding episode.
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M. Lambert (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg) ‘Dr Mama Zainabu, Dr Swadik and the Greek Magical Papyri’.
Since 1994, the centres of many South African cities have become havens for African traditional healers, often advertising themselves as ‘astrologers, herbalists and healers’, who claim to solve and treat everything from ‘winning court cases and the lotto’ to ‘penis and enlargement’. One of the major aims of these healers is to help the patient with muti (physical and spiritual medicine) outwit or overcome real or imagined opponents (the judicial system, a reluctant lover, potential thieves, a business rival, an evil spirit). Drs Zainabu and Swadik practise in the centre of Pietermaritzburg. This paper aims to compare and contrast the thought-world of the African traditional healer and patient with the mentalité underpinning a selection of ancient Greek magical papyri.
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G. Mader (University of South Africa), ‘Fighting Philip with Decrees: Demosthenes and the Syndrome of Symbolic Action’.
Demothenes’ Philippic cycle conveys a satirical picture of Athenians trapped in a spiral of symbolic activity: to a demos nostalgic for a great-power status but loath to energetic intervention, high-sounding resolutions substitute for low-level responses, and by their character as official enactments create the illusion of meaning engagement. This syndrome as analysed by Demothenes is a tendentious rhetorical construct and a scare tactic subserving a political agenda: at a time when his influence as rhetor was still limited, Demothenes found it expedient to exaggerate the cautious approach of Eubulus’ peace party as a ‘knowing-doing gap’ in order to move the audience to accept his own hard line on the Macedonian question.
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Jessie Maritz (University of Zimbabwe) ΕΛΛΑΣ 2004.
The modern Olympic Games are a well-known example of a Classical tradition that is flourishing in the 21st century. ATHENS2004 brought the modern Games back to Greece for the first time in 108 years, and back to Olympia for the first time in more than sixteen centuries. It also provided an opportunity for visitors to Greece to become aware of some other aspects of the ancient Greek culture. This paper illustrates a few of these features.
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Beatrice Martin (University of Pretoria), ‘The Eclogue Book of Calpurnius Siculus: Tradition and Innovation’.
The arrangement of Calpurnius’ Eclogue Book is very neat and symmetrical and clearly deliberate. The poems are carefully arranged as to subject matter and form. The key positions of beginning, middle and end belong to the three so-called political poems, with Eclogue 4, as the longest, in the middle and the shortest, Eclogue 7, at the end. Eclogue 4 is flanked by the four ostensibly purely bucolic poems. The poems are clearly grouped on the basis of subject matter and form and as far as mood is concerned, the four bucolic poems form the perfect backdrop for the political poems, because their mood deteriorates from the truly idyllic to hopeless acrimony and aggression, while the three political eclogues show a dramatic and chronological progression. Throughout the collection, the poems are connected by small verbal and thematic links. The arrangement and structure of the poems show that Calpurnius’ work is far more than just a skilful ‘weaving together of phrases’ from the work of his predecessors. There is also a marked degree of generic experimentation, and combined with the subject matter, especially the encomium in the political poems, Calpurnius’ poems are quite far removed from the Idylls of Theocritus and the Eclogae of Vergil. This work is clearly a deliberate reinterpretation of the pastoral tradition, and not the work of a poet who misunderstood the tradition.
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François Pauw (University of Stellenbosch), ‘Magical Realism in Aristophanes’.
The term ‘magic(al) realism’ was coined by the German art critic Franz Roh in 1925 and applied to Spanish-American fiction by Alejo Carpentier in 1949. Since then it has been used to describe the mixture of the quotidian and the fantastic in works of novelists such as Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass and Etienne van Heerden.
Although elements such as ‘fantasy’ (Dover, Reckford) and ‘the absurd’ (Cartledge) have been identified in Aristophanes’ comedies by critics, the term ‘magic realism’ is not normally applied to Aristophanes. In this paper, therefore, I propose to investigate whether this term, normally reserved for a sub-genre of the twentieth-century novel, could be applied to Old Comedy.
The plays of Aristophanes tend to display a duality between political reality and comic fantasy. ‘Realism’ is represented by the depiction (usually with comic exaggeration) of the socio-political realities of late fifth-century Athens (the jury system in Wasps, for example, or the effects of the Peloponnesian War in the three peace plays).
Aristophanic comedies, however, also contain an element of fantasy (‘freedom from everyday logic’), in which natural laws are inverted. This is highlighted by Sifakis’ scheme for systematising the ‘narrative structure’ of Old Comedy, which contains the following sequence of ‘functions’: (1) Villainy, lack or misfortune; (2) Decision and plan to counteract misfortune; (3) Service or help of a supernatural or quasi-magical agent or helper obtained; (4) Transference; (5) Opposition or obstacles to be overcome; (6) Persuasion exercised in debate; (7) Liquidation of villainy or misfortune; (8) Triumph of hero. Clearly, ‘fantasy’ will come into play especially in functions 2-4 (Dikaiopolis’ instant peace in Acharnians, Trygaios’ beetle-flight in Peace, Dionysos’ katabasis in Frogs).
This paper should serve as a reminder that even as idiosyncratic a poet as Aristophanes can provide intertextual echoes in modern literature.
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Dave Pike (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg), ‘Recent cinematic re-examinations of the hero-figure: Brad Pitt’s Achilles and Eric Bana’s Hector in Troy, and Maximus in Gladiator’.
The portrayals of Achilles and Hector in the recent film of Troy are arguably just re-runs of what Homer gives us in the Iliad; but (it will be argued) the character of Maximus in Gladiator is far more complex and intertextual, and suggests comparisons with a considerable range of mythical and historical characters and value-systems, ranging from Homer’s Achilles and Odysseus to the Roman Cincinnatus and Judah Ben-Hur of the 1959 epic film which bore his name.
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Adrian Ryan (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban), ‘Stylometry in Attic Vase-Painting: A Computer-based approach’.
The seemingly disparate fields of image processing and art history enjoy a partnership which, although not close, has a pedigree extending back to the inception of image processing as a discipline in the nineteen-sixties. Recent years have seen considerable activity in the field of computer-based attribution of European art. Much of this research is of little use in the study of Attic vase-paintings, as its methodology relies heavily on brush-stroke analysis, which is of little use in the study of vase-paintings. It is therefore necessary to look elsewhere for inspiration. This paper presents an overview of a set of tools composed of techniques from a variety of industrial image-processing applications adapted to facilitate the analysis of style in Attic black-figure. These include: optical character recognition (OCR) used as a tool for distinguishing between the techniques used by different painters to render minute anatomical details; face recognition algorithms adapted to recognize vase shapes; and pose estimation algorithms adapted to measure various other stylistic idiosyncrasies that reveal the painters’ identities. Together these form a suite of tools that can serve as the basis for further studies into computer-aided analysis of Greek art.
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John Scarborough (University of Wisconsin), ‘Drugs and Drug Lore in the Time of Theophrastus: Folklore, Magic, Botany, Philosophy, and the Rootcutters.’
Theophrastus of Eresus (c. 370 – c. 287 B.C.) is well known for his pioneering manual of botany, the Inquiry into Plants, set down about 300 B.C. Not only is this collection of details about plants (pot-herbs, wild species, some trees, vines, and many other ‘classes’ of plant lore) the first fundamental ordering of botany by means of morphology, it also tells us much about how some plants were considered foods, others drugs, and still others possessed of particular properties/powers that were part of a very old Greek folklore. As a brilliant student of Aristotle of Stagirus, Theophrastus of Eresus on Lesbos had been involved with his teacher’s early dissections and vivisections of animals, and one may discern a distinct zoological/medical interest by both student and mentor as they collected ‘facts’ to make up various books of ‘inquiries’ (Grk. historiai). Book IX of the Inquiry into Plants is especially rich in the details of folkloristic information provi ded to the Peripatetics by a semi-professional class of rhizotomoi (‘rootcutters’) who searched out medicinal plants, sorted them, and sold them in the agorai of various poleis in Greece (and presumably elsewhere in the Greek-speaking world of the fourth century B.C.). The rootcutters were, indeed, the experts in drugs as derived from plants and plant parts, so that a rough categorization of plant-parts as drugs (pharmaka) entered the formal levels of Greek pharmacology through the writings of Theophrastus, who succeeded to the Headship of the Lyceum when Aristotle died in 322 B.C.
A number of specifics illustrate the multiple assumptions about the folklore of pharmacology in fourth-century Greece: the preparation of hemlock (infamously quaffed by Socrates in 399 B.C.) was clearly known by ‘ordinary citizens’ in Athens, or the the Board of Eleven would not have known how to prepare the hemlock as it was used for capital punishment (Plato’s Apology has the effects of the poison, Theophrastus tells how it was p repared); the magical traditions linked with such plants as squill were recorded by Theophrastus, not simply as sharp drugs made from bulbs as reported by the rootcutters, but also as an important aspect of hoary traditions associated with easing a community’s ailments by means of a scapegoat (pharmakos); aphrodisiacs and anaphrodisiacs were touted then (as now) by specialist-rootcutters, who often hailed from faraway places (India, for example); and by beginning his ‘medical plants’ section in Book IX with mandrake, Theophrastus may be saying that this particular herb was thought to be most important by his sources, the rootcutters, and in turn may suggest that anesthesia was ordinarily assumed in Greek pharmacy and surgery.
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Alta Schoeman (University of Stellenbosch), ‘Romancing the pearl: a tale of two earrings’.
When in 42 BCE Cleopatra heeded Antony’s summons to meet him in Tarsus for the sake of explaining the aid she had supposedly given Cassius before the battle of Philippi, she did so at her leisure and on her own terms. The details of her arrival on the barge, in the guise of Venus, are well-known, especially from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Famous too is her wager with Antony during a banquet which led to the extraordinary story of the pearl earrings. Plutarch, who gives a wonderful description of Cleopatra’s arrival in the barge (Life of Antony), is strangely silent on the pearl episode, and it is to the encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder and his Natural History that we are indebted for an account thereof. During the banquet Cleopatra so charmed Antony that a love affair was set in motion which lasted elevan years, ended in war and tragedy, and changed the face of the world for ever. Nowhere else is Cleopatra’s extravagance more manifest than in the story of the pearl, a tale of high romance that has featured in art and literature through the ages, inspiring artists such as Giambattista Tiepolo and William Kent. Plays, novels, and films, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, have celebrated the pearl and its pivotal role in the most celebrated banquet in antiquity.
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Corrie J. Schumann-Bosman (University of Pretoria), ‘Medical Terminology based on Greek and Latin in modern Health and Health Care education’.
The department of Ancient Languages in co-operation with the department of Anatomy embarked in the late nineties on a course in Medical Terminology for students of the Veterinary and Health Sciences. Before long, students from biological and Agricultural Sciences, Dentistry, Nursing Sciences, Biokinetics and Dietetics also adopted the course in their curriculum at the University of Pretoria. As from 2006 the course will also be included in the Radiography and Occupational Therapy curriculum with a total close 800 students per annum. The average medical student has to learn about 15 000 new words, approximately 94% of which is derived from Latin and Greek as reported in the Journal of Medical Education (vol. 55 [1980] pp. 128-129). To keep apace of medical science and to communicate an international medical language effectively, medical language must be able to expand and change. Medical Terminology like any living language is not static. It has become a common currency not only of those in medical professions but also of lawyers, equipment suppliers, pharmaceutical representatives and others who interact with health care providers and consumers" (Myrna la Fleur, Medical Terminology). A questionnaire was handed out to students involved in the course to determine their impressions and experiences as well as the suitability and appropriateness of the course for their future careers. A Lichert scale was used with ten questions in total. The course received an overall rating of 4.03 (SD 0.92) and a rating of 4.48 (SD 0.85) for application to future career needs. At the University of Pretoria the course in Medical Terminology proved to be 100% outcomes based and to develop an interdisciplinary agenda between Ancient Languages and Anatomy and a New Direction in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
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Suzanne Sharland (University of KwaZulu-Natal), ‘Speaking with Authority: A Bakhtinian Take on Horace Sat. 2.3’
Warned once, apparently, by an old fortune-telling woman to steer clear of the talkative, Horace finds himself in Sat. 2.3 the victim of the verbose and nauseating new Stoic convert Damasippus. Sat. 2.3, by far the lengthiest satire of both collections, has metastasized beyond all proportion, thanks to the neophyte’s long-winded and largely boring lecture that comprises most of this satire’s bulk. Damasippus ascribes the speech he recites to Horace to his Stoic teacher Stertinius (Prof. Snore), but the fact remains that it is difficult to separate master from convert in the resulting speech-within-a-speech structure. Just as when in South Africa it is observed that trainee born-again Christian preachers sometimes acquire a patently fake American accent that they tend to use particularly when repeating teachings they have picked up from their sources, so Damasippus has absorbed Stertinius’ tiresome manner of speaking along with his dogma. In fact, my theory is that Damasippus has learnt Stertinius’ boring lecture off by heart, and is spewing it back at the hapless Horace, who, I suggest, is inclined to start snoring himself. The present paper proposes to examine the monologizing tendencies observed in Damasippus’ lecture in the light of the Bakhtinian theories of ‘addressivity’ (or lack thereof) and the idea of ‘authoritative’ versus ‘internally persuasive’ discourse.
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Elke Steinmeyer (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban), ‘Electra in the Marvel Universe’.
The paper will deal with the movie Elektra which will be released beginning of 2005 and is meant to be a sequel to the movie Daredevil (2003). Both movies are based on the Comic Strip and Graphic Novels of the Marvel Universe with the same name, which comprises approximately 380 volumes. In some of these volumes, Elektra is either the partner or the opponent to Daredevil, in others, she is the protagonist.
In this paper I would like to investigate how much the story of Elektra Natchios is based on the ancient myth and how it was trasposed into a movie. In addition I would like to investigate the function of (ancient) myths in popular culture.
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The Hymn to Zeus by the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes is one of the most intriguing texts to survive from the Hellenistic period. It is the only complete writing we have of any early Stoic author and therefore of immense significance for the history of Hellenistic philosophy. It is one of the most important witnesses to the process of interaction between philosophy and religion which gained momentum in the Hellenistic period, and consequently also of interest for the history of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman religions. Further, it is an excellent example of the way the form and conventions of Greek hymns were applied in the post-classical period, which also makes the Hymn to Zeus an important text for the history of Greek literature. A detailed study of all three these facets—philosophical, religious, and literary—is essential for understanding the poem. The Hymn itself is remarkable precisely because it combines different philosophical, religious and literary traditions and sources into a new expression of philosophical religion. Scholars however often focus on one aspect of the text without giving due recognition to the integration accomplished in it. To do justice to this text means to understand the way the text itself interprets the traditions it draws upon. It also means to account for why and how we as modern readers try to give meaning to the text. Having just completed a commentary on the Hymn to Zeus, I will thus reflect on texts and commentaries as forms of reception and of sense-making.
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Isabelle Torrance (University of Nottingham, England) ‘A Cuban Tragedy: Arrufat’s Seven Against Thebes’.
Political agenda has played a large part in the reception of Greek tragedy through the last century. Sophocles’ Antigone, for example, has been exploited to express a wide range of varying ideological stances: fascist (in a 1925 performance in honour of Mussolini), anti-bourgeois (Anouilh’s 1944 version), Marxist and anti-Nazi (Brecht’s 1948 version), anti-apartheid (Fugard’s 1973 adaptation The Island). Yet Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes, which relates mythical events leading up to the situation in Antigone, has languished in obscurity in terms of reception. One exception is Antón Arrufat’s 1968 Los siete contra Tebas—a play which, in spite of being awarded one of Latin America’s most prestigious literary prizes, has failed to attract the attention of scholars, much like the original on which it is based. This may be due to the Eurocentric tendencies of current scholars (most recently, e.g. Garland’s [2004] Surviving Greek Tragedy), but must also have something to do with the fact that, in Castro’s Cuba, the play was not well-received, having its first and only performance in Mexico. Just a few years after the Bay of Pigs assault, in which Cuban exiles covertly financed by the U.S. launched an attack on the Cuban regime, the conflict between the two brothers in the play, with the developed characterization of Polinice, can easily be read as a critique of contemporary Cuban politics. This paper will examine how Arrufat has manipulated the original to voice his political views, and how this, in turn, reflects on Aeschylus’ play.
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Annemieke van der Plaat (University of Leiden, the Netherlands), ‘The Classical tradition and Education: reading Greek and Latin texts at pre-university school’.
Dutch pupils in the last two and a half years of their curriculum have to translate approximately fifty OCT pages of texts in original Greek and Latin. During the final year the pupils will be examined on their understanding of these texts by answering questions about the texts they have translated in classroom, and by translating an unseen passage of a specific Greek or Latin author. How can a programme be offered for those 17-18 year old pupils that will be interesting, challenging and that will stimulate their intellectual and social development? How can a programme be offered that will help them to perform in today’s world? And last but not least, how can one offer them a programme, by which they will learn to acknowledge and appreciate the cultural heritage of the classics and their influence on today’s world and—hopefully—the world of tomorrow?
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David van Schoor (University of Cape Town), ‘Up for Grabs: what Classics is for’.
A commonplace since Nietzsche is the opposition of Apollo and Dionysus as symbols of the union or disunion in human life of the rational and instinctive, spirit and nature. Does it matter if such an antithesis is fallacious, is its use in the work of ‘popular culture’ doyenne Camille Paglia insightful or facile? How are the supposed values of classical culture used in the contemporay world? What role, say, would a classicist have in the Bush administration, or as witness for homosexual marriage rights? Nothing is so radical as unsystematic, promiscuous reading of literature, refusal of dogma, insistence on establishing value. Nothing so necessary, in South Africa, as the close study or at least consciousness of the rhetoric of power. In the past there is apparently authority, power and glamour, in the present calculated manipulation of the past to retain and entrench authority and power with a glamorous rhetoric. Everyone finds uses to be made of the corpus of writings and evidence that have survived from ancient times. As with all representation, the conception of the world of the past is plastic, if it is an instrument for the ideologue, it is also the refuge of the curious, to be plundered and considered, studied and enjoyed. It is a moveable feast, an eternal library to which access is given any who are inquisitive and will withstand the invidious and degrading banalizations of the african nationalist, the “First World” chauvinist, the facile antit heses and specious associations of the ambitious opportunist.
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Betine Van Zyl Smit (University of Western Cape). ‘Medea in Afrikaans’
No Afrikaans translation of Euripides’ Medea has been published. Yet it was the first Greek tragedy to be performed in Afrikaans, in 1907. Subsequently other Afrikaans translations and adaptations of the Medea story were staged. Many of these versions were at times when not only the play, but the choice of Afrikaans as the language of performance, was significant. The examples of Medea in Afrikaans to be investigated range from 1907 to 2002/3 and thus span almost a century. The different circumstances in South Africa over that period are revealed in the different productions.
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Henk Versnel (The University of Leiden, The Netherlands), ‘Tradition versus Reception: Modern Risks in Reading Greek Religion’.
Monolithic, one-sided or universalist claims in the field of Greek (and probably any) theology by their very nature tend to be misleading since they illuminate only part of a complex and kaleidoskopic religious reality. In many respects, for instance the infinite complexity of polytheism or the problems concerning divergent, yet simultaneous, concepts of nature, qualities, and actions of the gods, ancient Greeks display an alarming capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine as being complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
They not only accept the validity of either one in its own right, but also may allow them to co-exist in such a smooth and seemingly unreflected manner that it often shocks the modern mind. This position constitutes both their similarity and their difference as compared to the modern reader, who recognizes the seduction of smoothing over logical dissonances, but is not able to really live with it.
All this will be illustrated through a discussion of three issues:
(1) Is the Greek pantheon order or chaos?
(2) Is the regime of the gods just or arbitrary?
(3) Are Greek gods omnipotent or only powerful?
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David Wardle (University of Cape Town, South Africa), ‘A Perfect Send-off: Suetonius and the Dying Art of Augustus’.
The biographer Suetonius presents a detailed description of the final day in the life of Augustus in which Augustus addresses friends, family and wife. Augustus’ final words and his control of the scene cast an important light on his conception of his life and relationships. I discuss the significance of the scene, its historicity and its treatment in classical scholarship since the mid-nineteenth century.
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Clare Weightman (University of Cape Town), ‘The Role of Fate in Octavian’s Rise to Power’.
Nicolaus of Damascus’ Bios Kaisaros is an important text for our understanding of how the revolutionary figure, Octavian, was handled by Augustan sources. The fragmentary work presents a eulogistic account of Octavian’s early life and his relationship with Caesar, with the text breaking off in November 44 BC. Nicolaus’ background as a Peripatetic seems to have influenced his writing of biography, in terms of how he chose to present the young Octavian’s deeds (praxeis). Caesar and Octavian are interesting as both literary and historical portraits in that neither conform strictly to the characters familiar from more well-known histories and biographies (Suetonius, Appian, Dio, Plutarch), and Nicolaus’ exploration of the role of Tyche in the fate of the Great Man on the Ides of March bears closer examination.
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Hansie Wolmarans (University of Johannesburg), ‘Jesus the Hero’.
The New Testament does not supply a uniform picture of Jesus as various discrepancies exist between the various authors. Diverse hypotheses have been put forward to account for these anomalies. It is argued that around an historical core, Jesus was interpreted (or re-created) either within the framework of a typical cynic philosopher, a prophet, a teacher, or a travelling healer. In this paper, the thesis is put forward that much of the additional layers added to the core of the historical Jesus can be meaningfully explained by referring to the so-called heroic pattern found in classical mythology. To argue this hypothesis, a brief look is taken at the so-called Three Story Universe world vision and its relation to the hero. The heroic pattern is discussed as put forward by various scholars of Greek mythology. This is compared with features of Jesus as found in the New Testament. It is concluded that New Testament Christology continues the Classical Tradition. Slides will be shown.
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J C Zietsman (University of Stellenbosch) ‘Persius on Poetic (In)digestion’
The Roman satirist Persius (AD 34–62) was a rich equestrian of Etruscan stock and was connected with the Stoic opposition to Nero through his links with Clodius Thrasea Paetus and the philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus. Had he not died of a stomach ailment at the age of 28, he would most probably also have been a victim of Nero’s revenge after the conspiracy to assassinate the emperor in AD 65.
As a satirist Persius is strongly opposed to the grand themes of epic and tragedy. In the first 29 lines of Satire 5 (cast in the form of a dialogue between the poet and his friend, Cornutus) Persius is mainly concerned with the style and themes of contemporary epic and tragedy (1-9), using the process of contemporary literary production (with special reference to tragic writers) as a metaphor for the preparation or consumption of ghastly, cannibalistic banquets dished up by tragic writers and actors. He then justifies his approach to his own poetry and the appropriate style for the satirist (10-29). Although reference will be made in passing to the whole of lines 1-29, this paper will focus on Satire 5:1-9 and 17-18 by discussing the meanings and nuances of key words first and then interpreting each pericope as a unit.
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