Academic literature on the topic 'Menoeceus'

Abstract This paper analyses the human sacrifice of Menoeceus in Euripides’ Phoenissae. In the third epeisodion, Teiresias draws on the history of Thebes and its royal family to justify the sacrifice and the choice of Menoeceus as its victim. But what are the ritual or cultural models outside the dramatic fiction that inform this sacrifice and made it under­standable for the contemporary ancient Athenian audience? To answer this question, I discuss possible similarities to pre-battle sacrifice, the pharmakos-ritual, and the mythical pattern of a hero who sacrifices himself for the community. The relation of this sacrifice to the foundation of Thebes, which itself plays a prominent role in the play’s choral odes, is then examined in a concluding section. Here, the crucial question is whether the sacrifice restates the act of foundation and its violence or instead negates and invalidates it.

We often judge that death is bad for the person who dies – that my death, for instance, will be bad for me when it occurs. It is not easy, however, to explain, justify, or defend this judgment. As Epicurus argued more than 2000 years ago, death is ‘nothing to us’ because ‘when we exist death is not present, and when death is present we do not exist.’ (Letter to Menoeceus, 124–125)

Abstract In his Phoenissae Euripides introduced a unique case of male self-sacrifice before battle instead of the traditional virgin sacrifice. Its appropriation by II Maccabees and Statius as well as by its important resonance until the end of antiquity demonstrates the success of this innovation. In the male-dominated world of the Greeks and Romans, a male self-sacrifice clearly was more attractive to use than that of a virgin. The example of Menoeceus shows that gender does play a role even in the transmission of myths and mythical motives.

Epicurus’ philosophy grew out of his life experiences, contacts, polem­ics, journeys and other activities. Apart from such great works as the monumental On nature (Peri phuseôs) in 37 books, Epicurus authored also various extracts (epitomai), principle doctrines, sayings and letters. The letters, while addressed to many students and friends, were for him a very important tool of propagating his own philosophy. Epicurus’ fascinating Letter to Menoeceus can be regarded as a manifesto of his philosophy of life. In historiography, it is often characterized as an expo­sition of his ethics, even though Epicurus probably did not use the term himself. To better capture the composition and spirit of this work, the Greek text of the letter has been somewhat rearranged here: for the sake of clarity, ample spaces and special paragraphs have been provided, and appropriate headings have been introduced in the Polish translation.

AbstractThis paper discusses the presentation of the Epicurean virtues offered in the Letter to Menoeceus and in Cicero’s On Ends. It evaluates the proposals advanced by Phillip Mitsis and Pierre-Marie Morel. Against Morel, it is argued that Torquatus’ presentation of the virtues in On Ends is not part of an elaborate dialectical strategy. Instead, the paper sides with Mitsis’ more modest proposal: while Torquatus, like any good speaker, with high likelihood adapts his presentation to his audience, his ideas also have a strong foundation in Epicureanism. Given the extant state of textual evidence, it is difficult to determine precisely, however, to what degree his presentation of the virtues (1) directly draws on ideas already present in the founder of the Garden himself, (2) reflects a later development in the Epicurean school, or (3) falsifies Epicurean ideas to make them more palatable for a Roman audience.

AbstractThis paper identifies two possible versions of the Epicurean 'Symmetry argument', both of which claim that post mortem non-existence is relevantly like prenatal non-existence and that therefore our attitude to the former should be the same as that towards the latter. One version addresses the fear of the state of being dead by making it equivalent to the state of not yet being born; the other addresses the prospective fear of dying by relating it to our present retrospective attitude to the time before birth. I argue that only the first of these is present in the relevant sections of Lucretius (DRN 3.832-42, 972-5). Therefore, this argument is not aimed at a prospective fear of death, or a fear of 'mortality'. That particular fear is instead addressed by the Epicureans through the additional premise (found in the Letter to Menoeceus 125) that it is irrational to fear in prospect an event which is known to be painless when present. This still leaves unaddressed the related fear of 'premature death', which is to be removed through the acceptance of Epicurean hedonism.

AbstractIphigenia Aulidensiswas produced after the poet's death, probably in 405 BC. The aim of this paper is to recover the text of this production, which I call FP for First Performance. Probably Euripides left behind an incomplete draft, which was finished by Euripides Minor, the poet's son or nephew. The text we have contains, as Page showed in 1934, material added for a fourth-century revival and other still later interpolations. Diggle's edition tries to separate original Euripides from all later hands on the basis of style. But if we want to recover the amalgam that was FP we need to be attentive to the plot that is implied by the most clearly genuine portions: we can't confine ourselves to what appears to be Euripidean since more than one hand contributed to FP.A discovery about the plot gives us some objective basis for reconstructing FP. Our transmitted text contains two different conceptions of Calchas' prophecy, only one of which belonged to FP. Several passages scattered throughout the play imply that it was public, made to the entire army, but other passages say that it was private, restricted to Agamemnon's inner circle, with the army left in the dark. The secret prophecy motif, I argue, is the work of a fourth-century producer, whom I call the Reviser. Its purpose was to introduce into the play scenes where Greek soldiers, ignorant of the real reason for Iphigenia's coming to Aulis, might make naive comments or ask questions that are highly ironic in view of the actual situation, this being an emotional effect he found congenial. We find two such passages in places that are under grave suspicion: the entrance of Clytaemestra, where there is a chorus of Argives who felicitate Iphigenia on her wonderful prospects, and the first messenger, who reports naive questions from the soldiery. Both these passages have linguistic and dramaturgical features that make it virtually certain that neither Euripides nor Euripides Minor wrote them. Working from these we can detect the Reviser's hand at other places in the play and reconstruct its original lineaments. One satisfying result is that the business of baby Orestes, played by a doll, can be shown to be the work of the Reviser. The play ended with Iphigenia's departure for the altar, and there was no substitution of a stag. Like Menoeceus, Macaria and their kin, Iphigenia pays for the victory of her country with her blood, and there is no happy ending.

RESUMO: Um dos temas mais importantes da Carta de Epicuro a Meneceu é a felicidade. Epicuro discute este tema ressaltando várias expressões, que não vemos claramente refletida nas traduções; por isso, faz-se necessário apresentar e discutir a compreensão de felicidade dessa carta, com base nesta diversidade expressões usadas por Epicuro. Para tanto, buscamos apresentar o ponto de partida de Epicuro, para entender sua proposta de caminho para a felicidade. Epicuro parte de uma comparação da existência humana com a vida dos deuses, mostrando a bem aventurança desses. Considerando que sua filosofia é um caminho para uma vida feliz, destaca-se seu caráter prático, como uma forma de chegar à vida bem aventurada, que, em sua compreensão, é o ponto mais alto da existência humana.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Epicuro. Carta a Meneceu. Felicidade. ABSTRACT: One of the most important themes in the Letter from Epicurus to Menoeceus is happiness. Epicurus discusses this theme, emphasizing several expressions, which we do not see clearly reflected in the translations; therefore, it is necessary to present and discuss the understanding of happiness in this letter, based on this diversity of expressions used by Epicurus. We seek to present Epicurus' starting point, to understand his proposal of the path to happiness. Epicurus starts from a comparison of human existence with the life of the gods, showing their bliss. Considering that his philosophy is a path to a happy life, his practical character stands out as a way of reaching a blissful life, which, in his understanding, is the highest point of human existence.KEYWORDS: Epicurus. Letter to Menoeceus. Happiness.

Euripides’ Phoenissae is a challenging work that is often overlooked by scholars of Greek drama. This study analyzes how the concept of autochthony occupies a central thematic concern of the play. On the one hand, autochthony unites humans to soil, political claims to myths, and present to past. On the other hand, autochthony was often invoked to exclude foreigners, women and exiles from political life at Athens. We observe a similar dichotomy in the Phoenissae. Autochthony unites the episode action–the story of the fraternal conflict—with the very different subject matter of the choral odes, which treat the founding myths of Thebes. By focalizing the lyric material through the perspective of marginalized female voices (Antigone and the chorus), Euripides is able to problematize the myths and rhetoric associated with autochthony. At the same time, Antigone’s departure with her father at the play’s close offers a transformation of autochthonous power into a positive religious entity. I suggest that a careful examination of the many facets of autochthony can inform our understanding of the Phoenissae with respect to dramatic structure, apparent Euripidean innovations, character motivation, stage direction and audience reception.
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This chapter considers Statius’ use of Hercules and Herculean imagery in the Thebaid, and shows that Statius’ handling of Hercules reflects an attempt at constructing a new model of heroism in the political arena. It begins by showing that the myth of Hercules had unfavorable associations under Domitian because of Nero’s extensive appropriation of this mythical figure. Statius’ investigation of the Hercules paradigm in the Thebaid contributes to showing that, although Domitian recovered the Hercules comparison abandoned by his father Vespasian and exploited by Nero, he was no Nero. In the process, Statius redefines Herculean heroism in light of stoic theories of passions, relying on Seneca’s De Clementia and on a subtle reading of Seneca’s Hercules Furens. In particular, the chapter focuses on a series of passages featuring Tydeus, Polynices, Capaneus and Menoeceus. It also provides a reading of the ekphrasis of Hercules’ crater in book 6.