Miracles in Greek Biography
-
Antonis Tsakmakis
Abstract
In archaic and classical Greece, stories about the lives of poets and philosophers strongly depended on oral traditions which were shaped according to the standards of folktale legend. Miracles were a customary component of such traditions. They mainly concerned phases of transition such as birth, death, initiation, and confirmed the otherness of the intellectual. Thanks to the antiquarian zeal of most writers of biographies after the creation of biography as a literary genre in the 4th cent. BC, motifs of this kind found access in written biographies. Patterns of the biographical tradition even appear in lives of contemporary and later philosophers such as Plato. In these scholarly oriented works miracles were either rationalized or treated in a way which subordinated the question of their historicity to the aesthetic aspects pertinent to their use in the new context. On the other hand, in historical biography miracle stories corroborate the text’s implicit rhetoric.
Abstract
In archaic and classical Greece, stories about the lives of poets and philosophers strongly depended on oral traditions which were shaped according to the standards of folktale legend. Miracles were a customary component of such traditions. They mainly concerned phases of transition such as birth, death, initiation, and confirmed the otherness of the intellectual. Thanks to the antiquarian zeal of most writers of biographies after the creation of biography as a literary genre in the 4th cent. BC, motifs of this kind found access in written biographies. Patterns of the biographical tradition even appear in lives of contemporary and later philosophers such as Plato. In these scholarly oriented works miracles were either rationalized or treated in a way which subordinated the question of their historicity to the aesthetic aspects pertinent to their use in the new context. On the other hand, in historical biography miracle stories corroborate the text’s implicit rhetoric.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- Introduction: In search of the Miraculous IX
-
I. Miracles
- Ctesias’ Indica and the Origins of Paradoxography 3
- The Epidaurian Iamata: The first “Court of Miracles”? 17
- Medicine and the paradox in the Hippocratic Corpus and Beyond 31
- ‘One might rightly wonder’ – marvelling in Polybios Histories 63
- Omens and Miracles: Interpreting Miraculous Narratives in Roman Historiography 85
- Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles in Byzantine Apocalypses 111
-
II. Workings of Miracles
- Wonder-ful Memories in Herodotus’ Histories 133
- Wonder(s) in Plautus 153
- Telling Tales of Wonder: Mirabilia in the Letters of Pliny the Younger 179
- Paradoxographic discourse on sources and fountains: deconstructing paradoxes 205
- Lucian’s Alexander: technoprophecy, thaumatology and the poetics of wonder 225
-
III. Believing in Miracles
- Perceiving Thauma in Archaic Greek Epic 259
- Turning Science into Miracle in the Voyage of Alexander the Great 275
- ‘Many are the wonders in Greece’: Pausanias the wandering philosopher 305
- Miracles in Greek Biography 327
- Apuleius on Raising the Dead Crossing the Boundaries of Life and Death while Convincing the Audience 353
- Recognizing Miracles in ancient Greek Novels 381
- List of Contributors 417
- Index Nominum et Rerum 423
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- Introduction: In search of the Miraculous IX
-
I. Miracles
- Ctesias’ Indica and the Origins of Paradoxography 3
- The Epidaurian Iamata: The first “Court of Miracles”? 17
- Medicine and the paradox in the Hippocratic Corpus and Beyond 31
- ‘One might rightly wonder’ – marvelling in Polybios Histories 63
- Omens and Miracles: Interpreting Miraculous Narratives in Roman Historiography 85
- Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles in Byzantine Apocalypses 111
-
II. Workings of Miracles
- Wonder-ful Memories in Herodotus’ Histories 133
- Wonder(s) in Plautus 153
- Telling Tales of Wonder: Mirabilia in the Letters of Pliny the Younger 179
- Paradoxographic discourse on sources and fountains: deconstructing paradoxes 205
- Lucian’s Alexander: technoprophecy, thaumatology and the poetics of wonder 225
-
III. Believing in Miracles
- Perceiving Thauma in Archaic Greek Epic 259
- Turning Science into Miracle in the Voyage of Alexander the Great 275
- ‘Many are the wonders in Greece’: Pausanias the wandering philosopher 305
- Miracles in Greek Biography 327
- Apuleius on Raising the Dead Crossing the Boundaries of Life and Death while Convincing the Audience 353
- Recognizing Miracles in ancient Greek Novels 381
- List of Contributors 417
- Index Nominum et Rerum 423
