Wiener Studien ‒ Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition, Band 126/2013

The combination of the metaphors of dream and shadow in P. 8, 95/96 is usually interpreted as a potentiation of the insubstantiality and transitoriness of human existence. In contrast to that, this paper tries to show, that a complex view of human existence is articulated here, involving the different levels of the personality and illustrating their respective ontological limitations. While the metaphor of shadow refers to the ephemerality and finiteness of the physical-conscious existence, the metaphor of dream, thus the thesis of this paper, refers to a hidden immortal, indestructible self that is limited in terms of vitality and that only has a ‘reality of dreams’.

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This article discusses the use of the adjective as well as the use of the verb in Pindar. A differentiation is made between two main categories: that of the adjective and that of the verb. The analysis also differentiates the following subcategories: the adjective as an attribute of a person, as the keynote of a motto, as a supplement to the term and as the first component of a compositum, in addition to the verb with a person or a city as its subject

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The codex Thessaloniki, Vlatadon 36, a manuscript containing the works of Flavius Josephus and Xenophon and dating from the second quarter of the 14th century, until now considered to be of some value for the critical text of Xenophon, is shown to be an indirect apograph of the well-known Xenophon-codex Par. gr. 1630 (a. 1320). Further considerations on the transmission of the Anabasis and the Cyrupaedia show that for both works two distinct editions based on different series of papyrus rolls and therefore dating from late Antiquity have come down to us.

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This paper argues that Nonnus of Panopolis, although he incorporates Greek poetic traditions from archaic to hellenistic and late antique times, follows his own poetic and compositional strategy. By inserting several swimming and bathing scenes, notably the two swimming contests in the Ampelus-episode (Nonn. D. 11, 1 – 55; 406 – 426), the poet highlights the key issue of his 48-book-epic, the Dionysiaca: the birth of Dionysus’ major attributes, vine and wine, and the establishment of the son of Zeus as a canonical god of the Olympic domain.

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The character of Orpheus as unhappy lover is part of the Hellenistic love elegy, but it appears in Latin poetry only with the Virgilian epyllion at the end of the Georgics. The scrutiny of several texts (Virgil’s ecll. 2, 6, 8 and 10; the anonymous Lament for Bion; Hor. carm. 1, 24; Prop. 2, 34, 90/91; Ov. amor. 3, 9, 63/64) allows to assume the presence of Orpheus in Gallus’ elegy and to guess his figure behind the Virgilian Orpheus.

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Trist. 3, 7 can be considered as prime example of Ovid’s mythography of exile: In this poem, which is placed at the centre of the collection, the situation of the isolated and exiled poet is reflected upon – nothing less is at stake than his existence. Ovid constructs a model of a life of writing which is spent on the threshold between virtual presence (in Roman society) and factual absence (in exile), between command of and loss of language. This situation is paradoxical: The speaker establishes his identity by reflecting upon his loneliness within society, i. e. he determines himself by means of his relation to the world and the others. In trist. 3, 7 this role of the other is assumed by the otherwise unknown addressee Perilla, a docta puella to whom Ovid claims to be an intellectual mentor. Ovid succeeds at the end of the poem in delineating the personal perspective of his own fame by also including a subversive political dimension in his indestructible literary ego.

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What was the relationship between Martial and the powerful freedmen of the emperor Domitian? The answer to this question bears heavily on the modern interpretations of Martial’s striving to improve his social standing under the last of the Flavian emperors. Today classical scholars believe that some of those freedmen were his friends or patrons, and helped him in gaining access to and winning Domitian’s favour. This paper will show how and why Martial courted them, especially Parthenius, as well as what he actually got for his long-time efforts.

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Bishop Fortunatianus of Aquileia wrote a commentary on the Gospels in the middle of the 4th century. So far, short excerpts were all we had of this work, which is considered to have been lost in its entirety by Carolingian times. In fact, Fortunatianus commentary can be found in an almost complete form in Cologne, Dombibliothek ms. 17. The discovery of this major work of Late Antiquity very likely the earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels which has survived is bound to have a considerable impact on Patristic studies. The present article gives a discussion of some fundamental facts related to Fortunatianus commentary, which will be critically edited for the CSEL.

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Sedulius’s theology is rooted in St. John’s Gospel and espouses an advanced Christology in which the Biblical Jesus is regarded as true God in consubstantial unity with the Father. Following this tradition, developed in the first centuries of Christianity, Sedulius describes Christ’s encounters with the element water during His immersion in the River Jordan (carm. pasch. 2, 139 – 174), on the occasion of the calming of the storm (3, 46 – 69), and when walking on the water (3, 219 – 235), viewing them as the great Creator’s engagement with His creation, which, though inanimate, nonetheless recognizes Christ as its Creator and glorifies Him as its Lord in reverential and joyous obedience.

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The article concerns itself with the text of Ennod. carm. 343, 24 Vogel: the most recent editor corrected the nonsensically reading of B (Bruxelles, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, 9845 – 9848) with schemata, whereas other editors, including Sirmond, emended to schemate. But Vogel’s reading implicates a negative meaning of the word schema and a consequent devaluation of eloquence, which seems to be really incoherent with the celebration of Cyprian’s eloquence conducted by Ennodius in the remaining part of the hymn. Here Sirmond’s schemate is defended: the so-rebuilt reading is a direct reference to a martyr’s witticism – already discussed by Augustine in serm. 309 – which is attested in the Acta proconsularia sancti Cypriani 32.3: Consule tibi of the Proconsul elicits in re tam iniusta nulla est consultatio.

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The commentaries on Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae and Vergil’s first six books of the Aeneid, which represent typically medieval allegoric interpretations of two ancient texts of high importance for scholarly formation in medieval Western Europe, are obviously written by the same author to be used in cathedral schools of the twelfth century in order to demonstrate the unity of what he calls philosophy, which comprises both knowledge of the universe and ethics. The author composed his commentary on Vergil, as can be shown by an analysis of quotations, only after that on Martianus, with anagogic intention: the destination of man, that is to say of the microcosmus, according to his conviction, aims at surpassing the material world, the macrocosmus, the understanding of which is provided by the Liberal Arts, their knowledge granting the ascension to the sphere of eternity. This is why the commentary on the Aeneid, like the interpretation given by John of Salisbury, ends within the sixth book, where Aeneas, during his visit to the underworld, arrives at the Elysium, the region, where the blessed dwell. This arrangement of the commentaries points to the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris, the first part of which deals with the creation of the universe, whereas its second part concentrates on the creation of man, according to the sequence in the relative report in the Biblical Book of Genesis. Thus it is not improbable, that Bernardus Silvestris is really the author of both commentaries.

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The pseudo Homeric mock-epic poem Batrachomyomachia and one of its numerous transformations, the Croacus of the Italian humanist Elisius Calentius, are open to critical, satirical or didactic readings, but they never express these levels explicitly. This does not mean that they should be undervalued as harmless mere literary games: We find strong poetical implications and reflections how modern literature should be. Elisius Calentius merits a new evaluation in the history of the Batrachomyomachia, because his Croacus is unique in preserving this meta-poetic quality of its Greek precedent, changing virtuously the Hellenistic play with Homer into a play with Roman epic poets.

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