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Transactions of the American Philological Association(137/2/Automne 2007)

Transactions of the American Philological Association(137/2/Automne 2007)

Publié le par Sophie Rabau

Transactions of the American PhilologicalAssociation

Volume 137,Number 2, Autumn 2007

I. Presidential Address 2007

* Clay, Jenny Strauss. Homer's TrojanTheater

II. Cluster on Literary and Material Culture inHellenistic Greece

*Miller, Paul Allen, 1959- Editor's Note

* Champion, Craige Brian. Empire byInvitation: Greek Political Strategies and Roman Imperial Interventions in theSecond Century B.C.E.

Abstract:

Greek politicians in the secondcentury b.c.e. increasingly turned to Roman authorities in order to defeattheir political opposition. Charges of demagoguery and socio-economicrevolution became commonplace in these political struggles in the presence ofRoman authority. This evidence provides a key to understanding a famousinscription dating to 144/143 b.c.e. (Syll. 684), which records a letter fromthe Roman praetorian proconsul to Macedonia, relaying his ruling on recentcivil unrest in Achaean Dyme. More importantly, Greek appeals to Roman power,such as we find in Syll. 684, support a model of second-century Roman imperialexpansion in Greece focusing on the imperial peripheryrather than the imperial metropole.

* Rosenmeyer, Patricia A. From Syracuse to Rome: The Travails of Silanion's Sappho

.

Abstract:

Cicero's Verrine Orations offer a glimpseinto the complex political posturings surrounding the reception of Greek art byRoman audiences. Cicero downplays his own (legitimate) collecting habits, and accuses GaiusVerres, the corrupt governor of Sicily from 73–71 bce, of abusing hispolitical office by looting the island's art treasures. One example thatparticularly disturbs Cicero is the theft of a statue of Sappho,commissioned by the Syracusans from the early Hellenistic sculptor Silanion fortheir town hall. This theft is shown to be part of a pattern in Verres'behavior, as he repeatedly removes public images of women and female divinitiesfrom their civic or cultic sites of honor, and transfers them to his privatedwelling. The language of sexual exploitation pervades Cicero's narratives as he argues thatVerres perverts the statues by using them for private delectation. BecauseVerres leaves behind the inscribed base of the Sappho statue, she may no longerbe identifiable as the archaic lyric poet once she has been carried off to Rome. Verres' inappropriate passion forGreek artwork, according to his accuser, destroys the statue's identity as afamous female poet from archaic Greece, and reduces it to a namelessfemale body, a victim of imperialism and greed.

* Gurd, Sean Alexander, 1973- Meaning andMaterial Presence: Four Epigrams on Timomachus's Unfinished Medea

.

Abstract:

This essay contains readings offour epigrams by Antipater, Antiphilus, and Philip on Timomachus's painting ofMedea. This work was unfinished, and I argue that its fragmentary conditionplays a crucial role in the epigrams' poetics. Specifically, the painting'sincompleteness disrupts the usual conventions and capacities of ekphrasticepigram and induces a crisis in poetic speech. To illustrate this, I rely onthe distinction between presence and meaning developed by Hans UlrichGumbrecht.

* Höschele, Regina. The Traveling Reader: Journeysthrough Ancient Epigram Books

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Abstract:

In ancient literature writing andreading are frequently equated with wayfaring. Given the origins of the genre,the image of the traveling reader gains a special meaning in the context ofepigram collections: the reception situation of epigraphic poetry, which formspart of antiquity's material culture, is transferred to the literary landscapeof the bookroll, and the traditional passer-by morphs into a metaphoricalwanderer. Just as inscriptions are concerned with catching the traveler'sattention, the epigrams contained within a libellus have to attract theinterest of the reader who is moving through the book.

III. Papers

* Kelly, Adrian, 1972- How to End an Orally-DerivedEpic Poem

Abstract:

This article argues that the extantworks of early Greek hexameter poetry reveal a consistent strategy of closure,one that is based around the manipulation of doublet structure. The discussionbegins by examining this well-known compositional technique, specifically the'increasing' doublet (ID) where a smaller element is placed directly before alarger one, and it aims to demonstrate the widespread distribution and varietyof these doublets, as well as their common function: to encourage the audienceto summon their memory of the first element, and so augment the importance ofthe current, larger one. Attention is then turned to the endings themselves, inorder, of the Iliad, Odyssey, Works and Days, Theogony and Shield of Herakles.Employing the same type of retrospective aesthetic, the poets use a'decreasing' doublet (DD) to emphasize the greater significance of the prior,larger element. By directing the audience to this disparity in scale, the poetsdiscourage them from expecting continuation, and so signal the close of theirtexts.

* Granger, Herbert. Poetry and Prose:Xenophanes of Colophon

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Subject Headings:

o Xenophanes, ca. 570-ca. 478 B.C. --Criticism and interpretation.

Abstract:

When most of the new intellectualsof the sixth and fifth centuries adopted the new medium of literary prose toexpress their opinions about natural philosophy, theology, and history, thephilosopher Xenophanes of Colophon continued to voice his new ideas aboutdivinity and nature in verse. Xenophanes does not remain bound to verse throughhabit or through his inability to compose serious work in the new medium ofprose or through his dependence upon the Muses for his information. He is an enthusiasticreformer who is committed to correcting the Greeks' beliefs about divinity andnature, and during his time verse still provided advantages over prose forreaching a mass audience, in large part, because of its age-old performativenature.

* Stem, Rex. The Exemplary Lessons ofLivy's Romulus

Abstract:

Pursuing Livy's explicit statement on theexemplary value of history in pref. 10, this essay examines how Livy projectsexemplary lessons through his characterization of Romulus. I argue that Livy has shaped hisnarrative to present Romulus as an exemplary figure worthy ofimitation because he always successfully acted for the good of Rome. Acts that might seem morallyquestionable (such as the abduction of his neighbors' daughters) are to beunderstood as valuable for their strengthening of the city; patriotism makesmoral demands of its own. Thus Romulus's exemplary value is not morallysimple, but includes the consideration of his motives and the results heachieved. I conclude by suggesting that such a characterization would have beenhighly resonant at the time of its composition, for it proposes a standard bywhich the victor at Actium could be measured.

* Champion, Craige Brian. Empire byInvitation: Greek Political Strategies and Roman Imperial Interventions in theSecond Century B.C.E.

IV. Paragraphoi

TheThesaurus Linguae Latinae and Classical Scholarship in the 21st century: FivePerspectives

* Coleman, K. M. (Kathleen M.) Introduction

* Gaisser, Julia Haig. 1. Some Thoughts onPhilology

* Hays, Gregory. 2. Latin from A to P: TheTLL in the 20th Century

* Coleman, K. M. (Kathleen M.), tr. 3.Finishing the TLL in the Digital Age: Opportunities, Challenges, Risks

* Baraz, Yelena. 4. Revelations ofLexicography: The Daily Learning at the Thesaurus

* Corbeill, Anthony, 1960- 5. The TLL andthe Sustaining of Scholarship