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• Oedipus Riddles

  131–140

  Andrej Preložnik

  Aleksandra Nestorović

  Views:

  59

  The paper discusses an interesting group of glass intaglios with the motif of Oedipus and the Sphinx. They are known from sites between the Adriatic, the Danube and the Black Sea, and occur in various colors and cuts, which suggests production in different molds or even workshops. Probably modeled on an intaglio made in an Italian officina gemmaria, the glass replicas may have been produced at Aquileia. The style points to the Late Republican or Augustan era, whereas the material of the glass copies and the funerary context from Aquincum show they were in use and probably produced till the 4 th century. The paper also discusses the possible meanings of the motif, from a simple illustration of the famous heroic adventure to a metaphoric depiction representing the mystic message of the key to a blessed afterlife.

• Las Gemas Uterinas y la Terapéutica de las Piedras en la Obra de Oribasio de Pérgamo

  95–105.

  Mercedes López Pérez

  Views:

  107

  Uterine gems belong to a group of amulets, usually engraved on red minerals, such as jasper and carnelian; the most used is the hematite or “blood stone”. The iconography of the uterus in these gems refers to the mobility of the uterus, an idea already present in Plato's Timaeus (Pl., Ti. 91c.), and in the Greco-Roman medical texts, the wandering uterus theory. In this work we will complete the analysis of uterine gems with the use of stones as a therapeutic in the work of Oribasio de Pérgamo.

• Religious Vocabulary in Demosthenes’ Speech Against Timocrates

  327-340

  Dániel Seres

  Views:

  111

  In this study I argue that the words “ἱερόσυλος” (temple-robber) and “κατάρατος” (accursed) are key elements in Demosthenes’ speech against Timocrates. In both cases, I argue that in this speech elements of religious vocabulary are clearly used: Demosthenes legitimately and convincingly uses such strong expressions against his opponents. As these words rarely occur in texts of the classical period, I shell examine in parallel the prose texts of the fifth to third centuries BC, furthermore the epigraphical sources and the dramas, which are the primary requirements to understanding the role of these words in argument.

• Honesty, Shame, Courage: Reconsidering the Socratic Elenchus

  197-206

  Giulia Fiore

  Views:

  171

  The elenchus (gr. ἔλεγχος, literally “argument of disproof”, “refutation”, “cross-examining”) is the core of the Socratic method represented by Plato in his early dialogues. This enquiring technique, employed by Socrates to question his interlocutors about the nature or definition of ethical concepts, is the object of a never-ending scholarly debate, concerning especially its primary purpose: is it a positive method, leading to knowledge, or is it rather a negative method, aiming exclusively at refuting the interlocutor’s belief? This paper, through the analysis of some key passages in Plato’s early dialogues, focuses on the structural features of the elenchus in order to understand how the elenctic refutation is developed, why Socrates chooses a dialectical method often ending in aporia, and whether the Socratic method can be considered, not merely an instrument aiming at the recognition of one’s ignorance, but primarily a positive search for knowledge.

• Die Haut des Satyrs: Marsyas und Apollo

  39–51

  Ágnes Darab

  Views:

  115

  The essay proceeds from the observation that out of the surviving literature of antiquity only one poet, Ovid pays significant attention to the tragic fate of Marsyas. Both the Fasti and the Metamorphoses relate the tale. The narrative in Metamorphoses only focuses on the naturalistic description of the punishment, the flaying of Marsyas. The interpretation of this account within even wider contexts leads to the proposition that Marsyas’s tale is the self-reflection of the elegiac poet Ovid, and as such it becomes a key narrative within Metamorphoses.