A CASE OF (GALENIC?) NATURAL ΠΝΕΥΜΑ IN A LATE-ANTIQUE HOMILY OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM?

The purpose of this article is to investigate evidence for a possible case of (Galenic?) natural πνεῦμα in John Chrysostom’s 39th homily on 1 Corinthians and its significance for tracing the development of a tripartite physiological pneumatology in late antiquity. The article starts with an overview of the contention surrounding natural πνεῦμα in Galen’s thought and the problems of the tripartite physiological pneumatology. Thereafter, the reference in John’s homily is examined in detail, with special reference to John’s own holistic understanding of πνεῦμα in his medical-theological framework. The article ends with some conclusions and proposals for better understanding and approaching natural πνεῦμα and the problems of the tripartite physiological pneumatology

A CLOUDLESS STAR: NOTES ON A LATIN ELEGY BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844–1889)

By profession, Gerard Manley Hopkins was a Classicist. From his novitiate to his death, he taught Greek and Latin at Jesuit schools in England, then at University College Dublin. Remarks in his journals and letters make clear his deep and lifelong engagement with Classics, and the influence of classical literature, particularly the work of Pindar and the Pre-Socratic philosophers, on his English poetry has been observed by numerous critics. Subject to less attention are the poems Hopkins composed in Latin, which include verse composition and translations from English. This article considers one such poem, an original Latin elegy composed in 1867, and explores its language, imagery, literary influences, and possible interpretations

PROPHECIES AND PRINCESSES: MOSES IN EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS

Josephus’ account of Moses’ birth and upbringing in the Jewish Antiquities includes much extra-biblical material, including an extended account of his military campaign in Ethiopia. This material has often been studied as independent episodes, particularly with a view to finding Josephus’ sources. By reading the preliminary stages of Moses’ life together, this article shows that Josephus’ narrative is well-integrated in its themes and structure, as well as revealing the historian’s core concerns about Moses’ perceived ethnicity and capacity to be a loyal member of a foreign court, both reflecting Josephus’ own writing context and immediate audience among the Greek speakers in Flavian Rome

SULLA AND THE ‘PROPHECY’ OF CAESAR’S DESTRUCTION OF THE OPTIMATES (SUET. IUL. 1.3)

The extant life of Julius Caesar by Suetonius begins with the dictator Sulla predicting that Caesar will destroy the Optimates, i.e., undo all that Sulla himself had achieved. In presenting Sulla’s forecast Suetonius uniquely in examples of divinatory material in the Lives appears to be ambiguous as to its divinatory status. This paper examines how Suetonius secures credibility for this piece of ‘prophecy’ and considers the role of Sulla’s words in the economy of the Life

THE PRAYER OF JACOB CHAPTER 1

The primary source that will be used in this translation is The prayer of Jacob chapter 1. The selected text is from Henrichs and Preisendanz 1974:148–149. I will also make reference to the translation of the text in Charlesworth’s Old Testament Greek pseudepigrapha with morphology (1983).1 According to Penner and Heiser (2008), the term pseudepigrapha does not mean ‘false books’ or ‘false writings’, but rather refers to writings that were not written by those whose names appear in them (falsely attributed writings). The Old Testament pseudepigrapha builds on the narratives, themes, and worldview of the canonical books of the Old Testament. This explains why books may be attributed to significant Old Testament figures. This source was selected because it demonstrates dramatically the enduring influence of the Old Testament on Jewish thinking after the exile

ASSESSING THE POSSIBILITIES FOR AN AUGUSTAN REVOLUTION IN AILING DEMOCRACIES IN AFRICA

In the years that ran up to Actium, many in the Roman world became convinced that there was a desperate need for change. The interventions of Sulla and, later, Julius Caesar, had left an indelible mark on the nature of the Roman state. While men like Cicero believed in a return to a strict interpretation of the Roman constitution (or at least the traditions, mos maiorum, which constituted it) and the old Republican laws governing offices and officers, Augustus and his allies saw the only way forward as to reinvent that constitution. In his efforts to reshape and remodel Rome’s operational politics, Augustus could be ruthless. He brooked no opposition and no rival. He used the Senate, army, and other organs of state to achieve the purposes he judged best for the political, social, and economic growth of the res publica. In this, Augustus was what modern economists call a ‘benevolent dictator’. In this essay, I shall appraise the role of Augustus as such a dictator and then consider the scope for such an Augustan office as a solution or a transitional state of affairs for weak democracies or full-blown autocracies in Africa

THE SACRED POWER OF FAT AND HONEY IN SAN AND ANCIENT GREEK MYTH AND RITUAL

In this paper, I attempt a comparison between the sacred significance of fat and honey in the myths and rituals of the San peoples of southern Africa and the ancient Greeks. As Biesele (1993) and Lewis-Williams (2015) have convincingly demonstrated, the creation narratives of the diverse linguistic groups which constitute the /Xam (San) peoples of southern Africa, arguably the first peoples to call this country ‘home’, reveal strong links between the gathering and possession of animal fat and honey, and access to spiritual power. In ancient Greek mythology, as is well known from Callimachus and many later texts (e.g., Apollodorus and Nonnus), the infant Zeus was fed on honey by the bee-woman, Melissa. Many fundamental rites in ancient Greek religion, as reflected in texts from Homer onwards—libations, some sacrifices, ritual offerings such as the ‘panspermia’, and funerary rites—all provide evidence of the Greek belief in the spiritual potency of fat and honey. I thus analyse the similarities and differences between the significance of the fat-honey nexus in these two religious traditions and reflect on cross-cultural comparisons, their history, and their purpose in contemporary South Africa

TERMS FOR HOMELAND IN THE WRITINGS OF THE EMPEROR JULIAN AND IN THE AETHIOPICA OF HELIODORUS

In his writings the emperor Julian states that he has three homelands: Constantinople, Athens and Rome, and yet he refers to his youthful relegation to Macellum as an exile and he more than once approvingly deploys the sayings of the Cynic philosopher, Diogenes, that he was without a home and that he was a citizen of the universe. At the same time, Julian believed that human salvation was possible and that the soul could escape this world and ascend to heaven. Similarly, in the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, all the major characters (apart from the Ethiopians Hydaspes and Persinna) experience exile from their earthly homelands. Yet here too the possibility of a return to a remote, otherworldly home is suggested. Heliodorus enigmatically makes use of an allusive neologism (ἡ ἐνεγκοῦσα, or ‘motherland’), in contrast with the traditional term ἡ πατρίς (‘fatherland’), to refer to a philosophical ‘place of birth’, particularly in the case of the main characters, Theagenes and Chariclea

DYNAMICS OF DESIRE: GIFT GIVING AND RECIPROCITY IN ANCIENT GREEK HOMOEROTIC COURTSHIP COURTSHIP

The article addresses the problem of reciprocity in homoerotic relationships in classical Athens. According to the more traditional approach, the pecking ord er model ’’, these typically asymmetrical relationships almost inevitably involved humiliation of one of the partners, who literally or metaphorically assumed a passive and therefore 'unmanly' role. Although more recent studies tend to underline the artificial character of these scholarly reconstructions, they still fail to account for the nuances of ancient homoerotic courtship. I argue that some sources often used by scholars as reflecting negative attitudes towards homoeroticism may actually testify to the existence of very clear rules of highly valued and praised behaviours of passive partners. These rules formed an implicit 'grammar' of social actions but were never explicitly codified

CORNELIA JOHANNA SCHUMANN NÉE DE WAAL 8 JANUARIE 1941 ‒ 16 MAART 2022

Corrie Schumann is gebore in Pretoria en matrikuleer aan die Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool Pretoria. Sy ontvang haar verdere opleiding aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch en verwerf die BA-graad en SOD met Latyn en Afrikaans as hoofvakke. Sy het reeds as student haar besondere leierskapsvermoë getoon toe sy as primaria van haar koshuis, Huis Monica, gedien het