Collectanea Philologica

Sofistyczna antylogika – wprowadzenie w problematykę

2023-10-27T20:17:04+02:00

The article discusses the sophistic method of “antilogic” (“double arguments”, “contrasting arguments”, “opposed speeches”, “two-fold arguments”). The main goal is to show that it is a method that, in the light of the doctrine presented in Plato’s Theaetetus, is based on philosophical foundations. The work of G.B. Kerferd was crucial for the research on the art of antilogic, as it broke with the unequivocally negative understanding of this method adopted by the earlier research tradition. Late testimonies of Diogenes Laertius, Clement of Alexandria, Seneca and Eudoxus point to Protagoras of Abdera as the creator and promoter of the antilogic. These testimonies are confirmed by references to the method of “opposed speeches” contained in the comedies of Aristophanes, in the tragedies of Euripides and in the anonymous treatise Dialexeis. Plato’s report on the doctrine attributed to Protagoras in the Theaetetus reveals the philosophical context of the antilogic. The so-called “secret doctrine”, based on the acceptance of appearances and of the privacy of perceptions (man-measure doctrine), the rejection of truth and falsehood, and acceptance of the contradictory judgments results from the new vision of reality in flux. Therefore, the “secret doctrine” presents a consistent and coherent project leading to a new concept of logic and language and lays the foundations for the method of “double arguments”.

Problem winy i odpowiedzialności za zbrodnię w Orestesie Eurypidesa

2023-10-27T20:17:01+02:00

The myth of Orestes provides an excellent opportunity to trace the issue of guilt, and thus responsibility for the crime of matricide. This theme was taken up in their dramas by all three greatest Greek tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The subject of consideration in the article will be Euripides’ Orestes and the way the poet highlights the relationship between the personal motivation of the play’s protagonist and the divine command. The main issue will be an attempt to answer the question whether the protagonist’s actions in Euripides’ play were autonomous in nature or caused by divine determinism. Apart from Orestes, the analysis will be supplemented by commentaries by scholastics and their way of explaining and interpreting the issues outlined in the article.

Dramatyczne prologi w diegematycznych dialogach Platona

2023-10-27T20:16:59+02:00

In Plato’s diegetic dialogues, as well as in dramatic works, you can ﬁnd a distinctive feature, an autonomous part opening the work, which is usually called “a prologue”. This term is taken from an ancient Greek drama and means in literal translation “before the content”. In dramatic scenes, which precede the main narrative part of Plato’s dialogues, one of the characters is so interested in the discussion held by Socrates in more or less distant past, that he asks the discussion participant or the person who has some knowledge about it to relate him the debate. The aim of this analysis are the prologues in Protagoras, Phaedo, Symposium, Euthydemus and Theaetetus to answer the question what function in Plato’s dialogue structure they play.

O religii starożytnych Germanów. Komentarze do księgi VII Geografii Strabona

2023-10-27T20:16:57+02:00

In book VII of Strabo’s Geography there are passages about the religion of the ancient Germans. One of them mentions the name of the Chatti priest Libes. In two others, the customs of the Kimbrians are mentioned. The purpose of this article is to interpret the religious customs of these peoples, on the basis of which Strabo’s texts are created. In addition to historical data, linguistic and ethnological materials will be used in a comparative approach. A hypothesis will be presented that the considered texts of Strabo describe the Germanic religion subjected to strong Celtic inﬂuences. The following conditions were considered. In describing the religion of the Kimbrians, Strabo did not have to use Posidonius regarding them as Celts. Such an assumption results from the analysis of texts. Blood divination rituals are known to be a Celtic tradition, but they were performed by Druids. Among the Kimbrians, gray-haired soothsayers did it. The Gauls did not have women – priestesses. Meanwhile, among the Germans, women dealing in divination played an important role. The Germanic element in the activities of the Kimbrians is also the use of ritual stairs, which Strabo writes about. Archaeological and linguistic research proves the great inﬂuence of the Celts on the Germans. Probably Strabo, writing about the Kimbrians as a Germanic tribe, testiﬁed to such a process. Regardless of the ethnic identity of the Kimbrians, the picture of their customs given by Strabo is an important source for research on the religion of the Barbaricum peoples.

„Filozofia – dziełem Hellenów”. Prolog Diogenesa Laertiosa

2023-10-27T20:16:54+02:00

I dedicate this distich, together with the article, to Professor Zbigniew Danek. Indeed, there is probably no more comprehensive and fascinating work of ancient literature than Diogenes Laertios’ Lives and Views of Eminent Philosophers, the Prologue of which I present below in a new Polish translation. This Prologue is particularly interesting and instructive for understanding the composition and interpretation of the work, as in it the author gives his own criteria and distinctions of currents and branches of philosophy, whose origin, name and tradition is according to him typically Hellenic. In our translation, appropriate title headings have been introduced for greater clarity in the reading.

O prawdzie – II hermetyczny fragment Stobajosa. Przekład i komentarz

2023-10-27T20:16:52+02:00

Stobaeus’s Anthology contains – among others – the Hermetic fragments attributed to Hermes Trismegistos. In the twentieth century French scholar, A.-J. Festugière added 29 Hermetic excerpts of Stobaeus in the Corpus Hermeticum. The Article is a translation of excerpt II of Stobaeus with commentary.

Cicero und Andokides

2023-10-27T20:16:49+02:00

Due to the fact that Andocides is nowhere mentioned in Cicero’s oeuvre it is universally assumed that Cicero could not have read, let alone been inspired by, the works of Andocides. By comparing several passages from both orators, this paper argues that this is not necessarily the case. In terms of both language and content, these texts bear so close a resemblance to one another, that a direct inﬂuence does not seem beyond question. If Cicero had indeed, whether deliberately or otherwise, borrowed some ideas and/or phrases from Andocides, the absence of the latter’s name in Cicero’s extant writings can be explained in two diﬀerent ways: (1) either certain expressions that occur in Andocides’ speeches could have been known to Cicero from indirect tradition, (2) or Cicero was simply reluctant to admit to his acquaintance with the least esteemed of the ten Attic orators.

Horace on Diseases

2023-10-27T20:16:47+02:00

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, vividly portrayed for us in his works both a picture of contemporary society and the world of his convictions and beliefs. Among the many researched issues in his work, there are some that still need to be addressed. These include references of a medical nature. The purpose of this article is to point out numerous of Horace’s medical references which give clues as to what health problems plagued Augustan Rome in particular.

Owidiusz, Amory III 1 w polskim przekładzie

2023-10-27T20:16:45+02:00

The paper aims to show the new Polish translation with a brief introduction. The elegy seems to be especially interesting as the way of poetical recusatio and the sophisticated game with the reader.

Sic undique fulgor percussit. Ekfraza w VII eklodze Kalpurniusza Sykulusa

2023-10-27T20:16:43+02:00

The aim of the article is to propose a new Polish translation of the ekphrastic passage of the VII Eclogue (vv. 23-72) by Calpurnius Siculus. It will be preceded by a short commentary, in which special emphasis will be placed on the means of artistic expression used by the poet. The 50-line ekphrastic passage is a story told by Corydon, who recalls his visit to Rome. It is the longest description of this type preserved in pastoral poetry. A shepherd, who wants to leave the countryside and go to the city to start a real literary career there, describes with delight the breathtaking amphitheatre. He is impressed by the splendour, rich ornamentation, as well as the animals exhibited in the arena. In addition to hares, horned boars, elk and bulls, Corydon could also admire sea monsters. All of them ﬁt in with the tradition of locus horridus, which is in opposition to the topos of loci amoeni, i.e. an idyllic, safe place away from the hustle and bustle of the city (topos, which is well known from bucolic poetry).

Levant et carmina curas – o terapeutycznym walorze poezji w Eklodze IV Nemezjana

2023-11-02T15:38:31+01:00

The article presents an episode related to the erroneous attribution of the phrase carmina non dant panem to Nemesianus, a Carthaginian poet living in the 3^rd century AD, who did not enjoy the due authority among researchers. Later, Nemesianus’ Eclogue IV, which – as a literary space – is an example of an original intertextual collage, was analysed. The analysis of the last Eclogue written by Carthaginian poet shows how he weaved this work out of the poetic tradition concerning the truth about the transience of youthful beauty. Both the Latin sentence carmina dant panem, quoted in Umberto Eco’s novel, and versus intercalaris, quoted ten times in the Nemesianus’ Eclogue, make us think about the most desirable value that is expected from poetry, both from the point of view of the author and the recipient. Eclogue IV reveals the author’s melancholy poetic reverie about the transience of the things of this world, and also shows that the poet does not listen to his predecessors to speak in the same way as them, but he listens to their voices in order to better hear and articulate his own separate voice, as it were a tribute to poetry, which is therapy for the creator.

* Działania badawcze wsparte ze środków przyznanych w ramach programu Inicjatywa Doskonałości Badawczej Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach.

Augustyn i Jan Kasjan o dopuszczalności kłamstwa, które jest bezwzględnym grzechem

2023-10-27T20:16:38+02:00

The author of the article analyzes the similarities and diﬀerences in Augustine’s and John Cassian’s approaches to both the nature of lying as a sin and its possible permissibility or at least its pardonability in strictly deﬁned situations. He argues for the position that it is impossible to say unequivocally whether Cassian undertook a conscious polemic with the Bishop of Hippo on this issue or even whether he was at all familiar with both or any of his treatises on lying. The fundamental diﬀerence between them regarding the issue of accepting intentionality in committing this absolute sin stems from the nature of the writings in which they articulated their views, their rhetorical context and the anthropological perspective of both authors.

Alcune annotazioni sui manoscritti di contenuto medico copiati dal Monaco Atanasio: I codici Parisinus Graecus 2193, Athos Vatopedi A 29 E Vindobonensis Medicus Graecus 6

2023-10-27T20:16:36+02:00

The copyist Athanasios monk was in the mid-15th century active in copying numerous manuscripts, some of them on medical topics. Among them, three pass on the sixteen Libri medicinales of Aetius Amidenus, lived in 6th century and one of most important authors for medicine in late antiquity. Among these, two are complete copies made by Athanasius, the manuscript now in Paris and the one at the Mount Athos, but in the case of the Vienna manuscript, which dates back to the 14^th century, he was the restorer.

By reading these Aetius manuscripts, it was possible to rediscover some fragments of Philagrius, an author lived probably between 3^th and 4^th century. Among the numerous marginalia in Athanasius’s own hand, new fragments have thus been identiﬁed that can be attributed to Philagrius, whose works have come down to us only through indirect tradition, as well as a short passage from the tenth book of Galen’s treatise De anatomicis administrationibus, which is lost in Greek.

The Motif of Arboreal Metamorphosis in the Neo-Latin Pastoral. The Case Study of Jacopo Sannazaro’s Salices and Pierre-Daniel Huet’s Vitis

2023-10-27T20:16:34+02:00

The aim of this article is to analyse two examples of the motif of arboreal metamorphosis in the Neo-Latin bucolic, present in the poems by Jacopo Sannazaro (Salices) and Pierre-Daniel Huet (Vitis). In Salices, nymphs ﬂeeing from the deities are transformed into willows, repeting the fate of Ovid’s Daphne, Syrinx and the Heliades. In Vitis the poet creates a story about a nymph, named Vitis, on the basis of the love story of the satyr Ampelos and Dionysus. For betraying Bacchus, she is turned into a vine and her lover Ulmus into an elm. Their fate is similar to Ovid’s Myrrha and Philemon and Baucis. In the history of Vitis, particularly in the description of the lovers’ metamorphosis, one can see borrowings from Sannazaro. Both bucolic poems are linked by the ambiguity of the ontological status of the newly created plants. They diﬀer in their moral interpretation of metamorphosis. The turning of the nymphs into trees can be understood as some kind of punishment for the rape that had been committed on them. On the other hand, Vitis, who committed treachery, is in fact rewarded and by the will of Jupiter she remains united with her lover forever.

Jan ze Stobnicy (ok. 1470–1518), Arystoteles i Biblia. O duszy, Bogu i Aniołach

2023-10-27T20:16:31+02:00

In the article the author explores the reﬂections of Jan of Stobnicy on the soul. A group of Aristotelian notions became important categories in the Polish writer`s lectures, and the terms such as substance, essence, matter and form grew into fundamental conceptions used by Jan of Stobnica to describe the soul. The soul is the form of a living being – the spiritual part of plants, beasts and humans. That is the reason why the Polish writer, like Aristotle, posited three kinds of soul: the vegetative soul, the sensitive soul and the rational soul. Humans have a rational soul. The article presents a consideration that interrogates the ancient lore to uncover the ways in which the Bible and the Greek philosophers created images of God and angels as spiritual beings. Via a survey of Aristotelian sources about the Jan’s of Stobnica reﬂections on the soul and a study of his views of God and angels, the article reveals how this author was innovatory for the Polish philosophy.

Φιλήκοος καὶ φιλόμουσος. Sul ruolo del greco nell’educazione riformata a Danzica nel XVI seco

2023-10-27T20:16:28+02:00

The article presents the edition and commentary of an adhortatio to learn Greek addressed to the pupils of the Gymnasium Dantiscanum (Gdansk). The text was printed in 1571 as part of an anthology of Greek poems and prose composed by Humanist Michael Retell from Zittau (1530–1576). Retell was invited to Gdansk to organize the recently founded grammar school. Although a number of publications are now available on Retell, reconstructing his biography and commenting on his Latin works, however, there is still a lack of studies on his Greek output. They could help clarify the author’s use of ancient models, since his poems often have bilingual versions, and only the Latin ones have been studied. Moreover they could oﬀer more insight into the school and its scholars during its lesser-known early years of activity (1558–1580).

Nowożytne próby rehabilitacji żony Sokratesa u Christopha Martina Wielanda, Eduarda Zellera oraz w Obronie Ksantypy Stefana Pawlickiego i Obronie Ksantypy Ludwika Hieronima Morstina

2023-10-27T20:16:25+02:00

The aim of the article is to explain how views on Xanthippe as a wife and Socrates as a husband were veriﬁed in modern times, i.e., how the defence of a woman considered the most unbearable in ancient Greece looked like. Four texts served as the most representative examples: Ch.M. Wieland’s short essay on Xanthippe, E. Zeller’s essay entitled Zur Ehrenrettung der Xanthippe and S. Pawlicki’s the ﬁctitious defence speech of Ksantypa (titled The Apology Xanthippe), and L.H. Morstin’s comedy The Apology Xanthippe. It should be emphasized that the above-mentioned writers and researchers of antiquity were clearly inﬂuenced by their predecessor.

Arbërisht Literature as an Example of Preserving a Cultural Identity Abroad

2023-10-27T20:16:23+02:00

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the origins of the literature of the Arbëreshë people and its impact on the survival of the language outside the country of origin. The cultural identity of the Italo-Albanians is marked by Byzantine inﬂuences: religion, economy, culture and military. The centuries-long, harsh Turkish occupation of Albania contributed to the cultural stagnation. Albanians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire were deprived of all rights, including the right to use their own language and profess their faith. The teaching of the Albanian language, as well as teaching in that language, and all publications were banned. Groups of Albanian refugees were welcomed in southern Italy as heroes and defenders of the faith. The few Albanian humanists were the descendants of immigrants educated in Ragusa, Padua or other Italian centres of research and education.

Semantic and Lexical Changes in Neo-Latin Vocabulary in the Field of Medical Devices and Procedure

2023-10-27T20:16:20+02:00

The article concerns the possibility of using Latin as a means of communication by the medical community. It is an analysis leading to an answer to the question of the possibility of conveying in Latin the content, which determines the intellectual activity of a modern man. Meeting this challenge requires the introduction of new terms and phrases into Latin vocabulary. The currently used words in the ﬁeld of medical devices and procedures will be discussed. Motivation of Neo-Latin terms, the reasons for the word transformation and the directions of these changes, as well as calques from modern languages and the issue of terms that can be called ‚loan words returning’ (i.e. words of Latin origin, which survived in modern languages and returned to the Neo-Latin vocabulary, following the path: Latin to modern languages to Latin) will be the subject of the analysis. Finally, it will be focused on the intelligibility and communicativeness of these terms. The purpose of the study was to draw attention to the enormous potential of Latin and to demonstrate that Latin (similarly to modern languages) has the opportunity to meet the challenges posed by signiﬁcant technological progress and related to its requirement of creating new specialized terms.

De vita, studiis laboreque Professoris Sbignei Danek, czyli rzecz o Profesorze Zbigniewie Danku

2023-10-27T09:04:36+02:00

Aenigma

2023-10-27T09:47:20+02:00