Böcker av Sophia Papaioannou

It is perhaps a truism to note that ancient religion and rhetoric were closely intertwined in Greek and Roman antiquity. Religion is embedded in socio-political, legal and cultural institutions and structures, while also being influenced, or even determined, by them. Rhetoric is used to address the divine, to invoke the gods, to talk about the sacred, to express piety and to articulate, refer to, recite or explain the meaning of hymns, oaths, prayers, oracles and other religious matters and processes. The 13 contributions to this volume explore themes and topics that most succinctly describe the firm interrelation between religion and rhetoric mostly in, but not exclusively focused on, Greek and Roman antiquity, offering new, interdisciplinary insights into a great variety of aspects, from identity construction and performance to legal/political practices and a broad analytical approach to transcultural ritualistic customs. The volume also offers perceptive insights into oriental (i.e. Egyptian magic) texts and Christian literature.

This volume acknowledges the centrality of comic invective in a range of oratorical institutions (especially forensic and symbouleutic), and aspires to enhance the knowledge and understanding of how this technique is used in such con-texts of both Greek and Roman oratory. Despite the important scholarly work that has been done in discussing the patterns of using invective in Greek and Roman texts and contexts, there are still notable gaps in our knowledge of the issue. The introduction to, and the twelve chapters of, this volume address some understudied multi-genre and interdisciplinary topics: first, the ways in which comic invective in oratory draws on, or has implications for, comedy and other genres, or how these literary genres are influenced by oratorical theory and practice, and by contemporary socio-political circumstances, in articulating comic invective and targeting prominent individuals; second, how comic invective sustains relationships and promotes persuasion through unity and division; third, how it connects with sexuality, the human body and male/female physiology; fourth, what impact generic dichotomies, as, for example, public-private and defence-prosecution, may have upon using comic invective; and fifth, what the limitations in its use are, depending on the codes of honour and decency in ancient Greece and Rome.

The book is a detailed study on the structure and the topics of Ovid's compedium of the Trojan Saga in Metamorphoses 12.1-13.622, the section also referred to as the "e;Little Iliad"e;. It explores the motives and the objectives behind the selected narrative moments from the Epic Cycle that found their way into the Ovidian version of the Trojan War. By thoroughly mastering and inspiringly refashioning a vast amount of literary material, Ovid generates a systematic reconstruction of the archetypal hero, Achilles. Thus, he projects himself as a worthy successor of Homer in the epic tradition, a master epicist, and a par to his great Latin predecessor, Vergil.

Hiermit liegt die erste ausfuhrliche, neuzeitliche und kritische Analyse von Ovids Metamorphosen 13.623-14.582 vor. Ovid setzte hier neue Mastabe in Bezug auf epische Poesie und die Art ihrer Rezeption. Zunachst wird die methodologische Komplexitat von Ovids 'Umarmungsstrategie' vorgestellt, daran anschlieend diskutiert Papaioannou in einer genauen Untersuchung der 'kleinen Aeneis' das dichte Netz von Anspielungen auf das Original, legt die Struktur und die Themen jeder Episode aus und zeigt prominente Motive in den Metamorphosen auf. Nicht zuletzt werden die poetischen Techniken der Metamorphosen erkundet, wobei Papaioannou argumentiert, Ovid reproduziere den Geist und die Grundzuge des Originals durch seine selektive Einbettung der Aeneis auf sehr durchdachte, idiosynkratische Weise.