SUPPORTING CLASSICAL STUDIES ON ALL CONTINENTS
75 years of FIEC – first series of lectures
75 ans de la FIEC – première série de conférences
Thursday 16 November 2023 19h00 CET
Prof. Franco Montanari (Genoa/Italy)
Emeritus Professor at the Università degli Studi di Genova
(click here for a short biography)
L’evoluzione della filología ed erudizione antica da Zenodoto alle raccolte antiquarie
Se guardiamo in senso lato all'ultimo mezzo secolo più o meno, è innegabile che ci siano stati importanti cambiamenti nel campo di ricerca che chiamiamo filologia o erudizione antica. La mia conferenza si propone in particolare di riflettere sull'evoluzione della filologia e dell’esegesi dei testi letterari nel mondo greco, a partire dalla grande innovazione degli inizi - e fu, a mio avviso, un'innovazione davvero rivoluzionaria, come spero di mostrare - alle raccolte erudite e antiquarie dell'età imperiale, che sarebbero poi proseguite nelle grandi raccolte antiquarie degli studiosi e eruditi bizantini.
English abstract:
The evolution of ancient philology and erudition from Zenodotus to antiquarian collections If we look broadly at the last half century or so, it is undeniable that there have been major changes in the field of research we call ancient philology or erudition. My lecture aims in particular to reflect on the evolution of philology and exegesis of literary texts in the Greek world, starting from the great innovation of the early days - and it was, in my opinion, a truly revolutionary innovation, as I hope to show - to the erudite and antiquarian collections of the imperial age, which would later be continued in the great antiquarian collections of the Byzantine scholars and erudites.
Thursday 23 November 2023 19h00 CET
Prof. Charlotte Schubert (Leipzig/Germany)
Professor emerita of Ancient History at the University of Leipzig, Germany
Die Zukunft der Altertumswissenschaften: Hermeneutik und Digitalität
Die Altertumswissenschaften haben heute durch die Entwicklungen der Digitalität ganz neue Impulse bekommen. Digitalität in den Altertumswissenschaften beruht auf dem Zusammenspiel verschiedener, jeweils in sich neuer Arbeitsbereiche: der ‚Verdatung‘ der Forschungsgegenstände, dem Einsatz entweder ‚datenbasierter‘ oder ‚datengeleiteter‘ algorithmischer Forschungsverfahren sowie weiterer Verfahren, die dann darauf aufbauen wie Visualisierungen der Analyseergebnisse in einer von Menschen rezipierbaren Form und – vor allem – dem Neuigkeitswert der Erkenntnisse. Zwei grundlegende Fragen ergeben sich aus dieser Situation: Wie läßt sich diese Entwicklung mit der klassisch hermeneutischen Arbeitsweise der Altertumswissenschaften verbinden und wie werden sich die Forschungsprozesse verändern? In dem Vortrag soll dies anhand von Forschungsrichtungen, Projekten und Ergebnissen aus dem Bereich der digitalen Altertumswissenschaften, die algorithmenbasierte Methoden des Textmining (NLP), der Netzwerkanalyse (SNA), der Simulation (nautische Simulationen) und des maschinellen Lernens (BERT) einsetzen, dargestellt werden.
Thursday 30 November 2023 12h00 (Chicago time)
Prof. Sofía Torallas (Chicago/U.S.A.)
Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago
Material Vessels of Ancient Magic: a case study in the transmission of Classical knowledge
Ancient Magic has long been a subject of interest in Classical studies, with special attention focused on the Greek papyri of Egypt and on the lead curse-tablets from Greece and the Western Mediterranean. Recent years have seen increasing interest in Ancient Magic from the point of view of materiality and book-production. Where traditionally only the texts had been the focus, current research shifts attention toward the material vessels of magical knowledge and practice. In this paper I will present an overview of the most recent research on Ancient Magic and what this research is discovering about the magical handbooks on papyrus and how they were produced.
Thursday 7 December 2023 20h00 (New York time)
Prof. David Konstan (New York/U.S.A.)
Professor of Classics at the University of New York
Anger, Revenge, and Community: The Importance of Respect
Over the past twenty years or so, the study of emotions in classical Greece and Rome has become a major field of research. New methods have been applied, and there has been considerable interplay between historical approaches and new developments in the cognitive sciences. In my talk, I will survey some of the major tendencies in the study of emotions, with particular emphasis on anger, and also indicate some possible avenues for future research.
Aristotle defines anger, the emotion to which he devotes most attention, as a desire for revenge. According to Aristotle, anger results from a slight, and revenge aims at restoring one’s status, that is, one’s honor or dignity, above all in the eyes of the community. Modern studies of revenge also point to the importance of social regard, rather than a desire simply to punish the offender. I will survey several cases of revenge in Greek literature and selected modern treatments, by way of demonstrating the aptness of Aristotle’s account and the new paths it suggests for further investigation.
Wednesday 13 December 2023 15h30 (UK time)
Prof. Arlene Holmes Henderson (Durham/U.K.)
Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy
at the University of Durham, UK
Classics in schools: past, present and future
In this talk, Arlene Holmes-Henderson will provide an overview of the learning and teaching of Classics in pre-university settings. Covering a range of geographical contexts since FIEC’s foundation to the present day, she will chart the peaks and troughs of educational policy support for classical subjects and will share recent findings from European comparative ‘big data’ projects. Tracing the (limited) history of Classics education as a sub-field of research in its own right, Arlene will sketch the current landscape of pedagogical research and training, before conjecturing what the future might hold for teachers and learners of Classics.
Thursday 21 December 2023 15h00 (Argentinian time)
Prof. Darío P.R. Maiorana (Rosario, Argentina)
Professor of Latin, Director of the Centro de Estudios Internacioneles,
Former Rector of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina)
Prospectiva de los Estudios Clásicos en el siglo XXI
Pretendo hacer en primer término un breve estado de la enseñanza de los estudios Clásicos en el sistema educativo argentino para luego fundamentar los campos disciplinares que, según considero, podrían ayudar en el futuro a la expansión de la enseñanza de los Estudios Clásicos, no solo en nuestro país, sino también en Latinoamérica y otros continentes. En tal sentido, existe una serie de elementos que a mi modo de ver impactarán en la enseñanza e investigación de los Estudios Clásicos:
1) La necesidad de reflexionar sobre los sistemas políticos y de organización de los estados y gobiernos (los ejemplos del mundo antiguo clásicos son muy apropiados para comparar y reflexionar sobre la política actual).
2) La necesidad de reflexionar sobre el pensamiento ético y moral actuales (también en este caso, ejemplos del mundo antiguo clásicos son muy adecuados para comparar y reflexionar sobre la ética y el bien común).
3) El aumento de la expectativa de vida de la población, lo cual origina la necesidad de una educación continua, tanto formal como no formal (este hecho aumenta la población que estudiaría tanto lenguas como cultura clásicas por placer y entretenimiento con las adcuaciones
de cada caso).
4) La necesidad de incorporar mayores aportes de las proyecciones de la cultura antigua clásica en los sistemas educativos en campos como la literatura, lexicografía, didáctica de la lengua, semiótica, estudios culturales, religiosos, derecho, lingúísticos, entre otros.
Planeo terminar con una serie de propuestas didácticas, culturales y comunicacionales sobre cómo pueden impactar los estudios sobre el mundo antiguo clásico en el mundo contemporáneo.
75 years of FIEC – second series of lectures
75 ans de la FIEC – deuxième série de conférences
Thursday 11 April 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Filippomaria Pontani
Professor of Classical Philology at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Filippomaria Pontani is Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. While primarily concerned with scholarship and manuscript transmission in the Byzantine and humanistic period (from Plutarch’s Natural Questions to Planudes’ edition of Ptolemy, down to Pletho’s De Homero), he is currently editing the scholia to Homer’s Odyssey (five volumes so far, 2007–2022; prolegomena: Sguardi su Ulisse, 2005). He has published extensively on Greek and Latin texts (from Sappho’s Nachleben to Callimachus’ Aitia, from Aeschylus’ Choephori to Euripides’ Medea, from the rise of ancient grammar to allegory and the literary facies of some ancient myths) as well as on Byzantine, Humanist (Poliziano’s Liber Epigrammatum Graecorum, 2002; Kondoleon’s Scritti omerici, 2018; the anthology of "neualtgriechische Gedichte" The Hellenizing Muse, 2022, ed. with Stefan Weise) and Modern Greek literature (Poeti greci del Novecento, 2010). He co-directs (with S. Valente) the Sammlung der gr. und lat. Grammatiker, (with Alberto Camerotto) the project Classici Contro, and (with Anna Santoni) a series of modern receptions of Classical myth (last issue: a piece by W. Mouawad, Pisa 2023). https://www.unive.it/data/people/5592491
Vingt-quatre pattes de mouche : Greek manuscripts and beyond
Studies of Greek manuscripts and Greek manuscript culture have made enormous leaps forward in recent decades. While academic practice tends to parcel off Altertumswissenschaft by allotting special inquiries to palaeographers, papyrologists, philologists, historians of culture, Byzantinists etc., only the fruitful interaction between these disciplines can enable significant progress in the recovery, the edition and the interpretation of ancient and medieval Greek literature and wisdom. Incidentally, this approach is not only paramount for textual criticism, but it also has much to tell about phenomena of reception and appropriation that have shaped the Classical heritage throughout the centuries.
Thursday 25 April 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Joy Connolly
President of the American Council of Learned Societies
Joy Connolly began her service as President of the American Council of Learned Societies on July 1, 2019. Previously, she served as provost and interim president of The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she was also Distinguished Professor of Classics. She has held faculty appointments at New York University, where she served as Dean for the Humanities from 2012-16, Stanford University, and the University of Washington. Committed to broadening scholars’ impact on the world, as provost at the Graduate Center Joy secured generous support from the Mellon Foundation to foster public-facing scholarship through innovative experiments in doctoral training. She has published two books with Princeton University Press and over seventy articles, reviews, and short essays. Connolly earned a BA from Princeton University in 1991 and a PhD in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. https://www.acls.org/joy-connolly/
Beyond “Greece and Rome”
In this lecture, I argue for a thorough rethinking of the field we now call “classical studies,” based on a critical evaluation of its historical structure and founding values. I propose a redesigned discipline constituted in collaboration with scholars of the deep past in other regions of the world. This new configuration would transcend the nineteenth-century protonationalist borders of “Classics” (Altertumswissenschaft) and speak to the needs of our interconnected, global age while preserving the skills required to understand cultures far distant from ours in time and space, including the study of ancient languages.
My reasoning runs along two tracks. First, the professionalized study of Greece and Rome is the product of a university and disciplinary system centuries in the making that placed Europe at the center of inquiry. Its intentional focus on what I call “GreeceandRome” shut out consideration of other ancient cultures, and today still warps our effort to understand ancient history and cultural and intellectual production. Recent efforts in the US to push against the GreeceandRome paradigm by renaming departments “Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies” and the like typically represent accretions of a few scholars and courses, not a significant reorientation of vision and goals. Transregional, transcultural, and translinguistic studies beyond Latin and Greek continue to be marginalized in favor of scholarship on familiar canonical texts.
Meanwhile, the contemporary audience for these canonical texts is decreasing in size, and this is the second reason I advocate for a global approach to the study of ancient pasts. Across the United States, undergraduate enrollments in the study of all ancient cultures are flat or declining, the number of tenure track jobs is shrinking, and departments in less wellresourced institutions are getting smaller or forcibly amalgamated. Calls from the left to burn down the house of classical scholarship are growing louder; calls from the right to preserve Classics as the keystone of Western culture exacerbate political divides while ignoring the failure of the status quo.
We must fight for the study of ancient texts, ideas, and culture in a world that increasingly devalues the humanistic study in general and the study of the past in particular. It is time for us to design our future. Today scholars of all ancient cultures are isolated in their struggle to survive: I will argue in this talk how we will be stronger together.
Thursday 9 May 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Carmen Codoñer
Emerita Professor at the University of Salamanca
Carmen Codoñer is Professor Emerita at the University of Salamanca, Spain, where she has trained numerous disciples, who today occupy important positions in various Spanish and Latin American universities. Her works cover a wide range from language to literature and from the Roman Republican period to Renaissance Humanism. Her contributions to the medieval Latin lexicon are especially notable, as well as to the study of the grammatical and linguistic works of the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. https://produccioncientifica.usal.es/investigadores/148078/detalle
Humanismo : transiciones. Texto y contexto
Generalmente las transiciones entre dos épocas suelen estar marcadas por importantes acontecimientos. En otras ocasiones, se perciben cambios, pero no contamos con datos objetivos que delimiten, que enmarquen un cambio que, a pesar de ello, es perceptible. La filología, centrada en el estudio de los textos, inseparables del contexto en que se generan, puede contribuir a reconocer con más claridad los cambios históricos.
English abstract:
Transitions. Text and context
Transitions between two historical periods are usually marked by important events. On other occasions, changes are perceived, but we do not have objective data to delimit or to frame a change which, despite this, is perceptible. Philology, which focuses on the study of texts, inseparable from the context in which they are generated, can help to recognize more clearly the historical changes.
Thursday 23 May 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Denis Rousset
Directeur d’études in Greek epigraphy at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris
Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Denis Rousset Né en 1962, docteur et maître de conférences en 1991, habilité à diriger des recherches en 2001 2002- : Directeur d’études à l’École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences historiques et philologiques, Épigraphie grecque et géographie historique du monde hellénique Prix (= premier prix) de l’Association des études grecques (Paris), 2003. Prix Ambatielos de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2004. Korrespondierendes Mitglied des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (Berlin), 2004. Member of the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), 2007-2008 Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, 2005 ; officier, 2018. Prix Brunet de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2011. Correspondant de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Institut de France), 2021. Président de l’Association des études grecques 2020-2021. Membre du comité d’évaluation scientifique 27 (« études du passé, patrimoines, cultures ») de l’Agence nationale de la recherche, 2021-2022. Membre élu du Conseil d’administration (2022-2026) de l’École pratique des hautes études Doyen de la Section des Sciences historiques et philologiques de l’École pratique des hautes études (2023-2027) Membre élu du Conseil d’administration (2020-2024) de l’Université Paris Sciences Lettres Vice-Président de l’Association internationale d’épigraphie grecque et latine (2017-2022 ; 2022-2027). CV complet et liste des quelques 200 publications sur : https://www.ephe.psl.eu/denis-rousset
Comment publier les inscriptions grecques et latines au XXIe s. ?
Le flot actuel de publications révèle une somme jamais atteinte de moyens humains et financiers dévolus à l’édition d’inscriptions antiques. Cependant, et à la différence de quelques disciplines sœurs comme la papyrologie et la numismatique, cet accroissement de moyens ne paraît pas accompagné d’une unification des outils et des corpus épigraphiques, mais au contraire par une dispersion, sous la forme de réalisations ou projets émiettés, peu coordonnés, voire concurrents. Ne faut-il donc pas mener une réflexion sur les formes et les voies de publication, individuelle et collective ? Ainsi, on s’interrogera entre autres d’une part sur l’avenir des grands Corpora (IG et CIL), et leur indispensable continuation, pourvu qu’ils soient modernisés dans leur forme éditoriale et leur mode de diffusion, et tant soit peu unifiés, pour ne plus constituer des instruments séparés des bases de données en ligne, et d’autre part sur la pratique des projets courts, liée à leur financement – question qu’il faut d’autant plus poser qu’elle dépasse de loin le champ de l’Antiquité classique.
Thursday 13 June 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Stefan Rebenich
Professor of Ancient History and the Classical Reception at the University of Berne
Stefan Rebenich is Professor of Ancient History and the Classical Tradition in the Department of History at the University of Bern (Switzerland). He has published widely in the field of late antiquity and the history of historiography, including Hieronymus und sein Kreis (1992), Jerome (2002), Theodor Mommsen. Eine Biographie (2nd ed. 2007), and, most recently, Die Deutschen und ihre Antike. Eine wechselvolle Beziehung (2021). https://www.hist.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/rebenich_stefan/index_ger.html
"Alte Geschichte in Forschung und Lehre": A very brief survey of the development
of Ancient History in Germany over the last fifty years
The lecture will give a brief overview of trends and developments in the study of the ancient world in Germany during the last half century. During this period, Ancient History continued defining its position between the 'positivistic' study of sources on the one hand and (post-)structuralist models of interpretation on the other, and continually reviewed its mediating role between Classics and History. This critical review is the basis for discussing some prospects for the future.
75 years of FIEC – third series of lectures
75 ans de la FIEC – troisième série de conférences
Thursday 17 October 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Delfim F. Leâo (Coimbra/Portugal)
Full Professor of the Center for Classical and Humanistic Studies, University of Coimbra
Chilon and the Seven Wise Men: Milestones in the Establishment of a Literary Tradition
It is a well-known fact that the tradition of the Seven Wise Men attracted much legendary amplification, regarding in particular biographical details of the sophoi portrayed or of the personalities they interacted with. Although acknowledging this limitation, one must also admit that many of these figures had as well some consistent historical background, even if it varied greatly from figure to figure. This is the case of Thales, Solon, Bias, Pittacus, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilon or even Croesus (in the role of wise adviser) — just to mention those names that occur more often. Therefore, taking as a possible reference the historical context in which some of these figures were active, it seems quite probable to sustain that the tradition began to take shape during the Archaic period, more specifically between the seventh and sixth centuries, even if its literary expression becomes only visible from the work of Herodotus and onwards. This paper addresses the way the characterization of one of these sophoi — the Spartan Chilon — evolved in the literary representation of the Seven Sages, focusing on the dialogical relationship he established with other sophoi, with particular emphasis on the Athenian Solon, with whom there are certain indications that he would have had some (friendly) rivalry. The analysis will focus primarily on a few key moments in the establishment of the idea of Chilon as Sophos, more concretely in the testimonies of Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius.
Delfim F. Leão is Full Professor at the Institute of Classical Studies and researcher at the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies at the University of Coimbra. His main areas of scientific interest are Ancient History, Law and Political Theory of the Greeks, Theatrical Pragmatics, and the Ancient Novel. He also has a deep interest in Open Science and Scholarly Communication. He has published more than 200 works in international journals, books and book chapters. Among his main recent works are D. F. Leão and P. J. Rhodes, The Laws of Solon. A New Edition, with Introduction, Translation and Commentary (I.B. Tauris, London, 2015); D. F. Leão and G. Thür (Hrsg.) Symposion 2015. Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2016); D. F. Leão, R. Morais, D. Rodríguez Pérez, with D. Ferreira (eds.), Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2018); D. F. Leão & O. Guerrier (eds.), Figures de sages, figures de philosophes dans l'oeuvre de Plutarque (Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2019); D. F. Leão & L. R. Lanzillotta, A Man of Many Interests: Plutarch on Religion, Myth, and Magic (eds.) (Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2019); D. F. Leão, D. Ferreira, N. S. Rodrigues & R. Morais (eds.), Our beloved Polites: Studies presented to P.J. Rhodes (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2022); D. F. Leão & B. Sebastiani (eds.), Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai): Athenian Democracy in the Making (Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2022). Together with Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, he is the Editor of “Brill’s Plutarch Studies” (http://www.brill.com/products/series/brills-plutarch-studies) (2016-).
Thursday 24 October 2024 19h00 CEST
Prof. Véronique Dasen (Fribourg/Switzerland)
Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Fribourg
Locus Ludi. The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity
This lecture will present the results of a five-year research grant supported by the ERC Advanced Grant on ancient ludic culture (# 741520). This project aimed at generating a new vision of ancient Greek and Roman societies thanks to a pluridisciplinary and comparative approach of ancient sources (written, archaeological, iconographic). 1) Texts: reconstructing a lost heritage relating to play and education, ancient games and their rules, based on revising Greek and Latin literary, epigraphic, and papyrological sources, associated with new translations in the form of a commented edition of Pollux, Onomasticon, Book 9 and of an Anthology. 2) Archaeology: Play, identity, sociability and religion, based on the spatial distribution of game remains according to chronology, typology, and context on selected sites, settlements, cemeteries, sanctuaries, creating a reference typology, revising mistaken identifications. The identity of the players and the function of the games were analysed according to context, domestic, public, sacred, funerary, in the search also of the symbolic, religious or identity functions. 3) Iconography: like music and musical instruments, games too were categorized as male or female by the ancients. The task focused on the gender construction of children and youths through play and games, and on the ludic interaction of women and men, comparing Greek and Roman iconography, realities and representations. The lecture will address the risks, the gains and the methodological issues of such ambitious enterprise.
More about: www.locusludi.ch
Véronique Dasen is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Fribourg, specialised on ancient material and visual culture. She published several monographs and collective books on the history of the body, medicine, magic, childhood and gender (Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece, 1993; Jumeaux, jumelles dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine, 2005; La médecine grecque et romaine, with H. King, 2008; Le sourire d’Omphale. Maternité et petite enfance dans l’Antiquité, 2015; Famille et société dans le monde grec et en Italie du Ve siècle au IIe siècle av. J.-C., with J.-B. Bonnard and J. Wilgaux 2017; Le Cannibale, 2022; Le jeu comme métaphore. Images ludiques de Grèce ancienne, 2024). She led the ERC Advanced Grant project Locus Ludi. The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity (2017-2023) funded by the European Research Council.
Wednesday 13 November 2024 19h00 CET
Prof. Marietta Horster (Mainz/Germany)
Professor of Ancient History at the University of Mainz
Director of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
Roman Cities - a world of (inscribed) texts
The lecture will give insights into current research on epigraphy, more specifically on the study of inscribed and painted texts visible in urban spaces. These texts include inter alia the famous building inscription on the Pantheon in Rome, inscriptions regarding election campaigns in Pompeii and inscribed objects for the worship of the gods that were displayed in sanctuaries and other places all over the empire. The lecture will deal with these and other contexts in which inscriptions played a role in such inscribed “city-scapes” and influenced people’s perception of Roman cities.
Since 2010, Marietta Horster has been holding the Chair of Ancient History at Mainz University. Her research focus is the organisation of Greek and Roman cults, Roman imperial and late antique administration, organisation and prosopography, the transfer of knowledge and the transmission of textual culture in the ancient world. After her studies in Lausanne, Bonn and Cologne, she obtained her doctoral degree in 1995 at Cologne University with a dissertation entitled “Bauinschriften römischer Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu Inschriftenpraxis und Bautätigkeit in Städten des westlichen Imperium Romanum in der Zeit des Prinzipats.“ In her habilitation (University of Rostock, 2003) she researched on “Landbesitz griechischer Heiligtümer in archaischer und klassischer Zeit“. Since 2018 she is director of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and is currently coordinating an EU-Innovative Training Network of 11 doctoral students on inscribed poetry as a part of popular culture in the Roman imperial period (ITN: CARMINA).
Thursday 28 November 2024 19h00 CET
Prof. Alberto Bernabé (Madrid/Spain)
Emeritus Professor at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid
La difícil definición de τὰ Ὀρφικά
A lo largo de la historia de la filología clásica, la caracterización del significado, la importancia, la unidad y el alcance, de los fenómenos literarios y religiosos que encubre su atribución a Orfeo o su denominación como τὰ Ὀρφικά ha sido una cuestión muy debatida y que ha pasado por alternativas muy bruscas, desde lo que se ha dado en llamar “panorfismo” hasta la negación de la existencia de alguna clase de realidad unitaria tras dichas designaciones. Me propongo reflexionar sobre la cuestión a partir de un nuevo análisis de las fuentes.
English abstract:
Throughout the history of classical philology, the characterisation of the meaning, significance, unity and scope, of the literary and religious phenomena concealed by their attribution to Orpheus or their denomination as τὰ Ὀρφικά has been a much debated question and one that has gone through very sharp alternatives, from what has come to be called "Panorphism" to the denial of the existence of some kind of unitary reality behind such designations. I propose to rethink the question on the basis of a new analysis of the sources.
Alberto Bernabé is Professor Emeritus of Greek Philology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has directed several research projects on Greek Religion. He has been Director of his Department, Vice-President of the Spanish Society of Classical Studies, President of the Spanish Society of Linguistics, President of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and Vice-President of the Iberian Society of Greek Philosophy. He has given courses and lectures in Spanish and foreign institutions and is the author of more than 400 publications including articles and books on Greek and Indo-European linguistics, Greek literature, religion and philosophy. Among the books are the Teubnerian editions of the fragments of archaic epic poets (1987) and of the Orphic fragments (2004-2007), and, in collaboration with A. Jiménez, Instructions for the Netherworld, The Orphic Gold Tablets (2008). He has coordinated with F. Casadesús the book Orfeo y la tradición órfica: un reencuentro (2008), and with other editors, Redefining Dionysos, (2013) and Religión griega: una visión integradora (2020).