“One Has To Be So Terribly Religious To Be An Artist”: Divine Inspiration and theophilia in Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi

Abstract:This paper deals with the close link between divine epiphany and artistic inspiration in the life and work of one of the most renowned rhetoricians of the second century AD, Aelius Aristides. The argument in a nutshell is that when Aristides lays emphasis on the divinely ordained character of the Hieroi Logoi, in particular, and his literary and rhetorical composition, in general, he taps into a rich battery of traditional theophilic ideas and narratives (oral and written alike). These narratives accounted for the interaction of divine literary patrons and matrons with privileged members of the intellectual elite to provide thematic or stylistic guidance to their artistic enterprises. Thus, Aristides makes wider claims about his own status of theophilia (lit. ‘the state of being dear to the gods’), a status that was much-praised and much-prized in the Graeco-Roman world, and one that functioned as a status-elevating mechanism in the eyes of both his contemporaries and posterity. Furthermore and on a different level, he also utilizes his theophilic aspirations to elevate his prose-hymns (a genre he invented) to the higher and already established level of encomiastic poetry, which Greeks regarded for centuries as fit for the ears of the gods.</jats:p

‘The ‘Lived’ Body in Pain. Illness and Initiation in Lucian’s Podagra and Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi’

The ‘lived’ body is a concept I have borrowed from Meredith McGuire, a sociologist of religion whose work has contributed greatly to the conceptualization of the ‘Lived Ancient Religion’ approach. This paper employs recent advances in history of religions and socio-anthropology and divides its attention between Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi and Lucian’s Podagra, Lucian’s tragicomic take on gout. In a nutshell, the argument is that pain, both physical and mental, is the tertium comparationis in the cultural conception of illness as initiation that runs through both narratives. The perception of extreme physical pain and anguish as an initiation rite may not make immediate sense to the clinician, or indeed the patient, of the 21st century. However, this view of pain did resonate with the ‘lived’ bodies of members of the socio-political elite in the Antonine period. Raising awareness of this culture-specific cognitive process is, thus, a sine qua non for our understanding of the ‘lived’ body in that era

The Theory of Mind in caregivers spouses of people with dementia

Όσον αφορά τους περιθάλποντες συζύγους ατόμων με άνοια, έχει βρεθεί ότι παρουσιάζουν γνωστικά ελλείμματα και ότι η επικοινωνία τους με τον / την ασθενή σύζυγο πλήττεται. Ωστόσο, η Θεωρία του Νου (ΘτΝ) τους δεν έχει μελετηθεί επαρκώς. Η παρούσα έρευνα επιχειρεί να διερευνήσει πτυχές της ΘτΝ σε περιθάλποντες συζύγους ατόμων με άνοια, σε σύγκριση με τη ΘτΝ μη περιθαλπόντων συζύγων. Καθεμία από τις δύο ομάδες (περιθαλπόντων και μη) αποτελούνταν από 23 άτομα, ηλικίας 56 έως 85 ετών, εξισωμένα ως προς την ηλικία, το φύλο, το εκπαιδευτικό επίπεδο, τo επίπεδο καταθλιπτικής συμπτωματολογίας και τη γνωστική κατάσταση. Στους συμμετέχοντες χορηγήθηκε το PART I: Emotion Evaluation Test (EET) και το PART 2: Social Inference–Minimal (SI-M) του The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT; McDonald et al., 2002), δηλαδή έργα ΘτΝ που εκτιμούν την αναγνώριση (i) βασικών συναισθημάτων και (ii) κοινωνικού συμπερασμού/έμμεσου λόγου σε τρεις διαφορετικές περιπτώσεις (ειλικρινείς συνδιαλλαγές, απλός σαρκασμός, παράδοξος σαρκασμός). Οι περιθάλποντες αναγνώρισαν το συναίσθημα της λύπης, σε υψηλότερο βαθμό από τους μη περιθάλποντες.  Οι μη περιθάλποντες είχαν υψηλότερες επιδόσεις από τους περιθάλποντες, σε μία συνθήκη του απλού και του παράδοξου σαρκασμού. Επίσης, σε τρεις από τις συνθήκες του απλού σαρκασμού, οι μη περιθάλποντες βρέθηκαν να τα πηγαίνουν καλύτερα, όταν η επίδοσή τους στη δοκιμασία Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ήταν φυσιολογική. Οι διαφορές που βρέθηκαν αποτελούν ένδειξη ότι οι περιθάλποντες σύζυγοι ατόμων με άνοια ίσως έχουν μειωμένη ΘτΝ, εύρημα, ωστόσο, που χρήζει περαιτέρω διερεύνησης.Caregivers spouses of people with dementia were found to present cognitive deficits and as regards their communication with the patient, it has been found to be impaired. However, the caregivers’ Theory of Mind (ToM) has not been yet studied adequately. The present study attempts to investigate aspects of ToM in caregivers spouses of dementia patients compared to ToM of non-caregivers. Each of the two groups (caregivers and non-caregivers) consisted of 23 people, aged between 56 and 85, who had been matched regarding age, gender, educational level, depression, and cognitive status. Participants were administered ToM tests: PART I: Emotion Evaluation Test (EET), and PART 2: Social Inference – Minimal (SI-M) of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT; McDonald et al., 2002), that assess recognition of (i) basic emotions, and (ii) social interference/indirect speech in three different conditions (sincere conciliations, simple sarcasm, paradoxical sarcasm). The caregivers recognized the emotion of sadness better than the non-caregivers. With regard to simple and paradoxical sarcasm, non-caregivers performed better than the caregivers in one condition. Furthermore, in three of the conditions in simple sarcasm, the non-caregivers perform better when their performance in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was normal. The differences which were found indicate that the caregivers spouses of dementia patients may have reduced ToM. However, this finding needs further investigation

Triticum timopheevii s.l. (‘new glume wheat’) finds in regions of southern and eastern Europe across space and time

Triticum timopheevii sensu lato (‘new glume wheat’, NGW) was first recognised as a distinct prehistoric cereal crop through work on archaeobotanical finds from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in northern Greece. This was later followed by its identification in archaeobotanical assemblages from other parts of Europe. This paper provides an overview of the currently known archaeobotanical finds of Timopheev’s wheat in southeastern and eastern Europe and observes their temporal span and spatial distribution. To date, there are 89 prehistoric sites with these finds, located in different parts of the study region and dated from the Neolithic to the very late Iron Age. Their latest recorded presence in the region is in the last centuries BCE. For assemblages from the site as a whole containing at least 30 grain and/or chaff remains of Timopheev’s wheat, we take a brief look at the overall relative proportions of Triticum monococcum (einkorn), T. dicoccum (emmer) and T. timopheevii s.l. (Timopheev’s wheat), the three most common glume wheats in our study region in prehistory. We highlight several sites where the overall proportions of Timopheev’s wheat might be taken to suggest it was a minor component of a mixed crop (maslin), or an unmonitored inclusion in einkorn or emmer fields. At the same sites, however, there are also discrete contexts where this wheat is strongly predominant, pointing to its cultivation as a pure crop. We therefore emphasise the need to evaluate the relative representation of Timopheev’s wheat at the level of individual samples or contexts before making inferences on its cultivation status. We also encourage re-examination of prehistoric and historic cereal assemblages for its remains

Poésie pour l’esprit, rhétorique pour le corps: Remèdes littéraires et cautions épistolaires dans les <i>Hieroi logoi</i> d'Aelius Aistide

International audienceThis chapter focuses on the therapeutic qualities of literature and literary production in Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi. By offering a comparison between writing and narrating as a basic modality of therapy in medical treatises and in some of the most well-known healing temples and of the Graeco-Roman world, I demonstrate that Aristides is in fact far more mainstream in using rhetoric, literature and music to cure his bodily ailments than we have previously thought. Having said that, the reader is simultaneously encouraged to notice how exceptional Aristides really is precisely because, although he works with previously well-attested healing practices and commemorative discourses, he elevates them to a whole new level of sophistication and effectiveness.Ce chapitre s’intéresse aux vertus thérapeutiques de la littérature et de la production littéraire dans les Hieroi logoi d’Aelius Aristide. Écrits et récits constituent des modalités du processus thérapeutique. En comparant les récits des traités médicaux et ceux qu’on trouve dans quelques-uns des plus célèbres temples guérisseurs du monde gréco-romain, je montre qu’Aristide n’est pas si singulier qu’on a voulu le dire quand il utilise la rhétorique, la littérature ou la musique pour soigner les maladies de son corps. Ceci étant, la lecture d’Aristide invite aussi à constater le caractère exceptionnel de son cas. En effet, bien qu’il s’inscrive dans des traditions antérieures bien attestées de pratiques guérisseuses et de discours commémoratifs, il élève ces deux genres à un tout autre niveau de sophistication et d’efficacité