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• The enactment of moderation in Plato's "Charmides"

  5–34

  Gerald A. Press

  Views:

  138

  Plato’s dialogues are as much literary dramas as philosophical inquiries. In light of the scope and development of σωφροσύνη and the carefully crafted historical resonances of the dialogue’s dramatic date and cast of characters, it is argued here that σωφροσύνη is a foundational virtue, best understood as moderation, moderating one’s behavior, rather than on a par with other virtues. The Charmides is non-dogmatic, rather than skeptical or aporetic, and essentially political rather than ethical or epistemological, as often assumed. Rather than asserting any simple, propositional account of moderation, it enacts a complex moral and political view of moderation that unifies many strands of the term’s meanings in Greek through the persons and words of its characters and operating as much through the reader’s, imagination, and emotions as through reason and purely logical argument.

• Sofocle: Magia, Medicina, Religione

  53–69.

  Enrica Zamperini

  Views:

  167

  In Sophocles’ tragedies the interweaving of medicine, religion and magic produces a lot of meanings and concepts that show the complexity of the Greek thought of the Fifth century. In his tragedies, Sophocles shows his interest both in the magical and religious medicine and in the new Hippocratic medical science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the conceptual and lexical intertwining that reflects this interest, focusing on the character of Oedipus. In fact, Oedipus is the hero who best embodies this duplicity. At the beginning of the drama he assumes a rational investigation method through which he tries to discover Laius’ murderer and then to heal Thebes from the plague that afflicts it. However, his responsibility emerges during the tragedy; Oedipus’ fault has divine origin and makes him the first cause of the evil of the city. In the Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus’ body is released from the contamination that had made him the origin of the plague and the hero’s body turns into a sort of magic amulet to protect the polis that will guard it when he will be dead.

• Accio nell'età degli Antonini: il giudizio di Frontone

  137–145

  Alessandro Fabi

  Views:

  118

  This paper aims to analyze the reception of Accius in Fronto’s Epistulae. The connections between Accius and Fronto emphasize various interesting aspects (e.g. Fronto’s influences on the emperors’ literary background); simultaneously, they point up some questions which might seem to require caution: in contrast with some previous authors, Fronto’s value judgement does not seem particularly enthusiastic; moreover, Accius seems to be part of a canon. Finally, Van den Hout’s editions show the persistence of some textual problems, with the result that testimonia appear uncertain and need to be discussed.