The cultural dynamics of the term Hellanodikes in Palaiologan Byzantium

In ancient Greek literature, Hellanodikai (Ἑλλανοδίκαι) were figures of public authority and high esteem, renown for their fair judgment, overseeing control, and morally transparent life. The characteristics we gather regarding their public role come from a number of historical and other sources, such as Cassius Dio, Lucian, and Pausanias. In the Byzantine era, the term was revived either as a historical gloss contextualizing the position of Hellanodikes (Ἑλλανο- δίκης) in ancient times or as a lexical and grammatical entry. As a contrast to the conventional treatments of this term, Palaiologan scholars proceeded to its unique redeployment. In this article, I argue that Hellanodikes became an epithet of social and cultural significance in Palaiologan Byzantium, a notion embedded within the intellectual peculiarities of this age, especially in contexts of imperial patronage and scholarly apprenticeship

Resorting to rare sources of antiquity: Nikephoros Basilakes and the popularity of Plutarch’s <i>Parallel Lives</i> in twelfth-century Byzantium

This article examines the Byzantine adaptation of the anecdote of the Lydian king Pythes within Nikephoros Basilakes’ &lt;i&gt;Progymnasma&lt;/i&gt; 11 in relation to its earliest surviving source, Plutarch’s &lt;i&gt;Mulierum virtutes&lt;/i&gt; 262D–263A. By looking at the ascription accompanying Basilakes’ progymnasma, it additionally argues for the popularity of Plutarch’s &lt;i&gt;Parallel Lives&lt;/i&gt; in Komnenian Byzantium

Comedy in Plutarch’s <i>Parallel Lives</i>

Plutarch quotes Attic comedy as evidence, but he also uses both invective and stereotypes from comedy in order to illustrate and judge the character of his protagonists, as seen in the Lives of Demetrius, Antony, Pericles, and Fabius Maximus

The complementarity of Plutarch’s Πῶς δεῖ τὸν νέον ποιημάτων ἀκούειν and Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν: Two educational ‘sessions’ (re)visited = The Complementarity of Plutarch's Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat and De recta ratione audiendi: Two educational ‘sessions’ (re)visited

No abstract available

Perspectives on Homelessness: A Qualitative Study With Clinical Psychologists in Secondary Care Mental Health Services

Aims: People who are homeless are among the most vulnerable and socially excluded populations. While they have several mental health and physical health needs it has been suggested that many barriers prevent them from accessing the support they need. Healthcare professionals’ attitudes have been identified to have a significant influence in accessing care. Clinical psychologists have a significant role to play in working with homelessness, but their views towards homelessness are yet to be explored. This study evaluated clinical psychologists’ perspectives towards homelessness, what influences them and how they influence their practice. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve clinical psychologists working in secondary care mental health services. Thematic analysis was performed to identify their views towards homelessness. Results: The analysis identified three themes: (1) ‘Homelessness is a complex, social phenomenon’ describing the multi-layered nature of homelessness, whilst identifying non-blaming attitudes with the recognition that homelessness can happen to anyone, (2) ‘Homelessness is not for psychology’ describing that people affected by homelessness are not suitable for psychological therapy unless their basic needs are firstly met and (3) ‘Our role as Clinical Psychologists’ describing that clinical psychologists are not just therapists and acknowledging the influence clinical training, experience working with the population, and values have on professionals’ perspectives towards homelessness. Conclusion: Concluding this study identified that clinical psychologists have a significant role in ending psychological distress rooted in health and social inequalities. Services and organisations will need to nurture and support clinical psychologist to work with homelessness while they address service barriers to develop accessible services for all. Clinical training will need to prepare future psychologists to work more systemically to address the social determinants of health and help clinical psychologists to develop skills in consultations, working at a wider systemic level and at a policy level to address social issues such as homelessness, which contribute to psychological distress

J. Beneker and C. A. Gibson, eds. and trans., The Rhetorical Exercises of Nikephoros Basilakes: Progymnasmata from Twelfth-Century Byzantium. (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 43.) Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2016

No abstract available

Galen’s Exhortation to the study of medicine: an educational work for prospective medical students

Galen's Exhortation to the Study of Medicine, classified among his works related to the Empiricist medical school, is one of his less well-known treatises. This chapter discusses the importance of engagement with the arts, preparing the ground for a more specialised exaltation of the greatest of them, medicine. It focuses on the moralising techniques that permeate Galen's Exhortation to the Study of Medicine and explores how these inform the construction of his moral authority. The chapter looks at the ways in which he tailors his ethical advice in order to respond to the needs of his intended audience comprising adolescents who are about to start their intermediate education and are urged to engage with professional studies, starting with philosophy and progressing on to medicine. It argues that Galen's Exhortation to the Study of Medicine is not a conventional epideictic piece, but one in which rhetoric to a large extent facilitates philosophical instruction

The reception of Plutarch in George Pisides’ panegyrical poems

This article examines Plutarch's reception in George Pisides’ poetry. The first section argues in favour of Pisides’ familiarity with Plutarch's writings, mainly in view of verbatim quotations and other thematic connections or allusions. The second section explores Pisides’ more creative use of Plutarch by discussing his direct addresses to the Chearonean philosopher and comparing them with Pisides’ similar apostrophes to Homer and Demosthenes in The Persian Expedition and the Heraclias. By seeking to ‘rewrite’ the heroic past, Pisides presents himself as a skilled emulator of his ancient predecessors, thereby enhancing his self-fashioning as the imperial spokesman par excellence

J. Beneker and C. A. Gibson, eds. and trans., The Rhetorical Exercises of Nikephoros Basilakes: Progymnasmata from Twelfth-Century Byzantium. (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 43.) Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2016

No abstract available