Recherches sur les Rhétoriques Religieuses

This volume concludes that there is such a thing as a unified Senequian theology which forms a system despite the necessary duality of its philosophical and literary approaches. This quest for a definition of the Stoic god is achieved through multiple literary forms which provide as many perspectives on the divine. Seneca's religious views offer the individual growing in wisdom to develop a knowledge of the god which is inductive rather than deductive experimental and not only theoretical sensitive and not purely rational – all within the context of a pagan and philosophical monotheism. Thus all the originality of Seneca’s theological undertaking lies paradoxically in a refocusing on Man who must be freed from his existential fears and led to the heroic acceptance of the divine plan. Indeed Seneca’s carefully thought out theodicy goes beyond the Stoic’s traditional optimism – which considers the rational god to be inherently provident – and positively confronts the question of the existence of Evil which culminates in tragedies. Ultimately the center of gravity of Seneca’s religion which is based on an exaltation of human interiority shifts from the god to the sage a true hero who has managed to overcome the vicissitudes of life and whose glorification constitutes the supreme degree of piety.

If the word « culture » comes from the Latin word cultura the concept itself which means general knowledge acquired through schools books and cultural institutions is related in the Roman world of the first centuries ad to Greek paideia. As for paideia which was then restricted to social elite it covered literary education formulated and conveyed by sophists and grammarians in the time of the Roman Empire as well as other forms of Greek culture like music philosophy and sports.

This book focuses on cultural mediators first of all professors who are examined from various points of view: social and cultural status teaching practices or ambivalent representations. Nevertheless transmission of knowledge exceeds the environment of school; it is performed through literary and intellectual productions within specialized disciplines and through reinterpretations which convey a singular world view.

The present collection of essays displays the circulation of culture between the Greek and Roman worlds throughout an Empire whose epicentre is paideia.

La variété des contributions réunies dans ce volume reflète la diversité des centres d’intérêt de Gérard Freyburger auquel des spécialistes de différents domaines des sciences de l’Antiquité ont tenu à rendre hommage. Prolongeant l’héritage de Robert Schilling il a longtemps dirigé l’Institut de Latin de l’Université de Strasbourg et co-dirigé avec Laurent Pernot le Centre d’Analyse des Rhétoriques Religieuses de l’Antiquité (CARRA). Convaincu de l’importance d’une approche pluridisciplinaire des sciences de l’Antiquité il a porté des projets collectifs et dirigé de nombreuses thèses portant sur la religion romaine la philologie latine et la réception de la culture païenne dans l’Antiquité tardive et à la Renaissance.

Les contributions de ce volume sont regroupées en cinq thématiques qui illustrent ses principaux domaines de recherche. Il est ainsi question de religion romaine et de magie de rhétorique et de philosophie du modèle virgilien et de sa postérité des relations entre auteurs païens et chrétiens de perspectives comparatistes et d’Antiquité rémanente. Le recueil témoigne de la fécondité d’approches croisées et fait dialoguer l’histoire des religions la philologie grecque et latine l’histoire et l’archéologie ainsi que les méthodes comparatistes pour rendre hommage à celui qui s’est engagé durant toute sa carrière pour promouvoir les recherches interdisciplinaires sur le monde romain antique.

Ce volume pluridisciplinaire propose une étude ciblée des principales questions afférentes à l'historiographie romaine. Il envisage successivement la morphologie les thématiques et la postérité d'un genre littéraire majeur. Tant il est vrai que étymologiquement l'historiographie se présente moins comme une science que comme un art visant à exprimer par l'écriture la signification des messages humains que contient le passé. A cet égard on ne perdra jamais de vue que les connaissances historiques chez les Romains s'avèrent indispensables aussi bien à la formation des citoyens qu'à celle des hauts dirigeants dont il s'agit de mettre en perspective les actions au service de l'Etat.

Both in discourse about religions and in the religious discourse of the Greco-Roman Empire the great figures of mythology and history functioned either as models or as foils following their use in poetical philosophical historiographical panegyrical or apologetical contexts. The approach’s interest lies in the parallel consideration of different sorts of texts generally examined independently otherwise : Augustan poetry polytheistic rhetoric and historiography and Christian literature. Indeed Pagans and Christians had many common concerns expressed through the conceptual tools they borrowed from each other. Specific case studies reveal underlying connections in the elaboration of the exemplary figures and thus in the beliefs of the Greco-Roman Empire. The contributions show notably how exemplary figures are constructed by the communities depending upon them the mediating role they play between men and gods their networking signification each one being defined by the interactions with the others their role as rhetorical and polemical devices due to their adaptability and in the change of paradigm brought about by Christianity how pagan figures persist and become a fundamental substratum for new figures elaborated from these mythical exempla.

The present book studies prayer as a category of Platonic religious thought from Plato to Late Antiquity. Following a chronological framework (Plato the pseudo-Platonic Second Alcibiades Maximus of Tyre Plotinus Porphyry Iamblichus Proclus) the book examines the relationship between philosophical reflection on prayer and a series of themes and related topics: the criticism and the interpretation of traditional cults the conceptualization of religious emotions the philosophical explanation of how astrology and magic work the theories of the soul and the theological description of reality in Late Neoplatonism.

The book aims to contribute to shed new light on the relationship between religion and philosophy in Antiquity and in particular on the forms of “scientific” religion that appear and develop in the philosophical schools in Late Antiquity. Special attention is paid to the relationship between philosophy religion and rhetoric. The rhetorical dimension of prayer is explored in relation to the role of persuasion and emotion in prayer and to the idea that exegetical commentary represents a hymn in prose addressed to the gods.

On the occasion of Professor Robert Schilling’s hundredth birthday (April the 17th of 1913) his disciples and friends organized a colloquium “following in the wake of [his] works”. It was a matter of bringing out the decisive impetus this great scholar gave to the studies about Roman religion and of assessing the scope of his contribution to the research he carried out into religious sciences of antiquity. In particular this meeting has led to a collective thought in return about the method and about the main issues of R. Schilling’s investigations: Venus and Janus but also the calendar Ovid’s Fasti or even Roman theology.

The present book aims at analysing the relationship between rhetorics and the various therapeutics as exposed by Celsus a Roman encyclopaedist of the 1st century A.D. in his treatise De medicina or On Medicine. It’s a matter of offering an original global approach of the Celsian work taking account of all of his aspects from its publishing by its author to its potential practical use by a healer either professional or not.

This study appears as a work in two parts. Indeed the first concerns Celsus’ project and its realisation i.e. the writing and reading of the De medicina. In the second part Gautherie studies the practical use of the De medicina both from an ethical and a technical point of view.

Duality of her nature is a salient trait of Greek goddess Kore-Persephone. It is reflected not only in her name but also in her fate. She moves perpetually between the Underworld and that of the Living and between maidenhood and womanhood. This research focuses on the Kore-Persephone myth in Attica how she was worshipped and how she was present even outside the civic religion. This work explores the myth of Kore the etymology of her name according to ancient Greeks how she was worshipped or celebrated in festivals in Attica either alone or along with Demeter. Finally the author attempts to identify her role in magic in the Dionysian or Orphic religious societies and in Artemidorus’ oneirocritical treatise.

From his early works to the poems of exile Ovid constructed a personal poetic language mixing religious stylemes belonging to the liturgical language of the Augustan age with purely poetic stylemes some taken from literary tradition others quite original: he thus plays on the border-line separating the religious carmen from the poetic carmen giving birth to a new song endowing poetry with a sacred status making it the properly poietic music of creation whose breath gives the world its meaning its form and its beauty.

When Ovid speaks to us of love he also speaks to us of poetry but not just a narcissistic poetry taken as its object and own end. What is reflected in the mirror of Ovidian verse as it takes shape in the utterance of prayer is a perspective – a transcendental perspective through which the poet attempts to contemplate the sacred Music which organizes the universe.